CHAPTER XXVI.

 He didn't have to turn his head. From the corner of his eye, he could see startlement flash across her face. She'd got her name right; and it was he who had erred¹ in choosing a name.

 

"Putsyn hired a criminal, Dorn Starret, to get rid of her for him," he said harshly². "That was the way Starret made his living. He was an expert at it.

 

"Starret slugged her one night on Mars³. He didn't retro her at once. He loaded her on a spaceship and brought her to Earth. During the passage, he talked to her and got to like her a lot. She wasn't as developed as she is now, kind of mousy maybe, but you know how those things are—he liked her. He made love to her, but didn't get very far.

 

"He landed in another city on Earth and left his spaceship there; he drugged her and brought her to the Shelter here and retroed her. That's what he'd been paid to do.

 

"Then he decided⁴ to stick around. Maybe she'd change her mind after retrogression. He stayed in a Shelter just across from the one she was in. And he made a mistake. He hid the retro gun behind the screen.

 

"Putsyn came around to check up. He didn't like Starret staying there—a key word or a familiar face sometimes triggers⁵ the memory. He retroed Starret, who didn't have a gun he could get to in a hurry. Maybe Putsyn had planned to do it all along. He'd built up an airtight alibi⁶ when Luise disappeared, so that nobody would connect him with that—and who'd miss a criminal like Starret?

 

"Anyway, that was only part of it. He knew that people who've been retroed try to find out who they are, and that some of them succeed. He didn't want that to happen. So he put an advertisement in the paper that she'd see and answer. When she did, he began to use his machine on her, intending to take her from the present to the past and back again so often that her mind would refuse to accept anything, past or present.

 

"But he'd just started when Starret showed up, and he knew he had to get him too. So he pulled what looked like a deliberate⁷ slip and got Starret interested, intending to take care of both of them in the same way at the same time."

 

He leaned against the wall. It was over now and he knew what he could expect.

 

"That's all, but it didn't work out the way Putsyn wanted it. Starret was a guy who knew how to look after his own interests."

 

Except the biggest and most important one; there he'd failed.

 

Borgenese was tapping on the desk, but it wasn't really tapping—he was pushing buttons. A policeman came in and the counselor⁸ motioned to Putsyn: "Put him in the pre-trial cells."

 

"You can't prove it," said Putsyn. His face was sunken and frightened.

 

"I think we can," said the counselor indifferently. "You don't know the efficiency of our laboratories. You'll talk."

1 erred   

犯错误，做错事( err的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He erred in his judgement. 他判断错了。
• We will work on those who have erred and help them do right. 我们将对犯了错误的人做工作，并帮助他们改正。

2 harshly   

ad.严厉地；苛刻地

参考例句：

• The grit beneath her soles grated harshly on the wooden deck. 粘在她鞋底的沙砾蹭在木甲板上发出刺耳的声音。
• We should not judge the young writers too harshly. 我们不应当对青年作家太苛求。

3 Mars   

n.火星，战争

参考例句：

• As of now we don't know much about Mars.目前我们对火星还知之甚少。
• He contended that there must be life on Mars.他坚信火星上面一定有生物。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 triggers   

（枪）扳机( trigger的名词复数 )； 引爆器； 扳柄； [电子学]起动线路

参考例句：

• The rapid movement of an object towards the eye triggers the blink reflex. 快速朝眼前移动物体，就会引起眨眼反应。
• Some people say that violent movies are potential triggers for juvenile delinquency. 一些人说暴力影片可能引起青少年犯罪。

6 alibi   

n.某人当时不在犯罪现场的申辩或证明；借口

参考例句：

• Do you have any proof to substantiate your alibi? 你有证据表明你当时不在犯罪现场吗？
• The police are suspicious of his alibi because he already has a record.警方对他不在场的辩解表示怀疑，因为他已有前科。

7 deliberate   

adj.故意的，深思熟虑的；v.仔细考虑

参考例句：

• You should deliberate over the question before you respond to it.回答问题之前你应该慎重考虑。
• His actions were clearly the result of deliberate calculation.他的行动显然是精心策划过的。

8 counselor   

n.顾问，法律顾问

参考例句：

• The counselor gave us some disinterested advice.顾问给了我们一些无私的忠告。
• Chinese commercial counselor's office in foreign countries.中国驻国外商务参赞处。