"Well, I guess it means to do your duty, live up to your oath, that sort of thing."
"Why should you?"
Matt kept quiet and looked stubborn.
"Why should you, when it may get you some messy way of dying? Never mind. Our prime purpose here is to see to it that you learn how your own mind works. If the result is a man who fits into the purposes of the Patrol because his own mind, when he knows how to use it, works that way-then fine! He is commissioned. If not, then we have to let him go."
Matt remained silent until Wong finally said, "What's eating on you, kid? Spill it."
"Well-look here, sir. I'm perfectly willing to work hard to get my commission. But you make it sound like some-\ thing beyond my control. First I have to study a lot of things I've never heard "of. Then, when it's all over, somebody decides my mind doesn't work right. It seems to me that what this job calls for is a superman."
"Like me." Wong chuckled and flexed his arms. "Maybe so, Matt, but there aren't any supermen, so well have to do the best we can with young squirts like you. Come, now, let's make up the list of spools you'll need."
It was a long list. Matt was surprised and pleased to find that some story spools had been included. He pointed to an item that puzzled him-An Introduction to Lunar Archeology. "I don't see why I should study that-the Patrol doesn't deal with Selenites; they've been dead for millions of years."
"Keeps your mind loosened up. I might just as well have stuck in modern French music. A Patrol officer shouldn't limit his horizons to just the things he is sure to need. Fm marking the items I want you to study first, then you beat it around to the library and draw out those spools, then over to Psycho for your first hypno. In about a week, when you've absorbed this first group, come back and see me."
"You mean you expect me to study all the spools I'm taking out today in one week?" Matt looked at the list in amazement.