their final phase.
That was the rumor all along, and it's just been confirmed.
Interesting to see what they do with all the contestants _after_ the
games are over, after there's no more Nowhere Journey."

"We could go back where we came from."

"Ten thousand years in the future?"

"I'm not afraid."

"Well, anyway, the Soviets put up a man, we can't match him. So it
looks like the U. S. S. R. represents Earth officially. Not that it
matters. We hardly have the chance of a very slushy snowball in a very
hot hell. But still--"

"Our contestant, this guy who meets the Russian's challenge, has to be
a newcomer?"

"That's what I said. Well, we can close up shop, I guess."

"You made a mistake. You said no newcomers have arrived. I'm here,
Jase. I'm your man. Bring on your Russian Bear." Temple smiled grimly.

CHAPTER VIII

"You got to hand it to Temple's kid brother."

"Yeah. Cool as ice cubes."

"Are you guys kidding? He doesn't know what's in store for him, that's
all."

"Do _you_?"

"Now that you mention it, no. Isn't a man here who can say for sure
what kind of environmental challenges he'll have to respond to.
Hypno-surgery sees to it the guys who went through the thing won't
talk about it. As if that isn't security enough, the subject's got to
be a brand new arrival!"

"Shh! Here he comes."

The brothers Temple entered Earth City's one tavern quietly, but on
their arrival all the speculative talk subsided. The long bar, built
to accommodate half a hundred pairs of elbows comfortably, gleamed
with a luster unfamiliar to Temple. It might have been marble, but
marble translucent rather than opaque, giving a beautiful
three-dimensional effect to the surface patterns.

"What will it be?" Jason demanded.

"Whatever you're drinking is fine."

Jason ordered two scotches, neat, and the brothers drank. When Jason
got a refill he started talking. "Does T.A.T. mean anything to you,
Kit?"

"Tat? Umm--no. Wait a minute! T.A.T. Isn't that some kind of
projective psychological test?"

"That's it. You're shown a couple of dozen pictures, more or less
ambiguous, never cut and dry. Each one comes from a different stratum
of the social environment, and you're told to create a dramatic
situation, a story, for each picture. From your stories, for which you
draw on your whole background as a human being, the psychometrician
should be able to build a picture of your personality and maybe find
out what, if any