Karrin looked about him, his fury artfully concealed beneath a rigid, we-must-be-patient smirk. The other workers in the ground, some of them poised in mid-step after having started to the rescue, were looking embarrassed and quickly turned to resume their games. The sounds of bowling and fencing and tennis and swimming drove away the silence, and the odd patois of multi-specied mechanics and technicians swelled up like jungle chatter. Karrin put his hand on Rhiannon's sleeve and walked the big man into the vast quiet of Bed 52. Atoms came after them, wagging almost everything but his head which arrowed straight and true after the giant figure. When he was paid no attention, however, he sulked over to his box and lay down and was immediately asleep. "Sergeant" Atoms would have been a poor choice to stand guard duty--he had been known to sleep the clock around, silent and unmoving. Great boats had been lifted from the cradles above him and others put into their place, and Atoms had dreamed on and on. And on. Rhiannon started to apologize again. "That's perfectly all right, soldier," Karrin said smoothly. "Commendable attitude!" He led the way past the cradles toward the rear of the Bed. "You want to help win the war, don't you?" "Yes, yes," Rhiannon groaned. Karrin beamed his approval. "Well, now, you may be able to do just that, my boy! How would you like to be--" "I was exploring Polaris, sir." Rhiannon's tones were suddenly vacant. "The people there got three hea--" and the latter part of the word remained unspoken, forgotten. Karrin's smile wavered. They had halted by a freight entrance opening onto the green-carpeted rear grounds. He drew the big man closer to him and snapped his words like a whip. "Now _listen_, Rhiannon! How would you like to hit space again--to get your silver Sun back--to be reinstated as a commander!" That tore through Rhiannon's fog and he reacted. He straightened his seventy nine inches into the position of attention. "I'd like nothing better, sir," he said. Karrin made a great show of inspecting their immediate surroundings for eavesdroppers. He said: "This is a very important, a top secret mission. We--the Council--believe that you are the only man who can fly it. We selected you from among thousands, Rhiannon!" Rhiannon stood ever more stiffly, his face incandescent. "Yes _sir_. I didn't know you were a Council Member, sir." "Very few people do," Karrin replied dryly. "Now, soldier, a special boat is being tuned up at my private field. Do you know where that is?" "Outside in back, sir. I've worked on your boats." Karrin nodded. "Then go there immediately and wait. Talk to no one. I have to confer with President Naro before--" "President _Naro_, sir!" Karrin saluted theatrically and Rhiannon responded with eyes afire. The big man executed a neat about-face and marched one two through the door. And looking after the broad back, Karrin speculated where to place the death shot when the time came.