Douglas and the other officer walked ahead of Kinsman. They did not raise their hands over their heads, and Kinsman tucked his pistol into its holster. But they all knew what was happening.
"This is crazy, Chet. You can't get away with it."
"Just keep walking, Art."
The corridor sloped upward in both directions; it looked 444 as if you were always walking uphill, although it felt perfectly flat and there was no sensation of climbing at all.
The mess hall was nothing more than a widened section of the corridor with bulging blisters on both sides to make alcoves where people could sit and look outside. It had enough tables to accommodate fifty people at a time. Both ends of the mess hall were open to the corridor, which ran through Level Four like the inner tube of an old-fashioned bicycle tire. At the far end of the mess hall the corridor passed through the galley and a series of storage bays. Kinsman seated the two officers at one of the tables, then walked to the galley and waved a wide-eyed cook and his helpers to seats near Douglas and his smoldering friend.
The Earth slid past the window beside their table as the young lunar troops began bringing other station officers and men and women into the mess hall. They looked shocked, angry, bewildered. A few of them had obviously been awak- ened from sleep. Although a number of the enlisted person- nel were women, only three of the officers were female; the highest-ranking was a captain. Lieutenant Colonel Stahl was not among the prisoners.
"Colonel Kinsman," the overhead speaker blared. A young man's voice. "Colonel Kinsman, please call the comm center."
Kinsman went to the wall phone in the galley, keeping his eye on the rapidly filling tables. Men and women were coming from both sides now, urged by gun-wielding youngsters.
"Kinsman here," he said into the phone. "Put me through to the comm center."
The station's computer buzzed briefly, then a young man's voice said, "Communications."
"This is Kinsman."
"Yessir. Lieutenant Reilly here, sir. We have Colonel Stahl. He was in the comm center when we got here."
Involuntarily Kinsman let out a sigh of relief. "Very good. Bring him up to the officers' mess. You've secured the center?"
"Oh, yessir. No trouble at all."
"Good. Call me when the power station team calls in."
"Will do."
The mess hall was filling with grumbling, frightened- 445 looking men and women when Lieutenant Colonel Stahl was led in by one of Kinsman's youngsters.
"Kinsman! Just what the hell do you think you're doing here?"
"Declaring independence."
"What?" Stahl stood defiantly in the center of the mess hall, legs slightly spread, fists clenched. He looked as if he wanted to spring at Kinsman.
