en shrugged as he realized it
was a needless precaution now. He moved up the front steps and through
the battered seal.

Then he stopped. Security had finally gotten around to him, it seemed.
Inside the hallway, the Security man who'd first sent him to Mars was
waiting.

There was a grin on the other's face. "Hello, Gordon. Finally got our
orders for you. It's Mercury!"

Bruce Gordon nodded slowly. "All right. I suppose you know I ruined the
dome, was supposed to have killed Murdoch, pretended I was a Security
agent..."

"You _were_ one," the man said. He grinned again. "We know about
Murdoch, and we know where Trench is--but he's a good citizen now, so he
can stay there. We're not throwing the book at you, Bruce. Damn it, we
sent you here to get results, and you got them. We sent twenty others
the same way--and they failed. You were a bit drastic--that I have to
admit--but we're one step closer to keeping nationalism off the planets,
and that's all we care about."

"I wonder if it's worth it," Gordon said slowly.

The other shook his head. "We can't know in our lifetime. All we can do
is to hope. We'll probably get this Mother Corey and Isaacs elected
properly; and for a while, things will improve. But there'll be pushers
as long as weak men turn to drugs, and graft as long as voters allow the
thing to get out of their hands. Let's say you've shifted some of the
misery around a bit, and given them a chance to do better. It's up to
them to take it or lose it."

"So I get sent to Mercury?"

"You can't stay here. They'll find out too much eventually." He paused,
estimating Gordon. "You _can_ go back to Earth, Bruce, but you won't
like it now. You're a fighter. And there's hell brewing on
Mercury--worse than here. We've got permission to send you there, if
you'll go. With a yellow ticket, again--but without any razzle-dazzle
this time. The only thing you'll get out of it is a chance to fight for
a better chance for others some day--and a promise that there'll be
more, until you get old enough to sit at a desk on Earth and fight
against every bickering nation there to keep the planets clean. There's
a rocket waiting to transship you to the Moon on the way to Mercury
right now."

Gordon sighed. "All right. But I wish you'd tell my wife sometime
that--well, that I didn't just run out on her. She's had bad luck with
men."

"She already knows," the Security man said. "I've been waiting for you
quite a while, you