"No. How could I?"
"That's right." The Freeman hesitated. "We'll get to the hunt later. First you have to get the dimensional view—you, with depth. Behind the scenes. And I'm just the little Freeman who can push the right buttons. How about it?"
"I'm with you."
The Freeman grinned. "We ought to have names. What's yours?"
"TRH-247."
"Mine's a laughie. NIK-700. You can call me Nik," he said. "Everybody does. We don't run a very tight ship here," he added with humor. "That's an old saying. I heard it from a computer in one of those back-time courses in school."
Hendley was unfamiliar with the phrase, but he guessed its meaning. As he rose with his new friend he thought: The Organization is a tight ship. As tight as computer ingenuity can make it. Freedom is escape from that, too.
"You have casinos in the outside world, I suppose?" Nik asked.
"No," Hendley said. "The Organization outlawed them many years ago. Too many people would gamble away a life's work credit. Compulsives, they used to be called. The Organization acted to protect them from themselves."