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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plotters, by Alexander Blade
+
+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 Plotters
+
+Author: Alexander Blade
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2010 [EBook #32801]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLOTTERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<h1>THE PLOTTERS</h1>
+
+<h2>By ALEXANDER BLADE</h2>
+
+<p>[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December
+1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="sidenote">He came from a far planet to find some of the Earth's
+secrets. But Marko found other things, too&mdash;like his love for beautiful
+Beth</div>
+
+
+<p>It seemed to be the same tree that kept getting in my way. I tried to go
+around it but it moved with me and I ran right into it. I found myself
+sprawled on my back and my nose was bleeding where I had hit it against
+the tree. Then I got up and ran again.</p>
+
+<p>I had to keep running. I didn't know why; I just had to. There was a
+puddle of water and I splashed through it and then slipped and fell into
+a thorny bush. When I got up there were scratches on my hands and face
+and chest.</p>
+
+<p>As yet I felt no pain. That wouldn't come for a while, after I had done
+a lot more running. But at the moment I couldn't feel a thing.</p>
+
+<p>In my conscious mind there was only a sort of grayness. I didn't know
+where I was, or who I was, or why I was running. I didn't know that if I
+ran long enough and bumped into enough trees and scratched myself often
+enough I would eventually feel pain. Or that out of the exertion and the
+pain would come awareness.</p>
+
+<p>All that must have been there, but buried so deep it didn't come
+through. It was only instinct which kept me going.</p>
+
+<p>The same tree was in my way again and this time I didn't even try to go
+around it. My breath was knocked out of me. After a few gasps it came
+back, and then I was off again.</p>
+
+<p>I went up a rise and down into a hollow and tripped over roots. That
+time I didn't fall. I went up the other side of the hollow with the wind
+whistling in my ears. A few drops of rain fell. There were flashes of
+lightning in the sky.</p>
+
+<p>Wet leaves whipped against my face and there was a crack of thunder so
+close that it shook me. I ran away from the thunder and up another rise
+and down into another hollow.</p>
+
+<p>The wind was stronger now. It came in long blasts. Sometimes I ran with
+it and sometimes against it. When I ran against it I didn't make much
+headway, but my legs kept pumping. There was tall grass to slow me down
+and there were roots to trip me. There was the wind and the thunder and
+the lightning. And there were always trees.</p>
+
+<p>And then there was a terrible flash and above me a crack that was not of
+thunder. Something came crashing down. It was the limb of a tree. It
+crashed against my chest and smashed me flat on my back and pinned me
+there.</p>
+
+<p>One of my ribs felt broken. It jabbed into me as I fought to raise this
+weight from my chest, and this was a pain I could feel.</p>
+
+<p>This was something that hurt as nothing had ever hurt me before. This
+was excruciating. But it was the pain that cut through the grayness of
+my mind, and because of that I welcomed it.</p>
+
+<p>With the pain would come knowledge. I would know who I was and why I was
+running. Already there were figures racing across the blankness. There
+were faces and there were names: Ristal, Kresh, Marko, Copperd, Beth.</p>
+
+<p>I was Marko. I knew that much already. Beth was the golden girl. Somehow
+I knew that too. But who were the others?</p>
+
+<p>It wasn't coming fast enough. I couldn't find the connections. There was
+only one way to bring it back, to bridge the gaps. I had to start
+somewhere, with what I knew. I had to start with myself and then bridge
+the gap to Beth. That was the beginning.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>I checked with the mirror for the last time and decided that I would
+pass muster. As far as I could see, I looked like almost any college
+student.</p>
+
+<p>There wasn't anything I could do about my hair. It hadn't grown at all.
+It was a mass of short, black ringlets that fit my head like a tight
+cap. But there was no use worrying about that.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mara came down the hall just as I was locking the door. She looked
+hurt when she saw me turn the key.</p>
+
+<p>"You don't have to do that in my house," she said. "There's nobody would
+think of going into your room."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not," I said. "It's just force of habit, you know."</p>
+
+<p>I smiled and hoped she would pass it off as lightly as I seemed to. The
+last thing in the world I wanted was to have her get suspicious and go
+prowling about my room. I felt easier when she smiled back at me.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure. And where are you off to, now?"</p>
+
+<p>"Swimming," I said. "That is, if I can get into the college pool."</p>
+
+<p>"Just act like you own the place and nobody will ask you any questions,"
+she said, and winked at me.</p>
+
+<p>That was exactly the way I had figured it, but it was good to have
+reassurance. Theoretically, no one was supposed to use the pool who was
+not a member of the faculty or student body. Enforcement, however, was
+lax, and the chances were that nobody would ask to see my card.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mara and I were right. The day was hot, and the men who were
+supposed to be watching the entrance were sitting in the shade of the
+stands and quenching their thirst with soft drinks. I walked right in,
+looking straight ahead.</p>
+
+<p>It was a large pool, used for skating in winter, and there were stands
+built on three sides. Instead of going down to the locker rooms, I
+merely slipped out of my shirt and trousers, rolled them into a ball and
+dropped them beside the pool. A good many others had also worn their
+swim suits underneath.</p>
+
+<p>Then I looked around for the girl.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>She was down near the other end of the pool, talking to some people. As
+I came toward them she left the group and climbed up on the diving
+board.</p>
+
+<p>Against her white bathing suit, her small trim figure showed golden. Her
+hair was almost the same color. She looked like the bathing suit models
+I had seen in store windows. The golden model came to life as she left
+the board in a high, arching dive. She hit the water with hardly a
+splash.</p>
+
+<p>"Nice stuff, Beth," one of the men said as she swam toward them.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it really, Ken?" the girl asked.</p>
+
+<p>He nodded as he said it was. They began to talk about diving and
+swimming. The man called Ken did most of the talking. He said he wanted
+to show her a few things about her swimming stroke.</p>
+
+<p>He jumped off the edge of the pool and swam across and then turned
+around and swam back. Everybody stopped what they were doing and watched
+him. When he clambered out he smiled in a very superior way.</p>
+
+<p>"See what I mean? You've got to use your legs more."</p>
+
+<p>"You splash too much," I said.</p>
+
+<p>It was the only way I could think of at the moment to get into the
+conversation. But it got me in. Everybody was looking at me as though I
+were out of my mind. Ken sneered.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"Don't take it offensively," I said. "But you really do. Also your arm
+motion is not good."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>He was so angry that it was almost funny. Now I was sorry I had spoken,
+because the girl might be a close friend of his and she might take
+offense.</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe you would like to show me how it's done," Ken said hotly. "I
+could make it worth your while. Suppose we race two lengths. For ten
+dollars."</p>
+
+<p>"That's not fair, Ken," the girl said.</p>
+
+<p>I could see that she didn't like the way he was taking it, so that was
+all right. But I hesitated. I didn't have ten dollars. On the other
+hand, I had been watching these people swim.</p>
+
+<p>It was an easy way to make ten dollars, since I had no other means of
+getting money. There was the hundred dollars which I had taken from a
+man on the road the day I came into town, but that money was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"Come on," I said, and started walking to the end of the pool.</p>
+
+<p>When I got there I bent and dipped one foot into the water. It was
+colder than the water I had been used to, and not quite as heavy,
+somehow. I pulled my foot out quickly and everybody laughed, except the
+girl.</p>
+
+<p>"This isn't right," she said. She turned to me. "You don't know who Ken
+is, apparently."</p>
+
+<p>"You are very kind," I said. I smiled at her and she smiled back. She
+had blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>By that time the pool had been cleared. Everybody was out of the water
+and standing at the edge. Ken said, "Whenever you're ready."</p>
+
+<p>"I am ready now," I said. And immediately one of his friends gave the
+signal, "Go!"</p>
+
+<p>Ken jumped in first. Then I dived in. Once in the water it did not feel
+so cold nor so light. I swam down to the other end and turned around and
+swam back. When I climbed out, Ken was just making his turn at the far
+end. Everyone was looking at me very strangely. Ken came out rubbing his
+shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>"Must have pulled a muscle," he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>"In that case I wouldn't think of taking your money," I told him.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't believe I've seen you around before," he said. "You've got to
+have a card to swim here, you know.'</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't have one. So I suppose I had better go."</p>
+
+<p>"Of all the cheap tricks," the girl said. "I think I'll go too. Wait for
+me."</p>
+
+<p>I waited for her while she went to get dressed. I put on my trousers
+over my swimming trunks, put on my shirt and shoes and sat on a bench
+and waited. When she came out we started for the exit. Ken came hurrying
+toward us.</p>
+
+<p>"I thought I was taking you home," he said, his face red with anger.</p>
+
+<p>She didn't bother to reply and he put his hand on her arm. I told him to
+let go and he let go. Then he swung around and hit me on the jaw with
+all his might. I grabbed his arm with one hand and his throat with the
+other and threw him into the middle of the pool.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Things were going better than I expected. As we walked along, she seemed
+quite interested in me. I told her my name and she told me that she was
+Beth Copperd, the daughter of a professor at the university. I pretended
+that I had not known those things.</p>
+
+<p>When we got to her home, which was on a tree lined street, we paused for
+a moment. Across the street there was a car with a man sitting in it,
+pretending to read a newspaper.</p>
+
+<p>I knew all about that man. I knew there was another man who was watching
+the back of the house. If not for that I would not have had to go
+through this lengthy affair with Beth Copperd.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret very much this trouble with your friend," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"You needn't. He's had it coming for a long time." She stared at me
+thoughtfully. "You know, Marko, I'm a little afraid of you."</p>
+
+<p>"Of me? But why?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," she hesitated, "it's hard to say. But when a man jumps into a
+pool and swims so much faster than one of our country's best swimmers,
+and then picks up that swimmer and throws him fifty feet without the
+slightest effort ... well, that man is slightly unusual, to say the
+least."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the swimming...."</p>
+
+<p>I hadn't thought that what was quite ordinary for me might seem exactly
+the opposite to these people. I had blundered. So I tried to shrug it
+off, as though such things were common among my people. Which they were.
+But that line only dragged me deeper. This girl was no fool.</p>
+
+<p>"That's what I meant, Marko. You aren't being modest. You're acting as
+though you're used to such feats, and take them as a matter of course.
+And there's your accent. I can't quite place it."</p>
+
+<p>"Some day I'll tell you all about it," I said lightly. "When we know
+each other better."</p>
+
+<p>"That's going pretty fast, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Some of us have found that we don't have all the time we should like.
+We must go fast, or not at all."</p>
+
+<p>It was a platitude, slightly jumbled, but none the less true. Beth was
+looking up at me. There were things she might have noticed; that my skin
+was uncommonly smooth, and that I hadn't even the faintest trace of
+whiskers.</p>
+
+<p>She didn't notice those things. She was looking into my eyes. I found
+myself enjoying this experience.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you come in for a while?" she asked slowly.</p>
+
+<p>I relaxed. Everything was all right, for the present. She was taking me
+at face value. She liked me and I liked her. The operation was
+proceeding smoothly.</p>
+
+<p>We walked into a large room, pleasantly furnished. On a couch opposite
+the doorway three men sat talking. Two others stood before them. The
+moment we entered, the conversation stopped abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"Beth?" said a tall, graying man. He was already stuffing papers into a
+bag. "Back so soon?"</p>
+
+<p>He wasn't really listening for a reply and Beth didn't make one. When he
+had the papers in the bag he locked it, then snapped it around his wrist
+and put the key in his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"We'll continue this at the lab," he said to the men. "I'll be along in
+just a few minutes." Then he came up to us.</p>
+
+<p>"I see you've replaced your blond young man," he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>I knew all about this man who stood before me, with his stooped
+shoulders and keen eyes. Eldeth Copperd would have been surprised at the
+extent of my knowledge. I even knew why his government considered it
+wise to have several of its security agents near him at all times.</p>
+
+<p>"Can't you stay a minute and get acquainted with Marko?" Beth was
+saying. "He's really a remarkable fellow. He can swim faster than you or
+I could run."</p>
+
+<p>"Literally? That would be quite fast."</p>
+
+<p>"Literally."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me with sudden interest and I was sorry the conversation
+had taken that turn. I didn't want those keen eyes examining me too
+closely. They might note the absence of skin porosity.</p>
+
+<p>Copperd didn't notice, but I made a mental note to watch my step. And
+another not to go swimming again. Beth would be watching me, and if she
+were close enough she might see the webbing pop out between my fingers
+and toes when I got into the water.</p>
+
+<p>"That's my father," Beth said after he and I had shaken hands and he had
+left. "Demands exactness. He's a scientist, you know. A physicist."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh?" I said. As if I hadn't known. "Is he always this busy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Busier. If he isn't working at the lab till all hours, he's working at
+home in his study. Or having conferences. The only time I have him alone
+and to myself is Sunday evening."</p>
+
+<p>That was the information I had been hoping for.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Beth and I sat on the couch her father had vacated. We talked. I watched
+my words carefully; there were a good many commonplace things I knew
+nothing about. And I didn't want any more questions about myself.
+Fortunately, conversation between a young man and a young woman is much
+the same everywhere. I didn't have to pretend I was interested in Beth.
+She was unusually attractive. And she seemed to find me so.</p>
+
+<p>We talked a bit, laughed a good deal, and when I got up to leave I knew
+that I had done well in the initial stage. But there was still a good
+deal to be done.</p>
+
+<p>"May I see you tonight?" I asked. "Just a 'coke date'."</p>
+
+<p>That was an expression I'd heard and had taken the trouble to make
+certain I understood. It seemed to be just the thing in the present
+case.</p>
+
+<p>"I'd like that," Beth said. "Pick me up about nine."</p>
+
+<p>Her choice of time could not have been more suitable. I was out of
+money. There was Mrs. Mara to be paid, and now the cost of the evening's
+entertainment.</p>
+
+<p>Until darkness fell I could do nothing about that. So I went back to my
+room and read old newspapers I had collected. I had discovered on my
+first day that those were the best sources of information. Those and the
+moving pictures.</p>
+
+<p>For one who must learn a great deal about a people in a short time there
+is one infallible way: watch them in their favorite sports and
+relaxations. The moving pictures and the comic strips had been
+invaluable. In another few weeks I could have passed anywhere.</p>
+
+<p>At eight o'clock it was growing dark. I changed my shirt, put on a sport
+coat and left the room. Five minutes later I was walking down a quiet
+street that was lined with fashionable homes.</p>
+
+<p>After that it was merely a question of time. I went around the block,
+found that it was still too light, and went around again, this time
+slowly.</p>
+
+<p>There was only one man on the street on my next time around. I sized him
+up quickly and decided that he was prosperous. He came on toward me. I
+managed to be looking the other way.</p>
+
+<p>We bumped into each other and he fell. I said, "Sorry" and bent to help
+him up. My fingers touched his throat in the proper places and he went
+limp.</p>
+
+<p>Within a matter of seconds I had his wallet out of his pocket and
+extracted several bills. When his eyes flickered again I was just
+raising him to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"All my fault," I said contritely. "Are you all right?"</p>
+
+<p>"Seem to be." He was gruff, but that was all. He didn't know that for a
+matter of seconds he had been unconscious.</p>
+
+<p>At nine o'clock I came up the walk to the Copperd home. This time the
+security agent was leaning against a tree, lighting a cigarette. I made
+certain that he saw my face clearly.</p>
+
+<p>One upstairs window showed a light, and the faint murmur of voices
+drifted down. That had to be Copperd's room. Then a porch light flashed
+on and Beth came out of the door. She was wearing a white dress and the
+overhead light seemed to create a golden halo above her head.</p>
+
+<p>I momentarily forgot about her father.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>How much can a man learn in a few weeks? I had to be so very careful.
