"You gave me the straight line."

"Just testing," she said airily. "Like Pavlov and his dogs."

Kinsman nodded once. "You have rung my chimes and I am salivating."

"Hopeless case of chauvinism," Diane murmured.

Kinsman was about to reply when Kelly cocked his head in the direction of the fadderway entrance. "Here comes Dr. Faraffa."

"Now you'll see what real male chauvinism is like," Kinsman whispered to Diane.

Dr. Faraffa was only slightly older than Kelly. He had a broad, bald, brown-skinned face with none of the acquiline 299 features so often associated with Arabs. He walked directly to Kinsman, nodding briefly to Kelly and ignoring Diane alto- gether. He wore a rumpled tan pair of slacks and a light shirtjacket, the only person in the dome not in a swimsuit.

"Colonel Kinsman," he said in a voice as mellow and golden as Turkish tobacco, "I have been informed by my colleagues at Alpha that there is some talk of a new crisis."

The word spreads fast. Kinsman thought. "I believe that any rumors to that effect," he replied carefully, "are highly exaggerated."

Faraffa stepped close enough for Kinsman to feel his breath on his face. It carried an odor of something sweet, almost cloying.

"Highly exaggerated? Perhaps. Such as the occupation of the oil sheikhdoms by your Marines? That was once a highly exaggerated rumor."

Kinsman shrugged. "I'm not a diplomat. The Marines and the occupation are real. A new crisis is not."

"Not yet."

"Not yet," Kinsman repeated.

"If such a crisis does occur, I expect that all foreign nationals here on the Moon will be returned to their homes," Faraffa said stiffly.

Only if they're fools, Kinsman replied silently. He said aloud, "We always make every effort to accommodate our foreign visitors."

"Of course."

"Within reason," Kinsman added.

Faraffa's eyebrows arched upward. Then, with a slight smile, he added, "I understand that this gathering tonight is to celebrate your birthday. My felicitations, sir."

"Thank you." Kinsman could see from the expression on Diane's face what she thought of the Egyptian's attempt to spoil the surprise of the party.

"It is very interesting," Faraffa went on. "You are the most visible man here in Selene. Everyone knows you and admires you. Even the Russians."

With a small bow of acknowledgment. Kinsman said, "My life is an open book."

"Not quite." Faraffa's voice became almost a whisper, 300 but harder, sharper, a thin little dagger of sound. "I have attempted to learn more of your life. I am very interested in you, Colonel Kinsman. Yet, while the computer records are completely open, they extend back only a few years. Before that, your personnel file is a blank. A total blank. You are a man without a past. Colonel Kinsman."

Very evenly Kinsman replied, "The personnel records go back to the point where I first assumed command of Moon- base."

"But no further."