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diff --git a/31612-h/31612-h.htm b/31612-h/31612-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b10f04 --- /dev/null +++ b/31612-h/31612-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1263 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Very Secret Agent, by Mari Wolf + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Very Secret Agent, by Mari Wolf + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Very Secret Agent + +Author: Mari Wolf + +Illustrator: Ed Emsh + +Release Date: March 12, 2010 [EBook #31612] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VERY SECRET AGENT *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction November 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="400" height="538" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h1>THE VERY SECRET AGENT</h1> +<p> </p> +<h2>BY MARI WOLF</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>Illustrated by Ed Emsh</h3> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><i>Poor Riuku!... Not being a member of the human race, how +was he supposed to understand what goes on in a woman's mind +when the male of the same species didn't even know?</i></p></div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="21" height="40" /></div> +<p>n their ship just beyond the orbit of Mars the two aliens sat looking +at each other.</p> + +<p>"No," Riuku said. "I haven't had any luck. And I can tell you right +now that I'm not going to have any, and no one else is going to have +any either. The Earthmen are too well shielded."</p> + +<p>"You contacted the factory?" Nagor asked.</p> + +<p>"Easily. It's the right one. The parking lot attendant knows there's a +new weapon being produced in there. The waitress at the Jumbo Burger +Grill across the street knows it. Everybody I reached knows it. But +not one knows anything about what it is."</p> + +<p>Nagor looked out through the ports of the spaceship, which didn't in +the least resemble an Earth spaceship, any more than what Nagor +considered sight resembled the corresponding Earth sense perception. +He frowned.</p> + +<p>"What about the research scientists? We know who some of them are. The +supervisors? The technicians?"</p> + +<p>"No," Riuku said flatly. "They're shielded. Perfectly I can't make +contact with a single mind down there that has the faintest inkling of +what's going on. We never should have let them develop the shield."</p> + +<p>"Have you tried contacting everyone? What about the workers?"</p> + +<p>"Shielded. All ten thousand of them. Of course I haven't checked all +of them yet, but—"</p> + +<p>"Do it," Nagor said grimly. "We've got to find out what that weapon +is. Or else get out of this solar system."</p> + +<p>Riuku sighed. "I'll try," he said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>omeone put another dollar in the juke box, and the theremins started +in on Mare Indrium Mary for the tenth time since Pete Ganley had come +into the bar. "Aw shut up," he said, wishing there was some way to +turn them off. Twelve-ten. Alice got off work at Houston's at twelve. +She ought to be here by now. She would be, if it weren't Thursday. +Shield boosting night for her.</p> + +<p>Why, he asked himself irritably, couldn't those scientists figure out +some way to keep the shields up longer than a week? Or else why didn't +they have boosting night the same for all departments? He had to stay +late every Friday and Alice every Thursday, and all the time there was +Susan at home ready to jump him if he wasn't in at a reasonable +time....</p> + +<p>"Surprised, Pete?" Alice Hendricks said at his elbow.</p> + +<p>He swung about, grinned at her. "Am I? You said it. And here I was +about to go. I never thought you'd make it before one." His grin faded +a little. "How'd you do it? Sweet-talk one of the guards into letting +you in at the head of the line?"</p> + +<p>She shook her bandanaed head, slid onto the stool beside him and +crossed her knees—a not very convincing sign of femininity in a woman +wearing baggy denim coveralls. "Aren't you going to buy me a drink, +honey?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, sure." He glanced over at the bartender. "Another beer. No, make +it two." He pulled the five dollars out of his pocket, shoved it +across the bar, and looked back at Alice, more closely this time. The +ID badge, pinned to her hip. The badge, with her name, number, +department, and picture—and the little meter that measured the +strength of her Mind Shield.</p> + +<p>The dial should have pointed to full charge. It didn't. It registered +about seventy per cent loss.</p> + +<p>Alice followed his gaze. She giggled. "It was easy," she said. "The +guards don't do more than glance at us, you know. And everyone who's +supposed to go through Shielding on Thursday has the department number +stamped on a yellow background. So all I did was make a red +background, like yours, and slip it on in the restroom at Clean-up +time."