No! Again, because she hadn't before.
She threw that other Susan a glance as she went to the door. It irised open and, wiping at the cut over her right eye, she stepped out into the corridor.
Just as she had watched herself do before.
Chapter Twenty-five
Susan shuffled down the corridor in Luna's one-sixth standard gravity, trying to put as much distance as possible between herself and the man laying on the hospital room floor. When Krueger came to, he would again come after her.
She had at first thought that Hyatt's impostor was behind these attempts on her life, and he could still be responsible for some of them. But now it was becoming increasingly clear that Admiral Renford was at least partly responsible- he had sent Krueger after her.
Why? Why did Renford want her dead?
She tried to force that question from her mind; she didn't want to deal with it. She wanted to forget the whole thing, to get onboard Photon and simply head out into the asteroid belt, or to some other star system entirely-anywhere she could be safe and away from it all.
But she knew she couldn't. They would follow, continuing the attacks until they killed her.
If she couldn't stop them first.
She would have to accomplish that alone-Susan knew that now. Clayton would not believe her story, any more than Karl would. No one would believe what was happening to her. From here on, she would have to depend strictly on her own resources.
So, what now?
Instantly, some of it began to fall into place. Hyatt's impostor had called her at Darcy's apartment, telling her to meet him at the mining camp. That had been just after the real Hyatt had called to say he would meet her at the ship.
But Krueger somehow found out about the meeting and got there first. He killed Hyatt's impostor.
Or had it been the real Hyatt Krueger had killed? Might he be working for the impostor? Was the real Hyatt actually dead, and had the plan been to eliminate both Susan and Hyatt simultaneously?
If that was true, it meant Hyatt's impostor was still alive. He was here, in Luna City-somewhere. But where? Where could she find that other Hyatt?
Then she knew. If he was taking the real Hyatt's place, she could probably find him in Hyatt's office.
There was no longer a guard outside the office when she arrived, and the receptionist who had been stationed in the anteroom earlier was gone as well. She stepped to the inner office's entrance, and the door irised open.
The impostor sat behind the small gray desk, signing papers. He looked exactly like Hyatt-the dead Hyatt, the real Hyatt.
Or was he the real Hyatt?
He looked up and smiled as Susan entered. A pendant like the one she wore hung from a silver chain around his neck.
"I've been expecting you, Captain," he said, motioning her to a straight-backed chair beside the desk. "We have much to discuss."
"We have nothing…to discuss." Her voice was returning, becoming stronger, but her throat was still sore.
She stood defiantly before him, knees slightly bent, ready to spring. If she sat, she would lose whatever advantage standing gave her. Although this man was many years her senior, she did not doubt his abilities.
"But you're wrong," he said. "We could be of considerable benefit to one another."
"If you're trying to buy me, it won't…work."
Hyatt's smile broadened. "Perhaps you will cost more than Krueger did," he said, "but I promise you, Captain, you can be bought. Everyone has a price."
"Then Krueger is working for you, after all." A statement rather than a question.
The impostor nodded. "We were hoping to get both you and my double at the same time."
"Double," Susan said. "That's a strange way to refer to him. After all, you are the impostor."
His smile broadened. He was enjoying this. For him, it was all just a game.
"I'm as much Hyatt as he was," the old man said.
Susan's mind raced frantically, trying to work out what he had just said, but it made no sense.
"You've been working under the handicap of ignorance and misinformation long enough," he said. "If you are to decide whether or not you will join us, you must know what this is all about."
He fell silent for a few seconds. Finally, when he realized Susan wouldn't respond, he continued:
"Like I said, I am as much a true Hyatt as was that other. And yet, we are separate individuals."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm a future Hyatt," he said, "from nearly five years from now. Therefore, I am Hyatt. And yet, because I am from that other's future, I am a completely different individual."
Susan's knees became suddenly weak, and she staggered back a step. She collapsed into the chair he had offered a moment before.
Her mind couldn't grasp what he had just said. There was something wrong with it, something horribly wrong. Something that made absolutely no sense. And yet, she couldn't quite pin down what it was.
Opening her mouth, she started to speak, then realized she did not know what to say. Until now, she had believed her experiences since arriving on Luna a few days ago the strangest possible, but what this man was saying made them pedestrian by comparison. What he had just said tore at the very fabric of what she considered reality, filling her mind with a dread far greater than anything she had yet experienced.
But it couldn't be true. He simply could not be from Hyatt's future.
She recalled everything that had happened to her since that short dark man had attacked her in her quarters on Fleet Base: the second attempt on her life in the exchange area, her spotting that figure out on the lunar surface during the floater ride out to Luna City, the time-jump at the deserted mining camp that had put her in a position to become that very figure. And there were those unexplained discrepancies between what she remembered and what everyone else remembered. Bill Darcy was Luna City's mayor, and his brother had been dead for years. The power satellite and the mining camp…
Alone, all those things meant nothing. Together they gelled into something nearly concrete.
Nearly, but not quite.
Suddenly, she knew what he had said was true; she felt it deep within her. This man was from the future, from five years hence.
And the pendants somehow made it all possible.
Then it hit her: she knew what hadn't seemed right a few seconds ago. This man had murdered his past self, or at least had his past self killed. And yet, he still existed. If he had died in his past, how could he still exist?
Susan asked the man as much.
"As long as I am wearing a pendant, I exist outside the time stream," he answered. "And, although I am no longer subject to time while I wear it-maybe because of that-I can react within time, in any period."
Susan frowned. The concepts he was dealing with were difficult to grasp. Perhaps impossible.
"You don't believe me, do you?" he asked.
Susan shook her head.
"I know, it is hard. But it's real!"
"The differences in the world around us," Susan asked, "the power satellite, the mining camp, and Bill Darcy as mayor-how did they come about?"
"I am responsible for them," Hyatt said. "Actually, the only thing I wanted to change was Darcy. I wanted to eliminate Sam Darcy, making sure he never became mayor of Luna City. He was, of course, as I am certain you remember."
Susan nodded.
"But as mayor, Sam Darcy was a hard opponent. I could never have gotten my D.I. program past him. On the other hand, I could manipulate his brother, Bill. So I went back into the past and made sure Sam would never become mayor. The other changes-the mining camp and the power satellite-were simple by-products of that conscious change."