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should talk.”
    Corain blinked. That was not what he expected, a feeler from a Reseune scientist. He put his hands in his coat pockets and looked at the others. “Can Dr. Warrick miss that meeting-without it leaking?”
    “No difficulty,” Lu said; and added: “If Dr. Warrick wants to miss it.”
    Warrick drew a long breath, then set the briefcase on the floor and pulled a chair back at the conference table. “I’m willing,” he said, and sank into the chair.
    Corain sat down. Gorodin and Lu took the chairs at the end.
    Warrick’s face held no expression still. “I know these gentlemen,” he said with a slide of the eyes toward the military. “I know your reputation, Councillor Corain. I know you’re an honest man. What I’m going to tell you could cost me-considerably. I hope you’ll use this-only for what it contains, and I hope you won’t lay it to personal dislike. Dr. Emory and I have had our differences. You understand-working at Reseune, you have to make a lot of critical decisions. Our material is human. Sometimes the ethics of a situation are-without precedent. All we operate on is our best estimation, and sometimes those estimates don’t agree.
    “Dr. Emory and I have had-more than the average number of confrontations. I’ve written papers opposing her. We have a conflicting view of-certain aspects of her operations. So if she finds out I’ve been talking to you, she’ll believe I’ve tried to do her damage. But I hope to God you give her this program at Fargone. It doesn’t cost the government anything but that Special-”
    “It creates a dangerous precedent, to create a Special just to satisfy a research project. Just to keep a subject in your reach.”
    “I want myself and my son transferred out of Reseune.”
    Corain stopped breathing a moment. “You’re a Special, the same as she is.”
    “I’m not political. I don’t have her pull. She’ll claim I’m essential, under the very terms that make me a SpecialI’m bound to stay where the government needs me. And so far it arranges to need me at Reseune. Right now my son is working in her program for two reasons: first because it’s his field and she’s the best; second, because he’s my son and Ari wants a hold on me, and in the politics inside Reseune, there’s nothing I can do about that. I can try again to get myself out of there, and if I’m out from under her direction, I can request my son over to the other project on a personal hardship transfer. That’s one reason I’m anxious to see this Fargone facility built. It would be the best thing for the state. It would be the best thing for Reseune. God knows it would be the best thing for Reseune.”
    “Perhaps some things would come out. Is that what you’re saying?”
    “I’m not making any charges. I don’t want to go public with any of this. I’m saying that Ari has too damn much power, in-side Reseune and out. There’s no question of her scientific contributions. As a scientist I have no quarrel with her. I only know the politics inside the house and politics outside it is the only way I see to get free of a situation that’s become increasingly-explosive.”
    One had to be careful, very careful. Corain had not spent twenty years in government to take everything at face value. Or to frighten a cooperating witness. So he asked softly: “What do you want, Dr. Warrick?”
    “I’d like to see that project go through. Then I’m going to transfer. She’s going to try to prevent that. I’d like supportin my appeal.” Warrick cleared his throat. His fingers were looked, white-edged. “The pressure at Reseune is considerable. A move would be-everything I want. I’ll tell you, … I’m not in agreement with this colonization effort. I agree with Merger and Shlegey, there is harm dispersing humankind to that degree, that fast. We’ve just finished one social calamity; we’re not what left Earth, we’re not what left Glory Station, we’re not going to be what