I'm going to use her, and you, to get what I want.
He looked at her, at the lines of sadness on the face that was too old for its years, felt the way she was so grateful to Rockford for what was only a cold-blooded pretense of friendship, and the dislike for Rockford increased. He could not force himself to speak civilly of Rockford so he changed the subject:
"I understand you wanted to talk to me about the Space Guard?"
"Yes. Even a neutral world can't feel safe these days and George suggested that."
"I'll be glad to help all I can. Of course, the change will require time."
"I can understand that. They say you Space Patrol officers begin training at sixteen, after passing almost impossible qualification tests."
"The tests can seem extremely difficult to a farm boy from Kansas. I—"
"Kansas?" Her eyes lighted with interest. "My grandmother was from Kansas! She used to tell me about the green plains of grain in the spring, and how different they were from the deserts of Vesta...."
It was almost noon when he took her hand and helped her to her feet, realizing guiltily that they had talked all morning without ever getting back to the cold, dry facts of military efficiency.
"It was nice to talk up here this morning," she said. She looked down at the cabins and the shadow fell again across her face. "But nothing down there has been changed by it, has it?"