+Historical matters had to be avoided at all costs. Contemporary affairs
+were fine. Philosophy was best.</p>
+
+<p>Philosophy is always the best. Good and evil are present everywhere.
+They can be discussed in the vaguest terms. We discussed many things in
+vague terms.</p>
+
+<p>And yet there was a sense of intimacy which grew between us. It was hard
+for me to define, and after a while I gave up trying to discover what it
+was. I merely enjoyed it.</p>
+
+<p>When I took her home I knew that it was not fear of the dark that made
+her walk so close to me. The movies had taught me a great deal about
+this matter of love play. Although some of it was highly exaggerated, it
+showed clearly enough the drives of these people, and some of their
+methods of acting them out.</p>
+
+<p>We were standing on the porch when I kissed Beth. It was the first time
+I had ever pressed my lips to those of anyone else. My technique was
+good. I felt Beth respond, pressing harder against me.</p>
+
+<p>My mission was on its way to completion. I felt a moment of triumph. And
+then suddenly, crazily, my mission was gone from my mind. I felt only a
+strange exhilaration that swept over me and made my heart pound and my
+head grow hot.</p>
+
+<p>"What's the matter, Marko?" Beth asked as I pulled away.</p>
+
+<p>I didn't know what was wrong. I didn't try to figure it out. I had to
+get out of there and try to regain my equilibrium. On a mission like
+mine I had to keep my head.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I see you tomorrow?" I said.</p>
+
+<p>"All the tomorrow's you want," Beth answered.</p>
+
+<p>There was eagerness, and yet a note of regret. It was as though she
+instinctively knew that something was wrong. But my work had been well
+done; she was in too far, and I had cut her emotional line of retreat.</p>
+
+<p>I saw Beth the next afternoon, and the next evening. My presence on the
+porch and in her home became such a common thing that the security agent
+hardly gave me a glance now.</p>
+
+<p>Those few days passed by swiftly, and yet each hour in those days was
+long. I was very cautious; Beth and I kissed many times but I never
+allowed myself to be moved as on that first time.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday loomed larger and larger, closer and closer. I was a constant and
+ever present guest. It was an elementary matter to get Beth to invite me
+for Sunday dinner. The invitation came on Saturday night, and that night
+when I came back to my room I called Ristal for the first time since we
+had arrived.</p>
+
+<p>"Tomorrow," I said into the <i>besnal</i>. "Early evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Good."</p>
+
+<p>That was all we said, but it was enough. Our frequency was too high to
+be picked up. Still, we were taking no chances. Ristal knew precisely
+what I meant and he would be ready.</p>
+
+<p>I had the feeling that comes when a mission is about to be completed.
+There was a feeling of tension, and yet for the first time in my career
+I had a lowering of spirits that I could not explain.</p>
+
+<p>The feeling persisted until late Sunday afternoon. Then I pushed it from
+my mind. I dressed carefully, slipped the <i>besnal</i> into my inner pocket,
+and put my <i>del</i> gun in my coat pocket.</p>
+
+<p>"Take your coat off," Beth said when I came in. "You ought to know
+there's no formality here."</p>
+
+<p>"I'm really quite comfortable," I told her. "Am I late?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. Just on time. Dad will be down in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>He came down the stairs from his study while we were talking. He greeted
+me warmly, and yet I felt that this time he was scrutinizing me. All
+during the dinner his eyes were on me, weighing me. I felt what was
+coming, and as we rose from the table it came.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you won't be offended, Marko," Copperd said. "But there are some
+strange things about you. Do you ever shave?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I said. I looked out the window and saw it was growing darker.</p>
+
+<p>"That's odd. And about your hair ... have you ever realized that every
+strand of it grows in a different direction? You could never comb it.
+Your skin is of an unusually fine texture. And when you reached for
+something at the table I observed strange folds of skin between your
+fingers. You are somehow not like the rest of us."</p>
+
+<p>"Naturally," I said. It didn't matter now. It was dark enough.</p>
+
+<p>"Why naturally?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because," I told him, "I am a Venusian."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>My tone was matter of fact. Yet they knew that I was not joking. Beth
+was staring at me, a growing fear and horror in her eyes. Her father
+seemed dazed by the revelation. I took the <i>del</i> gun from my pocket and
+showed it to them.</p>
+
+<p>"This is a weapon strange to you. But it is effective at this range.
+Please don't make me use it."</p>
+
+<p>"But what do you want?" Copperd asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I want you to take a ride with me. In your car."</p>
+
+<p>I let them put on their coats and then we walked out onto the porch and
+down the stairs. Across the street the security agent barely glanced at
+us. Then we got into Copperd's car, Beth and he in the front seat and I
+in the back. I told him in which direction to go.</p>
+
+<p>At the outskirts of town we lost the car that was following us. I had
+planned this part of it perfectly. We pulled into a side road and turned
+off our lights. The agent went right past us.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it you want of me?" Copperd said as we started up again.</p>
+
+<p>"We want to have a long discussion with you about some matters on which
+you are an authority."</p>
+
+<p>"And that's what this whole affair with me was for? So that you could
+get to my father!" Beth said accusingly. I saw her shoulders shake.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Now turn off here."</p>
+
+<p>We turned off the main road and followed a rutted trail onto an old
+farm.</p>
+
+<p>The farmhouse was a wreck, but the barn still good. Our ship was in
+there.</p>
+
+<p>The door opened as we walked toward the barn. Ristal's tall figure was
+framed in the doorway, and behind him stood Kresh, broad and ungainly.
