The hero of Arthur's early novel "Earthlight" is Bertram Sadler, accountant turned secret agent. Sadler is sent to the Lunar Observatory to try and find a spy who is giving information to the enemies of Earth. Sadler is no James Bond, how did he find himself on The Moon?

Everything copyright the estate of the late great Sir Arthur Charles Clarke.

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Bertram and Jeanette Sadler were snuggled up together on the sofa watching TV. They were watching a documentary about the Lunar Observatory. When it was over Jeanette said to her husband.

"That was fascinating, a good choice of program tonight."

"Yes, I wonder what it is like to live and work at that place. I suspect that the likes of us will never get to see a place like that. I imagine you have to be a dedicated and super smart person to work there."

"I think I want to go to bed now, it has been quite a day for us."

"That's right, today we found out that in seven and a half months time our son Jonathon Peter will be born. Are you still happy with the name?"

"Yes, Jonathon for your grandfather and Peter for my brother."

"Let's get to bed, I shall turn off the TV."

The next program after the documentary was the TV News. Just before the TV was turned off they heard the headlines "At The Hague today the Federation delegates walked out of talks about heavy metal allocations….."

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Next morning Sadler kissed his wife goodbye "Time to be an accountant, I should be home at the usual time tonight. I will see the two of you then."

Thirty minutes later Sadler arrived at work, an office building in Washington D.C. As he entered his building two strange men walked up to him.

"Bertram Sadler?"

"That's me, can I help you two gentlemen."

Sadler very briefly saw two cards labelled 'Central Intelligence' before they said "could you come with us please" before they bundled him into the back of a car!

The car zoomed off, the rear windows of the car were turned black as they drove away. 20 minutes later Sadler felt the car slow down and stop. The car doors opened and Sadler found himself in a cavernous underground room, a door opened and he found himself in an office.

"Ah good morning Mr. Sadler, please sit down. Welcome to Central Intelligence."

"Why have I been kidnapped and what am I doing here."

"Don't worry, you are about to be offered the opportunity to help all the humans here on Planet Earth."

"What happens if I turn down this opportunity?"

"I wouldn't recommend that Mr. Sadler. Tell me, how much do you know about astronomy?"

"You can't keep me here, I have a wife and we are going to have a son."

"Yes, I understand that he will be called Jonathon Peter. Your wife is being informed that you will be away for an unspecified amount of time on a special assignment. You will be permitted to write to each other whilst you are away from home. Now, how much do you know about astronomy Mr. Sadler….."

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Later that day Sadler was back into the car with the black rear windows and taken to the airport. He felt the plane take off, Sadler realised that he was now working for Central Intelligence whether he liked it or not.

Several hours later the plane came into land, he could feel the cold air temperature as the car with the black rear windows drove off the plane. Sadler had no idea where he was, it could have been Canada, Greenland or Siberia for all he knew.

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Five months later Sadler's time as an accountant seemed to belong to another lifetime. Only the weekly letters to and from his wife reminded him of what he used to do for a living. For the last five months Sadler had been trained to be a secret agent. Twelve hours a day and six days a week he also had extensive training in science and astronomy. In the last month his training had been almost exclusively on the operations and people of the Lunar Observatory. Then one day, after training had been completed he was taken to an office he had never been to before.

"Mr. Sadler, you are going to The Moon next week. On arrival take the monorail to the Lunar Observatory. We have reason to believe that there is security leak from the Observatory giving vital information to the Federation, we want you to find out who is leaking this information. Your cover story is that you are going to be doing an audit of how they spend their money at the Observatory, they will be expecting an accountant to turn up. Any questions?…..