It took a moment for Alec to realize what she had said. Then, leaning back in his chair, he wondered aloud, “Then what are we arguing about?”

Angela shook her head. “You don’t understand any of it, do you? Not a bit of it.”

But she got up from the table and took him by the hand and led him into the bedroom.

The first light of dawn woke Alec. He lay with Angela’s soft warmth beside him, her head cradled in his arm, and watched the day slowly brighten through the bedroom window. The sleeping bag was spread lumpily over them.

“Are you going to stay?” Angela asked very quietly.

“Huh? I thought you were sleeping.”

She smiled at him. “I’ve been thinking for the past couple of hours.”

“With your eyes closed?”

“Are you going to stay here... at the base, I mean?”

“Do I have a choice? I’m a prisoner.”

Pushing away from him slightly, she said, “Oh, that. You don’t have to worry. Douglas just wanted you to come here without any fuss. He wouldn’t stop you from leaving. He does love you, you know.”

“The hell he does.”

“Don’t be a fool. Of course he does.”

Then why did he leave us? Alec demanded silently. What kind of love is that?

“Well?” she asked.

“What?”

“Are you going to stay here?”

“Would you come with me if I left?” he countered.

“No. I couldn’t.”

“Because he needs you more than I do.”

She laughed. “Don’t be silly. Douglas doesn’t need me. He doesn’t need anybody except one person.”

“Who’s that?”

“You.”

He huffed. “Don’t be funny.”

Angela sat up and pulled her knees up to her chin. The cover slid down to her ankles, and Alec shivered; not from the room’s chill, but from the curve of her smoothly fleshed back and hip.

“Look,” she said, “What you don’t...”

“I’m looking,” he murmured.

She intercepted his reaching hand. “Not now. You’ve got to realize a few things. Douglas is an old man...”

“Fifty-five. That’s not old.”

“It is when you’ve lived the way he has,” Angela said, completely serious. “He needs help. Your help. That’s why he brought you here. He was overjoyed that you made it all the way here from Oak Ridge. He bragged about how you got through the summer on your own.”

“I’ll bet.”

“He wants you to join with him, help him bring the lunar settlement and his own territory here together. If the two of you can work together you can build a real civilization that links the Earth and the Moon. But if you fight...”

“Listen to me,” Alec snapped. “He ran out on us. Not just on my mother and me, but on hundreds of men, women and children who depended on him, trusted him. He’s stolen the fissionables that we need. Without them we’ll all die. He won’t let us have them.”

“Yes he will!” Angela insisted. “If only you’ll agree to help him.”

“Help him make himself into another Genghis Khan? He can rot first.”

“You just don’t understand!”

“Wrong! I understand far more than you do. Far more.”

She shook her head. “No, Alec, you’re wrong. You’re all wrong about so many things.”

Instead of answering, he got to his feet. The bare floor was cold.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Back to my own quarters.”

“Not yet.” She slid one hand up the side of his leg. He turned and sank to his knees on the mattress.

“You don’t have to go now,” Angela said, almost in a whisper. “And stop pouting. What’s going on between you and your father has nothing to do with what’s going on between you and me.”

Doesn’t it? he demanded in his mind. Aren’t you doing this to make me stay here, to get me to join forces with him?

But although he thought it, Alec did not say anything as Angela pulled him back into the warmth of the bed again.

Chapter 23

It was easy to slide into the routine of daily life at the base.