No any of the four plain of the office; there was no focus of outer-world on the there. Yet the five set out on its surface appeared to glow—perhaps the of the they ... had ... in them.
But did not or cold, hard fact. Dr. Gordon Ashe, one of the four men at the display, his as if to free his mind of such cobwebs.
His neighbor to the right, Colonel Kelgarries, to ask harshly: "No of a mistake?"
"You saw the detector." The thin of a man the answered with precision. "No, no possible mistake. These five have definitely been snooped."
"And two among them," Ashe murmured. That was the point now.
"I these were under maximum security," Kelgarries the man.
Florian Waldour's did not change. "Every possible was in force. There was a sleeper—a agent—planted——"
"Who?" Kelgarries demanded.
Ashe around at his three companions—Kelgarries, in of one of Project Star, Florian Waldour, the security on the station, Dr. James Ruthven....
"Camdon!" he said, able to this answer to which logic had him.
Waldour nodded.
For the time since he had and with Kelgarries Ashe saw him open astonishment.
"Camdon? But he was sent us by—" The colonel's narrowed. "He must have been sent.... There were too many to that!"
"Oh, he was sent, all right." For the time there was a note of in Waldour's voice. "He was a sleeper, a very sleeper. They must have planted him a full twenty-five or thirty years ago. He's been just what he to be as long as that."
"Well, he was their time and trouble, wasn't he?" James Ruthven's voice was a rumble. He in thick lips, to at the disks. "How long ago were these snooped?"
Ashe's from the of the to that point. The time element—that was the now that the was done, and they it.
"That's one thing we don't know." Waldour's reply came slowly as if he the admission.
"We'll be safer, then, if we the very period." Ruthven's was as in its as the they had had when Waldour the disaster.
"Eighteen months ago?" Ashe protested.
But Ruthven was nodding. "Camdon was in on this from the very first. We've had the in and out for study all that time, and the new against was not put in service until two ago. This case came up on the round, didn't it?" he asked Waldour.
"First check," the security man agreed. "Camdon left the six days ago. But he has been in and out on his from the first."
"He had to go through those search points every time," Kelgarries protested. "Thought nothing through those." The brightened. "Maybe he got his and then couldn't take them off base. Have his been out?"
Waldour's in a of exasperation. "Please, Colonel," he said wearily, "this is not a exercise. In of his success, listen...." He touched a on his and out of the air came the of a newscaster.
"Fears for the safety of Lassiter Camdon, space for the Western Conference Space Council, have been by the of in the mountains. Mr. Camdon was returning from a mission to the Star Laboratory when his plane with Ragnor Field. Reports of a in that concern—" Waldour off the voice.
"True—or a for his escape?" Kelgarries aloud.
"Could be either. They may have him off when they had all they wanted," Waldour acknowledged. "But to to our troubles—Dr. Ruthven is right to assume the worst. I we can only the of our project by that these were from eighteen months ago to last week. And we must work accordingly!"
There was in the room as they all that. Ashe in his chair, his in memories. First there had been Operation Retrograde, when "time agents" had and in history, to and the of knowledge which the Communistic nations had to use.
Ashe himself and a partner, Ross Murdock, had been part of the final action which had solved the mystery, having that of knowledge not to an and Terran but to from an eon-old empire—an which had when ice most of Europe and northern America and Terrans were cave-dwelling primitives. Murdock, by the Reds in one of those ships, had its original owners, who had to trace—through the Russian time stations—the of their wrecks, the whole Red time-travel system.
But the had not on the western system. And a year later that had been put into Project Folsom One. Again Ashe, Murdock, and a newcomer, the Apache Travis Fox, had gone into time to the Arizona of the Folsom hunters, what they wanted—two ships, one wrecked, the other intact. And when the full of the project had been on the ship into the present, had set by the commander. A party of four, Ashe, Murdock, Fox, and a technician, had then an into space, three worlds on which the of the past was now marked only by ruins.