+The others crowded up behind them.</p>
+
+<p>"Good work, Marko," Ristal said. We went into the ship, which filled the
+whole interior of the barn.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Commander Ristal, of the Venusian Intelligence," I told Copperd
+and Beth.</p>
+
+<p>"What's <i>your</i> official title?" Beth asked bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a special agent and language expert," I told her. Then I explained
+why I had brought them here.</p>
+
+<p>"Our civilization is in some way far in advance of yours. As you see, we
+have mastered interplanetary travel. But it is essentially a peaceful
+civilization. Our weapons, such as we have, are of limited range and
+power.</p>
+
+<p>"When it became known that Earth was developing monstrous weapons of
+aggression we realized that we must be prepared for the worst. There was
+only one way to discover what you already had and what you were working
+on. Once we arrived here we found that a man named Copperd was the prime
+figure in his country's atomic weapons research. It became our duty to
+seek him out."</p>
+
+<p>"I see," Copperd grunted. "And now you expect me to reveal secrets which
+I am bound by oath to protect with my very life?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will reveal them," Ristal told him.</p>
+
+<p>I didn't like the way Ristal said that. There was a tinge of cruelty in
+his tone and in the sudden tightening of his lips. I hadn't ever worked
+with him before, or with Kresh, who was Ristal's second in command, but
+I didn't like the methods their manner implied. Copperd looked worried.</p>
+
+<p>"I told you we were a peaceful people," I put in.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me handle this," Ristal said. He pointed to a machine which stood
+in a corner.</p>
+
+<p>"That," he explained to Copperd, "is a device which we ordinarily use in
+surgery and diagnosis. It has the faculty of making the nerves
+infinitely more sensitive to stimuli. Also to pain. Do you understand?"</p>
+
+<p>"You can't use that on him!" I said. Ristal looked at me strangely.</p>
+
+<p>"Of course not. But on his daughter, yes. No father likes to see his
+daughter suffer."</p>
+
+<p>"That's out," I said flatly. "You know what our orders are."</p>
+
+<p>"I know what they were. This is my own idea, Marko. Please remember that
+I am commander here."</p>
+
+<p>I was duty bound to obey him, and I thought that I <i>was</i> going to obey.
+But as Kresh stepped toward Beth I found myself between them.</p>
+
+<p>"I think that those higher up may have something to say about this," I
+told Ristal.</p>
+
+<p>"With the information this man can give me I shall be in a position to
+ignore those higher up," Ristal grinned.</p>
+
+<p>Kresh reached for Beth and I hit him. I knew now what Ristal had in
+mind. With atomic weapons he could make himself master of Venus, and of
+Earth. But even more important than that was the thought that he must
+not harm Beth.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>Kresh was coming back at me. I hit him again and he went down. Then the
+others came piling in. There were four of them, too many for me. I
+fought like a madman but they overwhelmed me and held me helpless.</p>
+
+<p>"Give him a shot of <i>bental</i>," Ristal ordered. "That ought to quiet him.
+Then dump him in a cabin. We'll dispose of him later."</p>
+
+<p>Then Kresh was coming at me with the hypodermic needle. I felt it stab
+into my arm. He gave me a dose that might have killed an ordinary man.</p>
+
+<p>I knew how <i>bental</i> worked. It was a drug that would throw me into a
+stupor, that would render my mind blank. Already it was taking effect. I
+pretended to be unconscious. Two men lifted me and carried me to a
+cabin, dropped me on the bunk and went out. The last thing I saw from
+beneath my lids was Beth being dragged toward that diabolical machine.</p>
+
+<p>My senses were leaving me. I knew that I had to overcome the effects of
+the drug. I knew that I had to get out of that cabin. Somehow I dragged
+myself out of the bunk and got a porthole open. I crawled through it and
+dropped to the floor of the barn.</p>
+
+<p>There were some loose boards and I pried them further apart and crawled
+out into the open. I no longer knew what I was doing; I no longer
+remembered Beth. I only knew that I had to run and keep on running.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>My broken rib was stabbing into me like a knife. Across my chest the
+limb of the tree was a dead weight that crushed me. But now I knew who I
+was and what I was doing.</p>
+
+<p>Despite the agony I managed to get my hands under the limb. I pushed up
+and felt it move. The pressure on my chest was gone. Inch by inch I slid
+out from beneath the huge branch. I staggered to my feet.</p>
+
+<p>How much time had elapsed I didn't know. I was running again, but now I
+was running toward the dark barn. It wouldn't have taken Ristal long to
+get started. Maybe by now Beth was.... I shut the thought from my mind.</p>
+
+<p>I was a few hundred yards away when the first scream came. Through the
+wind and the pelting rain it came, and it chilled me more than they had
+done.</p>
+
+<p>My chest was aflame with every panting breath I took. But I ran as I had
+never run before. I had to get there before she screamed again. I had to
+stop them from doing this to her.</p>
+
+<p>The barn door was locked. I got my fingers under the edge and ripped the
+wood away from the lock and went on through and into the ship.</p>
+
+<p>None of them saw me coming. Copperd was tied in a chair, his face
+contorted and tears streaming down his face. Three of the men held Beth
+while Ristal and Kresh worked over her. The rest were watching.</p>
+
+<p>They hadn't taken my <i>del</i> gun from me. But I couldn't use it for fear
+of hitting Beth. I had it out of my pocket and in my hand as I charged
+across the room.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+<p>My rush brought me into point-blank range on a line parallel with Beth's
+prostrate figure. At the same time her torturers wheeled about to face
+me, trapped for an instant in the paralysis of complete surprise. Ristal
+was the first to recover.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop the gun, Marko," he said.</p>
+
+<p>In my weakened condition, habit governed my reflexes. I almost obeyed
+the order. Then Ristal took a single step forward and I swung the muzzle
+of the gun upward again.</p>
+
+<p>"You almost had me," I said. "But you are no longer in command. You and
+Kresh will return as prisoners, to face trial."</p>
+
+<p>I hoped that he would accept the inevitable. Our crew could plead that
+they had done nothing except follow the orders of their commanding
+officer. But for Kresh and Ristal there could be no mitigating
+circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>They would stand trial and they would receive the harshest of
+punishments, exile. It was a bleak outlook for them, and the bleakness
+was reflected in their faces. Ristal's hand flicked to his gun.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3>I pulled the trigger and a sizzling bolt of energy leaped forth</h3>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p>I fired once and there was the smell of searing flesh.</p>
+
+<p>"Kresh?" I asked. He looked down at the faceless figure on the floor and
+shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>He raised his elbows, leaving his holster exposed. I nodded to one of
+the crewmen and he stepped forward and removed Kresh's <i>del</i> gun.</p>
+
+<p>"Drop it on the floor," I said. "Then tear off his insignia and lock him
+in the forward cabin."</p>
+
+<p>It was the end of the mutiny. But I felt no joy at that. My chest pained
+intolerably, my shoulders sagged in exhaustion. And I had failed in my
+mission.</p>
+
+<p>Beth was all right. I went to her and tore the electrodes from her
+wrists and ankles and helped her to her feet. She refused to look at me,
+even allowing me to untie her father by myself.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret that it turned out this way," I said.</p>
+
+<p>"How could it turn out any other way?" Beth demanded suddenly. "Do you
+think we'd trust you now?"</p>
+
+<p>Off in the night a siren wailed. I listened while another siren joined
+the first.</p>
+
+<p>"They're already looking for you," I said. "Which shows how little
+chance I would have had of getting to you openly. You'd better be going
+now."</p>
+
+<p>But as I led them to the door I knew I had to make one more attempt.</p>
+
+<p>"Professor Copperd, do you think there might still be hope? We of Venus
+can offer much to Earth."</p>
+
+<p>"Maybe there <i>is</i> hope," he said, and he looked brighter than I had ever
+seen him look. "I was reaching the point where I had no faith in the
+future. But now, knowing that you have solved the problems which we
+face.... Perhaps, if the proper arrangements were made.... But you would
+be risking a great deal to return. And I can assure you that for a long
+time Venus will be safe. So you have no reason&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a good reason for coming back," I interrupted. Taking Beth by
+the shoulders, I swung her about to face me.</p>
+
+<p>"I love you," I said. "I started out to trick you and ended by loving
+you."</p>
+
+<p>Then her arms were about me and her lips were on mine. I felt my face
+wet with her tears, and I knew that my love was returned. There were
+still problems to face, dangers to overcome, but they didn't matter.</p>
+
+<p>"It may be a year," I said. "Perhaps two years."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll be waiting. I'll be standing here, waiting for you."</p>
+
+<p>Now the sirens were very close and there were searchlights sweeping the
+fields and the woods. I watched Beth and her father walking away and
+then I closed the door. I should have felt sad, but I didn't. A year or
+two weren't much. On this planet far from my own, I was leaving my
+heart, and I would return one day to redeem it.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plotters, by Alexander Blade
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+</pre>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plotters, by Alexander Blade
+
+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 Plotters
+
+Author: Alexander Blade
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2010 [EBook #32801]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PLOTTERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE PLOTTERS
+
+                          By ALEXANDER BLADE
+
+[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories December
+1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
+copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+
+[Sidenote: He came from a far planet to find some of the Earth's
+secrets. But Marko found other things, too--like his love for beautiful
+Beth]
+
+
+It seemed to be the same tree that kept getting in my way. I tried to go
+around it but it moved with me and I ran right into it. I found myself
+sprawled on my back and my nose was bleeding where I had hit it against
+the tree. Then I got up and ran again.
