I laughed. "I guess I'd better explain."
I told her all about my erstwhile job at Solar Sales, and my mental bloc regarding females. When I finished, she was fighting a grin. It was a losing fight. The grin won.
"If I'd known that, I'd have skipped that steak knife and just entered in a bikini," she said.
"You wouldn't have to go even that far," I told her. "One friendly wink of your big blue eyes and I'd be putty."
Snow raised her eyebrows appraisingly. "Hmmm. I'll have to remember that in the future." It was in fun, but I caught a tinge of serious consideration in it. It gave me an uneasy feeling, a feeling that brought me sharply back to my main query, from which I'd been sidetracked a few moments before.
"But you still haven't told me why you came in here."
"To find you. I figured that if an Amnesty-bearer was on his way to Mars, there was big trouble. And I think I know what the trouble is, but I need some of the answers you can give me."
"What do you want with government information?" I said, trying to be stiffly formal. "And what makes you think I'd give it to you?"
"Two reasons," she said, answering my last question first. "I can simply wink a big blue eye—unless you've been pulling my leg—and get all the information I desire."
"That's only one reason," I said carefully. "What else makes you think I'd tell you the information?"