“Aha,” said Sassinak. “Now we come to it. She’s contacted you?”

“Well, no. Not recently. But she’s always sending messages, complaining about her health, and begging someone to visit her. My father warned me years ago not to go near her; said she’s like a black hole, just sucks you in and you’re never seen alive again. He had been taken to meet her once. Apparently she cooed over him, rumpled his hair, hugged him to her ample bosom, and talked him out of the chocolates in his pocket, all in about twenty seconds. But what I was thinking was that I could visit her. She knows all the gossip, all the socialites, and yet she’s not quite in the thick where they’d be watching her.”

Sassinak thought about that. Wouldn’t an efficient enemy know that Sassinak’s Exec was related to an apparently harmless old rich lady? But she herself hadn’t. Tliey couldn’t know everything.

“I’d planned to have you do the database searches at Sector HQ,” she said slowly. “You’re good at that, and less conspicuous than I am . .

Ford shook his head. “Not inconspicuous enough, not after this caper. But I know who can . . . either Lunzie here, or young Aygar.”