by C. C. Beck
growled. "What did you want to know?"
"I understand that no interplanetary craft have left New Delos since theassassination."
"None except a United Planets ship which was carefully inspected."
Ronny said tightly, "But what facilities do you have to check on secretspaceports, possibly located in some remote desert or mountain area?"
The New Delian laughed sourly. "There is no other planet in all the UnitedPlanets with our degree of security. We even imported the most recentdevelopments in artificial satellites equipped with the most delicate ofdetection devices. I assure you, it is utterly impossible for a spacecraftto land or take off from New Delos without our knowledge."
Ronny Bronston's eyes lit with excitement. "These security measures ofyours. To what extent do you keep under observation all aliens on theplanet?"
The priest's chuckle had a nasty quality. "You are quite ignorant of ourinstitutions, evidently. Every person on New Delos, in every way of life,was under constant survey from the cradle to the grave. Aliens were highlydiscouraged. When they appeared on New Delos at all, they were restrictedin their movements to this, our capital city."
Ronny let air whistle from his lungs. "Then," he said triumphantly, "ifany alien had anything to do with this, he is still on the planet. Can youget me a list of all aliens?"
The other laughed again, still sourly. "But there are none. None exceptyou employees of United Planets. I'm afraid you're on a wild-goose chase."
Ronny stared at him blankly. "But commercial representatives, culturalexchange--"
The priest said flatly, "No. None at all. All commerce was handled throughUP. We encouraged no cultural exchanges. We wished to keep our peopleuncorrupted. United Planets alone had the right to land on our onespaceport."
The Section G agent came to his feet. This was much simpler than he couldever have hoped for. He thanked the other, but avoided the necessity ofshaking hands, and left.
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He found a helio-cab and dialed it to the UP building, finding strange thenecessity of slipping coins into the vehicle's slots until the correctamount for his destination had been deposited. Coinage was no longer inuse on Earth.
At the UP building he retraced his steps of the day before to the singleoffice of Section G.
To his surprise, not only Mouley Hassan was there, but Tog as well. Hassanhad evidently had at least a few hours of sleep. He was in better shape.
They exchanged the usual amenities and took their chairs again.
Hassan said, "We were just gossiping. It's been years since I've been inGreater Washington. Lee Chang tells me that Sid Jakes is now a Supervisor.I worked with him for a while, when I first joined Section G. How about aglass of wine?"
Ronny said, "Look. If Tommy Paine was connected with this, and it's almostpositive he was, we've got him."
The others looked at him.
"You've evidently been busy," Tog said mildly.
He turned to her. "He's trapped, Tog! He can't get off the planet."
Mouley Hassan rubbed a hand through his hair. "It'd be hard, all right.They've got the people under rein here such as you've never seen before.Or they did until this blew up."
Ronny sketched the situation to Tog, winding up with, "The only thing thatmakes sense is that it's a Tommy Paine job. The local citizens would neverhave been able to get their hands on such a bomb, or been able to havemade the arrangements for its delivery. They're under too muchsurveillance."
Tog said thoughtfully, "but how did he escape all this surveillance?"
"Don't you understand? He's working here, in this building, as an employeeof UP. There is no other alternative."
They stared at him.
"I think perhaps you're right," Tog said finally.
Ronny turned to Mouley Hassan. "Can you get a list of all UP employees?"
"Of course." He flicked his order box, barked a command into it.
Ronny said, "It's going to be a matter of eliminating the impossible. Forinstance, what is the earliest known case of Tommy Paine's activity?"
Tog thought back. "So far as we know definitely, about twenty-two yearsago."
"Fine," Ronny said, increasingly excited. "That will eliminate all personsless than, say, forty years of age. We can assume he was at least twentywhen he began."
Hassan said, "Can we eliminate all women employees?"
Ronny said, "I'd think so. The few times he's been seen, all reports areof a man. And that case on the planet Mother where he put himself over asa Holy Man. He could hardly have been a woman in disguise in a Stone Ageculture such as that."
Hassan said, "And this Tommy Paine has been flitting around this part ofthe galaxy for years, so anyone who has been here steadily for a period ofeven a couple of years or so, can't be suspect."
Mouley Hassan thrust his hand into a delivery drawer and brought forth ahandful of punched cards, possibly fifty in all.
"Surely there's more people than that working in this building," Ronnyprotested.
Mouley Hassan said, "No. I've eliminated already everyone who is a citizenof New Delos. Obviously, Tommy Paine is an alien. We have only forty-eightEarthlings and other United Planets citizens working here."
He carried the cards to a small collator and worked for a moment on itscontrols, as Tog and Ronny watched him with mounting tension. "Let's see,"he muttered. "We eliminate all women, all those less than forty, all whohaven't done a great deal of travel, those who have been here for severalyears."
The end of it was that they eliminated everyone employed in the UPbuilding.
The cards were stacked back on Mouley Hassan's desk again, and the threeof them sat around and looked glumly at them.
Ronny said, "He's tinkered with the files. He counterfeited fake papersfor himself, or something. Possibly he's pulled his own card and it isn'tin this stack you have."
Mouley Hassan said, "We'll double-check all those possibilities, butyou're wrong. Possibly a few hundred years ago, but not today. Forgery andcounterfeiting are things of the past. And, believe me, the Bureau ofInvestigation and especially Section G, may look on the slipshod side, butthey aren't. We're not going to find anything wrong with those cards.Tommy Paine simply is not working for UP on New Delos."
"Then," Ronny said, "there's only one alternative. He's on this UP shipgoing to, what was the name of its destination?"
"Avalon," Mouley Hassan said, his face thoughtful.
Tog said, "Do you have any ideas on the men aboard?"
Mouley Hassan said, "There were four crew men, and six of our agents."
Tog said, "Unless one of them has faked papers, the six agents areeliminated. That leaves the crew members. Do you know anything aboutthem?"
Hassan shook his head.
Ronny said, "Let's communicate with Avalon. Tell our representatives thereto be sure that none of the occupants of that ship leaves Avalon until weget there."
Mouley Hassan said, "Good idea." He turned to his screen and said into it,"Section G, Bureau of Investigation, on the Planet Avalon."
In moment the screen lit up. An elderly agent, as Section G agents seemedto go, looked up at them.
Mouley Hassan held his silver badge so the other could see it and on theAvalon agent's nod said, "I'm Hassan from New Delos. We've just had acrisis here and there seems to be a chance that it's a Tommy Paine job.Agent Bronston here is on an assignment tracking him down. I'll turn itover to Bronston."
The Avalon agent nodded again, and looked at Ronny.
Ronny said urgently, "We haven't the time to give you details, but everyindication is that Paine is on a UP spacecraft with Avalon as itsdestination. There are only ten men aboard, and six of them are Section Goperatives."
The other pursed his lips. "I see. You think you have the old foxcornered, eh?"
"Possibly," Ronny said. "There are various ifs. Miss Tog and I can doublecheck here. Then as soon as we can clear exit visas, we'll make immediateway for Avalon."
The Avalon Section G agent said, "I haven't the authority to control themovements of other agents, they have as high rank as I have," he added,expressionlessly, "and probably higher than yours."
Ronny said, "But the four-man crew?"
The other said, "These men are coming to Avalon to work on a job that willtake at least six months. We'll make a routine check, and I'll try andmake sure the whole ten will still be on Avalon when and if you arrive."
They had to be satisfied with that. They checked