Voyage tape into the of the ship had taken the men, and, when rewound, had—by a miracle—returned them to Terra with a of in a on a world which might have been the for a government not of or of worlds but of systems. Tapes—each one the key to another planet.
And that knowledge was such as the Terrans had of possessing, though there were the that such be in enemy hands. There had been an with other nations of at at a great drawing. And each nation that, in of the it might as a result of chance, its had done better. Right at this moment, Ashe did not in the least doubt, there were of his own party on at the Red project just what Camdon had done there. However, that did not help in their present Operation Cochise, one part of their project, but the most now.
Some of the were duds, either too to be useful, or set for worlds to Terrans the the star-traveling had had at its command. Of the five they now had been snooped, three would be to the enemy.
But one of the two.... Ashe frowned. One was the toward which they had been for a full twelve months. To plant a across the of space—a successful colony—later to be used as a to other worlds....
"So we have to move faster." Ruthven's Ashe through his of memories.
"I you at least three more months to training," Waldour observed.
Ruthven a hand, the of a thumb and across his lip in a Ashe had learned to mistrust. As the stiffened, for a of wills, he saw Kelgarries come too. At least the more often than not was to Ruthven's demands.
"We test and we test," said the man. "Always we test. We move like when it would be to like greyhounds. There is such a thing as overcaution, as I have said from the first. One would think"—his Ashe and Kelgarries—"that there had been any in this project, that all had always been done by the book. I say that this is the time we must take the big gamble, or else we may we have been for space entirely. Let those others one they can master and—" his thumb from his lip, on the top as if it were some but insect—"and we are we begin."
There were a number of men in the project who would agree with that, Ashe knew. And a number in the country and at large. The public was used to which paid off, and there had been of those in the past to give an for that point of view. But Ashe, himself, not agree to a speed-up. He had been out among the stars, too closely the proper had not been given.
"I shall report that I a take-off a week," Ruthven was continuing. "To the I shall say that—"
"And I do not agree!" Ashe cut in. He at Kelgarries for the quick he expected, but there was a moment of silence. Then the spread out his hands and said sullenly:
"I don't agree either, but I don't have the final say-so. Ashe, what would be needed to speed up any take-off?"
It was Ruthven who replied. "We can use the Redax, as I have said from the start."
Ashe straightened, his mouth tight, his hard and angry.
"And I'll that ... to the council! Man, we're with beings—selected volunteers, men who trust us—not with laboratory animals!"
Ruthven's thick into what was close to a of derision. "Always the sentimentalists, you in the past! Tell me, Dr. Ashe, were you always so of your men when you sent into time? And a into space is less a than time travel. These know what they have for. They will be ready——"
"Then you telling them about the use of Redax—what it to a man's mind?" Ashe.
"Certainly. They will all necessary instructions."
Ashe was not satisfied and he would have spoken again, but Kelgarries interrupted:
"If it comes to that, none of us here has any right to make final decisions. Waldour has already sent in his report about the snoop. We'll have to orders from the council."
Ruthven himself out of his chair, his solid his coveralls. "That is correct, Colonel. In the meantime I would we all check to see what can be done to speed up each one's of labor." Without another word, he to the door.
Waldour the other two with impatience. It was plain he had work to do and wanted them to leave. But Ashe was reluctant. He had a that were out of his control, that he was about to a which was somehow than just a major security leak. Was the enemy always on the other of the world? Or he wear the same uniform, the same goals?
In the he still hesitated, and Kelgarries, a step or so in advance, looked over his impatiently.
"There's no use fighting—our hands are tied." His were slurred, almost as if he wanted to them.
"Then you'll agree to use the Redax?" For the second time the hour Ashe as if he had taken a step only to have earth turn into slippery, shifting underfoot.
"It isn't a of my agreeing. It may be a of through or not through—now. If they've had eighteen months, or twelve...!" The colonel's into a fist. "And they won't be by any reasoning——"
"Then you Ruthven will win the council's approval?"
