t also be surrounded ten deep by the secret police. Did you stop
to think about _that_?"

Neel hadn't thought about it, and his anger vanished when he did. Costa
drove the point home.

"Societics has been a well kept secret for over two centuries. It may
still be a secret--or bits of it might have leaked out. And even if the
Himmelians know nothing about Societics, they have certainly heard of
espionage. They know the UN has agents on their world, they might think
Hengly is one of them. This is all speculation, of course, but we do
have one fact--this Society of Native Boobs we turned up. _We_ had no
trouble finding them. If Hengly had reliable field men, he should know
about them, too. The only reason he hasn't is because he isn't getting
the information. Which means he's compromised."

Reaching back for a chair, Neel fell heavily into it. "You're right ...
of course! I never realized."

"Good," Costa said. "We'll do something to help Hengly tomorrow, but
this operation comes first. Sit tight. Get some rest. And don't open the
door for anyone except me."

* * * * *

It had been a long job--and a tiring one--but it was almost over. Neel
allowed himself the luxury of a long yawn, then shuffled over to the
case of rations they had brought. He stripped the seal from something
optimistically labeled CHICKEN DINNER--it tasted just like the algae it
had been made from--and boiled some coffee while it was heating.

And all the time he was doing these prosaic tasks his mind was turning
an indigestible fact over and over. It wasn't a conscious process, but
it was nevertheless going on. The automatic mechanism of his brain ran
it back and forth like a half heard tune, searching for its name. Neel
was tired, or he would have reacted sooner. The idea finally penetrated.
One fact he had taken for granted was an obvious impossibility.

The coffee splashed to the floor as he jumped to his feet.

"It's wrong ... it _has_ to be wrong!" he said aloud, grabbing up the
papers. Computations and graphs dropped and were trampled into the
spilled coffee. When he finally found the one he wanted his hands were
shaking as he flipped through it. The synopsis of Hengly's reports for
the past five years. The gradual rise and fall of the k-factor from
month to month. There were no sharp breaks in the curve or gaps in the
supporting equations.

Societics isn't an exact science. But it's exact enough to know wh