+
+I had to keep running. I didn't know why; I just had to. There was a
+puddle of water and I splashed through it and then slipped and fell into
+a thorny bush. When I got up there were scratches on my hands and face
+and chest.
+
+As yet I felt no pain. That wouldn't come for a while, after I had done
+a lot more running. But at the moment I couldn't feel a thing.
+
+In my conscious mind there was only a sort of grayness. I didn't know
+where I was, or who I was, or why I was running. I didn't know that if I
+ran long enough and bumped into enough trees and scratched myself often
+enough I would eventually feel pain. Or that out of the exertion and the
+pain would come awareness.
+
+All that must have been there, but buried so deep it didn't come
+through. It was only instinct which kept me going.
+
+The same tree was in my way again and this time I didn't even try to go
+around it. My breath was knocked out of me. After a few gasps it came
+back, and then I was off again.
+
+I went up a rise and down into a hollow and tripped over roots. That
+time I didn't fall. I went up the other side of the hollow with the wind
+whistling in my ears. A few drops of rain fell. There were flashes of
+lightning in the sky.
+
+Wet leaves whipped against my face and there was a crack of thunder so
+close that it shook me. I ran away from the thunder and up another rise
+and down into another hollow.
+
+The wind was stronger now. It came in long blasts. Sometimes I ran with
+it and sometimes against it. When I ran against it I didn't make much
+headway, but my legs kept pumping. There was tall grass to slow me down
+and there were roots to trip me. There was the wind and the thunder and
+the lightning. And there were always trees.
+
+And then there was a terrible flash and above me a crack that was not of
+thunder. Something came crashing down. It was the limb of a tree. It
+crashed against my chest and smashed me flat on my back and pinned me
+there.
+
+One of my ribs felt broken. It jabbed into me as I fought to raise this
+weight from my chest, and this was a pain I could feel.
+
+This was something that hurt as nothing had ever hurt me before. This
+was excruciating. But it was the pain that cut through the grayness of
+my mind, and because of that I welcomed it.
+
+With the pain would come knowledge. I would know who I was and why I was
+running. Already there were figures racing across the blankness. There
+were faces and there were names: Ristal, Kresh, Marko, Copperd, Beth.
+
+I was Marko. I knew that much already. Beth was the golden girl. Somehow
+I knew that too. But who were the others?
+
+It wasn't coming fast enough. I couldn't find the connections. There was
+only one way to bring it back, to bridge the gaps. I had to start
+somewhere, with what I knew. I had to start with myself and then bridge
+the gap to Beth. That was the beginning.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I checked with the mirror for the last time and decided that I would
+pass muster. As far as I could see, I looked like almost any college
+student.
+
+There wasn't anything I could do about my hair. It hadn't grown at all.
+It was a mass of short, black ringlets that fit my head like a tight
+cap. But there was no use worrying about that.
+
+Mrs. Mara came down the hall just as I was locking the door. She looked
+hurt when she saw me turn the key.
+
+"You don't have to do that in my house," she said. "There's nobody would
+think of going into your room."
+
+"Of course not," I said. "It's just force of habit, you know."
+
+I smiled and hoped she would pass it off as lightly as I seemed to. The
+last thing in the world I wanted was to have her get suspicious and go
+prowling about my room. I felt easier when she smiled back at me.
+
+"Sure. And where are you off to, now?"
+
+"Swimming," I said. "That is, if I can get into the college pool."
+
+"Just act like you own the place and nobody will ask you any questions,"
+she said, and winked at me.
+
+That was exactly the way I had figured it, but it was good to have
+reassurance. Theoretically, no one was supposed to use the pool who was
+not a member of the faculty or student body. Enforcement, however, was
+lax, and the chances were that nobody would ask to see my card.
+
+Mrs. Mara and I were right. The day was hot, and the men who were
+supposed to be watching the entrance were sitting in the shade of the
+stands and quenching their thirst with soft drinks. I walked right in,
+looking straight ahead.
+
+It was a large pool, used for skating in winter, and there were stands
+built on three sides. Instead of going down to the locker rooms, I
+merely slipped out of my shirt and trousers, rolled them into a ball and
+dropped them beside the pool. A good many others had also worn their
+swim suits underneath.
+
+Then I looked around for the girl.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+She was down near the other end of the pool, talking to some people. As
+I came toward them she left the group and climbed up on the diving
+board.
+
+Against her white bathing suit, her small trim figure showed golden. Her
+hair was almost the same color. She looked like the bathing suit models
+I had seen in store windows. The golden model came to life as she left
+the board in a high, arching dive. She hit the water with hardly a
+splash.
+
+"Nice stuff, Beth," one of the men said as she swam toward them.
+
+"Was it really, Ken?" the girl asked.
+
+He nodded as he said it was. They began to talk about diving and
+swimming. The man called Ken did most of the talking. He said he wanted
+to show her a few things about her swimming stroke.
+
+He jumped off the edge of the pool and swam across and then turned
+around and swam back. Everybody stopped what they were doing and watched
+him. When he clambered out he smiled in a very superior way.
+
+"See what I mean? You've got to use your legs more."
+
+"You splash too much," I said.
+
+It was the only way I could think of at the moment to get into the
+conversation. But it got me in. Everybody was looking at me as though I
+were out of my mind. Ken sneered.
+
+"Oh, I do?"
+
+"Don't take it offensively," I said. "But you really do. Also your arm
+motion is not good."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+He was so angry that it was almost funny. Now I was sorry I had spoken,
+because the girl might be a close friend of his and she might take
+offense.
+
+"Maybe you would like to show me how it's done," Ken said hotly. "I
+could make it worth your while. Suppose we race two lengths. For ten
+dollars."
+
+"That's not fair, Ken," the girl said.
+
+I could see that she didn't like the way he was taking it, so that was
+all right. But I hesitated. I didn't have ten dollars. On the other
+hand, I had been watching these people swim.
+
+It was an easy way to make ten dollars, since I had no other means of
+getting money. There was the hundred dollars which I had taken from a
+man on the road the day I came into town, but that money was gone.
+
+"Come on," I said, and started walking to the end of the pool.
