ing them.
In great feats of exploration, creation--other human actions similar to
colonization--"

"There are _no_ other human actions similar to colonization," said
Ashby. "Surely you realize we're dealing with something unique here,
Bonnie!"

"I know--all I'm trying to say is there could be another valid motive. I
think Mark Jorden's got it. There's something different about this test,
and I think you ought to look in on it yourself."

"What's so different about him?"

"He doesn't act like the rest. He hasn't any apparent reason for being
here."

Ashby looked at the girl closely. She was one of his top staff members
and had been with him from the beginning. The incredible strain of
working day after day in the test pits was showing its effects, he
thought.

"I shouldn't have let you get started on this one," he said. "You're
fagged out. Maybe it would be better to erase what we've done and start
over, so that you can drop out."

She shook her head with a quickness that surprised him. "I want to
finish it, and see how Mark turns out. I'm so used to working with the
bitter, anti-social ones that it's a relief to have someone who is
halfway normal and gregarious. I want to be around when we find out why
he's here."

"Especially if he should go all the way to the end. But he won't--"

* * * * *

Ashby was genuinely concerned about Bonnie's condition when he looked in
on her the next morning. The strain on her face was real beyond any
matter of make-up or acting. He wondered just why she should be giving
in to it now. Bonnie was well trained, as were all the staff members who
worked in the test pits. The emotional conflicts mocked up there were
not allowed to penetrate very deeply into their personal experience, yet
it looked now as if Bonnie had somehow lost control of the armor to
protect against such invasion. She seemed to be living the circumstances
of the test program almost as intensely as Mark Jorden was doing.

Such a condition couldn't be permitted to continue, but he was baffled
by it. Her physical and emotional check prior to the test had not shown
her threshold to be this low. Evidently there was emotional dynamite
buried somewhere in the situation they had manufactured.

Through the observation lens of the test pit Ashby watched Jorden begin
a tour of the villages, making a quiet investigation of the situation,
which he had all but ignored until it was forced to