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🟡 Police Operation (Full Audiobook) | H. Beam Piper · Classic Science Fiction Audiobooks: Free Public Domain Sci-Fi Stories

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Section 1. Police Operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Recording by Alex Bowie, Woodbridge, Virginia. Visit me on the
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: web at gamsit. 10gb. org. Police Operation. By H. Bean Piper Section
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: 1 John Strawmeyer stood, an irate figure in faded overalls
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and sweat-white and black shirt, apart from the others, his
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: back to the weathered farm buildings and the line of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: yellowing woods, and the serious streaked blue October sky. He
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: thrust out a work-narled hand, accusingly. That there heifer was
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: worth two hundred, two hundred and fifty dollars, he clambered.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: And that there dog was just like one of the family.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: And now look at me. I don't like to use
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: profane language, but he's got to do something about this.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Steve Parker, the district game protector, aimed his leka at
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the carcass of the dog and snapped a shutter. We're
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: doing something about it, he said shortly. Then he stepped
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: ten feet to the left and edged around the mangled heifer.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: choosing an angle for his camera shot. The two men
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in the gray whipcord of the state police, seeing that
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: Parker was through with the dog, moved in and squatted
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to examine it. The one with the triple chevrons on
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: his sleeves took it by both forefeet and flipped it
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: over on its back. It had been a big brute
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: of nondescript breed with a rough black and brown coat.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Something had clawed it deeply about the head. Its throat
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: was slashed transversely several times. and it had been disemboweled
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: by a single slash that had opened its belly from
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: breastbone to tail. They looked at it carefully, and then
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: went to stand beside Parker while he photographed the dead heifer.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Like the dog, it had been tail-raped on either side
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: of the head, and its throat had been slashed deeply
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: several times. In addition, flesh had been torn from one
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of the flanks in great strips.' I can't kill a
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: bear out of season, no,' Strohmeyer continued his point. But
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a bear comes and kills my stock and my dog,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: and that's there, all right. That's the kind of deal
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: Fama always gets in the state. I don't like to
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: use profane language. Then don't, Parker barked at him impatiently.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: Don't use any kind of language. Just put them in
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: your claim and shut up. He turned to the men
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: in whip cords and gray setsons. You boys seen everything,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: he asked. Then let's go. End of section one. Section 2.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Police Operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information, or to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: by Alex Bowie, Woodbridge, Virginia. August 20th, 2006. Police Operation
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: by H. Beam Piper. Section 2. They walked briskly back
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to the barnyard, Straumeier following them, still vociferating about the
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: wrongs of the farmer at the hands of a cynical
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: and corrupt state government. They climbed into the state police car,
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the sergeant and the private in front and Parker into
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the rear, laying his camera on the seat beside a
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: Winchester carbine.' Aren' t you pretty short with that fellow back there, Steve?'
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the sergeant asked as the private started the car.' Not
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: too short,' I don't like to use profane language, Parker
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: mimicked and relieved he for owner, and then he went
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: on to specify, I'm morally certain that he's shot at
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: at least four illegal deer in the last year. When
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: and if I ever get anything on him, he's going
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: to be sorrier for himself than he is now. They're
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: the characters that always beef their heads off, the sergeant agreed.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: You think that whatever this did was on the same
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: as the others? Yes, the dog must have jumped at
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: it while it was eating at the heifer. Same superficial
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: scratches down about the head, and deep cuts on the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: throat or belly. The bigger the animal, the farther front
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the big slashes occur. Evidently, something grabs them by the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: head with the front claws and slashes with the hind claws.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: That's why I think it's a bobcat. You know, the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: private said, I saw a lot of wounds like that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: during the war. My outfit landed on Mindaniel, where the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: gorillas had been active. And this looks like bolo work
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: to me. The surplus stores are full of machetes and
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: jungle knives, the sergeant continued. I think I'll call up
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: Doc Winters at the county hospital and see if all
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: his squirrel fodder is present and accounted for. But most
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: of the livestock was eaten at, like the heifer. Parker objected.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: By definition, nuts have abnormal tastes, the sergeant replied, or
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the eating might have been done later by foxes. I'd
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: hope so. That'd let me out. Ha! Listen to the man,
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the private howled, stopping the car at the end of
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: the lane. He thinks a nut with a machete in
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a Tarzan complex is just good, clean fun. Which way now? Well,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: let's see. The sergeant had unfolded a quadrangled sheet. The
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: game protector leaned forward to look at it over his shoulder.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: The sergeant ran a finger from one of another series
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of variously colored crosses which had been marked on the map.'
