She thought of her having deliberately to torture the man she loved, through drugs that opened his already sick mind to the invaders, and wondered if she herself would be capable of such behavior no matter how urgent the circumstance, to—say—Rolf Marcein.
It was then that her first message came through—so unused was she to receiving telepathically impersonal thoughts that she all but missed her code signal. The Zuleika operator had to repeat it three times before Lynne came to with a start and keyed her own thoughts properly—Ess-two, Barkutburg. Ess-two, Barkutburg. Come in.
The message itself concerned a supply of chemilamps, which had arrived at Zuleika from Cathayville and was ready for transhipment, if they were needed at Barkutburg. Lynne repeated the message, pressed the hand-buzzer for ground-communication, relayed the news to Lao Mei-O'Connell in her office below. She was told to notify Zuleika to send the chemilamps on at once, as they were sorely needed.
Lynne got the message through, after which the Zuleika telepath flashed, You're new on the job. How is Fenlay?
This is Fenlay here, she replied. Revere's twin, Lynne. He's been sent to New Samarkand for treatment.
Welcome, Lynne Fenlay—and good luck, came the answer. Met any of our unseen friends yet?
Not yet, thought Lynne, when are they apt to hit me?
There's no telling. Lynne received a definite impression of a shrug. The Zuleika operator gave his name, which was Zachary Ramirez, then signed off for the time being. Thanks to this brief personal conversation Lynne no longer felt so alone. At least, when the invaders attacked her, she'd have someone to reach for—or would she?
There was a message from New Walla Walla direct, about an hour later, concerning some point of bookkeeping. Lynne handled it, then sat out the rest of her first tour of duty alone. The Martian sun was high in the sky when at last she took the downlift to the ground.
She found herself ravenously hungry. Either through some effect of the alien atmosphere and climate or the knowledge the food she would get was real rather than fabricated, Lynne found herself thinking about dining in an almost animal fashion.