So I decided I ain't gonna fight The Man. I'm gonna be The Man."

"If you can't beat 'em . . ."

"Looks like I'm joinin' 'em, yeah," Colt said, with real passion in his voice. "But I'm just workin' my way up the ladder to get to the top. Then I'll start giving the orders. And there are others like me, too. We're gonna have a black President one of these days, you know."

"And you'll be his Chief of Staff."

"Could be."

"Where does that leave us . . ."

A small, sharp beeping sound shrilled in Kinsman's earphones. Emergency signal! Automatically, both he and Colt switched to the orbiter's flight deck frequency.

"Kinsman! Colt! Can you hear me? This is Major Jakes. Do you read me?"

The Major's voice sounded distant, distorted by ragged static, and very concerned.

Kinsman held up a hand to keep Colt silent. They were receiving the orbiter's signal scattered off the propellant tanks. No sense allowing Jakes and the others to hear them, even though their suit radios were not as powerful as the transmitter in the flight deck.

"Colt! Kinsman! Do you read me? This is Major Jakes!"

Colt leaned forward and touched his visor against Kins- man's. His muffled voice came through: "Let 'em eat shit for a coupla minutes, huh?"

Kinsman nodded, then realized that Colt could not see through the tinted visor. He made a thumbs-up gesture.

The orbiter pulled into view and seemed to hover about a hundred meters away from the tanks. The flight-deck radio switch was open, and the two lieutenants heard:

"Pierce, goddammit, if those two kids are lost I'll put you up for a murder charge."

"You were in on it, too, Harry!"

Howard's rasping voice cut in. "I'm suited up. Going out the airlock."

"Should we get one of the trainees to help search for them?" Pierce's reedy nasality.

"You've got two of them missing now," Jakes snarled. 65

"Isn't that enough? How about you getting your ass outside to help?"

"Me? But I'm . . ."

"That would be a good idea," said a new voice, with such authority that Kinsman knew it had to be the mission commander. Major Podolski. Among the three majors he was the longest in Air Force service, and therefore was as senior as God.

"Eh, yessir," Pierce answered quickly.

"And you, too, Jakes. You were all in on this, and it hasn't turned out to be very funny."

Colt and Kinsman, hanging on to one of the struts that connected the empty tanks, could barely suppress their laughter as they watched the orbiter's payload bay doors swing slowly open and three space-suited figures emerge like reluctant schoolboys from the airlock.