by Mari Wolf
Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
Transcriber's Note:
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.
THE VERY SECRET AGENT
BY MARI WOLF
Illustrated by Ed Emsh
_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?_
* * * * *
In their ship just beyond the orbit of Mars the two aliens sat lookingat each other.
"No," Riuku said. "I haven't had any luck. And I can tell you rightnow that I'm not going to have any, and no one else is going to haveany either. The Earthmen are too well shielded."
"You contacted the factory?" Nagor asked.
"Easily. It's the right one. The parking lot attendant knows there's anew weapon being produced in there. The waitress at the Jumbo BurgerGrill across the street knows it. Everybody I reached knows it. Butnot one knows anything about what it is."
Nagor looked out through the ports of the spaceship, which didn't inthe least resemble an Earth spaceship, any more than what Nagorconsidered sight resembled the corresponding Earth sense perception.He frowned.
"What about the research scientists? We know who some of them are. Thesupervisors? The technicians?"
"No," Riuku said flatly. "They're shielded. Perfectly I can't makecontact with a single mind down there that has the faintest inkling ofwhat's going on. We never should have let them develop the shield."
"Have you tried contacting everyone? What about the workers?"
"Shielded. All ten thousand of them. Of course I haven't checked allof them yet, but--"
"Do it," Nagor said grimly. "We've got to find out what that weaponis. Or else get out of this solar system."
Riuku sighed. "I'll try," he said.
* * * * *
Someone put another dollar in the juke box, and the theremins startedin on Mare Indrium Mary for the tenth time since Pete Ganley had comeinto the bar. "Aw shut up," he said, wishing there was some way toturn 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.
Why, he asked himself irritably, couldn't those scientists figure outsome way to keep the shields up longer than a week? Or else why didn'tthey have boosting night the same for all departments? He had to staylate every Friday and Alice every Thursday, and all the time there wasSusan at home ready to jump him if he wasn't in at a reasonabletime....
"Surprised, Pete?" Alice Hendricks said at his elbow.
He swung about, grinned at her. "Am I? You said it. And here I wasabout to go. I never thought you'd make it before one." His grin fadeda little. "How'd you do it? Sweet-talk one of the guards into lettingyou in at the head of the line?"
She shook her bandanaed head, slid onto the stool beside him andcrossed her knees--a not very convincing sign of femininity in a womanwearing baggy denim coveralls. "Aren't you going to buy me a drink,honey?"
"Oh, sure." He glanced over at the bartender. "Another beer. No, makeit two." He pulled the five dollars out of his pocket, shoved itacross the bar, and looked back at Alice, more closely this time. TheID badge, pinned to her hip. The badge, with her name, number,department, and picture--and the little meter that measured thestrength of her Mind Shield.
The dial should have pointed to full charge. It didn't. It registeredabout seventy per cent loss.
Alice followed his gaze. She giggled. "It was easy," she said. "Theguards don't do more than glance at us, you know. And everyone who'ssupposed to go through Shielding on Thursday has the department numberstamped on a yellow background. So all I did was make a redbackground, like yours, and slip it on in the restroom at Clean-uptime."
"But Alice...." Pete Ganley swallowed his beer and signaled foranother. "This is serious. You've got to keep the shields up. Theenemy is everywhere. Why, right now, one could be probing you."
"So what? The dial isn't down to Danger yet. And tomorrow I'll justput the red tag back on over the yellow one and go through Shieldingin the same line with you. They won't notice." She giggled again. "Ithought it was smart, Petey. You oughta think so too. You know why Idid it, don't you?"
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 thecorners like Susan's, and under that shapeless coverall....
"Sure, baby, I'm glad you did it," Pete Ganley said huskily.
Riuku was glad too, the next afternoon when the swing shift startedpouring through the gates.
It was easy, once he'd found her. He had tested hundreds, allshielded, some almost accessible to him, but none vulnerable enough.Then this one came. The shield was so far down that contact was almosteasy. Painful, tiring, but not really difficult. He could feel hermomentary sense of alarm, of nausea, and then he was through,integrated with her, his thoughts at home with her thoughts.
He rested, inside her mind.
"Oh, hi, Joan. No, I'm all right. Just a little dizzy for a moment. Ahangover? Of course not. Not on a Friday."
Riuku listened to her half of the conversation. Stupid Earthman. Ifonly she'd start thinking about the job. Or if only his contact withher were better. If he could use her sense perceptions, see throughher eyes, hear through her ears, feel through her fingers, theneverything would be easy. But he couldn't. All he could do was readher thoughts. Earth thoughts at that....
_... The time clock. Where's my card? Oh, here it is. Only 3:57. Whydid I have to hurry so? I had lots of time...._
"Why, Mary, how nice you look today. That's a new hairdo, isn't it? Apermanent? Yeah, what kind?" _... What a microbe! Looks like pinkstraw, her hair does, and of course she thinks it's beautiful...._"I'd better get down to my station. Old Liverlips will be rantingagain. You oughta be glad you have Eddie for a lead man. Eddie's cute.So's Dave, over in 77. But Liverlips, ugh...."
She was walking down the aisle to her station now. A procession ofnames: _Maisie, and Edith, and that fat slob Natalie, and if JeanAndrews comes around tonight flashing that diamond in my face again,I'll--I'll kill her...._
"Oh hello, Clinton. What do you mean, late? The whistle just blew. Ofcourse I'm ready to go to work." _Liverlips, that's what you are. Andstill in that same blue shirt. What a wife you must have. Probably assloppy as you are...._
Good, Riuku thought. Now she'll be working. Now he'd find out whateverit was she was doing. Not that it would be important, of course, butlet 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 evenbefore the shift ended tonight, before she went through the Shieldingboost.
He shivered a little, thinking of the boost. He'd survive it, ofcourse. He'd be too well integrated with her by then. But it wasnothing to look forward to.
Still, he needn't worry about it. He had the whole shift to find outwhat the weapon was. The whole shift, here inside Alice's mind, insidethe most closely guarded factory on or under or above the surface ofthe Earth. He settled down and waited, expectantly.
Alice Hendricks turned her back on the lead man and looked down thework table to her place. The other girls were there already. Lois andMarge and Coralie, the other three members of the Plug table, Line 73.
"Hey, how'd you make out?" Marge said. She glanced aroun
d to make surenone of the lead men or timekeepers were close enough to overhear her,then went on. "Did you get away with it?"
"Sure," Alice said. "And you should of seen Pete's face when I walkedin."
She took the soldering iron out of her locker, plugged it in, andreached out for the pan of 731 wires. "You know, it's funny. Pete'snot 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 andreached for the white, black, red wire.
"You'd better watch out," Lois said. "Or Susan's going to be doingsomething to