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"No . . ." It was a perfect day for flying, for getting away from funerals and families and all the ties of Earth. Flying so high above the clouds that even the rugged Sierras looked like nothing more than wrinkles. Then out over the desert at Mach 2, the only sounds in your earphones from your own breathing and the faint distant crackle of earthbound men 176 giving orders to other earthbound men.

 

"You told me"—Diane was laughing with the memory of it—"that you'd rather be flying and defending us so that nobody bombed us while we were demonstrating for peace!"

 

It was funny now; it had not been then.

 

"Yeah, that sounds like something I might have said."

 

"How amusing," Davis smirked. "And what are you protecting us from now? The Brazilians? Or the Martians?"

 

You overstuffed fruit, you wouldn't even fit into a cockpit. But Kinsman replied merely, "From the politicians. My job is Congressional liaison."

 

"Twisting Senators' arms is what he means," came Neal McGrath's husky voice from behind him.

 

Kinsman turned.

 

"Hello, Chet, Diane . . . em, Larry Davis, isn't it?"

 

"You have a good memory for names!"

 

"Goes with the job."

 

Kinsman studied McGrath. It was the first time they had been physically close in many years. Near's hair was still reddish; the rugged outdoors look had not been completely erased from his features. He looked like a down-home farmer; Kinsman knew he had been a Rhodes scholar. McGrath's voice was even softer, throatier than it had been years ago. The natural expression of his face, in repose, was still an introspective scowl. But he was smiling now.

 

His cocktail party smile, thought Kinsman. Then he realized, NeaPs starting to get gray. Like me.

 

"Tug Wynne tells me I was pretty rough on your boss this morning, Chet." The smile on McGrath's face turned just a shade self-satisfied,

 

"Colonel Murdock lost a few pounds, and it wasn't all from the TV lights," Kinsman replied.

 

"I was only trying to get him to give me a good reason for funneling money into a permanent lunar base."

 

Kinsman said, "The House Appropriations Committee approved the funding. They're satisfied with the reasons we gave them."

 

"Not good enough," McGrath said firmly. "Not when we've got to find money to reclaim every major city in the nation, plus new energy exploration, and crime control, and—"

 

"And holding down the Pentagon before they go jump- ing into Brazil," Diane added.

 

"Thanks, pal," Kinsman said to her. Turning back to McGrath, "Look, Neal, I'm not going to argue with you. The facts are damned clear. There's energy in space, lots of it. And raw materials. To utilize them we need a permanent base on the Moon."

Are sens

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