</p> + +<p>"But Alice...." Pete Ganley swallowed his beer and signaled for +another. "This is serious. You've got to keep the shields up. The +enemy is everywhere. Why, right now, one could be probing you."</p> + +<p>"So what? The dial isn't down to Danger yet. And tomorrow I'll just +put the red tag back on over the yellow one and go through Shielding +in the same line with you. They won't notice." She giggled again. "I +thought it was smart, Petey. You oughta think so too. You know why I +did it, don't you?"</p> + +<p>Her round, smooth face looked up at him, wide-eyed and full-lipped. +She had no worry wrinkles like Susan's, no mouth pulled down at the +corners like Susan's, and under that shapeless coverall....</p> + +<p>"Sure, baby, I'm glad you did it," Pete Ganley said huskily.</p> + +<p>Riuku was glad too, the next afternoon when the swing shift started +pouring through the gates.</p> + +<p>It was easy, once he'd found her. He had tested hundreds, all +shielded, some almost accessible to him, but none vulnerable enough. +Then this one came. The shield was so far down that contact was almost +easy. Painful, tiring, but not really difficult. He could feel her +momentary sense of alarm, of nausea, and then he was through, +integrated with her, his thoughts at home with her thoughts.</p> + +<p>He rested, inside her mind.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hi, Joan. No, I'm all right. Just a little dizzy for a moment. A +hangover? Of course not. Not on a Friday."</p> + +<p>Riuku listened to her half of the conversation. Stupid Earthman. If +only she'd start thinking about the job. Or if only his contact with +her were better. If he could use her sense perceptions, see through +her eyes, hear through her ears, feel through her fingers, then +everything would be easy. But he couldn't. All he could do was read +her thoughts. Earth thoughts at that....</p> + +<p><i>... The time clock. Where's my card? Oh, here it is. Only 3:57. Why +did I have to hurry so? I had lots of time....</i></p> + +<p>"Why, Mary, how nice you look today. That's a new hairdo, isn't it? A +permanent? Yeah, what kind?" <i>... What a microbe! Looks like pink +straw, her hair does, and of course she thinks it's beautiful....</i> +"I'd better get down to my station. Old Liverlips will be ranting +again. You oughta be glad you have Eddie for a lead man. Eddie's cute. +So's Dave, over in 77. But Liverlips, ugh...."</p> + +<p>She was walking down the aisle to her station now. A procession of +names: <i>Maisie, and Edith, and that fat slob Natalie, and if Jean +Andrews comes around tonight flashing that diamond in my face again, +I'll—I'll kill her....</i></p> + +<p>"Oh hello, Clinton. What do you mean, late? The whistle just blew. Of +course I'm ready to go to work." <i>Liverlips, that's what you are. And +still in that same blue shirt. What a wife you must have. Probably as +sloppy as you are....</i></p> + +<p>Good, Riuku thought. Now she'll be working. Now he'd find out whatever +it was she was doing. Not that it would be important, of course, but +let him learn what her job was, and what those other girls' jobs were, +and in a little while he'd have all the data he needed. Maybe even +before the shift ended tonight, before she went through the Shielding +boost.</p> + +<p>He shivered a little, thinking of the boost. He'd survive it, of +course. He'd be too well integrated with her by then. But it was +nothing to look forward to.</p> + +<p>Still, he needn't worry about it. He had the whole shift to find out +what the weapon was. The whole shift, here inside Alice's mind, inside +the most closely guarded factory on or under or above the surface of +the Earth. He settled down and waited, expectantly.</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks turned her back on the lead man and looked down the +work table to her place. The other girls were there already. Lois and +Marge and Coralie, the other three members of the Plug table, Line 73.</p> + +<p>"Hey, how'd you make out?" Marge said. She glanced around to make sure +none of the lead men or timekeepers were close enough to overhear her, +then went on. "Did you get away with it?"</p> + +<p>"Sure," Alice said. "And you should of seen Pete's face when I walked +in."</p> + +<p>She took the soldering iron out of her locker, plugged it in, and +reached out for the pan of 731 wires. "You know, it's funny. Pete's +not so good looking, and he's sort of a careless dresser and all that, +but oh, what he does to me." She filled the 731 plug with solder and +reached for the white, black, red wire.