+
+When I got there I bent and dipped one foot into the water. It was
+colder than the water I had been used to, and not quite as heavy,
+somehow. I pulled my foot out quickly and everybody laughed, except the
+girl.
+
+"This isn't right," she said. She turned to me. "You don't know who Ken
+is, apparently."
+
+"You are very kind," I said. I smiled at her and she smiled back. She
+had blue eyes.
+
+By that time the pool had been cleared. Everybody was out of the water
+and standing at the edge. Ken said, "Whenever you're ready."
+
+"I am ready now," I said. And immediately one of his friends gave the
+signal, "Go!"
+
+Ken jumped in first. Then I dived in. Once in the water it did not feel
+so cold nor so light. I swam down to the other end and turned around and
+swam back. When I climbed out, Ken was just making his turn at the far
+end. Everyone was looking at me very strangely. Ken came out rubbing his
+shoulder.
+
+"Must have pulled a muscle," he muttered.
+
+"In that case I wouldn't think of taking your money," I told him.
+
+"I don't believe I've seen you around before," he said. "You've got to
+have a card to swim here, you know.'
+
+"Well, I don't have one. So I suppose I had better go."
+
+"Of all the cheap tricks," the girl said. "I think I'll go too. Wait for
+me."
+
+I waited for her while she went to get dressed. I put on my trousers
+over my swimming trunks, put on my shirt and shoes and sat on a bench
+and waited. When she came out we started for the exit. Ken came hurrying
+toward us.
+
+"I thought I was taking you home," he said, his face red with anger.
+
+She didn't bother to reply and he put his hand on her arm. I told him to
+let go and he let go. Then he swung around and hit me on the jaw with
+all his might. I grabbed his arm with one hand and his throat with the
+other and threw him into the middle of the pool.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Things were going better than I expected. As we walked along, she seemed
+quite interested in me. I told her my name and she told me that she was
+Beth Copperd, the daughter of a professor at the university. I pretended
+that I had not known those things.
+
+When we got to her home, which was on a tree lined street, we paused for
+a moment. Across the street there was a car with a man sitting in it,
+pretending to read a newspaper.
+
+I knew all about that man. I knew there was another man who was watching
+the back of the house. If not for that I would not have had to go
+through this lengthy affair with Beth Copperd.
+
+"I regret very much this trouble with your friend," I said.
+
+"You needn't. He's had it coming for a long time." She stared at me
+thoughtfully. "You know, Marko, I'm a little afraid of you."
+
+"Of me? But why?"
+
+"Well," she hesitated, "it's hard to say. But when a man jumps into a
+pool and swims so much faster than one of our country's best swimmers,
+and then picks up that swimmer and throws him fifty feet without the
+slightest effort ... well, that man is slightly unusual, to say the
+least."
+
+"Oh, the swimming...."
+
+I hadn't thought that what was quite ordinary for me might seem exactly
+the opposite to these people. I had blundered. So I tried to shrug it
+off, as though such things were common among my people. Which they were.
+But that line only dragged me deeper. This girl was no fool.
+
+"That's what I meant, Marko. You aren't being modest. You're acting as
+though you're used to such feats, and take them as a matter of course.
+And there's your accent. I can't quite place it."
+
+"Some day I'll tell you all about it," I said lightly. "When we know
+each other better."
+
+"That's going pretty fast, isn't it?"
+
+"Some of us have found that we don't have all the time we should like.
+We must go fast, or not at all."
+
+It was a platitude, slightly jumbled, but none the less true. Beth was
+looking up at me. There were things she might have noticed; that my skin
+was uncommonly smooth, and that I hadn't even the faintest trace of
+whiskers.
+
+She didn't notice those things. She was looking into my eyes. I found
+myself enjoying this experience.
+
+"Will you come in for a while?" she asked slowly.
+
+I relaxed. Everything was all right, for the present. She was taking me
+at face value. She liked me and I liked her. The operation was
+proceeding smoothly.
+
+We walked into a large room, pleasantly furnished. On a couch opposite
+the doorway three men sat talking. Two others stood before them. The
+moment we entered, the conversation stopped abruptly.
+
+"Beth?" said a tall, graying man. He was already stuffing papers into a
+bag. "Back so soon?"
+
+He wasn't really listening for a reply and Beth didn't make one. When he
+had the papers in the bag he locked it, then snapped it around his wrist
+and put the key in his pocket.
+
+"We'll continue this at the lab," he said to the men. "I'll be along in
+just a few minutes." Then he came up to us.
+
+"I see you've replaced your blond young man," he smiled.
+
+I knew all about this man who stood before me, with his stooped
+shoulders and keen eyes. Eldeth Copperd would have been surprised at the
+extent of my knowledge. I even knew why his government considered it
+wise to have several of its security agents near him at all times.
+
+"Can't you stay a minute and get acquainted with Marko?" Beth was
+saying. "He's really a remarkable fellow. He can swim faster than you or
+I could run."
+
+"Literally? That would be quite fast."
+
+"Literally."
+
+He looked at me with sudden interest and I was sorry the conversation
+had taken that turn. I didn't want those keen eyes examining me too
+closely. They might note the absence of skin porosity.
+
+Copperd didn't notice, but I made a mental note to watch my step. And
+another not to go swimming again. Beth would be watching me, and if she
+were close enough she might see the webbing pop out between my fingers
+and toes when I got into the water.
+
+"That's my father," Beth said after he and I had shaken hands and he had
+left. "Demands exactness. He's a scientist, you know. A physicist."
+
+"Oh?" I said. As if I hadn't known. "Is he always this busy?"
+
+"Busier. If he isn't working at the lab till all hours, he's working at
+home in his study. Or having conferences. The only time I have him alone
+and to myself is Sunday evening."
+
+That was the information I had been hoping for.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Beth and I sat on the couch her father had vacated. We talked. I watched
+my words carefully; there were a good many commonplace things I knew
+nothing about. And I didn't want any more questions about myself.
+Fortunately, conversation between a young man and a young woman is much
+the same everywhere. I didn't have to pretend I was interested in Beth.
+She was unusually attractive. And she seemed to find me so.
+
+We talked a bit, laughed a good deal, and when I got up to leave I knew
+that I had done well in the initial stage. But there was still a good
+deal to be done.
+
+"May I see you tonight?" I asked. "Just a 'coke date'."
+
+That was an expression I'd heard and had taken the trouble to make
+certain I understood. It seemed to be just the thing in the present
+case.
+
+"I'd like that," Beth said. "Pick me up about nine."
+
+Her choice of time could not have been more suitable. I was out of
+money. There was Mrs. Mara to be paid, and now the cost of the evening's
+entertainment.
+
+Until darkness fell I could do nothing about that. So I went back to my
+room and read old newspapers I had collected. I had discovered on my
+first day that those were the best sources of information. Those and the
+moving pictures.
+
+For one who must learn a great deal about a people in a short time there
+is one infallible way: watch them in their favorite sports and
+relaxations. The moving pictures and the comic strips had been
+invaluable. In another few weeks I could have passed anywhere.
+
+At eight o'clock it was growing dark. I changed my shirt, put on a sport
+coat and left the room. Five minutes later I was walking down a quiet
+street that was lined with fashionable homes.
+
+After that it was merely a question of time. I went around the block,
+found that it was still too light, and went around again, this time
+slowly.
+
+There was only one man on the street on my next time around. I sized him
+up quickly and decided that he was prosperous. He came on toward me. I
+managed to be looking the other way.
