"You'll find it rather cramped at first," he said. "I'll sleep out here and you can use the storeroom as a bedroom. That's all the living quarters we have, excepting the kitchen, but I'm sure we'll manage."
Ward set his grip down and glanced about at the chart-covered walls, the plain, badly scuffed furniture and he was not particularly enthused at the prospect of being cooped up in this hot little oven of a room with Halliday.
"What about the other buildings?" he asked. "Surely there'd be room there for me to bunk."
"We use those building for equipment," Halliday said. "And besides, this building is safer."
Ward glanced at the little man with a faint, ironic smile.
"Is there something here to be afraid of?" His tone was blandly polite, but he could not completely conceal an undercurrent of contempt.
"I don't mean to alarm you, Lieutenant," Halliday said, "but this area of Mars is not quite the safest place in the universe." He removed his thick glasses with a nervous little gesture and smiled uncertainly at Ward. "I really think it wiser for you to sleep here."
"Unless that's an order," Ward said, "I'd rather sleep in comfort in one of the other buildings and take my chances on your bogy-men catching me."
Halliday replaced his glasses. He was no longer smiling.
"I'm afraid, Lieutenant, you must consider it as an order."
He turned slowly and re-checked the huge gleaming lock on the door, then walked to a littered, dutsy desk in one corner of the room and sat down. It was obvious that the discussion was ended.
Ward shrugged and carried his grip into a small windowless storeroom that was directly off the main room of the small structure. There were bales of supplies, a cot and a stool. A vague musty odor permeated the air. He tossed his grip onto the cot, stripped off his tunic and walked back into the room where Halliday was seated at his desk.
Halliday looked up with a smile and removed his glasses with a characteristic nervous movement of his thin hands.
"Not exactly the choicest accommodations, eh?" he said, in an attempt at heartiness, which struck Ward as being almost pathetic.
"I'll get by," Ward said. He loosened the collar of his shirt and glanced at the massive steel door, closed and tightly locked. "Any objection to letting in a little air?" he asked. "It's pretty close in here."
Halliday smiled and his eyes flicked to the closed door. He put his glasses on again and spent quite a time adjusting them to his thin nose.
"I'm afraid we'll have to put up with the closeness," he said.
Ward sighed and sat down in a chair facing Halliday.
"You're afraid of something," he said bluntly. "Supposing you tell me about it."
"As a matter of fact, I was meaning to," Halliday said. "You see, on this section we're pretty well isolated from the rest of the Earth stations on Mars. We receive all supplies and mail by a direct materialization unit. No space craft puts in here. We're here all alone and if anything happened to us all the data and work that has been compiled might be lost."
As Halliday removed his glasses again with a quick aimless gesture, Ward thought, "A lot you care about the records and data. It's your skin
