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when leaked from inside. There were, after all, things that Joe Public needed to be protected from. Behind the scenes he liased with the Finance Department for project funding.
    Seeing Leonardson’s face so unexpectedly caused Mannheim a sharp intake of breath. Normally Leonardson was not a man to be trifled with, but these two men had a special relationship. The face on the screen brought the whole story back to him, as it always did. Mannheim played it over in his mind, to dispel the cold fear evoked by Leonardson’s icy gaze, to remind himself who was in charge here.
    He remembered their meeting. They were both young men then, and Mannheim had just been recruited to the IZP management training program. He had graduated with a degree in xenobiological science and spent a couple of years in business. It had been arranged for him to join a CSETI project expedition. Mannheim recalled that at that time Leonardson was also new to the CSETI and was making waves within the organization. Some of the projects he was giving the green light to were radical and went against CSETI protocol. On this particular outing, Leonardson set out to prove his critics wrong, and went along to supervise the expedition.
    They had landed on a relatively unexplored planet, which, it had been confirmed, harbored life. Leonardson had a team of fifteen. The team was deployed and told to maintain radio contact. Mannheim watched Leonardson with admiration. There was no doubt that this was his arena and the man was in charge.
    Within minutes the squad leader had called his team to a halt. They had encountered a life form, which, although savage in appearance, had shown no aggressive intent. He told them to start the monitoring equipment. Almost immediately the creature had begun to jabber and chitter and then, they were told, it had turned and disappeared into the bushes.
    Leonardson had ordered the team to follow it, which they had duly done. The computer had registered a number of distinct, different noises and sixteen different tones. There was sufficient evidence just from vocalization that this animal exhibited a low to mid-range intelligence. Occasionally the creature would stop and allow the team to catch up with it, before it started off again. The squad leader had called back to the two men sitting in the all-terrain vehicle, voicing his concern at this behavior. It was, he said, characteristic pack hunting behavior, and he believed they were being led into an ambush. Despite it being a new, alien life form, Mannheim, with all his zoological and xenobiological training was inclined to agree. By contrast, Leonardson was not prepared to listen. He ordered that the squad continue to follow the animal and to consider possibly acquiring the specimen. After all, he had put his reputation on the line.
    The squad leader remained anxious, feeling that the safety of his team was being compromised, and this had infuriated Leonardson. He had almost accused the man of mutiny and reminded him of exactly who was in charge, threatening the man with his job. Mannheim had watched as Leonardson, hunched over the consoles, fumed silently.
    Another voice had come through on their headsets then. It was another member of the team and he was tracking movement from behind the squad. Then their headsets exploded with noise.
    All members of the team were shouting now, they were surrounded; creatures were coming at them from all directions, from the trees, through the scrub. They were hopelessly outnumbered. Above the chatter of gunfire they could hear the squad leader appealing for calm, calling his men around him so they could cover all sides, but the screams had already started. The last thing Mannheim heard before he ripped off his headset, appalled, was the squad leader cursing Leonardson.
    When the vehicle had arrived at the ambush site approximately an hour later, the cameras mounted on the outside of the vehicle conveyed a bleak picture to the two men anxiously seated