She looked up at him, surprised.  “Check back?  Why?”

“I put in a requisition myself, yesterday.  Wine from Cluster II, vintage ’86.  I was hoping for some company.”

She smiled.  “All right.”

Manning was ending the session. “...Carl, be sure to get those studies of the Outsiders artifacts together for me by tonight.  And I’m going to hand back your reports to each of the rest of you; go through them and watch for those inconsistencies you skipped over the first time.  We may be able to turn up something else that doesn’t check out.  Go over them carefully—­all the reports were sloppy jobs.  You’re all trying to work too fast.”

Rynason rose with the rest of them, grinning as he remembered how Manning had rushed those reports.  Well, that was one of the privileges of authority:  delegating fault.  He started for the door.

“Lee!  Hold it a minute; I want to talk to you, alone.”

Rynason sat, and when all the others had gone Manning came back and sat down opposite him.  He slowly took out a cigaret and lit it.

“My last pack till the next spacer makes touchdown,” he said.  “Sorry I can’t offer you one, but I’m a fiend for the things.  I know they’re supposed to be non-habit-forming these days, but I’m a man of many vices.”

Rynason shrugged, waiting for him to come to the point.

“I guess it makes me a bit more open-minded about what the members of my staff do,” Manning went on.  “You know—­why should I crack down on drinking or smoking, for instance, when I do it myself?”

“I’m glad you see it that way,” Rynason said drily.  “Why did you want me to stay?”

Manning exhaled a long plume of smoke slowly, watching it through narrowed eyes.  “Well, even though I’m pretty easy going about things, I do try to keep an eye on you.  When you come right down to it, I’m responsible for every man who’s with me out here.”  He stopped, and laughed shortly.  “Not that I’m as altruistic as that sounds, of course—­you know me, Lee.  But when you’re in a position of authority you have to face the responsibilities.  You understand me?”

“You have to protect your own reputation back at Cluster headquarters,” Rynason said.

“Well, yes.  Of course, you get into a pattern of thinking eventually ... sort of a fatherly feeling, I suppose, though I’ve never even been on the parentage rolls back on the in-worlds.  But I mean it—­it happens, I get that feeling.  And I’m getting a bit worried about you, Lee.”

Rynason could see what was coming now.  He sat further back into the chair and said, “Why?”

Manning frowned with concern.  “I’ve been noticing you with Mara lately.  You seem pretty interested in her.”

“Is she one of those vices you were telling me about, Manning?” said Rynason quietly.  “You want to warn me to stay away from her?”

Manning shook his head, a quick gesture dismissing the idea.  “No, Lee, not at all.  She’s not that kind of a woman.  And that’s my point.  I can see how you look at her, and you’re on the wrong track.  When you’re out here on the Edge, you don’t want a wife.”