Miko was livid with suppressed anger. They had stripped the cloak from me, and flung me back in my cubby. Miko was now confronting me: at the door Moa stood watching. And Anita was behind her. I sat outwardly defiant and sullen on my bunk. But I was tense and alert, fearful still of what Anita's emotion might betray her into doing.
"Not so loyal," Miko repeated. "And a fool!"
"How did he get out of here? Prince, you came in here!"
My heart was wildly thumping. But Anita retorted with a touch of spirit, "I came to tell him what you commanded. To check Hahn's latest figures—and to be ready to take the controls when we approached the asteroid."
"Well, how did he get out?"
"How should I know?" she parried. Little actress! Her spirit helped to allay my fear. She held her cloak close around her in the fashion they had come to expect from the George Prince who had just buried his sister. "How should I know, Miko? I sealed his door."
"But did you?"
"Of course he did," Moa put in.
"Ask your lookouts," Anita said. "They saw me—I waved to them just as I sealed the door."
I ventured, "I have been taught to open doors." I managed a sly, lugubrious smile. "I shall not try it again, Miko."