"My home's back in Ohio," I told him. "I'm going in to L.A. to look up some people before I go home."
"Well, that's fine. I hope you have a good time, Sergeant. You deserve it. You boys did a great job out there. Why, I read in the newspapers that after the U.N, sends out a cou- ple more expeditions, we'll have cities out there, and regular passenger lines, and all that."
"Look," I said, "that stuff is for the birds. You might as well build cities down there in Mojave, and have them a lot closer. There's only one reason for going to Mars now, and that's uranium."
I could see he didn't quite believe me. "Oh, sure," he said, "I know that's important too, the uranium we're all using now for our power stationsbut that isn't all, is it?"
"It'll be all, for a long, long time," I said.
"But look, Sergeant, this newspaper article said…" I didn't say anything more. By the time he'd finished tell- ing about the newspaper article, we were coming down into L.A. He pumped my hand when we got out of the plane.
"Have yourself a time. Sergeant! You sure rate it. I hear a lot of chaps on Two didn't come back."
"Yeah," I said. "I heard that."
I was feeling shaky again by the time I got to down- town L.A. I went in a bar and had a double bourbon and it make me feel a little better.
I went out and found a cabby and asked him to drive me out to San Gabriel. He was a fat man with a broad red face.