"There's rumor that Hyatt is making another bid for independence. I want to know how close he is to achieving it."

Susan nodded. Every few years the Survey Service director went through a short period of giving rousing speeches on the holo-vid, and pumping great sums of personal money into the small but always existent Luna City independence movement. It would last a few months, generating considerable excitement in the press concerning the possibility of an independent Luna, then die down until the next time.

Personally, Susan liked the idea of an independent Luna; she thouoht it inevitable. But she worked for Fleet, and officially Fleet did not like the idea.

"How long will I be on loan to the Service?" she asked.

"It's an open-ended assignment."

She was silent for a few seconds. Finally she asked, "And what's this test you told Hyatt I passed? I haven't been tested."

"You wouldn't have noticed. If you had, it would have altered the results. It was simply a number of small, insignificant obstacles placed in your way over the past few weeks, to see how you would react."

She tried to think what those obstacles might have been. "I can't recall anything."

"They were everyday-seeming occurrences. But I assure you, they were all carefully engineered."

"What were you testing for?"

"I don't know. I simply set up the circumstances according to Hyatt's instructions, then reported the results to him. All highly mechanical."

She sat numb, not speaking, wondering how anyone could perform a satisfactory test when he did not know what he was testing for. And, still more incredible, how Renford could possibly recommend her for an assignment he knew absolutely nothing about.

Chapter Three

Susan arrived back in her quarters shortly after ten hundred hours and called out as she entered. The Base Security investigation team might still be about, and she wasn't entirely sure she could trust them.