* * * * * Harry stared at him. "You _are_ a Naturalist, aren't you?" "I'm a reporter, by profession." "Which network?" "No network. _Newzines._ There are still a few in print, you know." "I know. But I can't afford them." "There aren't many left who can, or who even feel the need of reading them. Nevertheless, mavericks like myself still cling to the ancient and honorable practices of the Fourth Estate. One of which is ferreting out the inside story, the news behind the news." "Then you're not working for the Naturalists." "Of course I am. I'm working for them and for everybody else who has an interest in learning the truth." Ritchie paused. "By the way, you keep using that term as if it were some kind of dirty word. Just what does it mean? What _is_ a Naturalist, in your book?" "Why, a radical thinker, of course. An opponent of government policies, of progress. One who believes we're running out of living space, using up the last of our natural resources." "What do you suppose motivates Naturalists, really?" "Well, they can't stand the pressures of daily living, or the prospects of a future when we'll be still more hemmed in." Ritchie nodded. "Any more than you could, a few months ago, when you tried to commit suicide. Wouldn't you say that _you_ were thinking like a Naturalist then?" Harry grimaced. "I suppose so." "Don't feel ashamed. You saw the situation clearly, just as the so-called Naturalists do. And just as the government does. Only the government can't dare admit it--hence the secrecy behind this project." "A hush-hush government plan to stimulate further breeding? I still don't see--" "Look at the world," Ritchie repeated. "Look at it realistically. What's the situation at present? Population close to six billion, and rising fast. There was a leveling-off period in the Sixties, and then it started to climb again. No wars, no disease to cut it down. The development of synthetic foods, the use of algae and fungi, rules out famine as a limiting factor. Increased harnessing of atomic power has done away with widespread poverty, so there's no economic deterrent to propagation. Neither church nor state dares set up a legal prohibition. So here we are, at the millennium. In place of international tension we've substituted internal tension. In place of thermonuclear explosion, we have a population explosion." "You make it look pretty grim." "I'm just talking about today. What happens ten years from now, when we hit a population-level of ten billion? What happens when we reach twenty billion, fifty billion, a hundred? Don't talk to me about more substitutes, more synthetics, new ways of conserving top-soil. There just isn't going to be _room_ for everyone!" "Then what's the answer?"