Entities: The Selected Novels of Eric Frank Russell Read Free Page A

after that?”
    “You will be dropped surreptitiously upon a Sirian-held planet and be left to make yourself as awkward as possible.”
    There was a lengthy silence at the end of which Mowry gave begrudgingly, “Once when my father was thoroughly aggravated he said, ‘Son, you were born a fool and you’ll die a fool.’ ” He let go a long, deep sigh. “The old man was dead right. I hereby volunteer.”
    “We knew you would,” said Wolf, imperturbably.
    He saw Wolf again, that being two days after he had finished the arduous course and passed with satisfactory marks. Wolf arrived at the school, visited him in his room.
    “What was it like?”
    “Sheer sadism,” said Mowry, pulling a face. “So almighty tough that I’m beaten up in mind and body. I feel like a half-stunned cripple.”
    “You’ll have plenty of time to get over that. The journey will take long enough. You’re leaving Thursday.”
    “For where?”
    “Sorry, I can’t tell you. Your pilot carries sealed orders to be opened only on the last lap. In case of accident or successful interception he destroys them unread.”
    “What’s the likelihood of us being grabbed on the way there?”
    “Not great. Your ship will be considerably faster than anything the enemy possesses. But even the best of vessels can get into trouble once in a while. We’re taking no chances. You know the stinking reputation of the Sirian Security Police, the Kaitempi. They can make a slab of granite grovel and confess its sins. If they snatch you en route and learn your intended destination they’ll take counter-measures and try to trap your successor on arrival.”
    “My successor? That raises a question nobody here seems willing to answer. Maybe you can tell me, huh?”
    “What is it?” asked Wolf.
    “Will I be entirely on my own? Or will other Terrans be operating on the same planet? If there will be others how shall I make contact?”
    “So far as you’re concerned you’ll be the only Terran for a hundred million miles around,” responded Wolf. “You will have no contacts. By the same token, you won’t be able to betray anyone to the Kaitempi. Nothing they can do will extract from you information that you don’t possess. Maybe you’ll sweat and scream and invent stuff to make them lay off, but it won’t be genuine information.”
    “It would sound better if you didn’t smack your lips over the horrid prospect,” reproved Mowry. “Anyway, it would be some comfort and encouragement to know that other wasps are similarly active even if only one to a planet.”
    “You didn’t go through this course all on your ownsome, did you? The others weren’t here merely to provide company for you.” Wolf held out a hand. “Good hunting, be a curse to the foe —and come back. ”
    “I shall return,” assured Mowry, “though the way be flinty and the road be long.”
    That, he thought as Wolf departed, was more of a pious hope than a performable promise. To be dropped single-handed upon a hostile planet was to be plunged neck-deep into a genuinely menacing situation. Casualties could be expected sooner or later. Indeed, Wolf’s remark about “your successor” showed that losses had been anticipated and steps taken to provide replacements.
    It then occurred to him that perhaps his own status was that of somebody else’s successor. Maybe on the world to which he was going some unlucky character had been trapped and pulled apart very slowly. If so, it would be a world forewarned and ready for him. Right now the Kaitempi would be watching the skies, licking their chops in anticipation of their next victim, a dope named James Mowry, twenty-six, restless and pigheaded.
    Oh, well, he had committed himself and there was no backing out. Looked like he was doomed to become a hero from sheer lack of courage to be a coward. Slowly he developed a philosophic resignation which still possessed him several weeks later when the corvette’s captain summoned