</p> + +<p>"You'd better watch out," Lois said. "Or Susan's going to be doing +something to you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, her." Alice touched the tip of the iron to the solder filled pin, +worked the wire down into position. "What can she do? Pete doesn't +give a damn about her."</p> + +<p>"He's still living with her, isn't he?" Lois said.</p> + +<p>Alice shrugged.... <i>What a mealy-mouthed little snip Lois could be, +sometimes. You'd think to hear her that she was better than any of +them, and luckier too, with her Joe and the kids. What a laugh! Joe +was probably the only guy who'd ever looked at her, and she'd hooked +him right out of school, and now with three kids in five years and her +working nights....</i></p> + +<p>Alice finished soldering the first row of wires in the plug and +started in on the second. So old Liverlips thought she wasted time, +did he? Well, she'd show him. She'd get out her sixteen plugs tonight.</p> + +<p>"Junior kept me up all night last night," Lois said. "He's cutting a +tooth."</p> + +<p>"Yeah," Coralie said, "It's pretty rough at that age. I remember right +after Mike was born...."</p> + +<p>Don't they ever think of anything but their kids? Alice thought. She +stopped listening to them. She heard Pete's voice again, husky and +sending little chills all through her, and his face came between her +and the plug and the white green wire she was soldering. His face, +with those blue eyes that went right through a girl and that little +scar that quirked up the corner of his mouth....</p> + +<p>"Oh, oh," Alice said suddenly. "I've got solder on the outside of the +pin." She looked around for the alcohol.</p> + +<p>Riuku probed. Her thoughts were easy enough to read, but just try to +translate them into anything useful.... He probed deeper. The plugs +she was soldering. He could get a good picture of them, of the wires, +of the harness lacing that Coralie was doing. But it meant nothing. +They could be making anything. Radios, monitor units, sound equipment.</p> + +<p>Only they weren't. They were making a weapon, and this bit of +electronic equipment was part of that weapon. What part? What did the +731 plug do?</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks didn't know. Alice Hendricks didn't care.</p> + +<p>The first break. Ten minutes away from work. Alice was walking back +along the aisle that separated Assembly from the men's Machine Shop. A +chance, perhaps. She was looking at the machines, or rather past them, +at the men.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Tommy. How's the love life?" He's not bad at all. Real cute. +Though not like Pete, oh no.</p> + +<p>The machines. Riuku prodded at her thoughts, wishing he could +influence them, wishing that just for a moment he could see, hear, +feel, <i>think</i> as she would never think.</p> + +<p>The machines were—machines. That big funny one where Ned works, and +Tommy's spot welder, and over in the corner where the superintendent +is—he's a snappy dresser, tie and everything.</p> + +<p>The corner. Restricted area. Can't go over. High voltage or +something....</p> + +<p>Her thoughts slid away from the restricted area. Should she go out for +lunch or eat off the sandwich machine? And Riuku curled inside her +mind and cursed her with his rapidly growing Earthwoman's vocabulary.</p> + +<p>At the end of the shift he had learned nothing. Nothing about the +weapon, that is. He had found out a good deal about the sex life of +Genus Homo—information that made him even more glad than before that +his was a one-sexed race.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="51" height="40" /></div> +<p>ith work over and tools put away and Alice in the restroom gleefully +thinking about the red Friday night tag she was slipping onto her ID +badge, he was as far from success as ever. For a moment he considered +leaving her, looking for another subject. But he'd probably not be +able to find one. No, the only thing to do was stay with her, curl +deep in her mind and go through the Shielding boost, and later on....</p> + +<p>The line. Alice's nervousness.... <i>Oh, oh, there's that guy with the +meter—the one from maintenance. What's he want?</i></p> + +<p>"Whaddya mean, my shield's low? How could it be?" <i>... If he checks +the tag I'll be fired for sure. It's a lot of nonsense anyway. The +enemy is everywhere, they keep telling us. Whoever saw one of them?</i> +"No, honest, I didn't notice anything. Can I help it if.... It's okay, +huh? It'll pass...."</p> + +<p>Down to fifteen per cent, the guy said. Well, that's safe, I guess. +Whew.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hello, Paula. Whatcha talking about, what am I doing here +tonight? Shut up...."</p> + +<p>And then, in the midst of her thoughts, the pain, driving deep into +Riuku, twisting at him, wrenching at him, until there was no +consciousness of anything at all.