No nightmare remembrances of Mars or the Martians in any form whatever; no vision of a nuclear missile plunging straight for him. Nothing.Something had happened. For one, two seconds, he was genuinely at a loss, and then he knew.Angela! He blushed as disjointed memories came back. There’d been talk, yes, a good deal of talk … then there was a clear picture of being in his bath. She’d washed his back-and more …. God, he must have been drunk! Coffee came into it somewhere. Black coffee …. And somewhere else, he had gotten her to promise to go “on vacation” at once. Couldn’t have been that drunk, for he certainly had given her details: fly to New York, small hotel, and keep two-hourly contact with the local Colossus office. She’d been difficult but, without scruple, he’d used the most powerful lever he had: “if you love me, etc…. He’d pottered around, dressed in nothing but a towel, had had a look at the stars from the terrace - that hadn’t lasted long-and then bed … and she’d been in it.That had been a tricky moment, and they’d both known it.
