Haldane was a resort town in the hills east of Mendel on the planet Mesa. It was a relatively small community of individual houses and cottages, many created as a deliberate escape from the huge residential towers of the inner cities. The permanent population was just about 2,5000, but there were again that many people from Mesas upper classes visiting on any given day. A large part of the town's popularity came from the anonymity it offered even to the more prominent members of society; its hotels wiped their electronic ledgers every morning.