</p> + +<p>He struggled back. He was confused, and there was blankness around +him, and for a moment he thought he'd lost contact altogether. Then he +came into focus again. Alice's thoughts were clearer than ever +suddenly. He could feel her emotions; they were a part of him now. He +smiled. The Shielding boost had helped him. Integration—much more +complete integration than he had ever known before.</p> + +<p>"But Pete, honey," Alice said. "What did you come over to the gate +for? You shouldn't of done it."</p> + +<p>"Why not? I wanted to see you."</p> + +<p>"What if one of Susan's pals sees us?"</p> + +<p>"So what? I'm getting tired of checking in every night, like a baby. +Besides, one of her pals did see us, last night, at the bar."</p> + +<p><i>Fear. What'll she do? Susan's a hellcat. I know she is. But maybe +Pete'll get really sick and tired of her. He looks it. He looks mad. +I'd sure hate to have him mad at me....</i></p> + +<p>"Let's go for a spin, baby. Out in the suburbs somewhere. How about +it?"</p> + +<p>"Well—why sure, Pete...."</p> + +<p>Sitting beside him in the copter. <i>All alone up here. Real romantic, +like something on the video. But I shouldn't with him married, and all +that. It's not right. But it's different, with Susan such a mean +thing. Poor Petey....</i></p> + +<p>Riuku prodded. He found it so much easier since the Shielding boost. +If only these Earthmen were more telepathic, so that they could be +controlled directly. Still, perhaps with this new integration he could +accomplish the same results. He prodded again.</p> + +<p>"Pete," Alice said suddenly. "What are we working on, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, working on?" He frowned at her.</p> + +<p>"At the plant. All I ever do is sit there soldering plugs, and no one +ever tells me what for."</p> + +<p>"Course not. You're not supposed to talk about any part of the job +except your own. You know that. The slip of a lip—"</p> + +<p>"Can cost Earth a ship. I know. Quit spouting poster talk at me, Pete +Ganley. The enemy isn't even human. And there aren't any around here."</p> + +<p>Pete looked over at her. She was pouting, the upper lip drawn under +the lower. Someone must have told her that was cute. Well, so what—it +was cute.</p> + +<p>"What makes you think I know anything more than you do?" he said.</p> + +<p>"Well, gee." She looked up at him, so near to her in the moonlight +that she wondered why she wanted to talk about the plant anyway. +"You're in Final Assembly, aren't you? You check the whatsits before +they go out."</p> + +<p>"Sure," he said. No harm in telling her. No spies now, not in this +kind of war. Besides, she was too dumb to know anything.</p> + +<p>"It's a simple enough gadget," Pete Ganley said. "A new type of force +field weapon that the enemy can't spot until it hits them. They don't +even know there's an Earth ship within a million miles, until +<i>Bingo</i>!..."</p> + +<p>She drank it in, and in her mind Riuku did too. Wonderful integration, +wonderful. Partial thought control. And now, he'd learn the secret....</p> + +<p>"You really want to know how it works?" Pete Ganley said. When she +nodded he couldn't help grinning. "Well, it's analogous to the field +set up by animal neurones, in a way. You've just got to damp that +field, and not only damp it but blot it out, so that the frequency +shows nothing at all there, and then—well, that's where those +Corcoran assemblies you're soldering on come in. You produce the +field...."</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks listened. For some reason she wanted to listen. She +was really curious about the field. But, gee, how did he expect her to +understand all that stuff? He sounded like her algebra teacher, or was +it chemistry? Lord, how she'd hated school. Maybe she shouldn't have +quit.</p> + +<p><i>... Corcoran fields. E and IR and nine-space something or other. +She'd never seen Pete like this before. He looked real different. Sort +of like a professor, or something. He must be real smart. And +so—well, not good-looking especially but, well, appealing. Real SA, +he had....</i></p> + +<p>"So that's how it works," Pete Ganley said. "Quite a weapon, against +them. It wouldn't work on a human being, of course." She was staring +at him dreamy-eyed. He laughed. "Silly, I bet you haven't understood a +word I said."</p> + +<p>"I have too."</p> + +<p>"Liar." He locked the automatic pilot on the copter and held out his +arms. "Come here, you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Petey...."</p> + +<p>Who cared about the weapon? He was right, even if she wouldn't admit +it. She hadn't even listened, hardly. She hadn't understood.</p> + +<p>And neither had Riuku.