"I spooked him?" Kinsman punned.

Murdock ignored it. He went behind his desk and plopped into his swivel chair. "Make it fast. Kinsman. I've got a golf date that I can't afford to miss."

Taking the chair directly in front of the Colonel's desk, Kinsman realized he did not know quite where to begin.

"I ... it's this McGrath thing," he said. "I've been put squarely on the spot. If I can't turn Neal around, Moonbase goes down the tubes."

Murdock nodded. "That's right."

"I don't like it."

"You don't like it? You don't like what?"

"The whole setup," Kinsman said. "Making the whole Moonbase program hinge on my ability to pressure McGrath."

"You can apply all the pressure to him that you can lay your hands on. We'll back you."

With a shake of his head, Kinsman replied, "That's what I don't like."

"So what?" Murdock snapped. "You still have to follow orders, just like the rest of us."

"But Neal's been a friend of mine since—"

"Which is why you got picked for this job. You ought to be able to find a few things in his background that could help to persuade him. Everybody's got bones in their closet."

"Yeah," Kinsman murmured. "Everybody."

"It's either a success with McGrath," the Colonel pointed out needlessly, "or the whole Moonbase program goes into mothballs."

"And the Russians get the Moon to themselves."

"And all of us—including you. Kinsman—get trans- ferred to the Strategic Defense Initiative Office. Since you're grounded, you won't even get to play with the spaceplane. You'll sit at a desk here in the Pentagon for the rest of your life." Murdock smiled slyly.

"It's wrong."

"It's decided. You heard the Deputy Secretary. Your job is to convince McGrath. Otherwise, forget about Moonbase."

"We shouldn't be throwing the Moon away," Kinsman insisted.

"Then get McGrath to vote in favor of the base. Get him to swing the minority vote on the committee. Put Durban to work on him. Do whatever you like."

"Durban's in the hospital."

Murdock shrugged.

"Dammitall!" Kinsman exploded. "I don't want this! I don't want any part of it. I want to be flying, not crawling around these goddamned corridors like some roach!"

"Listen to me, hotshot," Murdock snapped back, his face reddening. "You're grounded. Understand? You'll never fly another Air Force plane or spacecraft again. Never! We should never have let you back on flying duty after you killed that Russian."