Short shrugged and released her. She came over to Liddell and bent close to him and said, "Listen to me, darling. Do everything he says."
"He's not going to take you with him," Liddell said fiercely.
"You've plotted his sub-space pattern. He could take a chance and kill us both and try the transfer mechanism himself. You forget, he has absolutely nothing to lose."
"Don't you see the way he looked at you? He's not hiding it. He wants you, Linda. If we let him take you to Deneb Twelve, he can lose himself there. With you. It would take the law officers of a frontier world like Deneb Twelve months to find you. I can't let him do it."
"I'll be all right, believe me."
"Linda, listen to me. I know you're saying that because you don't want Short to do anything violent here—to both of us. But there's another way."
"I know. To refuse. To let him go alone—and probably kill us first."
"No," Liddell whispered while Short watched them from across the room, unable to hear the words they spoke. "There is another way. Do you trust me, Linda?"
"You know you don't have to ask a question like that. I trust you, Lidd. I trust you with my life."
"Then listen. I'm going to send you. I don't want to say any more. I don't think he can hear us from where he's sitting but let's not chance it."