Three months had passed since the referendum which had swept John Mallory into office as Premier of the First Planetary Republic. He stood in a room of his spacious apartment in the Executive Palace, frowning at the slender black-haired woman as she spoke earnestly to him.
"John-I'm afraid of that-that infernal machine, eternally hovering, waiting for your orders."
"But why, Monica? That infernal machine, as you call it, was the thing that made a free election possible-and even now it's all that holds Koslo's old organization in check."
"John-" Her hand gripped his arm. "With that-thing-always at your beck and call, you can control anyone, anything on Earth! No opposition can stand before you!"
She looked directly at him. "It isn't right for anyone to have such power, John. Not even you. No human being should be put to such a test!"
His face tightened. "Have I misused it?"
"Not yet. That's why…"
"You imply that I will?"
"You're a man, with the failings of a man."
"I propose only what's good for the people of Earth," he said sharply. "Would you have me voluntarily throw away the one weapon that can protect our hard-won freedom?"
"But, John-who are you to be the sole arbiter of what's good for the people of Earth?"
"I'm Chairman of the Republic-"
"You're still human. Stop-while you're still human!"
He studied her face. "You resent my success, don't you? What would you have me do? Resign?"
"I want you to send the machine away-back to wherever it came from."
He laughed shortly. "Are you out of your mind? I haven't begun to extract the technological secrets the Ree ship represents."
"We're not ready for those secrets, John. The race isn't ready. It's already changed you. In the end it can only destroy you as a man."
"Nonsense. I control it utterly. It's like an extension of my own mind-"
"John-please. If not for my sake or your own, for Dian's."
"What's the child got to do with this?"
"She's your daughter. She hardly sees you once a week."
"That's the price she pays for being the heir to the greatest man-I mean-damn it, Monica, my responsibilities don't permit me to indulge in all the suburban customs."
"John-" Her voice was a whisper, painful in its intensity. "Send it away."
"No. I won't send it away."
Her face was pale. "Very well, John. As you wish."
"Yes. As I wish."
After she left the room, Mallory stood for a long time staring out through the high window at the tiny craft, hovering in the blue air fifty feet away, silent, ready.
Then: Ree mind, he sent out the call. Probe the apartments of the woman, Monica. I have reason to suspect she plots treason against the state…
The Star-Sent Knaves
1
Clyde W. Snithian was a bald eagle of a man, dark-eyed, pot-bellied, with the large, expressive hands of a rug merchant. Round-shouldered in a loose cloak, he blinked small reddish eyes at Dan Slane's travel-stained six-foot-one.
"Kelly here tells me you've been demanding to see me." He nodded toward the florid man at his side. He had a high, thin voice, like something that needed oiling. "Something about important information regarding my paintings."
"That's right, Mr. Snithian," Dan said. "I believe I can be of great help to you."
"Help how? If you've got ideas of bilking me…" The red eyes bored into Dan like hot pokers.
"Nothing like that, sir. Now, I know you have quite a system of guards here-the papers are full of it-"
"Damned busybodies! Sensation-mongers! If it wasn't for the press, I'd have no concern for my paintings today!"
"Yes, sir. But my point is, the one really important spot has been left unguarded."
"Now, wait a minute-" Kelly started.
"What's that?" Snithian cut in.
"You have a hundred and fifty men guarding the house and grounds day and night-"
"Two hundred and twenty-five," Kelly snapped.
"-but no one at all in the vault with the paintings," Slane finished.
"Of course not," Snithian shrilled. "Why should I post a man in the vault? It's under constant surveillance from the corridor outside."
"The Harriman paintings were removed from a locked vault," Dan said. "There was a special seal on the door. It wasn't broken."
"By the saints, he's right," Kelly exclaimed. "Maybe we ought to have a man in that vault."
"Another idiotic scheme to waste my money," Snithian snapped. "I've made you responsible for security here, Kelly! Let's have no more nonsense. And throw this nincompoop out!" Snithian turned and stalked away, his cloak flapping at his knees.
"I'll work cheap," Dan called after the tycoon as Kelly took his arm. "I'm an art lover."
"Never mind that," Kelly said, escorting Dan along the corridor. He turned in at an office and closed the door.
"Now, as the old buzzard said, I'm responsible for security here. If those pictures go, my job goes with them. Your vault idea's not bad. Just how cheap would you work?"
"A hundred dollars a week," Dan said promptly. "Plus expenses," he added.
Kelly nodded. "I'll fingerprint you and run a fast agency check. If you're clean, I'll put you on, starting tonight. But keep it quiet."
Dan looked around at the gray walls, with shelves stacked to the low ceiling with wrapped paintings. Two three-hundred-watt bulbs shed a white glare over the tile floor, a neat white refrigerator, a bunk, an armchair, a bookshelf and a small table set with paper plates, plastic utensils and a portable radio-all hastily installed at Kelly's order. Dan opened the refrigerator, looked over the stock of salami, liverwurst, cheese and beer. He took out a loaf of bread, built up a well-filled sandwich, opened a can of beer.
It wasn't fancy, but it would do. Phase one of the plan had gone off without a hitch.
Basically, his idea was simple. Art collections had been disappearing from closely guarded galleries and homes all over the world. It was obvious that no one could enter a locked vault, remove a stack of large canvases and leave, unnoticed by watchful guards-and leaving the lock undamaged.
Yet the paintings were gone. Someone had been in those vaults-someone who hadn't entered in the usual way.
Theory failed at that point; that left the experimental method. The Snithian collection was the largest west of the Mississippi. With such a target, the thieves were bound to show up. If Dan sat in the vault-day and night-waiting-he would see for himself how they operated.
He finished his sandwich, went to the shelves and pulled down one of the brown-paper bundles. Loosening the string binding the package, he slid a painting into view. It was a gaily colored view of an open-air cafй, with a group of men and women in gay-ninetyish costumes gathered at a table. He seemed to remember reading something about it in a magazine. It was a cheerful scene; Dan liked it. Still, it hardly seemed worth all the effort…
He went to the wall switch and turned off the lights. The orange glow of the filaments died, leaving only a faint illumination from the nightlight over the door. When the thieves arrived, it might give a momentary advantage if his eyes were adjusted to the dark. He groped his way to the bunk.
So far, so good, he reflected, stretching out. When they showed up, he'd have to handle everything just right. If he scared them off there'd be no second chance. He would have lost his crack at-whatever his discovery might mean to him.
But he was ready. Let them come.
Eight hours, three sandwiches and six beers later, Dan roused suddenly from a light doze and sat up on the cot. Between him and the crowded shelving, a palely luminous framework was materializing in mid-air.
The apparition was an open-work cage-about the size and shape of an outhouse minus the sheathing, Dan estimated breathlessly. Two figures were visible within the structure, sitting stiffly in contoured chairs. They glowed, if anything, more brightly than the framework.