Arthur rose unsteadily. "I'd like you people to meet my best friend, George Keating."
"But—"
"We decided some time ago that Earth is no place for an underground movement," Arthur said. "There's too much secrecy, too much danger involved in the slightest movement away from the established pattern. People are too involved with the Super State idea and the dangers to their own particular skins." Like my wife, Helen, he thought to himself.
"There's one place, though," George Keating supplied, "where the inhabitants are in perfect accord with overthrowing the government as it now exists."
"Where?" Samson asked skeptically.
"Where else," Arthur told him, smiling, "but the Moon, on the prison colony where people were sent because they didn't like the way things were turning out politically and otherwise on Earth. It was a comparatively simple matter to replace the guards with our own group."
"Then," Julie exclaimed, "then you were in on this all the time. It was part of a plan."
Arthur nodded. "All except Helen's turning me in, which was unexpected but just as well I suppose. We're almost ready for the ultimatum, and we wanted this group to aid us, which is why I betrayed you. We could have whisked you away secretly, but there was greater danger in that and the disappearance of an individual, much less a group, couldn't go unnoticed in that society. Besides, this way they'll be more complacent."
"As I told that guard," Keating added, "we've still got a lot of work to do, chiefly on the other side of the Moon where Earth can't see—put the finishing touches on spaceships we've been building, assemble the weapons and the guided missiles. A lot of work. We may not have to use them—I hope we don't—but they'll be ready, just in case."
Samson wet his lips. "It's a big project," he said testily.