"Sit down over there."
"How come the gun, Beth?"
"You know that answer without my having to tell it to you. Now that you've seen Carver, you know who I am."
He nodded. "A Medlin agent."
It was hard to believe. He stared at the girl who stood ten feet from him, a disruptor trained at his skull. The Medlin surgeons evidently were as skillful as those of Darruu, it seemed, for the wiry pebble-skinned Medlins were even less humanoid than the Darruui—and yet he would swear that those breasts, the flaring hips, the long well-formed legs, were genuine.
She said, "We had information on you from the moment you entered the orbit of Earth, Abner—or should I say Aar Khiilom?"
"How did you know that name?"
She laughed lightly. "The same way I knew you were from Darruu, the same way I knew the exact moment you were going to come out of your room before."
"The same way you knew I was coming here to kill you just now?"
She nodded.