Lamar, owner of Locust Airframes Inc, watches his employees who are hunched around a policy manual that overviews the company systems for upgrading product reliability. He watches them through a one-way glass, and feels like a god. One of the employees is a balding old man who has remained in the defense industry since the 1950s. Lamar thinks this man has no where to go once his term at Lamar’s company is over. Nonetheless, he feels sympathy for the man and thinks he too is not better off than the old man as another member of the same industry. The only leverage he may have would be his shrewdness with maneuvering around the hierarchies of the business world.  Lamar recalls his own first entry into Locust and having to watch a video warning about how there may be spies in his plant. Since then, he has seen little suspicious activity from his coworkers. One time, however, he had reported a Hungarian co-worker once by accident for “making most of the engineers look like fellow travelers in comparison.” It turned out that the Hungarian was lying about his political affiliations.  After work, Lamar goes to a local bar, and sees his secretary, Terry. She hits on Lamar and they share drinks over revealing anecdotes as he learns that Terry is single. Suddenly, the barmaid brings out complimentary drinks and says that a mysterious man on the other side of the bar has offered them. Lamar takes a look at recognizes the sleazy smile of Randy Voss, a former high-level procurement manager for Locust that Lamar used to work for. Bitterly, Lamar leaves the bar and takes Terry with him. Terry invites Lamar inside her place. They share more drinks and kiss.  Lamar wakes up in a panic and his memories roll back to Randy Voss. He muses about a strange comment that Randy had told him years ago, about how the defense industry is not run by the small parts of men and machinery, but by the great consensus of a nonhuman intelligence of the “soil."