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lever.
    Rat worked the tip of the screwdriver under the lid. She leaned her weight on it—
    â€œBOO!”
    Rat sprang upward. Thump. She hit the ceiling. Bump. A thin pipe smacked her belly. Even as her tail curled around the pipe to steady her, her mind sorted the surprise: not the scientist’s voice, the machine’s.
    A blazing line of light scanned across her.
    â€œYou are lavender. You are wearing a cloth tube. That is not normal for a rat.” The console hummed and the red glow in the room brightened. “You are not a normal rat. You are a modified.”
    Rat jumped over to the big pipe and ran.
    â€œWait! Don’t go! LB misses Jeff. He promised to visit, but hasn’t. And Bett is napping. LB is bored.”
    Rat turned abruptly. It was too late for running away. The machine had seen her. It might tell the scientist. It might tell the investigator. It must be destroyed.

C HAPTER T EN
    T HEM
    Jeff hesitated to return to Rat. Maybe if he found something useful for her spyvest, she wouldn’t be so upset by the bad news about the laser. She mentioned spider wire, strong as steel, but so thin a hundred yards of it fit on a spool the size of an aspirin. The repair shop was the only place he might find something like that, but he dreaded going there. The repair crew blamed him for ruining Nanny. Still, he’d rather face them than Rat’s anger. Besides, he ought to go there. Their routine was in a shambles. They’d missed the second check on Nanny. He’d better make sure it was still dead.
    Jeff set the elevator going. As it neared Ring 3, the grip of the artificial gravity loosened quite a lot. His feet seemed to lift off the soles of his boots, almost floating. He swayed and grabbed the handrail. Not much was left of Ring 3 except the repair shop. Most of it had vaporized long ago in the solar wind or been salvaged to use in making other rings. From outside the space station, it looked like the skeleton of a doughnut, just hoops of metal scaffolding like the kind construction crews put up around skyscrapers.
    But the repair shop was kept intact because the very weak gravity made it easy to work on heavy equipment. Mechanics could lift thousands of pounds of machinery with their bare hands! Jeff could pick up Nanny with a pinkie, if he ever dared to touch it.
    Jeff waddled out in the direction of the repair shop using a kind of wide-legged rolling walk that felt like marching across a water-bed mattress.
    â€œWell, if it isn’t the great robot hunter,” the captain’s voice boomed behind Jeff.
    Jeff turned, and there he was, a great jiggle of silver-coated fatness rolling along the corridor, nearly filling it. What bad luck, meeting him here! He’ll yell at me again.…
    â€œDon’t cringe like that. Can’t you see I’m smiling?” The captain came up to Jeff. He was smiling, a tiny one in a red face glistening with a sheen of sweat. His breath came a little hard, even though moving in this low gravity ought to be easy—even for a fat person. “Here for the test, huh?”
    â€œWhat test?”
    â€œNanny. The chief’s rigged up a robot defibrillator to zap Nanny’s brain like they do for heart-attack victims. Too risky to try before, but now we’ve got nothing to lose.”
    Jeff did! Rat did! The last thing they needed was Nanny back in action. “How come it’s okay now?”
    The captain narrowed his eyes. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard the news?”
    Jeff guessed what news but decided to play dumb. He wasn’t sure if Dad was supposed to know it or not. “News?”
    â€œWell you’re the only one who hasn’t!” The smile disappeared. Now the captain looked normal—pinched and grumpy. “So much for surprising that rat.”
    So that was the plan! In a flash, Jeff played the scene: He and Rat, ignorant, maybe having a snack, maybe even liverwurst! Then the