Makvern continued to walk briskly, looking neither to the right nor to the left. "How would you propose that Earth could give Varsek a setback?" he asked. "Get some of us back to Earth before the fleet, to give warning." "That kind of talk," said Makvern evenly, "could get you and possibly a number of other people killed. I suggest that you stop it." His tone was hard, perfectly cold and inflexible. Wyatt's heart sank. He had guessed wrong and Makvern was not one of the underground. And yet he had been so sure, the way Makvern had looked when Loran was suffering in the pit-- An orderly passed them into a huge room that was obviously used as an outer office, full of communic equipment, recorders, electronic files, and busy men. A second orderly opened the inner door for them, and Wyatt found himself looking at Varsek as he had first seen him on the communic screen, sitting behind the big crowded desk with his shirt open and his sleeves rolled up, the picture of demon energy. * * * * * He nodded and Makvern stepped back a little, leaving Wyatt alone, as it were, before Varsek. Varsek picked up a report and shook it at him. "This is from Intelligence," he said. "It's not satisfactory. You're not cooperating, Wyatt." "Would you expect me to?" said Wyatt. "I expect you not to be a fool," said Varsek. "Look, I'm going to loot your planet. You know that, don't you? All right. Now if I know where things are I won't have to smash a lot of other things trying to find them, will I? And if there's no attempt at resistance, then nobody will get hurt, will they?" He threw the report. "You're not helping Earth, you're making it harder." "I told everybody in the beginning," said Wyatt sullenly, "that I don't know anything more than they can find out themselves from reading a popular magazine." "You're a native. You know more about it than we could ever find out in the time we have, and you have a scientific background. You must know approximately where the largest uranium deposits are, for instance, and the main sources of radioactive isotopes. Yet you refuse to verify our information, or correct it if it's wrong." "That's right," said Wyatt. "I do refuse." "Brave and stubborn," Varsek said. "Well. I know how stubborn you are. I could find out very quickly about the bravery." "In the pit?" Varsek nodded. "What would you say, Makvern?" "It's up to you, sir," Makvern said, shrugging. "No opinion at all?" "None." "That's not like you, Makvern." "It's impossible to have any opinion of value concerning the advisability of--ah--questioning a man I don't know at all. I have no idea of his limits. If they're easily reached, fine. If not, he's likely to die before you know it."