The Andre Norton Megapack - 15 Classic Novels and Short Stories

him.”
    “Then we’ll have to warn Fox and the rest. They must be given a choice in the matter.”
    “Ruthven said that would be done.” The colonel did not sound convinced of that.
    Ashe snorted. “If I hear him telling them, I’ll believe it!”
    “I wonder whether we can.…”
    Ashe half turned and frowned at the colonel. “What do you mean?”
    “You said yourself that we had our failures in time travel. We expected those, accepted them, even when they hurt. When we asked for volunteers for this project we had to make them understand that there was a heavy element of risk involved. Three teams of recruits—the Eskimos from Point Barren, the Apaches, and the Islanders—all picked because their people had a high survival rating in the past, to be colonists on widely different types of planets. Well, the Eskimos and the Islanders aren’t matched to any of the worlds on those snooped tapes, but Topaz is waiting for the Apaches. And we may have to move them in there in a hurry. It’s a rotten gamble any way you see it!”
    “I’ll appeal directly to the council.”
    Kelgarries shrugged. “All right. You have my backing.”
    “But you believe such an effort hopeless?”
    “You know the red-tape merchants. You’ll have to move fast if you want to beat Ruthven. He’s probably on a straight line now to Stanton, Reese, and Margate. This is what he has been waiting for!”
    “There are the news syndicates; public opinion would back us—”
    “You don’t mean that, of course.” Kelgarries was suddenly coldly remote.
    Ashe flushed under the heavy brown which overlay his regular features. To threaten a silence break was near blasphemy here. He ran both hands down the fabric covering his thighs as if to rub away some soil on his palms.
    “No,” he replied heavily, his voice dull. “I guess I don’t. I’ll contact Hough and hope for the best.”
    “Meanwhile,” Kelgarries spoke briskly, “we’ll do what we can to speed up the program as it now stands. I suggest you take off for New York within the hour—”
    “Me? Why?” Ashe asked with a trace of suspicion.
    “Because I can’t leave without acting directly against orders, and that would put us wrong immediately. You see Hough and talk to him personally—put it to him straight. He’ll have to have all the facts if he’s going to counter any move from Stanton before the council. You know every argument we can use and all the proof on our side, and you’re authority enough to make it count.”
    “If I can do all that, I will.” Ashe was alert and eager. The colonel, seeing his change of expression, felt easier.
    But Kelgarries stood a moment watching Ashe as he hurried down a side corridor, before he moved on slowly to his own box of office. Once inside he sat for a long unhappy time staring at the wall and seeing nothing but the pictures produced by his thoughts. Then he pressed a button and read off the symbols which flashed on a small visa-screen set in his desk. Another button pushed, and he picked up a hand mike to relay an order which might postpone trouble for a while. Ashe was far too valuable a man to lose, and his emotions could boil him straight into disaster over this.
    “Bidwell—reschedule Team A. They are to go to the Hypno-Lab instead of the reserve in ten minutes.”
    Releasing the mike, he again stared at the wall. No one dared interrupt a hypno-training period, and this one would last three hours. Ashe could not possibly see the trainees before he left for New York. And that would remove one temptation from his path—he would not talk at the wrong time.
    Kelgarries’ mouth twisted sourly. He had no pride in what he was doing. And he was perfectly certain that Ruthven would win and that Ashe’s fears of Redax were well founded. It all came back to the old basic tenet of the service: the end justified the means. They must use every method and man under their control to make sure that Topaz would remain a western possession, even though that strange planet now swung far beyond the sky which covered both the western and eastern alliances on Terra. Time had run out too fast; they were being forced to play what cards they held, even though those might be very low ones. Ashe would be back, but not, Kelgarries hoped, until this had been decided one way or another. Not until this was finished.
    Finished! Kelgarries blinked at the wall. Perhaps they were finished, too. No one would know until the transport ship landed on