"You look thinner in ciwies," the Colonel said.
"I've lost weight."
Murdock made a meaningless gesture. "I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to see you sooner. What with the intelligence and State Department people crawling around here the past few weeks, and all the paperwork on your citation and your medical disability leave ... I haven't had a chance to, eh, congratulate you on your mission. It was a fine piece of work."
Kinsman said nothing.
"General Hatch was very pleased. He recommended you for the Silver Star himself."
"I know."
"You're a hero. Kinsman." There was wonder in the Colonel's girlish voice. "A real honest-to-God hero."
Again Kinsman remained silent.
Murdock suppressed a frown. "The Russians won't make a squawk about it, from what the State Department boys tell me. They're keeping the whole thing hushed up. We made a deal with them. We don't complain about them testing a beam weapon in orbit and they don't complain about losing a cosmonaut."
"We both lose," Kinsman said.
"But you've proved that the Air Force has an important mission to perform in space, by God! The only way we could tell they were cheating on the treaty was to look into their damned satellite. Bet the Congress will change our name to the Aerospace Force now!"
"I committed a murder."
For a long moment Murdock was silent. He drummed his fingers on his desktop. "It's one of those things," he said finally. "It had to be done."
"No, it didn't," Kinsman insisted quietly. "I could have gone back inside the Manta and de-orbited."
"You killed an enemy soldier. You protected your na- tion's frontier. Sure, you feel rotten now, but you'll get over it."
"You didn't see the face I saw inside that helmet."
Murdock shuffled papers on his desk. "Well . . . okay, it was rough. You're getting a medical furlough out of it when there's really nothing wrong with you. For Chrissakes, what more do you want?"
"I don't know. I've got to take some time to think it over,"
"What?" Murdock stared hard at him. "What are you talking about?"
"Read the debriefing report," Kinsman said tiredly.
