"Touche."

"Ah! A linguist. I had no idea. Well . . ." Harriman's face suddenly went completely serious. The smile vanished, the eyes became intense. "You realize, of course, that every- body in Selene knows you've been muttering about refusing to follow orders and declaring us independent of Earthside control."

"There are no secrets here," Kinsman admitted.

"Not the way you handle them! At any rate, I've been spending the past few days casually talking things over with lots of people—Americans, Russians, foreign visitors, perma- nent Luniks, ninety-dayers. I've also gone over the personnel records of most of the people here, their psychological profiles mainly . . ."

"How the hell did you get access . . . ?"

Harriman held up a pudgy hand. "You think you're the only one around here who has a way with women? After all, I'm considered a dashing and romantic figure by some of the weaker-minded broads. Besides, I told the kids in charge of 385 the computer files that I wanted to search for people who might be interested in starting a university here. They fell for it."

Kinsman said only, "H'mm."

"It's your own fault, Chet. You run a very lax operation here. No wonder they sent Colt to tighten security."

"Don't tell me my troubles."

"All right. Near as I can compute it, about eighty percent of the permanent Luniks would support a move for indepen- dence. And the surprising thing is that the ninety-dayers are split about fifty-fifty. You can carry it off, friend, if you want to."

Kinsman shook his head, and immediately regretted it. The throbbing grew worse. "I've thought it over, Hugh. Declaring independence won't change things Earthside. They'll still start their war; all we'll be able to do is delay them."

Harriman blinked at him owlishiy. "You mean you haven't figured it out? You're kidding! A brilliant military mind like yours? Not even Leonov has seen it?"

"Seen what?"

"How to make Selene independent and stop the friggin' war before it starts'"

Kinsman forgot his headache. He straightened up in the couch. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Harriman laughed. "My God! Are philosophers really the only people who can think?"

"Hugh . . ."

Running a hand over his bald pate, Harriman said, "I thought you had already worked it out for yourself."

"Worked what out?"

"Taking over the satellites."

"What?"

With a heavenward roll of his eyes, Harriman explained, "Look, neither the United States nor the Soviets has enough ABM satellites in orbit to provide a fully effective shield against the other side's missile attack. Right?"

"Not yet."

"How many satellites have to be on station for an orbital ABM network to be considered workable?"

"That's classified information, Hugh." 386