+
+We bumped into each other and he fell. I said, "Sorry" and bent to help
+him up. My fingers touched his throat in the proper places and he went
+limp.
+
+Within a matter of seconds I had his wallet out of his pocket and
+extracted several bills. When his eyes flickered again I was just
+raising him to his feet.
+
+"All my fault," I said contritely. "Are you all right?"
+
+"Seem to be." He was gruff, but that was all. He didn't know that for a
+matter of seconds he had been unconscious.
+
+At nine o'clock I came up the walk to the Copperd home. This time the
+security agent was leaning against a tree, lighting a cigarette. I made
+certain that he saw my face clearly.
+
+One upstairs window showed a light, and the faint murmur of voices
+drifted down. That had to be Copperd's room. Then a porch light flashed
+on and Beth came out of the door. She was wearing a white dress and the
+overhead light seemed to create a golden halo above her head.
+
+I momentarily forgot about her father.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+How much can a man learn in a few weeks? I had to be so very careful.
+Historical matters had to be avoided at all costs. Contemporary affairs
+were fine. Philosophy was best.
+
+Philosophy is always the best. Good and evil are present everywhere.
+They can be discussed in the vaguest terms. We discussed many things in
+vague terms.
+
+And yet there was a sense of intimacy which grew between us. It was hard
+for me to define, and after a while I gave up trying to discover what it
+was. I merely enjoyed it.
+
+When I took her home I knew that it was not fear of the dark that made
+her walk so close to me. The movies had taught me a great deal about
+this matter of love play. Although some of it was highly exaggerated, it
+showed clearly enough the drives of these people, and some of their
+methods of acting them out.
+
+We were standing on the porch when I kissed Beth. It was the first time
+I had ever pressed my lips to those of anyone else. My technique was
+good. I felt Beth respond, pressing harder against me.
+
+My mission was on its way to completion. I felt a moment of triumph. And
+then suddenly, crazily, my mission was gone from my mind. I felt only a
+strange exhilaration that swept over me and made my heart pound and my
+head grow hot.
+
+"What's the matter, Marko?" Beth asked as I pulled away.
+
+I didn't know what was wrong. I didn't try to figure it out. I had to
+get out of there and try to regain my equilibrium. On a mission like
+mine I had to keep my head.
+
+"Shall I see you tomorrow?" I said.
+
+"All the tomorrow's you want," Beth answered.
+
+There was eagerness, and yet a note of regret. It was as though she
+instinctively knew that something was wrong. But my work had been well
+done; she was in too far, and I had cut her emotional line of retreat.
+
+I saw Beth the next afternoon, and the next evening. My presence on the
+porch and in her home became such a common thing that the security agent
+hardly gave me a glance now.
+
+Those few days passed by swiftly, and yet each hour in those days was
+long. I was very cautious; Beth and I kissed many times but I never
+allowed myself to be moved as on that first time.
+
+Sunday loomed larger and larger, closer and closer. I was a constant and
+ever present guest. It was an elementary matter to get Beth to invite me
+for Sunday dinner. The invitation came on Saturday night, and that night
+when I came back to my room I called Ristal for the first time since we
+had arrived.
+
+"Tomorrow," I said into the _besnal_. "Early evening."
+
+"Good."
+
+That was all we said, but it was enough. Our frequency was too high to
+be picked up. Still, we were taking no chances. Ristal knew precisely
+what I meant and he would be ready.
+
+I had the feeling that comes when a mission is about to be completed.
+There was a feeling of tension, and yet for the first time in my career
+I had a lowering of spirits that I could not explain.
+
+The feeling persisted until late Sunday afternoon. Then I pushed it from
+my mind. I dressed carefully, slipped the _besnal_ into my inner pocket,
+and put my _del_ gun in my coat pocket.
+
+"Take your coat off," Beth said when I came in. "You ought to know
+there's no formality here."
+
+"I'm really quite comfortable," I told her. "Am I late?"
+
+"No. Just on time. Dad will be down in a moment."
+
+He came down the stairs from his study while we were talking. He greeted
+me warmly, and yet I felt that this time he was scrutinizing me. All
+during the dinner his eyes were on me, weighing me. I felt what was
+coming, and as we rose from the table it came.
+
+"I hope you won't be offended, Marko," Copperd said. "But there are some
+strange things about you. Do you ever shave?"
+
+"No," I said. I looked out the window and saw it was growing darker.
+
+"That's odd. And about your hair ... have you ever realized that every
+strand of it grows in a different direction? You could never comb it.
+Your skin is of an unusually fine texture. And when you reached for
+something at the table I observed strange folds of skin between your
+fingers. You are somehow not like the rest of us."
+
+"Naturally," I said. It didn't matter now. It was dark enough.
+
+"Why naturally?"
+
+"Because," I told him, "I am a Venusian."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My tone was matter of fact. Yet they knew that I was not joking. Beth
+was staring at me, a growing fear and horror in her eyes. Her father
+seemed dazed by the revelation. I took the _del_ gun from my pocket and
+showed it to them.
+
+"This is a weapon strange to you. But it is effective at this range.
+Please don't make me use it."
+
+"But what do you want?" Copperd asked.
+
+"I want you to take a ride with me. In your car."
+
+I let them put on their coats and then we walked out onto the porch and
+down the stairs. Across the street the security agent barely glanced at
+us. Then we got into Copperd's car, Beth and he in the front seat and I
+in the back. I told him in which direction to go.
+
+At the outskirts of town we lost the car that was following us. I had
+planned this part of it perfectly. We pulled into a side road and turned
+off our lights. The agent went right past us.
+
+"What is it you want of me?" Copperd said as we started up again.
+
+"We want to have a long discussion with you about some matters on which
+you are an authority."
+
+"And that's what this whole affair with me was for? So that you could
+get to my father!" Beth said accusingly. I saw her shoulders shake.
+
+"Yes. Now turn off here."
+
+We turned off the main road and followed a rutted trail onto an old
+farm.
+
+The farmhouse was a wreck, but the barn still good. Our ship was in
+there.
+
+The door opened as we walked toward the barn. Ristal's tall figure was
+framed in the doorway, and behind him stood Kresh, broad and ungainly.
+The others crowded up behind them.
+
+"Good work, Marko," Ristal said. We went into the ship, which filled the
+whole interior of the barn.
+
+"This is Commander Ristal, of the Venusian Intelligence," I told Copperd
+and Beth.
+
+"What's _your_ official title?" Beth asked bitterly.
+
+"I am a special agent and language expert," I told her. Then I explained
+why I had brought them here.
+
+"Our civilization is in some way far in advance of yours. As you see, we
+have mastered interplanetary travel. But it is essentially a peaceful
+civilization. Our weapons, such as we have, are of limited range and
+power.
+
+"When it became known that Earth was developing monstrous weapons of
+aggression we realized that we must be prepared for the worst. There was
+only one way to discover what you already had and what you were working
+on. Once we arrived here we found that a man named Copperd was the prime
+figure in his country's atomic weapons research. It became our duty to
+seek him out."
+
+"I see," Copperd grunted. "And now you expect me to reveal secrets which
+I am bound by oath to protect with my very life?"
+
+"You will reveal them," Ristal told him.
+
+I didn't like the way Ristal said that. There was a tinge of cruelty in
+his tone and in the sudden tightening of his lips. I hadn't ever worked
+with him before, or with Kresh, who was Ristal's second in command, but
+I didn't like the methods their manner implied. Copperd looked worried.
