d studied it.

"If it is, they've certainly kept it well covered," he said. "There's
not a mark of suspicion entered against the Childress Barber College.
But here's a possibility for getting you in. The barber college employs
one secretary, female. Now, if you could take her place...."

Maya smiled.

"I might as well apply as a barber student," she said. "You propose to
remove a trusted member of their own group from their midst and replace
her with a complete unknown?"

"We don't know that she's a rebel," answered Scion. "If she isn't, she
can be lured away to another job at a much better salary. If she is, and
can't be lured ... well, there are other methods. The Mars City
Employment Agency is operated by one of our agents, and you'll be the
only secretary available when the barber college asks for a woman to
fill her place.

"Believe me, Miss Cara Nome, as easy as it is for a woman to get married
on Mars, it is difficult to find women to do any sort of business work.
It won't seem at all strange that you're the only one available."

"The only trouble is that I'm known in the neighborhood as a tourist
from Earth," objected Maya.

"Well," said Scion, "things have been more expensive than you planned
for on Mars. You've run short of money. You have to work for a while to
pay living expenses here until the next ship leaves for Earth."

"My account at the bank?"

"It will vanish quietly from the records," said Scion with a smile. "The
bank is a government institution."

"Very well," said Maya, taking her purse from his desk. "Let me know
when I'm to apply."

"You won't hear from me again," said Scion, shaking his head. "The
employment agency will notify you to appear at the barber college for an
interview."

Maya knew of Scion only as her emergency contact on Mars. She did not
know what position he held in that underground network of terrestrial
agents which was largely unknown even to Nuwell Eli, the government
prosecutor. But, whatever his position, he got things done in a hurry.

Within two weeks, Maya was typing up applications, examination reports
and supply orders in the Childress Barber College, joking and flirting
with barber students between classes, and naively declaiming to her
ostensible employer, phlegmatic Oxvane Childress, how lucky it was for
her that she was able to get a job right across the street from her
rooming house.

"The work's easy," rumbled Childress, explaining her tasks to h