"I'm having the same, as a matter of fact," said Berg mildly. He twirled the dial and slipped a couple of five-dollar coins into the dispenser slot. When the tray was ejected, he sipped his drink appreciatively and looked across the rim of the glass at the other man. "You're a high-ranking physicist on the Arizona Project, aren't you, Dr. Lancaster?" he asked. That much was safe to admit. Lancaster nodded. "What is your work, precisely?" "You know I can't tell you anything like that." "It's all right. Here are my credentials." Berg extended a wallet. Lancaster scanned the cards and handed them back. "Okay, so you're in Security," he said. "I still can't tell you anything, not without proper clearance." Berg chuckled amiably. "Good. I'm glad to see you're discreet. Too many labmen don't understand the necessity of secrecy, even between different branches of the same organization." With a sudden whip-like sharpness: "You didn't tell anyone about this meeting, did you?" "No, of course not." Despite himself, Lancaster was rattled. "That is, a friend asked if I'd care to go out with her tonight, but I said I was meeting someone else." "That's right." Berg relaxed, smiling. "All right, we may as well get down to business. You're getting quite an honor, Dr. Lancaster. You've been tapped for one of the most important jobs in the Solar System." "Eh?" Lancaster's eyes widened behind the contact lenses. "But no one else has informed me--" "No one of your acquaintance knows of this. Nor shall they. But tell me, you've done work on dielectrics, haven't you?" "Yes. It's been a sort of specialty of mine, in fact. I wrote my thesis on the theory of dielectric polarization and since then--no, that's classified." "M-hm." Berg took another sip of his drink. "And right now you're just a cog in a computer-development Project. You see, I do know a few things about you. However, we've decided--higher up, you know, in fact on the very top level--to take you off it for the time being and put you on this other job, one concerning your specialty. Furthermore, you won't be part of a great organizational machine, but very much on your own. The fewer who know of this, the better." Lancaster wasn't sure he liked that. Once the job was done--if he were possessed of all information on it--he might be incarcerated or even shot as a Security risk. Things like that had happened. But there wasn't much he could do about it. "Have no fears." Berg seemed to read his thoughts. "Your reward may be a little delayed for Security reasons, but it will come in due time." He leaned forward, earnestly. "I repeat, this project is _top secret_. It's a vital link in something much bigger than you can imagine, and few men below the President even know of it. Therefore, the very fact that you've worked on it--that you've done any outside work at all--must remain unknown, even to the chiefs of your Project."