Dreyer's grin spread. "We'd be happy to work on that kind of project. With the government providing the invest- ment capital and the Aerospace Force behind it, it would be a project we could depend on. We'd be willing to sink a helluva lot of our own discretionary funds into it, too."
"Do you think the other industrial contractors would feel the same way?"
"Why the hell wouldn't they?" Dreyer said. Then he started laughing again. "I'd like to see the look on Alexan- der's face when he finds out that his precious idea for building colonies in space has been bumped by factories for turning out military hardware!"
Kinsman nodded and tried to smile back at the man, but he could not.
He sat once again next to Jinny Woods on the shuttle's return flight to Florida, but Kinsman's mind was a quarter- million miles away.
"I didn't see you hardly at all," the woman was saying, "once we got up there. You were always in deep dark conversations with somebody or other. Who were all those people anyway? Wasn't one of them Senator McGrath? I saw him on television, one of those late-night talk shows. He's so handsome!"
Kinsman made noncommittal noises at her while his mind raced:
Is this the way history gets made? Somebody wants to find a retreat, a place to hide, and we get a lunar base out of it? Somebody wants to make a buck, open a new trade route, get the tax collectors off his back. That's what makes the world go 'round?
"... and the way she sang! I'll bet you didn't even hear her, did you? I looked for you but you weren't anywhere in sight. You missed the dancers, too. They took us down to the low-gravity section ..."
I'll have to spring it on Murdock first. No, first I'll tell 237
Frank about it. If there are any flaws in the picture he'll spot them. Pick out the weak points and fix them. Then Murdock. Then we'll work up a presentation for General Sherwood. Probably for Marcot, too. It all ties together so neatly. Why haven't the others seen it?
"You haven't been listening to a word I've said/' Jinny Woods complained.
"I'm sorry," Kinsman said. "I was thinking about some of the problems I've got ahead of me, back at the office."
"You sound just like my husband. I guess I talk too much. That's what he tells me."
"No . . . it's my fault."
She brushed a curl away from her eyes. "I'm just so excited by all this! It's all old stuff for you, I know. But nothing like this has ever happened to me before. It's all so new ... so thrilling!"
She's kind of pretty, Kinsman noticed. Nice eyes. Happy as a kid.
"It's exciting for me, too," he told her. "Don't let this calm exterior fool you. No matter how many times you go into orbit, it's always a ball."
She seemed pleased. "Really? It's not just me? I guess I just never learned to control my feelings very well. I get awfully gushy, don't I? Do you think we'll ever get up there again?"
Do I think about anything else?
