Which meant that Hagen's position might be of great interest in the future. This implied that Forrest, Wrightwood, and Interstellar had some plan in mind. Theirs was more than getting Steve Hagen back into the fold; that might have been accomplished by several means. Certainly Wrightwood and Interstellar had enough of power and money to place a very deep curse on any man who befriended Steve. He would be forced back from sheer want, from sheer inability to fight an organization so strong that it would not permit any other outfit to hire him. Nor was it a matter of waiting until Hagen came to his senses. It implied some sort of deep-laid scheme, and some of it smacked of Hagen's call to Base One instead of being sent to the Galactic Equivalent of Brooklyn until he knew his way around. He smelled the fingers of politics once again, and decided to step upon them. * * * * * Steve turned from his walk down the hall and went to Captain Charlemagne's office. The squadron leader looked up when Hagen was announced, and smiled genially. "How did you make out?" Hagen shrugged. "I told my tale in a dry voice, and I don't know whether it went over or not; they didn't ask me any questions." "They never do. They just compare the notes they make from one man to the other and weed out discrepancies. That's why all of us being questioned are called in one at a time. I doubt that you made any errors, Steve." "Thanks, Captain Charlemagne." Hagen wanted to call his leader 'Cap'n' like the rest, but felt that it was not his place to be too bold at this moment. "But I came here to ask a question." "Go right ahead." "Why was I called to Base One?" "You've been wondering?" "Of course. I came off with a high grade in training school, but not that high. So far as I know, I'm the first rook to be called directly from training to Base One in many's the year." "That's true," nodded Charlemagne. "You weren't to be told yet, but since you ask, there's really no harm in your knowing; you're going to be assigned to a sort of special routine once we get you some experience in space." "Special routine?"