Alshuler cocked his head slightly. “How do you know I’d keep the pledge?”

“Among the other tests you took was one for veracity. We must trust you to keep your word, and shall.”

“Make it three times the amount of my government Guaranteed Annual Income and I’ll accept for the first semester. From then on I’ll either renew or drop out, each semester that comes up.”

“Very well. However, you won’t be doing your studying by semesters.”

“Why not?”

“I can’t tell you at this stage, but you’ll probably find out on your own in very short order.” There was a tone in Leonard Katz’ voice that indicated that the interview was over.

Bert Alshuler stood. “Kay. When do I start? Where do I go to sign up, or whatever?”

The professor stood too and extended a hand to be shaken. “You just signed up,” he smiled. “You’ll be contacted.”

When Bert Alshuler had gone, another entered the office from an adjoining room. He was attired in the uniform of a lieutenant general of Security and was scowling.

Katz looked up at him, “What do you think, my dear General Paul?”

The other shook his head. “He doesn’t sound very cooperative.”

“We don’t want a wishy-washy. We want a man with push, his own ideas, with strength.”

“But we also need somebody we can control. I’d say take this slowly, until we’re sure about him.”

“Very well. Possibly you are correct.”

Bert Alshuler took an express elevator from the fiftieth floor of the high-rise building that housed the administration offices, including that of Professor Leonard Katz, to the ground floor and strode through the masses of milling students and instructors out onto the campus.

He muttered skeptically, “Beyond my dreams of avarice.”

He would have taken on the offer at the original price, that is, double the Guaranteed Annual Income that was the right of every citizen of the United States of the Americas.