"This is important!"

"Of course it is," Yamagata agreed readily. "That is why the staff has routed your call to me, rather than some underling."

Rashid blinked with surprise. "You mean that you are in charge?"

His face going serious, the young man replied, "My father left instructions that you are to be received by his personal representative and no one else. That personal representative is me."

Sinking back in his cushioned leather chair, Rashid recognized the oriental manner of stonewalling: polite, gracious, accommodating, but stonewalling just the same.

"How may I help you?" Saito Yamagata asked solicitously.

Bowing to the inevitable, Rashid said, through gritted teeth, "I have received information that among the Peacekeeper troops marching on Moonbase there is a special contingent of Yamagata suicide bombers who intend to blow up Moonbase."

Yamagata's brows rose a couple of millimeters.

"Destroying Moonbase is idiotic!" Rashid snapped, unable to contain his temper any longer. "Our entire operation, my whole understanding with your father, depends on Moonbase providing helium-three for your fusion generators. How can they provide anything if the base is blown to bits?" He fairly shouted the question.

Saito Yamagata's expression had gone from polite interest to mild surprise to the absolute blank face of a man who has much to hide.

"Is your information trustworthy?" he asked softly.

"I have my sources both in United Nations headquarters and the Peacekeepers' chain of command."

"I see."

"This is a betrayal of our understanding," Rashid said harshly. "It also destroys the very thing that your father wants so badly—Moonbase."

The young man nodded. "The suicide bombers are not Yamagata employees. They are volunteers from the Bright New Sun, an organization of fanatics that is allied with your own New Morality movement."

"Then how are they allowed to be with the Peacekeepers? Who permitted them to come to Nippon One?"

"My father accepted their…' Yamagata searched for the right word, "… their help, most reluctantly. You must understand that even in Japan, religious zealotry is a very powerful force."

"But you're going to allow them to destroy Moonbase!"

Yamagata smiled thinly. "Not at all. My father is not stupid. He bowed to the pressures of the Bright New Sun and allowed them to add a squad of kamikazes to the Peacekeeper force. But they will not be permitted to damage Moonbase. The Peacekepers will take the base and there will be no need for suicide bombers."

Rashid closed his eyes for a few moments, trying hard to think it all through.

"Suppose," he said at last,'that the Peacekeepers fail to take Moonbase."

"Impossible," said Yamagata.

"They drove off the first attack, didn't they?"

Yamagata smiled again. "This time there are three hundred troops, armed with missiles and heavy weapons. A nuclear bomb will knock out Moonbase's electrical supply. This time they will not fail."

"But those people at Moonbase are very clever," Rashid insisted. "Suppose they stop the Peacekeepers?"