Ultima Thule

by C. C. Beck

spots where things are ripe to boil over on their own.He acts as a catalyst. In a place like Avalon he wouldn't get to firstbase. Possibly fifty years from now, things will have developed on Avalonto the point where there is dissatisfaction. By that time," she saiddryly, "we'll assume Tommy Paine will no longer be a problem to theCommissariat of Interplanetary Affairs for one reason or the other."

  Ronny took up his book again. He growled, "I can't figure out hismotivation. If I could just put my finger on that."

  For once she agreed with him. "I've got an idea, Ronny, that once you havethat, you'll have Tommy Paine."

  -------------------------------------

  They drew blank on Avalon.

  Or, at least, it was drawn for them before they ever arrived.

  The Section G agent permanently assigned to that planet had alreadychecked and double checked the possibilities. None of the four-man crew ofthe UP spacecraft had been on New Delos at the time of the assassinationof the God-King. They, and their craft, had been light-years away onanother job.

  Ronny Bronston couldn't believe it. He simply couldn't believe it.

  The older agent, his name was Jheru Bulchand, was definite. He went overit with Ronny and Tog in a bar adjoining UP headquarters. He had dossierson each of the ten men, detailed dossiers. On the face of it, none of themcould be Paine.

  "But one of them has to be," Ronny pleaded. He explained their method ofeliminating the forty-eight employees of UP on New Delos.

  Bulchand shrugged. "You've got holes in that method of elimination. You'reassuming Tommy Paine is an individual, and you have no reason to. My owntheory is that it's an organization."

  Ronny said unhappily, "Then you're of the opinion that there is a TommyPaine?"

  The older agent was puffing comfortably on an old style briar pipe. Henodded definitely. "I believe Tommy Paine exists as an organization.Possibly once, originally, it was a single person, but now it's a group.How large, I wouldn't know. Probably not too large or by this timesomebody would have betrayed it, or somebody would have cracked and wewould have caught them. Catch one and you've got the whole organizationwhat with our modern means of interrogation."

  Tog said, "I've heard the opinion before."

  Jheru Bulchand pointed at Ronny with his pipe stem. "If its anorganization, then none of that eliminating you did is valid. Yourassassin could have been one of the women. He could have been one of themen you eliminated as too young--someone recently admitted to the TommyPaine organization."

  Ronny checked the last of his theories. "Why did Section G send six of itsagents here?"

  "Nothing to do with Tommy Paine," Bulchand said. "It's a different sort ofcrisis."

  "Just for my own satisfaction, what kind of crisis?"

  Bulchand sketched it quickly. "There are two Earth type planets in thissolar system. Avalon was the first to be colonized and developed rapidly.After a couple of centuries, Avalonians went over and settled on Catalina.They eventually set up a government of their own. Now Avalon has a surplusof industrial products. Her economic system is such that she produces morethan she can sell back to her own people. There's a glut."

  Tog said demurely, "So, of course, they want to dump it in Catalina."

  Bulchand nodded. "In fact, they're willing to give it away. They'veoffered to build railroads, turn over ships and aircraft, donate wholefactories to Catalina's slowly developing economy."

  Ronny said, "Well, how does that call for Section G agents?"

  "Catalina has evoked Article Two of the UP Charter. No member planet of UPis to interfere with the internal political, socio-economic or religiousaffairs of another member planet. Avalon claims the Charter doesn't applysince Catalina belongs to the same solar system and since she's a formercolony. We're trying to smooth the whole thing over, before Avalon dreamsup some excuse for military action."

  Ronny stared at him. "I get the feeling every other sentence is being leftout of your explanation. It just doesn't make sense. In the first place,why is Avalon as anxious as all that to give away what sounds like afantastic amount of goods?"

  "I told you, they have a glut. They've overproduced and, as a result,they've got a king-size depression on their hands, or will have unlessthey find markets."

  "Well, why not trade with some of the planets that want her products?"

