d collect his
insurance?"

"I got to get on that ship when it blasts off because they can't push
the masses around! We got a right to be represented even if we got to
sneak in!"

"Me--I'll stay on the ground."

"And besides there's the glory! You guys are too stupid to see that but
it's there. The glory of being on the first rocket ship to the Moon. The
name of Joe Spain written down in the history books and said over by
people and school kids for thousands of years! Immortality! That's the
word!"

"Well, just forget about it, Joe, 'cause you ain't going."

Joe Spain's eyes burned brighter. "Joe Spain, coming down the ramp with
the big shots when it's all over. News cameras snapping! People asking
for interviews!"

"But you ain't going 'cause--"

Joe shouted the man down. "And another thing. Us little people are
entitled to a representative aboard that ship. We got a right to know
what's going on. How come there's nothing about it in the papers? Only
the big shots knowing about it and whispering among themselves? It's
because they're trying to snag it all and freeze us out!"

"You're crazy. It's for security reasons. It's all hush-hush so it won't
leak out like the atom bomb did. The big boys are being smart this
time."

"And you ain't getting on," the interrupted man repeated doggedly,
"because there ain't a way in God's world to _get_ on. With triple
security all around the building, just tell me a way to get in. Just
tell me one."

"I'm going to get on that ship," Joe Spain said. Then he clammed up
suddenly. Joe Spain wasn't stupid. He was a talker, but he knew when to
stop sounding off.

The men went back to work shifting the big aluminum barrels from trucks
into Building B. Carrying the wooden crates and the paper-wrapped
parcels up the ramps and to the side of the building facing the big
secret structure labeled A. They worked until five o'clock. Then they
filed out and got into the waiting trucks and were hauled back to town;
the boom town that had mushroomed up in the desert overnight and would
die with the same swiftness when the project was completed.

* * * * *

Joe went straight to his rooming house, washed up, put on his good
clothes, and found a stool in a nearby restaurant. He ate a leisurely
supper, glancing now and again at the clock. When the clock read eight,
he went out into the neon-stained darkness and walked three blocks to
the Black Cat, one of th