rg chuckled amiably. "Good. I'm glad to see you're discreet. Too many
labmen don't understand the necessity of secrecy, even between different
branches of the same organization." With a sudden whip-like sharpness:
"You didn't tell anyone about this meeting, did you?"

"No, of course not." Despite himself, Lancaster was rattled. "That is, a
friend asked if I'd care to go out with her tonight, but I said I was
meeting someone else."

"That's right." Berg relaxed, smiling. "All right, we may as well get
down to business. You're getting quite an honor, Dr. Lancaster. You've
been tapped for one of the most important jobs in the Solar System."

"Eh?" Lancaster's eyes widened behind the contact lenses. "But no one
else has informed me--"

"No one of your acquaintance knows of this. Nor shall they. But tell me,
you've done work on dielectrics, haven't you?"

"Yes. It's been a sort of specialty of mine, in fact. I wrote my thesis
on the theory of dielectric polarization and since then--no, that's
classified."

"M-hm." Berg took another sip of his drink. "And right now you're just a
cog in a computer-development Project. You see, I do know a few things
about you. However, we've decided--higher up, you know, in fact on the
very top level--to take you off it for the time being and put you on
this other job, one concerning your specialty. Furthermore, you won't be
part of a great organizational machine, but very much on your own. The
fewer who know of this, the better."

Lancaster wasn't sure he liked that. Once the job was done--if he were
possessed of all information on it--he might be incarcerated or even
shot as a Security risk. Things like that had happened. But there wasn't
much he could do about it.

"Have no fears." Berg seemed to read his thoughts. "Your reward may be a
little delayed for Security reasons, but it will come in due time." He
leaned forward, earnestly. "I repeat, this project is _top secret_. It's
a vital link in something much bigger than you can imagine, and few men
below the President even know of it. Therefore, the very fact that
you've worked on it--that you've done any outside work at all--must
remain unknown, even to the chiefs of your Project."

"Good stunt if you can do it," shrugged Lancaster. "But I'm hot.
Security keeps tabs on everything I do."

"This is how we'll work it. You have a furlough coming up in two weeks,
don't you--a three months' furlough? Where were you going?"

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