 What didn't Pendleton and Templin have in common?
Templin tightened his safety belt and lay back on the acceleration bunk. Or more complex ones, if you went into it deeper. It was Eckert who had come into his office several days ago and told him that Don Pendleton had killed himself. He was the kind who have everything to live for, the kind you instinctively know will amount to something someday. Your memory plays traitor and boils friendship down to the status of a breakfast food testimonial. And never, never be so crude as to speculate why Pendleton should have done it? How long would it be before memories faded and all there was left of Pendleton was a page of statistics? Hell, no! In the statistics Pendleton was the All-Around Boy, the cold marble statue with the finely chiseled muscles and the smooth, blank sockets where the eyes should be. Pendleton had been in his second year as attache on Tunpesh, a small planet with a G-type sun. The Service had stumbled across it recently and decided the system was worth diplomatic recognition of some kind, so Pendleton had been sent there. Tunpesh had been inspected and certified and approved. And then an unscheduled freighter had put in for repairs, one of the very few ships that ever came by Tunpesh. Tunpesh had been Pendleton's second assignment. So friendly that he had made sure that a certain box was on board, filled with shiny atomic rifles, needle pistols, and the fat little gas guns. People like Pendleton didn't kill themselves, did they? Eckert and he had been chosen to go to Tunpesh and investigate. The two of them, working together, should be able to find out why Pendleton had killed himself. The real reason they were going there was to find out why Pendleton had been killed and who had killed him. The thin red line was practically microscopic now and Templin could feel his lashes lying gently on his cheeks. They knew that it had no trading concessions or armed forces and that nobody from neighboring systems seemed to know much about it or even visited it. But a staff anthropologist must have been routinely assigned to Tunpesh to furnish data and reports. Warm breezes rustled through Eckert's graying hair and tugged gently at his tunic. The rocketport, where they were standing surrounded by their luggage, was a grassy valley where the all too infrequent ships could land and discharge cargo or make repairs. He looked at the slim, dwindling shape that was the rocket, and was suddenly, acutely aware that he and Templin would be stranded for six months on a foreign and very possibly dangerous planet.
 Tunpesh was both of their first attache assignments
 they had similar jobs  they went to school together  they had similar personalities  Tunpesh was both of their first attache assignments