The Defiant Agents | Page 3

quick backing he
expected, but instead there was a lengthening moment of silence. Then the colonel spread
out his hands and said sullenly:
"I don't agree either, but I don't have the final say-so. Ashe, what would be needed to
speed up any take-off?"
It was Ruthven who replied. "We can use the Redax, as I have said from the start."
Ashe straightened, his mouth tight, his eyes hard and angry.

"And I'll protest that... to the council! Man, we're dealing with human beings--selected
volunteers, men who trust us--not with laboratory animals!"
Ruthven's thick lips pouted into what was close to a smile of derision. "Always the
sentimentalists, you experts in the past! Tell me, Dr. Ashe, were you always so thoughtful
of your men when you sent agents back into time? And certainly a voyage into space is
less risky than time travel. These volunteers know what they have signed for. They will
be ready--"
"Then you propose telling them about the use of Redax--what it does to a man's mind?"
countered Ashe.
"Certainly. They will receive all necessary instructions."
Ashe was not satisfied. He would have spoken again, except that Kelgarries interrupted:
"If it comes to that, none of us here has any right to make final decisions. Waldour has
already sent in his report about the snoop. We'll have to await orders from the council."
Ruthven levered himself out of his chair, his solid bulk stretching his uniform coveralls.
"That is correct, Colonel. In the meantime I would suggest we all check to see what can
be done to speed up each one's portion of labor." Without another word, he tramped to
the door.
Waldour eyed the other two with mounting impatience. It was plain he had work to do
and wanted them to leave. But Ashe was reluctant. He had a feeling that matters were
slipping out of his control, that he was about to face a crisis which was somehow worse
than just a major security leak. Was the enemy always on the other side of the world? Or
could he wear the same uniform, even pretend to share the same goals?
In the outer corridor he still hesitated. Kelgarries, a step or so in advance, looked back
over his shoulder impatiently.
"There's no use fighting--our hands are tied." His words were slurred, almost as if he
wanted to disown them.
"Then you'll agree to use the Redax?" For the second time within the hour Ashe felt as if
he had taken a step only to have firm earth turn into slippery, shifting sand underfoot.
"It isn't a matter of my agreeing. It may be a matter of getting through or not getting
through--now. If they've had eighteen months, or even twelve... !" The colonel's fingers
balled into a fist. "Andthey won't be delayed by any humanitarian reasoning--"
"Then you believe Ruthven will win the council's approval?"
"When you are dealing with frightened men, you're talking to ears closed to anything
except what they want to hear. After all, we can't prove that the Redax will be harmful."

"But we've only used it under rigidly controlled conditions. To speed up the process
would mean a total disregard of those controls. Snapping a party of men and women back
into their racial past and holding them there for too long a period..." Ashe shook his head.
"You have been in Operation Retrograde from the start, and we've been remarkably
successful--"
"Operating in a different way, educating picked men to return to certain points in history
where their particular temperaments and characteristics fitted the roles they were selected
to play, yes. And even then we had our percentage of failures. But to try this--returning
people not physically into time, butmentally and emotionally into prototypes of their
ancestors--that's something else again. The Apaches have volunteered, and they've been
passed by the psychologists and the testers. But they're Americans of today, not tribal
nomads of two or three hundred years ago. If you break down some barriers, you might
just end up breaking them all."
Kelgarries was scowling. "You mean--they might revert utterly, have no contact with the
present at all?"
"That's just what I do mean. Education and training, yes, but full awakening of racial
memories, no. The two branches of conditioning should go slowly and hand in hand,
otherwise--real trouble!"
"Only we no longer have the time to go slow. I'm certain Ruthven will be able to push
this through--with Waldour's report to back 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.
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.