"When you are with men, you're talking to ears closed to anything but what they want to hear. After all, we can't prove that the Redax will be harmful."
"But we've only used it under conditions. To speed up the would a total of those controls. Snapping a party of men and into their past and them there for too long a period...." Ashe his head.
"You have been in Operation Retrograde from the start, and we've been successful——"
"Operating in a different way, men to return to points in history where their particular and the they were to play, yes. And then we had our of failures. But to try this—returning people not physically into time, but and into of their ancestors—that's something else again. The Apaches have volunteered, and they've been passed by the and the testers. But they're Americans of today, not of two or three hundred years ago. If you some barriers, you might just end up them all."
Kelgarries was scowling. "You mean—they might utterly, have no with the present at all?"
"That's just what I do mean. Education and training, yes, but full of memories, no. The two of should go slowly and hand in hand, otherwise—real trouble!"
"Only we no longer have the time to go slow. I'm Ruthven will be able to push this through—with Waldour's report to him."
"Then we'll have to Fox and the rest. They must be a choice in the matter."
"Ruthven said that would be done." The did not of that.
Ashe snorted. "If I him telling them, I'll it!"
"I wonder we can...."
Ashe and at the colonel. "What do you mean?"
"You said that we had our in time travel. We those, them, when they hurt. When we asked for for this project we had to make them that there was a of involved. Three of recruits—the Eskimos from Point Barren, the Apaches, and the Islanders—all their people had a high in the past, to be on different of planets. Well, the Eskimos and the Islanders aren't matched to any of the worlds on those tapes, but Topaz is waiting for the Apaches. And we may have to move them in there in a hurry. It's a any way you see it!"
"I'll directly to the council."
Kelgarries shrugged. "All right. You have my backing."
"But you such an hopeless?"
"You know the red-tape merchants. You'll have to move fast if you want to Ruthven. He's on a line now to Stanton, Reese, and Margate. This is what he has been waiting for!"
"There are the news syndicates; public opinion would us——"
"You don't that, of course." Kelgarries was remote.
Ashe under the which his regular features. To a was near here. He ran hands the his as if to away some on his palms.
"No," he heavily, his voice dull. "I I don't. I'll Hough and for the best."
"Meanwhile," Kelgarries spoke briskly, "we'll do what we can to speed up the program as it now stands. I you take off for New York the hour——"
"Me? Why?" Ashe asked with a of suspicion.
"Because I can't without acting directly against orders, and that would put us immediately. You see Hough and talk to him personally—put it to him straight. He'll have to have all the if he's going to any move from Stanton the council. You know every we can use and all the proof on our side, and you're authority to make it count."
"If I can do all that, I will." Ashe was and eager. The colonel, his of expression, easier.
But Kelgarries a moment Ashe as he a corridor, he moved on slowly to his own box of office. Once he sat for a long time at the and nothing but the pictures produced by his thoughts. Then he pressed a and read off the which on a small visa-screen set in his desk. Another pushed, and he up a hand to an order which might trouble for a while. Ashe was too valuable a man to lose, and his him into over this.
"Bidwell—reschedule Team A. They are to go to the Hypno-Lab of the in ten minutes."
Releasing the mike, he again at the wall. No one a hypno-training period, and this one would last three hours. Ashe not possibly see the he left for New York. And that would remove one from his path—he would not talk at the time.
Kelgarries' mouth sourly. He had no in what he was doing. And he was perfectly that Ruthven would win and that Ashe's of Redax were well founded. It all came to the old of the service: the end the means. They must use every method and man under their to make sure that Topaz would a western possession, though that now the sky which the western and on Terra. Time had out too fast; they were being to play what cards they held, though those might be very low ones. Ashe would be back, but not, Kelgarries hoped, until this had been one way or another. Not until this was finished.
Finished! Kelgarries at the wall. Perhaps they were finished, too. No one would know until the transport ship on that other world which appeared on the direction tape by a of gold-brown which had it the name of Topaz.