  Tog said as though reasoning with a youngster, "Planets outside her ownsolar system are too far away for it to be practical even if she hadcommodities they didn't. She needs a nearby planet more backward thanherself, a planet like Catalina."

  "Well, that brings us to the more fantastic question. Why in the worlddoesn't Catalina accept? It sounds to me like pure philanthropy on thepart of Avalon."

  Bulchand was wagging his pipe stem in a negative gesture. "Bronston,governments are never motivated by idealistic reasons. Individuals mightbe, and even small groups, but governments never. Governments, includingthat of Avalon, exist for the benefit of the class or classes that controlthem. The only things that motivate them are the interests of that class."

  "Well, this sounds like an exception," Ronny said argumentatively. "Howcan Catalina lose if the Avalonians grant them railroads, factories andall the rest of it?"

  Tog said, "Don't you see, Ronny? It gives Avalon a foothold in theCatalina economy. When the locomotives wear out on the railroad, newengines, new parts, must be purchased. They won't be available on Catalinabecause there will be no railroad industry because none will have evergrown up. Catalina manufacturers couldn't compete with that initial freegift. They'll be dependent on Avalon for future equipment. In thefactories, when machines wear out, they will be replaceable only with theproducts of Avalon's industry."

  Bulchand said, "There's an analogy in the early history of the UnitedStates. When its fledgling steel industry began, they set up a high tariffto protect it against British competition. The British were amazed andindignant, pointing out that they could sell American steel products atone third the local prices, if only allowed to do so. The United Statessaid no thanks, it didn't want to be tied, industrially, to GreatBritain's apron strings. And in a couple of decades American steelproduction passed England's. In a couple of more decades American steelproduction was many times that of England's and she was taking Britishmarkets away from her all over the globe."

  "At any rate," Ronny said, "it's not a Tommy Paine matter."

  Just for luck, though, Ronny and Tog double checked all over again onBulchand's efforts. They interviewed all six of the Section G agents. Eachof them carried a silver badge that gleamed only for the individual whopossessed it. All of which eliminated the possibility that Paine hadassumed the identity of a Section G operative. So that was out.

  They checked the four crew members, but there was no doubt there, either.The craft had been far away at the time of the assassination on New Delos.

  On the third day, Ronny Bronston, disgusted, knocked on the door of Tog'shotel room. The door screen lit up and Tog, looking out at him said, "Oh,come on in, Ronny, I was just talking to Earth."

  He entered.

  Tog had set up her Section G communicator on a desk top and Sid Jakes'grinning face was in the tiny, brilliant screen. Ronny approached closeenough for the other to take him in.

  Jakes said happily, "Hi, Ronny, no luck, eh?"

  Ronny shook his head, trying not to let his face portray his feelings ofdefeat. This after all was a probationary assignment, and the supervisorhad the power to send Ronny Bronston back to the drudgery of his officejob at Population Statistics.

  "Still working on it. I suppose it's a matter of returning to New Delosand grinding away at the forty-eight employees of the UP there."

  Sid Jakes pursed his lips. "I don't know. Possibly this whole thing was afalse alarm. At any rate, there seems to be a hotter case on the fire. Ifour local agents have it straight, Paine is about to pull one of his coupson Kropotkin. This is a top-top-secret, of course, one of the few timeswe've ever detected him before the act."


  Ronny was suddenly alert, his fatigue of disgust of but a moment ago,completely forgotten. "Where?" he said.

  "Kropotkin," Jakes said. "One of the most backward planets in UP andseemingly a setup for Paine's sort of trouble making. The authorities, ifyou can use the term applied to Kropotkin, are already complaining,threatening to invoke Article One of the Charter, or to resign from UP."Jake looked at Tog again. "Do you know Kropotkin, Lee Chang?"

  She shook her head. "I've heard of it, rather vaguely. Named after someold anarchist, I believe."

  "That's the