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_r.jpg" alt="R" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>iuku waited until she'd fallen soundly asleep that night before he +tried contacting Nagor. He'd learned nothing useful. He'd picked up +nothing in her mind except more thoughts of Pete, and gee, maybe +someday they'd get married, if he only had guts enough to tell Susan +where to get off....</p> + +<p>But she was asleep at last. Riuku was free enough of her thoughts to +break contact, partially of course, since if he broke it completely he +wouldn't be able to get back through the Shielding. It was hard enough +to reach out through it. He sent a painful probing feeler out into +space, to the spot where Nagor and the others waited for his report.</p> + +<p>"Nagor...."</p> + +<p>"Riuku? Is that you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I've got a contact. A girl. But I haven't learned anything yet +that can help us."</p> + +<p>"Louder, Riuku. I can hardly hear you...."</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks stirred in her sleep. The dream images slipped through +her subconscious, almost waking her, beating against Riuku.</p> + +<p>Pete, baby, you shouldn't be like that....</p> + +<p>Riuku cursed the bisexual species in their own language.</p> + +<p>"Riuku!" Nagor's call was harsh, urgent. "You've got to find out. We +haven't much time. We lost three more ships today, and there wasn't a +sign of danger. No Earthman nearby, no force fields, nothing. You've +got to find out why." Those ships just disappeared.</p> + +<p>Riuku forced his way up through the erotic dreams of Alice Hendricks. +"I know a little," he said. "They damp their thought waves somehow, +and keep us from spotting the Corcoran field."</p> + +<p>"Corcoran field? What's that?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know." Alice's thoughts washed over him, pulling him back +into complete integration, away from Nagor, into a medley of heroic +Petes with gleaming eyes and clutching hands and good little Alices +pushing them away—for the moment.</p> + +<p>"But surely you can find out through the girl," Nagor insisted from +far away, almost out of phase altogether.</p> + +<p>"No, Pete!" Alice Hendricks said aloud.</p> + +<p>"Riuku, you're the only one of us with any possible sort of contact. +You've got to find out, if we're to stay here at all."</p> + +<p>"Well," Alice Hendricks thought, "maybe...."</p> + +<p>Riuku cursed her again, in the lingua franca of a dozen systems. +Nagor's voice faded. Riuku switched back to English.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="26" height="40" /></div> +<p>aturday. Into the plant at 3:58. Jean's diamond again.... <i>Wish it +would choke her; she's got a horsey enough face for it to. Where's old +Liverlips? Don't see him around. Might as well go to the restroom for +a while....</i></p> + +<p>That's it, Riuku thought. Get her over past the machine shop, over by +that Restricted Area. There must be something there we can go on....</p> + +<p>"Hello, Tommy," Alice Hendricks said. "How's the love life?"</p> + +<p>"It could be better if someone I know would, uh, cooperate...."</p> + +<p>She looked past him, toward the corner where the big panels were with +all the dials and the meters and the chart that was almost like the +kind they drew pictures of earthquakes on. What was it for, anyway? +And why couldn't anyone go over to it except those longhairs? High +voltage her foot....</p> + +<p>"What're you looking at, Alice?" Tommy said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that." She pointed. "Wonder what it's for? It doesn't look like +much of anything, really."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't know. I've got something better to look at."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>you</i>!"</p> + +<p>Compared to Pete, he didn't have anything, not anything at all.</p> + +<p>... <i>Pete. Gee, he must have got home awful late last night. Wonder +what Susan said to him. Why does he keep taking her lip, anyway?</i></p> + +<p>Riuku waited. He prodded. He understood the Restricted Area as she +understood it—which was not at all. He found out some things about +the 731 plugs—that a lot of them were real crummy ones the fool day +shift girls had set up wrong, and besides she'd rather solder on the +717's any day. He got her talking about the weapon again, and he found +out what the other girls thought about it.</p> + +<p>Nothing.</p> + +<p>Except where else could you get twelve-fifty an hour soldering?</p> + +<p>She was stretched out on the couch in the restroom lobby taking a +short nap—on company time, old Liverlips being tied up with the new +girls down at the other end of the line—when Riuku finally managed to +call Nagor again.</p> + +<p>"Have you found out anything, Riuku?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet."</p> + +<p>Silence. Then: "We've lost another ship. Maybe you'd better turn her +loose and come on back. It looks as if we'll have to run for it, after +all."