"I didn't expect to see you here," Kinsman said. She was not wearing a party dress now; Just a pair of green fatigues that marked her as a member of the life- support group. But they could not conceal the ripeness of her figure.

"Follow me," she said.

She pushed open the door and led him down the curving corridor, in silence. Kinsman could not help noticing the way her butt moved inside the fatigues. They passed the computer area and he stared hard through the long windows as they walked by. The computer's lights were flashing away as usual even though no one was sitting at the desk stations. They haven't shut anything down, Kinsman realized. Then he added, Yet.

"I never did get your name straight at the party," he said to the redhead.

"Doesn't matter."

He pulled alongside her. "Come on now. Politics is one thing, but you don't have to be inhuman about it."

In coldly clipped tones she said, "What happened at the party was strictly business."

"Business?" Even as he said it. Kinsman realized, Kee- rist! Internal Security Agency! No wonder she's sore. She took all the trouble of going to bed with me and didn't learn a thing. Probably looks bad on her file.

Soon they were out of the corridor and into the factory area itself. She led Kinsman through a maze of piping, up onto catwalks that threaded through the electric arcs and main pumps. He could feel the machinery throbbing like a giant mechanical heart, making the metal grillwork of the catwalk vibrate. Off in the distance the muted thunder of the rock crushers went on without slack.

Pat Kelly was standing on a platform on the next level 420 above the catwalk. Under the harsh lights, Kinsman could see that Kelly was fidgeting nervously, his rabbit's face a picture of anxiety. He wore a gun in a holster buckled to his hip.

The redhead stopped at the base of the ladder that led up to the platform. "Major Kelly will take over from here," she said.

"Tell me one thing," said Kinsman.

She looked at him warily.

"Still think I'm cute?"

She flushed angrily and spun away from him so fast that her shoulder-length hair swung over her face momentarily. Kinsman watched her stamp back down the catwalk for a few seconds, admiringly, then reluctantly turned to the ladder and started climbing.

Kelly was genuinely frightened. He could not look straight at Kinsman.

"Come on," he said, gesturing down another spidery catwalk. "We don't have much time."

"I didn't expect you to be with them," Kinsman said, falling in step beside the younger officer.

"I didn't expect you to be handing Moonbase over to the Russians," Kelly answered, keeping his eyes straight ahead. "Or to hand them our defense satellites."

"You're wrong about that, Pat. We're creating a new nation here."

Kelly shook his head.

"You know, if you blow up the water factory you'll be killing everyone up here."

"They can send us water from Earthside."

"How soon? Two, three days? A week? A month? And how much? Enough for a thousand people, every day? Don't be stupid. Pat. And don't think they'll do anything —especially if the shooting starts."

Kelly did not reply.