"Shouldn't I be?"

"They've had these crises before. It'll blow away."

"Not this time."

She put her hand on his back. "You don't think they're really crazy enough to start throwing nuclear bombs around, do you?"

"This time it's for real." He turned toward her, and could barely make out her face in the shadows. The only light in the room came from the digital clock built into the wall alongside the bed. "I'm going to try to talk Pierce out of 362 leaving. I'll tell him to bring his family up here, instead."

"You really think it's that serious?"

"We're going to declare our independence from Earth. Leonov and I. I want as much of everybody's family as possible to be here when the shit hits the fan. Is there somebody back Earthside who can take your daughter to Cape Canaveral?"

"I don't know." Diane's voice was a frightened whisper.

"I'm hoping that our declaration of independence—and cutting off the supplies to the space stations—will throw a monkey wrench into their war preparations."

"Will the Russians go along . . . ?"

"Pete's saying no, but he means yes. We'll work it out."

"And if you don't?"

He shrugged. "At least we'll have brought as many families up here as we can. We'll survive here."

"Is that why you never went back to Earth once you got here? You've been worrying about this moment?"

Kinsman looked off into the darkness. "I never thought of it. Not consciously, anyway. Maybe you're right. Maybe I have been getting myself ready for this."

"Then your medical record is faked?"

He turned back toward her. "How do you know about my medical record?"

Her voice sounded faintly amused. "I have access to the personnel computer."

"H'mm."

"There's nothing secret about your file, is there?"

"No ..." But he felt all the old fears welling up inside him.

"The file does go blank, just as Dr. Faraffa said. It makes you very mysterious."

He did not reply.

"And there's a medical notation about a heart condi- tion."

"Officially," Kinsman explained slowly, "I'm supposed to have a heart condition that makes a full Earth gravity dangerous for me. It's only a little hypertension, but Jill Meyers wrote it into my file so that I can stay here in Selene indefinitely."