"It's like he's outlined," Steve said. "Sort of a neon yellow all around him. I can only see it with the bionic eye, and magnification didn't give me anything more. And the neon yellow pulses sometimes." He paused to look at his audience. Both Oscar and Rudy were following him this time, none of that humoring him expression that had driven him nuts.

"It pulses." Rudy's scientific side was kicking in. "But only sometimes?"

Steve nodded. "The second time I saw him, in the lab, it might have been tied to when he spoke. It came just a little bit before the words. I'm not totally sure on that; I was trying to just stay standing up at that point. I really was sick."

"You still aren't totally well, either," Rudy reminded him. "But this is something you've never seen before?"

"Never." Steve was definite. "But it was only him, nothing else, nobody else. That's what made me think from the beginning that it was real and not just a malfunction. My eye wouldn't malfunction just on one person."

"Fair point," Oscar conceded.

"Which I tried to make to both of you before," Steve couldn't resist adding.

Oscar winced. "Sorry, pal."

Rudy was trying to work this out. "The pulsation. Did it happen also when he was walking?"

Steve shook his head. "I haven't seen him walking much. Just walking away from Oscar's office that first night, and I was still trying to figure out myself if it was an eye malfunction. The second time, in the lab, he was just standing still. And the third time -" He shuddered.

"Yes, what happened that third time?" Oscar said. "You said he woke you up giving you the shot."

"Yes. That time was a lot harder to focus on fine details. For one, you had me drugged, and second, I really was feeling awful right then, even worse than before. Everything was a little shimmery. I could tell there was a general illness effect on the eye that time."

"Your fever was starting spiking just then," Rudy said. "It went close to 105 last night before it finally broke."

Steve looked a little surprised. "It got that high?"

"Yes. We had to use ice. I doubt you remember the ice, though."

"No," Steve said. "I don't remember anything past the fight to waking up a few minutes ago. Glad I missed being frozen out. Anyway, Blankenship was right beside the bed giving me the shot, but I think he was having a hard time getting through the skin. He was putting his body into it, and his elbow was pushing me right in my bruised ribs. That's what woke me up. I was still trying to piece this all together and figure out what he was doing when he finished and stepped back, and I saw the needle. Even slightly out of focus, a needle is still a needle. I knew there wasn't any valid explanation for that, so as he turned to leave, I tackled him. He put up a hell of a fight. I know I was getting some response on the bionics just then, not full but some, but he actually was on top at one point."

"We missed that," Oscar said. "By the time we all came running, you were back on top. And you didn't hear any of us."

"I heard you," Steve corrected. "It was kind of down a tunnel at a distance, but I recognized you and Rudy. But all I could think of right then was getting the needle. I knew already that you wouldn't listen to me. Talking to you wouldn't do any good, and he had the needle right there. That was proof. I had to get it before he had a chance to get rid of it."

At that moment, the door to the room opened, and Carla reentered. She looked as mad as Steve had ever seen her. She walked silently over to Rudy and handed him a piece of paper, letting it speak for itself. Rudy read the lab report, and his own jaw tightened.

"Poison?" Oscar asked.

"Yes. You would have died, Steve. Would have worsened over about four hours, just slowly enough that we would think it was the illness, and then died. If you hadn't had your right arm closer to the door, and if he'd picked the left one to inject into the muscle instead, you wouldn't be here right now."

The four of them looked at each other. "So what is going on?" Steve asked. "Obviously, he's trying something - spying would be my guess. And I was a threat to him in case you guys started listening to me. Oscar, are you sure of this man's credentials?"

"Positive." Oscar was stunned. "His reputation extends a few decades, and it's spotless. His country is a long-trusted ally. This doesn't make sense."

"Unless -" Rudy was thinking at full speed. "Unless that isn't really Blankenship."

"An imposter?" Oscar asked.

"A robot," Rudy corrected. "Dolenz, the robot maker from last time, is in prison, but we know that somebody else somewhere else could develop the same technology. Maybe he's using a slightly different power source or wiring, and that's what Steve's picking up on."

Steve nodded. "It did feel kind of like the fights with those robots. He's sure stronger than the average human."

Oscar sighed. "Wonderful. We've got a robot from some completely unknown source walking around the lab, and he's been here a whole day so far. I didn't show him any truly classified areas on that tour, but it would let him know exactly where those highest security areas were by omission. God only knows what he's already sent back."

Steve straightened up a little in the bed. "Sent back. There have to be transmissions. Maybe that's the pulse I'm reading, when he gets a transmission for exact words. Maybe some when he sends data back, too; I haven't had a lot of chance to study him. Rudy, if we could get a tracer on him, could you locate the source he's sending information to?"

"I could probably rig something up, but how are we supposed to get it on him?" Rudy asked. "We can't just walk up and hand it to him and ask him to take it everywhere with him."

"The safe room," Steve said. "It's impenetrable by transmissions. Lure him in there on some pretext, and if he is a robot, he would shut down as soon as the door was closed. We could have a few minutes to study him quickly and tag him, and if we didn't take long and Oscar pretended to just be on the phone or something the whole time and not notice anything, his controller might pass it off as an electronic temporary malfunction that cleared up without drawing attention to him."

Rudy smiled. "That could work. Best chance I see, Oscar."

"Sounds good," Oscar said. "We've got to catch the man behind him, not just stop him, and we have to recover whatever images he's already sent back."

"Great. Let's go." Steve moved the sheet back.

"Now wait a minute." Rudy's hand closed on his arm. "You have really been quite sick, and you still aren't fully well. You don't need to be running around helping us capture robots."

"You can't shut me out of this," Steve protested. "Not after I had to listen to you and everybody else tell me over and over that I was just seeing things. You all owe me that much."

Oscar grinned. His friend was sounding more and more like himself all the time. "He's got a point, Rudy." Carla was smiling, too.

"Rudy," Steve continued. "You said you wanted to keep me under observation in the lab. Well, I don't intend to leave the lab, and you can observe me all you want. I'm not going to go chase down the other end of the transmission; I just want to be on in the safe room to see what happens there."

Rudy sighed. "All right, but we can't let him see you until the door is closed." He looked around the group. "All of you, remember that Steve is supposed to be dead. If the robot asks for any information, just say Steve got worse last night and look sad and like you've been up all night. He'll fill in the blanks himself. It's going to take me a little while to rig up a tracer and get ready for a few minutes of fast exploration on him once that door is closed. Meanwhile, keep up the front. And as for you, Steve, I want you to eat breakfast while I'm working on things. You hardly had anything yesterday. Everybody understand?" They all nodded.

Oscar smiled. "Let's work on catching this man."