“Sure as hell is,” Kutler said wryly. “And maybe you’re right that what Johnny--or rather, Johnny’s unconscious--thinks happened _did_ happen. Only I don’t think so. I find it easier to think there was something in the _physical_ environment which was just so completely different and new and unprepared for that maybe neither one of them could even perceive it fully; and to the half-assed extent that they were aware of it at all, they interpreted it by association of some kind and--I just wish to hell Laughlin hadn’t torn those pages out! If we knew what _he_ thought was the matter, it might--Well, hell, forget it. I just thought you might like to know what’s pushin’ _me_.” “Yeah. Thanks.” There ought to be something better to say, he thought. “Tell you what: _you_ get the money for the next trip, and I’ll see to it you get to go in person.” Kutler shrugged and smiled. “It’s a deal. Meanwhile, suppose I start on my elementary-school work up here? Your people have problems people on Earth don’t have. Maybe they have nothing to do with Johnny’s troubles. Or maybe they do. But the principle is the same. When you already know five languages, the next three are easier to learn. If I find out what one-sixth gravity and Dome atmosphere do to people, maybe I’m that much closer to what one-third and a Mars atmosphere can do?” “I take it,” Chris said slowly, “that what you mean is you want the job, and you’ll do what you’re hired for, but with the understanding that you expect to be free to do more than that, too?” “Man, you dig me the most!” “Okay. Let me lay it on the line now, and make sure we _both_ know what goes on. When I first thought of you for the job, it was mainly because I knew you were bugged about Johnny. Well so am I. But a different way. Frankly, if we never find out what happened to Doug or to Johnny, it don’t make no never mind for me--just _so_ we can get the next guys back alive--and get ’em _there_, to start with.” He stood up and walked around the desk; turned and went back and stood at his own seat looking at the doctor across the desk top. “Listen, Phil, you talk about me being ‘a case.’ Well, I am one, all right, and I guess you know it as well as I do. Johnny was my friend. So was Doug. But I’d send ’em again, even if I knew it would happen the same way again--unless I knew some _better_ men to send. And I figure I owe Johnny a whole lot now--but that comes second with me. If it came first, I’d leave him alone, I guess.” “I think you might do a lot more for Johnny by _not_ leaving him alone,” Kutler broke in. “Good. Only it’s still secondary. I’ve been busting a gut to get him back on the job with us, but you know as well as I do _why_ I want him. It all comes down to Congress, the Care and Feeding Of.”