He took a comfortable leather-upholstered chair and Patricia sat on the couch. She folded her hands in her lap and regarded him steadily, her lips pursed as if to hold back a smile.

"What in hell happened to you?" Lanier asked.

"Isn't it obvious? I was kidnapped. I think we were being invaded or something. I was half-crazy then. Maybe more than half. So I took a train to the third chamber, and Olmy found me there. He had a Frant with him—a nonhuman."

"Who is Olmy?"

"You met him—the one who took us here and arranged for the quarters to be done in period."

"Yes, I met him, but who is he, what rank, what importance?"

"He's an agent of some sort. He does work for the Nexus—the main governing body of the Hexamon. He's been my teacher for the past few days, ever since we got here. Were we being invaded?"

"Yes," Lanier said. "By Russians." He told her what had happened and she listened intently.

"I think that's one reason Olmy wanted me out of the chambers," she said. "He thought I might be in danger. I'm not yet sure why he chose me in particular, but. . .” She shrugged. "I have some ideas. They've already put me through tests. They'll test you, too. Diagnostics, psychological, everything—all in a few minutes. It doesn't hurt. They're really interested in our bodies. We're historical curiosities."

"I'll bet. At any rate, when I heard you had been kidnapped, I went a bit crazy myself. Judith Hoffman made it up to the Stone from Station Sixteen—"

"How wonderful!" Patricia said. "Was anybody with her?"

"Yes—nobody we knew."

Patricia's expression of joy stiffened.

"She obviously decided I wasn't going to be very effective anymore. You were the last straw, I think."

"Me?"

"Hoffman told me to take care of you. I couldn't prevent what happened on Earth, and I lost you, besides. I don't take failure very well, Patricia." He rubbed his cheeks and eyes. "Failure. Yes. I suppose you could call losing the whole Earth failure."

Patricia gripped her hands tightly between her knees. "Not lost," she murmured.

"So Hoffman authorized an expedition to find you."

"It's good to have you all here—my friends, my helpers." Her sudden cheeriness had an edge.

"We're really guests here, then?" he asked.

"Oh, yes. They weren't expecting you—though when Olmy first heard, he knew it had to be the tuberider. They consulted him right away since he had been down the corridor most recently."

"Do they knew about the Stone—what we've been doing?"

"Yes, I suppose they do—Olmy must have told them."

"And do they plan to do anything with us? I mean, I assume they're still interested in the Stone. . . .”

"I'm not sure. Some of them are. It's confusing, and I've only been taking lessons steadily for the last couple of days. It's all very political, that's what Olmy tells me."