"But you're not telling the truth!" She was down on her knees now, beside him. "I don't know what this Jakk Randl saw, or whether he saw anything, but...."
Kirk said slowly, "Jakk's dead. He was my friend, and he didn't lie."
"Perhaps not. But he was mistaken."
"He saw you, taking heat-stones into the Ship."
"But only a very few! We're not hoarding them. We wouldn't!"
"Then what do you use them for?"
"I can't tell you that. And it doesn't matter anyway."
Kirk laughed again. He got up, stiffly because of the raw places drawing across the front of him. His hair was gone in a sprawling pattern, eaten off by digestive acids. He said:
"You'll have to do better than that."
She was angry, now, and perhaps a little scared. He enjoyed making her angry and scared. He enjoyed the thick hot feeling of power it gave him.