"Why should she!?" Lennick said angrily. "Have to convince them, I mean! Didn't they, of all people, know?"
Frank stood there with his mouth open, blinking. Then he sat down and stared at the producer, dazed. "I must be getting soft-headed," he murmured after a short hiatus. "Of course they must know.... Still—?" He looked helplessly to Lennick for assistance.
"I know; it doesn't make sense," Lennick nodded. "The only thing to be done is to find Andra, I guess, and ask her the answers. Conjecture is only taking us in circles."
Frank spoke tautly, his pent-up frustration making his words strained and painful. "Excepting that, as long as Andra's in Grace Horton's sector, we can't go after her. That's not one of the permitted areas on my Voteplate. I'd hate to be caught loitering in that area when the Goons show up for Andra. When they make an arrest, they check on everybody. If only this had occurred later, today, near Ultrablack—"
"Why do you keep stressing Ultrablack?" Lennick asked. "I still haven't even figured out why I was to meet you here tonight just before it was turned on. We'd really be helpless then."
"Bob," Frank said gently, "this is nothing personal, but—Well, when the movement gets a new member, we don't just lay out all our schemes on a red carpet for him. There's a trial period for all new members. You've been on probation for a couple of months, now. The less you know of our plans, our memberships, the less you could spill if you were a plant."
Lennick grinned wryly and shook his head. "I know. That was a real bone of contention between Andra and myself when we'd been engaged nearly six weeks. A wife can't keep secret meetings from her husband very well; he may suspect her outings are something even worse. When I finally pressed her about broken dates, and times she couldn't be reached, and she told me about the movement, I was pretty miffed she didn't trust me with all she knew."
"She couldn't, Bob, you know that. The information wasn't hers to give out, without permission of the rest of us. We could not put our necks in a noose because Andra adores your big brown eyes."
"I'm surprised you're still speaking to me, after yesterday," Lennick said with chagrin.
"Bob, you did what any of us could have done: Nothing. One man can't fight off a Goon Squad. We would have lost two members, instead of just Andra, if you'd put up a fuss."