Dark Rivers of the Heart

went dead, Spencer saw two more words flash under the first: TRACE BACK.
        Valerie exploded to her feet, yanked both utility-cord plugs from the computer, and sprinted into the sun, to the microwave dish. "Load everything into the Rover!"
        Getting to his feet, Spencer said, "What's happening?"
        "They're using an E.P.A satellite." She had already retrieved the microwave dish and had turned toward him. "and they're running some sort of weird damned security program. Locks onto any invasive signal and traces back." Hurrying past him, she said, "Help me pack. Move, damn it, move!"
        He balanced the keyboard on top of the monitor and picked up the entire workstation, including the rubber mat beneath it. Following Valerie to the Rover, his bruised muscles protesting at the demand for haste, he said, "They found us?"
        "Bastards!" she fumed.
        "Maybe you switched off in time."
        "No."
        "How can they be sure it's us?"
        "They'll know."
        "It was just a microwave signal, no fingerprints on it."
        "They're coming." she insisted.
        Sunday night, their third night together, Eve jammer and Roy Miro had begun their passionate but contact-free lovemaking earlier in the evening than they had done previously. Therefore, although that session was the longest and most ardent to date, they concluded before midnight.
        Thereafter, they lay chastely side by side on her bed, in the soft blue glow of indirect neon, each of them guarded by the loving eyes of the other's reflection in the ceiling mirror. Eve was as naked as the day that she'd slipped into the world, and Roy was fully clothed. In time they enjoyed a deep and restful sleep.
        Because he had brought an overnight bag, Roy was able to get ready for work in the morning without returning to his hotel suite on the Strip.
        He showered in the guest bath, rather than in Eve's, for he had no desire to undress and reveal his many imperfections, from his stubby toes to his knobby knees, to his paunch, to the spray of freckles and the two moles on his chest. Besides, neither of them wanted to follow the other's session in any shower stall. If he were to stand on tiles wet with her bathwater or vice versa… well, in a subtle but disturbing way, that act would violate the satisfyingly dry relationship, free of fluid exchanges, which they had established and on which they thrived.
        He supposed some people would think them mad. But anyone who was truly in love would understand.
        With no need to go to the hotel, Roy arrived at the satellite-communications room early Monday. When he walked through the door, he knew that something exciting had transpired only moments before. Several people were gathered down front, gazing up at the wall display, and the buzz of conversation had a positive sound.
        Ken Hyckman, the morning duty officer, was smiling broadly.
        Clearly eager to be the first to impart the good news, he waved at Roy to come down to the U-shaped control console.
        Hyckman was a tall, blandly handsome, blown-dry type. He looked as if he had joined the agency following an attempt at a career as a news anchorman.
        According to Eve, Hyckman had made several passes at her, but she had put a chill on him each time. If Roy had thought that Ken Hyckman was in any way a threat to Eve, he would have blown the bastard's head off right there, and to hell with the consequences. He found considerable peace of mind, however, in the knowledge that he had fallen in love with a woman who could pretty much take care of herself.
        It he'd him at the control console. "She up-linked to Earthguard to see if we were using it for satellite surveillance."
        "How do you know it's her?"
        "It's her style."
        "Admittedly, she's a bold one," Roy said. "But I hope you've got more to go on than sheer instinct."
        "Well, hell, the up-link was from the middle of nowhere. Who else would it be?" Hyckman asked, pointing at the wall.
        The orbital view currently on display was a simple, enhanced, telescopic look-down that included the southern halves of Nevada and Utah, plus the northern third of Arizona. Las Vegas was in the lower left corner. The three red and two white rings of a small, flashing bull's-eye marked the remote position from which the up-link had been initiated.
        Hyckman said, "One hundred and fifteen miles