important in my mind, more important than it should be. But I was … proud of myself, I guess. I’d made a good record in Ramona High School. Scholarship and athletics. I was popular with … the better class of kids. And then … it all went wrong for me. What will they say to me if I go back?”
The colonel stared heavily at him, then slapped theblack file-folder with a hard white hand. “I cannot make speeches. I can tell you some facts. You are thirty-three, unmarried. You have no close relatives in Ramona. The incident you speak of took place fifteen years ago. I can appreciate the depth of the … psychic scar. You enlisted too late to see action in World War II. From 1946 to 1950 you attended college on the G.I. Bill, after getting the equivalent of your high-school diploma while you were in the service. After college you were in the Korean action. During the two months before you were wounded in the left bicep by a mortar fragment, you were a competent patrol leader. You were given a bronze star. After your discharge, you passed competitive examinations and went to work for State on a civil service basis. You have received regular promotions. Three years ago you were placed on the kind of investigative work you are now doing. They think highly of you over there. We had the Veterans’ Administration run a hell of a lot of cards through their I.B.M. sorters to come up with seventy-one possibles from Ramona and the immediate area on the west coast of Florida. We eliminated seventy. We were extraordinarily pleased to find you, Mr. Doyle, as we did not expect to find anyone so curiously well qualified for what we have in mind. We had to go very high to get permission to borrow you from State. This is not a make-work project, Mr. Doyle. I shall wave the flag in your face, sir. There are no indispensable men. But Colonel M’Gann comes as close to that category as anyone I should care to name. Meager as is your chance of success, it is an action we must take. Were this a police state, the problem would not exist. We would merely go down and get him in the middle of the night and bring him back. Under this form of government, he must come willingly. Other methods of persuasion have failed. This was Captain Derres’s idea, to use a local person. I find it a good idea. And now Mr. Doyle, you proposethat because of an adolescent traumatic experience, we should salve your tender feelings by giving up the whole idea?”
“Colonel, I …”
“You have security clearance. You have demonstrated that you have qualities of intelligence and imagination. As a matter of fact, I should think you would get a certain amount of satisfaction in showing the people of Ramona what has happened to that Doyle boy. Have you ever been in touch with anyone down there since you left?”
“No, sir.”
“Have you ever run into anyone from Ramona?”
“No, sir. I’ve always been afraid I would.”
The colonel opened a lower drawer of his desk and took out a fabricoid zipper folder, thick with papers. He thumped it onto the desk. “This is the material which has been prepared for you under the direction of Captain Derres, Mr. Doyle. I suggest you go through it carefully and come in here tomorrow at two o’clock. You can give us your answer at that time. If it is yes, and I hope it will be, you might give some thought to a cover story before you come in. As one factor you should consider in composing a cover story, please be informed that you will be supplied with ample funds out of an appropriation where strict accounting is not required by the G.A.O.”
“Mr. Doyle,” Captain Derres said in a soft and humble voice, “I should not want you to construe this as any sort of threat, you understand. I merely make a comment for your guidance. After the extraordinary measures taken to borrow your services, it would seem most odd to your superiors if you were to return immediately for reassignment. They would wonder in what way we