doors. Presently the truck got into motion.

"This is _really_ secret!" whistled Lancaster. He felt awed and
helpless.

"Quite so. Security doesn't like the government's right hand to know
what its left is doing." Berg smiled, a dim flash of teeth in his
shadowy face. Then he was serious. "It's necessary, Lancaster. You don't
know how strong and well-organized the subversives are."

"They--" The physicist closed his mouth. It was true--he hadn't the
faintest notion, really. He followed the news, but in a cursory fashion,
without troubling to analyze the meaning of it. Damn it all, he had
enough else to think about. Just as well that elections had been
suspended and bade fair to continue indefinitely in abeyance. If he, a
member of the intelligentsia, wasn't sufficiently acquainted with the
political and military facts of life to make rational decisions, it
certainly behooved the ill-educated masses to obey.

"We might as well stretch ourselves," said the driver. "Long way to go
yet." He climbed out and switched on an overhead light.

* * * * *

The interior of the van was roomy, even allowing for the car. There were
bunks, a table and chairs, a small refrigerator and cookstove. The
driver, a lean saturnine man who seemed to be forever chewing gum, began
to prepare coffee. The other sat down, whistling tunelessly. He was
young and powerfully built, but his right arm ended in a prosthetic
claw. All of them were dressed in inconspicuous civilian garb.

"Take us about ten hours, maybe," said Berg. "The spaceship's 'way over
in Colorado."

He caught Lancaster's blank stare, and grinned. "Yes, my friend, your
lab is out in space. Surprised?"

"Mmm--yeah. I've never been off Earth."

"Sokay. We run at acceleration, you won't be spacesick." Berg drew up a
chair, sat down, and tilted it back against a wall. The steady rumble of
engines pulsed under his words:

"It's interesting, really, to consider the relationship between
government and military technology. The powerful, authoritarian
governments have always arisen in such times as the evolution of warfare
made a successful fighting machine something elaborate, expensive, and
maintainable by professionals only. Like in the Roman Empire. It took
years to train a legionnaire and a lot of money to equip an army and
keep it in the field. So Rome became autarchic. However, it was not so
expensive a proposition that a rebellious general co