"He thought I—or, rather, my mother—must have blown up your other ship, just to get your money."
"I know." I grinned. "I was listening all the time."
"But—how?"
"That sigma projector of mine. I used it on the cat. I just wanted to take a look around, before coming out in my own body. And it's a good thing I did."
She opened her mouth, closed it, then laughed. "You mean that all the time puss was walking around the house watching us—all the time he was sitting near the door—that was you watching out of those slitted green eyes?"
"Right. While my body was down in the basement, I was walking around up here, being a housecat. You can see why that isn't a machine to trust just anybody with."
She nodded, and her face became suddenly somber. "The government couldn't be trusted either. But why couldn't you trust me? Why didn't you tell me you were here all the time, instead of out in space?"
"Because I had no way of knowing how well you could hold on to two identities during the Change," I told her. "If they had ever caught on that you were growing younger and that you were playing the part of both mother and daughter, they might have grabbed you and psyched the whole story out of you."
She nodded. "I see. But I was so worried about your being in that ship that I almost ruined the whole thing."
"How?"