"One kind of preservation makes you kill, another makes you get killed," I said. "It doesn't make sense."
"No," said Axel. "But Gail is right. That is the way it works out. Would you call Willy Zinder a martyr?"
"No," I told him. "Willy took a chance and got killed. I suppose he was a hero, though."
"Willy Zinder was murdered," Axel said bluntly.
"He was what?"
"Murdered, I said. Spartan didn't intend for Willie to be killed. He only wanted Willy washed out, but he planned the accident."
Gail gasped.
"He wanted Gail to go to Mars," Axel added.
"But I thought it was my idea," said Gail. Then she paused. "But he did fall in with the idea rather suddenly when I suggested it. Maybe he did plan it all along. But how—what makes you think it was murder?"
"Spartan was the last man to inspect the controls on Willy's capsule. They had been inspected by others before him and called okay. But it would have been easy for Spartan to gimmick the re-entry controls so that Willy would return to the atmosphere ninety minutes too soon. Such an event would make it appear that Willie had become confused, or had panicked. You remember he put Gail Loring on the control board just before the accident? He wanted her to believe she'd been responsible. And for a time, she felt she had been."