"Not yet," insisted Gedner. "We ought to have a lot to talk about. It's been a long time since I saw you." He added, "Or any woman, for that matter." His eyes fell on the teacup, which had toppled unnoticed from the arm of Leila's chair and rolled away across the floor. "You didn't drink your tea.... Maybe you'd like something more stimulating?" He bent to open a drawer of the file-cabinet and take out a half-filled bottle.
"No," the girl said sharply. Gedner shrugged, and put the bottle back. He crossed the room and leaned against the wall beside Big Bill, letting a hand rest on the great Woolly's flattened head and running his fingers idly through the fine white hair. Leila could not face the intent, identical gaze in the eyes of man and monster.
Abruptly Gedner said, "That little crackpot was talking to you, wasn't he?" At the girl's nod, he went on, "He's not particularly sane. They get that way, out in these stations."
She looked at him at last. "He seems to be about as sane as you are, Paul."
"So you think I'm crazy?" said Gedner amusedly.
A surge of anger nerved Leila. "You've always been a little crazy. Now I think you're crazy a lot. Power-crazy."
"That's right," answered the man unexpectedly. Something glowed in his black eyes, smothering the mocking light; he straightened. "And I've got it, now. Here—as you've seen—I'm the boss. And that's not all."
"That's not all!" echoed Leila with a scornful laugh. "Wait till the Company investigators get here. Where will your little kingdom be then?"
"We won't be here to meet them," said Gedner readily. "The Zodiac will be back here inside sixty hours. It won't be hard—with the Woollies' help—to commandeer her."