</p> + +<p>Defeat. The long, interstellar search for another race, a race less +technologically advanced than this one, and all because of a stupid +Earth female.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, Nagor," he said. "Her boy friend knows. I'll find out. I'll +make her listen to him."</p> + +<p>"Well," Nagor said doubtfully. "All right. But hurry. We haven't much +time at all."</p> + +<p>"I'll hurry," Riuku promised. "I'll be back with you tonight."</p> + +<p>That night after work Pete Ganley was waiting outside the gate again. +Alice spotted his copter right away, even though he had the lights +turned way down.</p> + +<p>"Gee, Pete, I didn't think...."</p> + +<p>"Get in. Quick."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" She climbed in beside him. He didn't answer until +the copter had lifted itself into the air, away from the factory +landing lots and the bright overhead lights and the home-bound +workers.</p> + +<p>"It's Susan, who else," he said grimly. "She was really sounding off +today. She kept saying she had a lot of evidence and I'd better be +careful. And, well, I sure didn't want you turning up at the bar +tonight of all nights."</p> + +<p>He didn't sound like Pete.</p> + +<p>"Why?" Alice said. "Are you afraid she'll divorce you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Alice, you're as bad as—look, baby, don't you see? It would be +awful for you. All the publicity, the things she'd call you, maybe +even in the papers...."</p> + +<p>He was staring straight ahead, his hands locked about the controls. He +was sort of—well, distant. Not her Petey any more. Someone else's +Pete. Susan's Pete....</p> + +<p>"I think we should be more careful," he said.</p> + +<p>Riuku twisted his way through her thoughts, tried to push them +down.... <i>Does he love me, he's got to love me, sure he does, he just +doesn't want me to get hurt....</i></p> + +<p>And far away, almost completely out of phase, Nagor's call. "Riuku, +another ship's gone. You'd better come back. Bring what you've learned +so far and we can withdraw from the system and maybe piece it +together...."</p> + +<p>"In a little while. Just a little while." Stop thinking about Susan, +you biological schizo. Change the subject. You'll never get anything +out of that man by having hysterics....</p> + +<p>"I suppose," Alice cried bitterly, "you've been leading me on all the +time. You don't love me. You'd rather have <i>her</i>!"</p> + +<p>"That's not so. Hell, baby...."</p> + +<p><i>He's angry. He's not even going to kiss me. I'm just cutting my own +throat when I act like that....</i></p> + +<p>"Okay, Pete. I'm sorry. I know it's tough on you. Let's have a drink, +okay? Still got some in the glove compartment?"</p> + +<p>"Huh? Oh, sure."</p> + +<p>She poured two drinks, neat, and he swallowed his with one impatient +gulp. She poured him another.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_r.jpg" alt="R" width="37" height="40" /></div> +<p>iuku prodded. The drink made his job easier. Alice's thoughts calmed, +swirled away from Susan and what am I going to do and why didn't I +pick up with some single guy, anyway? A single guy, like Tommy maybe. +Tommy and his spot welder, over there by the Restricted Area. The +Restricted Area....</p> + +<p>"Pete."</p> + +<p>"Yeah, baby?"</p> + +<p>"How come they let so much voltage loose in the plant, so we can't +even go over in the Restricted Area?"</p> + +<p>"Whatever made you think of that?" He laughed suddenly. He turned to +her, still laughing. He was the old Pete again, she thought, with his +face happy and his mouth quirked up at the corner. "Voltage loose ... +oh, baby, baby. Don't you know what that is?"</p> + +<p>"No. What?"</p> + +<p>"That's the control panel for one of the weapons, silly. It's only a +duplicate, actually—a monitor station. But it's tuned to the +frequencies of all the ships in this sector and—"</p> + +<p>She listened. She wanted to listen. She had to want to listen, now.</p> + +<p>"Nagor, I'm getting it," Riuku called. "I'll bring it all back with +me. Just a minute and I'll have it."</p> + +<p>"How does it work, honey?" Alice Hendricks said.</p> + +<p>"You really want to know? Okay. Now the Corcoran field is generated +between the ships and areas like that one, only a lot more powerful, +by—"</p> + +<p>"It's coming through now, Nagor."</p> + +<p>"—a very simple power source, once you get the basics of it. You—oh, +oh!" He grabbed her arm. "Duck, Alice!"</p> + +<p>A spotlight flashed out of the darkness, turned on them, outlined +them. A siren whirred briefly, and then another copter pulled up +beside them and a loudspeaker blared tinnily.</p> + +<p>"Okay, bud, pull down to the landing lane."</p> + +<p>The police.