Planets and man's fated growth into the stars.
He was a third-generation dreamer of participating in the glory. His grandfather had been a citizen of Earth and gave up a commercial position to take a job that amounted to little more than a janitor in an obscure department of Interplanetary Financial Clearing. He wanted to get into the big job, into space, but never made it. Ronny's father managed to work up to the point where he was a supervisor in Interplanetary Medical Exchange, in the tabulating department. He, too, had wanted into space, and never made it. Ronny had loved them both. In a way fulfilling his own dreams had been a debt he owed them, because at the same time he was fulfilling theirs.
And now this. All that had been gold, was suddenly gilted lead. The dream had become contemptuous nightmare.
Finally back in Greater Washington, he went immediately from the shuttleport to the Octagon. His Bureau of Investigation badge was enough to see him through the guide-guards and all the way through to the office of Irene Kasansky.
She looked up at him quickly. “Hi,” she said. “Ronny Bronston, isn't it?”
“That's right. I want to see Commissioner Metaxa.”
She scowled. “I can't work you in now. How about Sid Jakes?”
He said, “Jakes is in charge of the Tommy Paine routine, isn't he?”
She shot a sharper look up at him. “That's right,” she said warily.
“All right,” Ronny said. “I'll see Jakes.”
Her deft right hand slipped open a drawer in her desk. “You'd better leave your gun here,” she said. “I've known probationary agents to get excited, in my time.”
He looked at her.
And she looked back, her gaze level.
Ronny Bronston shrugged, slipped the Model H from under his armpit and tossed it into the drawer.
Irene Kasansky went back to her work. “You know the way,” she said.
This time Ronny Bronston pushed open the door to Sid Jakes' office without knocking. The Section G supervisor was poring over reports on his desk. He looked up and grinned his Sid Jakes' grin.
“Ronny!” he said. “Welcome back. You know, you're one of the quickest men ever to return from a Tommy Paine assignment. I was talking to Lee Chang only a day or so ago. She said you were on your way.”
Ronny grunted, his anger growing within him. He lowered himself into one of the room's heavy chairs, and glared at the other.
Sid Jakes chuckled and leaned back in his chair. “Before we go any further, just to check, who is Tommy Paine?”
Ronny snapped, “You are.”
The supervisor's eyebrows went up.
Ronny said, “You and Ross Metaxa and Lee Chang Chu—and all the rest of Section G. Section G is Tommy Paine.”
“Good man!” Sid Jakes chortled. He flicked a switch on his order box. “Irene,” he said, “how about clearing me through to the commissioner? I want to take Ronny in for his finals.”
Irene snapped back something and Sid Jakes switched off and turned to Ronny happily. “Let's go,” he said. “Ross is free for a time.”
Ronny Bronston said nothing. He followed the other. The rage within him was still mounting.
In the months that had elapsed since Ronny Bronston had seen Ross Metaxa the latter had changed not at all. His clothing was still sloppy, his eyes bleary with lack of sleep or abundance of alcohol—or both. His expression was still sour and skeptical.
He looked up at their entry and scowled, and made no effort to rise and shake hands. He said to Ronny sourly, “O.K., sound off and get it over with. I haven't too much time this afternoon.”
Ronny Bronston was just beginning to feel tentacles of cold doubt, but he suppressed them. The boiling anger was uppermost. He said flatly, “All my life I've been a dedicated United Planets man. All my life I've considered its efforts the most praiseworthy and greatest endeavor man has ever attempted.”
“Of course, old chap,” Jakes told him cheerfully. “We know all that, or you wouldn't ever have been chosen as an agent for Section G.”
Ronny looked at him in disgust. “I've resigned that position, Jakes.”
Jakes grinned back at him. “To the contrary, you're now in the process of receiving permanent appointment.”
Ronny snorted his disgust and turned back to Metaxa. “Section G is a secret department of the Bureau of Investigation devoted to subverting Article One of the United Planets Charter.”
Metaxa nodded.
“You don't deny it?”
Metaxa shook his head.
“Article One,” Ronny snapped, “is the basic foundation of the Charter which every member of UP and particularly every citizen of United Planets, such as ourselves, has sworn to uphold. But the very reason for the existence of this Section G is to interfere with the internal affairs of member planets, to subvert their governments, their economic systems, their religions, their ideals, their very way of life.”
Metaxa yawned and reached into a desk drawer for his bottle. “That's right,” he said. “Anybody like a drink?”
Ronny ignored him. “I'm surprised I didn't catch on even sooner,” he said. “On New Delos Mouley Hassan, the local agent, knew the God-King was going to be assassinated. He brought in extra agents and even a detail of Space Forces guards for the emergency. He probably engineered the assassination himself.”
“Nope,” Jakes said. “We seldom go that far. Local rebels did the actual work, but, admittedly, we knew what they were planning. In fact, I've got a sneaking suspicion that Mouley Hassan provided them with the bomb. That lad's a bit too dedicated.”
“But why,” Ronny blurted. “That's deliberately interfering with internal affairs. If the word got out, every planet in UP would resign.”
“Probably no planet in the system that needed a change so badly,” Metaxa growled. “If they were ever going to swing into real progress, that hierarchy of priests had to go.” He snorted. “An immortal God-King, yet.”
Ronny pressed on. “That was bad enough, but how about this planet Mother, where the colonists had attempted to return to nature and live in the manner man did in earliest times.”
“Most backward planet in the UP,” Metaxa said sourly. “They just had to be roused.”
“And Kropotkin!” Ronny blurted. “Don't you understand, those people were happy there. Their lives were simple, uncomplicated, and they had achieved a happiness that—”
Metaxa came to his feet. He scowled at Ronny Bronston and growled, “Unfortunately, the human race can't take the time out for happiness. Come along, I want to show you something.”
He swung around the corner of his desk and made his way toward a ceiling-high bookcase.
Ronny stared after him, taken off guard, but Sid Jakes was grinning his amusement.
Ross Metaxa pushed a concealed button and the bookcase slid away to one side to reveal an elevator beyond.
“Come along,” Metaxa repeated over his shoulder. He entered the elevator, followed by Jakes.
There was nothing else to do. Ronny Bronston followed them, his face still flushed with the angered argument.
The elevator dropped, how far, Ronny had no idea. It stopped and they emerged into a plain, sparsely furnished vault. Against one wall was a boxlike affair that reminded Ronny of nothing so much as a deep-freeze.
For all practical purposes, that's what it was. Ross Metaxa led him over and they stared down into its glass-covered interior.