George Martin - Ace In The Hole

Fleur hesitated a long time, looking at him. The wailing of the alarm was like an ice pick in the brain. "You don't have to worry," she said at last. "You're safe from me."

David nodded, as if he'd known that all along. "Start the elevator," he said quietly.

Tachyon slewed around awkwardly, and hit the button. The elevator shuddered and shot upward.

"Not to throw cold water on this love feast," Jack said to David, "but you do remember Mao? Mao Tse Tung, Chinese guy? Sooner or later we've got to let her off this elevator, and then she's going to blow the whistle."

"That is her right."

That shook Tachyon out of the dream state which seemed to hold him. "No."

David turned those dark eyes on him. "Yes." Gently. "I knew the risks. I've paid the price before. I'm prepared to pay again."

They reached her floor. The doors opened. She stepped out.

"Fleur, " Jack Braun said. "Think twice before you start naming names. I didn't. I'm still paying for it."

Fleur looked at them all for a long time. Tach wondered what she was thinking. Easy enough to find out. Better that he didn't. She walked off without saying a word.

The doors shut. Tachyon stared at the flashing numbers. "We must be crazy to let her walk off like that," Jack said. "You have to take a gamble on someone sometime," David replied.

"She's her father's daughter!" Jack said.

Tachyon stirred in his wheelchair, and handed the Earl Sanderson glider back to Jack. "And her mother's too."

The elevator, with its cargo of ghosts and survivors, continued its lunge for the sky.