+
+"I told you we were a peaceful people," I put in.
+
+"Let me handle this," Ristal said. He pointed to a machine which stood
+in a corner.
+
+"That," he explained to Copperd, "is a device which we ordinarily use in
+surgery and diagnosis. It has the faculty of making the nerves
+infinitely more sensitive to stimuli. Also to pain. Do you understand?"
+
+"You can't use that on him!" I said. Ristal looked at me strangely.
+
+"Of course not. But on his daughter, yes. No father likes to see his
+daughter suffer."
+
+"That's out," I said flatly. "You know what our orders are."
+
+"I know what they were. This is my own idea, Marko. Please remember that
+I am commander here."
+
+I was duty bound to obey him, and I thought that I _was_ going to obey.
+But as Kresh stepped toward Beth I found myself between them.
+
+"I think that those higher up may have something to say about this," I
+told Ristal.
+
+"With the information this man can give me I shall be in a position to
+ignore those higher up," Ristal grinned.
+
+Kresh reached for Beth and I hit him. I knew now what Ristal had in
+mind. With atomic weapons he could make himself master of Venus, and of
+Earth. But even more important than that was the thought that he must
+not harm Beth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Kresh was coming back at me. I hit him again and he went down. Then the
+others came piling in. There were four of them, too many for me. I
+fought like a madman but they overwhelmed me and held me helpless.
+
+"Give him a shot of _bental_," Ristal ordered. "That ought to quiet him.
+Then dump him in a cabin. We'll dispose of him later."
+
+Then Kresh was coming at me with the hypodermic needle. I felt it stab
+into my arm. He gave me a dose that might have killed an ordinary man.
+
+I knew how _bental_ worked. It was a drug that would throw me into a
+stupor, that would render my mind blank. Already it was taking effect. I
+pretended to be unconscious. Two men lifted me and carried me to a
+cabin, dropped me on the bunk and went out. The last thing I saw from
+beneath my lids was Beth being dragged toward that diabolical machine.
+
+My senses were leaving me. I knew that I had to overcome the effects of
+the drug. I knew that I had to get out of that cabin. Somehow I dragged
+myself out of the bunk and got a porthole open. I crawled through it and
+dropped to the floor of the barn.
+
+There were some loose boards and I pried them further apart and crawled
+out into the open. I no longer knew what I was doing; I no longer
+remembered Beth. I only knew that I had to run and keep on running.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My broken rib was stabbing into me like a knife. Across my chest the
+limb of the tree was a dead weight that crushed me. But now I knew who I
+was and what I was doing.
+
+Despite the agony I managed to get my hands under the limb. I pushed up
+and felt it move. The pressure on my chest was gone. Inch by inch I slid
+out from beneath the huge branch. I staggered to my feet.
+
+How much time had elapsed I didn't know. I was running again, but now I
+was running toward the dark barn. It wouldn't have taken Ristal long to
+get started. Maybe by now Beth was.... I shut the thought from my mind.
+
+I was a few hundred yards away when the first scream came. Through the
+wind and the pelting rain it came, and it chilled me more than they had
+done.
+
+My chest was aflame with every panting breath I took. But I ran as I had
+never run before. I had to get there before she screamed again. I had to
+stop them from doing this to her.
+
+The barn door was locked. I got my fingers under the edge and ripped the
+wood away from the lock and went on through and into the ship.
+
+None of them saw me coming. Copperd was tied in a chair, his face
+contorted and tears streaming down his face. Three of the men held Beth
+while Ristal and Kresh worked over her. The rest were watching.
+
+They hadn't taken my _del_ gun from me. But I couldn't use it for fear
+of hitting Beth. I had it out of my pocket and in my hand as I charged
+across the room.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+My rush brought me into point-blank range on a line parallel with Beth's
+prostrate figure. At the same time her torturers wheeled about to face
+me, trapped for an instant in the paralysis of complete surprise. Ristal
+was the first to recover.
+
+"Drop the gun, Marko," he said.
+
+In my weakened condition, habit governed my reflexes. I almost obeyed
+the order. Then Ristal took a single step forward and I swung the muzzle
+of the gun upward again.
+
+"You almost had me," I said. "But you are no longer in command. You and
+Kresh will return as prisoners, to face trial."
+
+I hoped that he would accept the inevitable. Our crew could plead that
+they had done nothing except follow the orders of their commanding
+officer. But for Kresh and Ristal there could be no mitigating
+circumstances.
+
+They would stand trial and they would receive the harshest of
+punishments, exile. It was a bleak outlook for them, and the bleakness
+was reflected in their faces. Ristal's hand flicked to his gun.
+
+[Illustration: I pulled the trigger and a sizzling bolt of energy leaped
+forth]
+
+I fired once and there was the smell of searing flesh.
+
+"Kresh?" I asked. He looked down at the faceless figure on the floor and
+shook his head.
+
+He raised his elbows, leaving his holster exposed. I nodded to one of
+the crewmen and he stepped forward and removed Kresh's _del_ gun.
+
+"Drop it on the floor," I said. "Then tear off his insignia and lock him
+in the forward cabin."
+
+It was the end of the mutiny. But I felt no joy at that. My chest pained
+intolerably, my shoulders sagged in exhaustion. And I had failed in my
+mission.
+
+Beth was all right. I went to her and tore the electrodes from her
+wrists and ankles and helped her to her feet. She refused to look at me,
+even allowing me to untie her father by myself.
+
+"I regret that it turned out this way," I said.
+
+"How could it turn out any other way?" Beth demanded suddenly. "Do you
+think we'd trust you now?"
+
+Off in the night a siren wailed. I listened while another siren joined
+the first.
+
+"They're already looking for you," I said. "Which shows how little
+chance I would have had of getting to you openly. You'd better be going
+now."
+
+But as I led them to the door I knew I had to make one more attempt.
+
+"Professor Copperd, do you think there might still be hope? We of Venus
+can offer much to Earth."
+
+"Maybe there _is_ hope," he said, and he looked brighter than I had ever
+seen him look. "I was reaching the point where I had no faith in the
+future. But now, knowing that you have solved the problems which we
+face.... Perhaps, if the proper arrangements were made.... But you would
+be risking a great deal to return. And I can assure you that for a long
+time Venus will be safe. So you have no reason--"
+
+"I have a good reason for coming back," I interrupted. Taking Beth by
+the shoulders, I swung her about to face me.
+
+"I love you," I said. "I started out to trick you and ended by loving
+you."
+
+Then her arms were about me and her lips were on mine. I felt my face
+wet with her tears, and I knew that my love was returned. There were
+still problems to face, dangers to overcome, but they didn't matter.
+
+"It may be a year," I said. "Perhaps two years."
+
+"I'll be waiting. I'll be standing here, waiting for you."
+
+Now the sirens were very close and there were searchlights sweeping the
+fields and the woods. I watched Beth and her father walking away and
+then I closed the door. I should have felt sad, but I didn't. A year or
+two weren't much. On this planet far from my own, I was leaving my
+heart, and I would return one day to redeem it.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Plotters, by Alexander Blade
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
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author	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:58:16 -0700
committer	Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>	2025-10-14 19:58:16 -0700
commit	3827c13f546cecd5aedf472f8aa7bdf9f92981fc (patch)
tree	a075cdb4d4bbc110e00e1be611ae8f188e660cdd