He just won’t take no for an answer. Give me a call back when you hear, okay? Yes, I know. Bye now.” She smiled up at Connolly without pausing for breath. “You must be Mr. Connolly. I’m Dorothy McKibben. Welcome to Santa Fe,” she said, shaking hands. “You certainly have picked a crazy day. ’Course, they’re all crazy one way or another. I had to get all this together in a hurry, but I think it’s all here.” She handed him a manila envelope. “ID, ration card, driver’s license. No names, of course, we just go by numbers up on the Hill. Local stores are used to this, so you shouldn’t have any problem. Try not to get stopped for speeding, though-the police have a fit writing out a ticket to a number. You’ve been cleared for a white badge-that allows you into the Technical Area, so you’ll be able to go anywhere. I’ve included the army bus schedule into Santa Fe just in case, but you’ll have your own car.” She raised an eyebrow. “That’s pretty unusual around here, so you must be important, I guess.” She made a small laugh that said she was no stranger to importance. “Security office will give you your housing assignment up top. I’m sorry we couldn’t find anything at Fuller Lodge, but we’ve got wall-to-wall visitors for some reason, and it couldn’t be helped. If any of them leave, of course, we can reassign you right away. Let’s see, what else? All mail to P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe. No other address. You should know that mail is censored. We don’t like to do it, but it became a security issue. You get used to it.”

“Censored here?” Connolly asked.

She smiled. “Dear me, no. I’m not that much of a busybody. Army censors. Off-site. Wouldn’t be fair to have someone you know poking around in your mail, and of course I know everybody.”

“Of course.”

She blushed. “I don’t mean it that way, to brag or anything. It’s just what I do. That and try to find an empty seat when the general decides to fly out of Albuquerque on the spur of the moment and that means bumping somebody else, who’ll be madder than a hornet.”