Saxon said, "So what?" Everyone was watching him speculatively. They had been cooped together for nine days now, the four men and the woman. Yesterday the ship had landed. But none of them knew where. "So what?" Murdock echoed breaking the silence. "My Lord, man, play up to her. She's eating her heart out for you. Can't you see it's our only chance?" "No," said Saxon stiffly and blocked out their thoughts. "No, I don't. You know as well as I do, that the crew and the officers, even the staff, except Mercedes and Brand here sold out to General Atomic. Suppose I did persuade Ileth to let us out. Suppose she comes over to our side--which I tell you right now she won't--but suppose she did. What possible chance would the five of us have against sixty armed desperate men and women? Hell, Murdock, we couldn't even get the ship back to Earth by ourselves!" He hesitated. "Besides it strikes me as a contemptible stunt...." Murdock's cold blue eyes flashed. He sat up, swinging his feet to the deck. "Do you think we're playing a game?" Mercedes, the gray-haired woman, interrupted, "Don't nag him, Murdock. Everyone isn't a cold-blooded monster like you." The T.I.S. agent grunted his disgust, lay back down and rolled to his stomach. Mercedes was a pleasant-faced, middle-aged woman with bright black eyes like a parrot. "I don't see yet," she continued imperturbably, "how General Atomic could contact everyone before we sailed." She smoothed her skirts, sitting primly on the brig's only chair, and cast a sly look at Murdock. "Not with the vaunted T.I.S. on guard." "Humph!" came Murdock's muffled voice from the pillow. "What's so damned impossible about that? We couldn't watch the beggars all the time." He rolled back and sat up again. "No. What bothers me is why they didn't give themselves away. They were investigated. All of them were reputable Government men, their fathers Government men before 'em." "It's hard to refuse a million credits," Saxon pointed out. Murdock's pale blue eyes jerked to Saxon. "How do you know?" Before Saxon could reply, Mercedes said, "General Atomic offered us all a million credits. They did to me and Brand, I know. We reported it to the T.I.S." "Yeah," said Murdock with a frown. "Yeah, and we questioned them with the lie-detector. Not once, but every time they left the building. They were psychoanalyzed and searched. And every damned one of them was certified loyal to Government. They never gave a sign that they'd sold out to General Atomic, not a sign. Why, the bums acted as if they didn't know it themselves." "They didn't!" put in Saxon. Their eyes swung back to the burly nuclear physicist. He read scepticism, doubt, curiosity in their minds. "What do you mean??" Murdock exploded.