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--And Devious the Line of Duty,
by Tom Godwin

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Title: --And Devious the Line of Duty
Author: Tom Godwin
Illustrator: Schelling
Release Date: September 12, 2007 [EBook #22585]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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DEVIOUS THE LINE OF DUTY ***

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--And Devious the Line of Duty

Sometimes the most diligent and loyal thing an old man can do is
fumble, drink beer, and let a young man get into trouble....
by Tom Godwin
Illustrated by Schelling
"We're almost there, my boy." The big, gray-haired man who would be
Lieutenant Dale Hunter's superior--Strategic Service's Special Agent,
George Rockford--opened another can of beer, his fifth. "There will be
intrigue already under way when this helicopter sets down with us.
Attempted homicide will soon follow. The former will be meat for me.
You will be meat for the latter."
Rockford was smiling as he spoke; the genial, engaging smile of a fond
old father. But the eyes, surrounded by laughter crinkles, were as
unreadable as two disks of gray slate. They were the eyes of a poker
player--or master con man.
"I don't understand, sir," Hunter said.
"Of course not," Rockford agreed. "It's a hundred light-years back to
Earth. Here on Vesta, to make sure there is an Earth in the future,
you're going to do things never dreamed of by your Terran Space Patrol
instructors there. You'll be amazed, my boy."
[Illustration]
Hunter said nothing but he felt a growing dislike for the condescending
Rockford. Only a few weeks ago President Diskar, himself, had said:
For more than a century these truly valiant men of the Space Patrol
have been our unwavering outer guard; have fought and died by
legions, that Earth and the other worlds of the Terran Republic might
remain free--
"I suppose you know," Rockford said, "that there will be no more than
four days in which to stop the Verdam oligarchy from achieving its
long-time ambition of becoming big enough to swallow the Terran

Republic."
"I know," Hunter answered.
Jardeen, Vesta's companion world, was the key. Jardeen was large and
powerful, with a space navy unsurpassed by that of any other single
world. A large group of now-neutral worlds would follow Jardeen's
lead and Jardeen's alliance with the Verdam People's Worlds would
mean the quick end for the Terran Republic. But, if Jardeen could be
persuaded to ally with the Terran Republic, the spreading, grasping
arms of the Verdam octopus would begin to wither away--
Rockford spoke again:
"Val Boran, Jardeen's Secretary of Foreign Relations, is the man who
will really make Jardeen's decision. I know him slightly. Since my
public role is that of Acting Ambassador, he agreed--reluctantly--to
come to Vesta so that the talks could be on a neutral world. With him
will be Verdam's Special Envoy Sonig; a wily little man who has been
working on Boran for several weeks. He seems to be succeeding quite
well--here's a message I received from Earth early this morning."
Rockford handed him a sheet of the green Hyperspace Communications
paper. The message was in code, with Rockford's scribbled translation
beneath:
Intelligence reports Verdam forces already massed for attack in Sector
A-13, in full expectation of Jardeen's alliance. Anti-Terran propaganda,
stressing the New Jardeen Incident, being used in preparation for what
will be their claim of "defensive action to protect innocent worlds from
Terran aggression." Terran forces will be outnumbered five to one. The
urgent necessity of immediate and conclusive counter measures by you
on Vesta is obvious.
Hunter handed the paper back, thinking, It's worse than any of us
thought, and wondering how Supreme Command could ever have
entrusted such an important task to a beer-guzzling old man from
Strategic Service--a branch so unknown that he had never even heard of

it until his briefing the day before he left Earth.
He saw that they had left the desert behind and were going up the long
slope of a mountain. "The meeting will be on this mountain?" he asked.
Rockford nodded. "The rustic Royal Retreat. Princess Lyla will be our
hostess. Her mother and father were killed in an airplane accident a
year ago and she was the only child. You will also get to meet Lord
Narf of the Sea Islands, her husband-by-proxy, who regards himself as
a rare combination of irresistible woman-killer and rugged
man-among-men."
"Husband-by-proxy?"