</p> + +<p>Police. Fear, all the way through Alice's thoughts, all the way +through Riuku. Police. Earth law. That meant—it must mean he'd been +discovered, that they had some other means of protection besides the +Shielding....</p> + +<p>"Nagor! I've been discovered!"</p> + +<p>"Come away then, you fool!"</p> + +<p>He twisted, trying to pull free of Alice's fear, away from the +integration of their separate terrors. But he couldn't push her +thoughts back from his. She was too frightened. He was too frightened. +The bond held.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Pete, Pete, what did you do?"</p> + +<p>He didn't answer. He landed the copter, stepped out of it, walked back +to the other copter that was just dropping down behind him. "But +officer, what's the matter?"</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks huddled down in the seat, already seeing tomorrow's +papers, and her picture, and she wasn't really photogenic, either.... +And then, from the other copter, she heard the woman laugh.</p> + +<p>"Pete Ganley, you fall for anything, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Susan!"</p> + +<p>"You didn't expect me to follow you, did you? Didn't it ever occur to +you that detectives could put a bug in your copter? My, what we've +been hearing!"</p> + +<p>"Yeah," the detective who was driving said. "And those pictures we +took last night weren't bad either."</p> + +<p>"Susan, I can explain everything...."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you can, Pete. You always try. But as for you—you little—"</p> + +<p>Alice ducked down away from her. Pictures. Oh God, what it would make +her look like. Still, this hag with the pinched up face who couldn't +hold a man with all the cosmetics in the drugstore to camouflage +her—she had her nerve, yelling like that.</p> + +<p>"Yeah, and I know a lot about you too!" Alice Hendricks cried.</p> + +<p>"Why, let me get my hands on you...."</p> + +<p>"Riuku!"</p> + +<p>Riuku prodded. Calm down, you fool. You're not gaining anything this +way. Calm down, so I can get out of here....</p> + +<p>Alice Hendricks stopped yelling abruptly.</p> + +<p>"That's better," Susan said. "Pete, your taste in women gets worse +each time. I don't know why I always take you back."</p> + +<p>"I can explain everything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Pete," Alice Hendricks whispered. "Petey, you're not—"</p> + +<p>"Sure he is," Susan Ganley said. "He's coming with me. The nice +detectives will take you home, dear. But I don't think you'd better +try anything with them—they're not your type. They're single."</p> + +<p>"Pete...." But he wouldn't meet Alice's eyes. And when Susan took his +arm, he followed her.</p> + +<p>"How could you do it, Petey...." Numb whispers, numb thoughts, over +and over, but no longer frightened, no longer binding on Riuku.</p> + +<p>Fools, he thought. Idiotic Earthmen. If it weren't for your ridiculous +reproductive habits I'd have found out everything. As it is.... +"Nagor, I'm coming! I didn't get anything. This woman—"</p> + +<p>"Well, come on then. We're leaving. Right now. There'll be other +systems."</p> + +<p><i>Petey, Petey, Petey....</i></p> + +<p>Contact thinned as he reached out away from her, toward Nagor, toward +the ship. He fought his way out through the Shielding, away from her +and her thoughts and every detestable thing about her. Break free, +break free....</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Riuku? Why don't you come? Have the police caught +you?"</p> + +<p>The others were fleeing, getting farther away even as he listened to +Nagor's call. Contact was hard to maintain now; he could feel +communication fading.</p> + +<p>"Riuku, if you don't come now...."</p> + +<p>He fought, but Alice's thoughts were still with him; Alice's tears +still kept bringing him back into full awareness of her.</p> + +<p>"Riuku!"</p> + +<p>"I—I can't!"</p> + +<p>The Shielding boost, that had integrated him so completely with Alice +Hendricks, would never let him go.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Petey, I've lost you...."</p> + +<p>And Nagor's sad farewell slipped completely out of phase, leaving him +alone, with her.</p> + +<p>The plant. The Restricted Area. The useless secret of Earth's now +unneeded weapon. Alice Hendricks glancing past it, at the spot welding +machine, at Tommy.</p> + +<p>"How's the love life?"</p> + +<p>"You really interested in finding out, Alice?"</p> + +<p>"Well—maybe—"</p> + +<p>And Riuku gibbered unheard in her mind.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Very Secret Agent, by Mari Wolf + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VERY SECRET AGENT *** + +***** This file should be named 31612-h.htm or 31612-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/6/1/31612/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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