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: Monday night, over here on Copperhead Mountain.' That cow was killed,'
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: he said.' The next night, at about ten o'clock, the
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: sheep flock was hit,' on this side of Copperhead, right
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: about here.' Early Wednesday night, that mule got slashed up
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: in the woods' in the back of Weston Farm.' It
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: was only slightly injured, must have kicked the what's-hit and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: got away.' But the what's-hit wasn't too badly hurt,' because
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: a few hours later, it hit that turkey flock in
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Reimer Farm.' And last night it did that. He jerked
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: a thumb over his shoulder at the Strawmire Farm. See,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: following the ridges is working toward the southeast, avoiding open
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: ground and killing away at night. Could be a bobcat
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: at that. Or Jinx Maniac with a machete. Parker agreed.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Let's go up by Hindman's Gap and see if we
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: can see anything. End of section two. Section 3. Police Operation.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information, or to find out how
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Bowie. Woodbridge, Virginia.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: G-A-M-S-I-T dot 10-G-B dot org. August 20th, 2006. Police Operation
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: by H. Beam Piper Section 3 They turned, after a while,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: into a rutted dirt road, which deteriorated steadily into a
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: grass-grown track through the woods. Finally, they stopped, and the
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: private backed off the road. The three men got out.
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: Parker with his Winchester, the sergeant checking the drum of
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: a Thompson, and the private pumping a bookshelf shot into
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the chamber of a riot gun. For half an hour,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: they followed the brush-gown trail beside the little stream. Once,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: they passed a dark gray commercial model Jeep back to
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: one side. Then they came to the head of the gap.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: A man wearing a tweed coat, tan field boots, and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: khaki breeches was sitting on a log, smoking a pipe.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: He had a bolt-action rifle across his knees, and a
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: pair of binoculars hung from his neck. He seemed about
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: thirty years old. and any bobby sacks or sidles of
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: the screen would have envied him the handsome regularity of
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: strangely mobile features. As Parker and the two state policemen approached,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: he rose, slinging his rifle, and greeted them. Sergeant Haynes,
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: he asked presently, are you gentlemen out hunting the critter, too?
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Mr.
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: Lee.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: I thought that was your jeep I saw down the
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: road a little. The sergeant turned to the others. Mr.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Richard Lee, staying at the old Kinchwater Place, the other
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: side of Rudder's Fort. This is Mr. Parker, the district
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: game protector, and Private Zinkowski. He glanced at the rifle.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Are you out hunting for it, too? Yes, I might
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: have thought I'd find something up here. What do you think?
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: It is.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I don't know, the sergeant admitted. It could be a bobcat.
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: Can't add it to Link's. Jink here has a theory
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: that it's some escapee from the paper doll factory with
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: a machete. Me, I hope not, but I'm ignoring the possibility.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: The man with the matinee's idol's face nodded. It could
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: be a Link's. I understand they're not unknown in this section.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: We paid bounties on two in this country in last year,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: Parker said. Odd rifle you have there. Mind if I
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: look at it? Not at all. The man who had
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: been introduced as Richard Lee unslung and handed it over.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The chamber's loaded, he cautioned. I never saw one like this,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: Parker said. Foreign? I think so. I don't know anything
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: about it. It belongs to a friend of mine who
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: loaned it to me. I think the actions German are Czech.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: The rest of it's a custom job by some West
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Coast gunmaker. It's chambered for some ultra-velocity wildcat load. The
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: rifle passed from hand to hand. The three men examined
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: it in turn, commenting admirably. You find anything, Mr.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: Lee?
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: The sergeant asked, handing it back. Not a trace. The
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: man called Lee slung the rifle and began to dump
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: the ashes from his pipe. I was along the top
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: of this ridge for about a mile on either side
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: of the gap, and down the other side as far
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: as hiding me in the run. I didn't find any
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: tracks or any indication of where it may have killed.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: The game protector nodded, turning to Sergeant Haynes. There's no
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: use of us going any farther, he said. Ten to one,
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it followed that line of woods back to Strawmeyers and
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: crossed over to the other ridge. I think our best
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: bet would be to go to the hollow at the
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: end of Lowry's run. What do you think? The sergeant agreed.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: The man called Richard Lee began to refill his pipe methodically.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I think I shall stay here for a while, but
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: I believe you're right. Lowry's run, or across Lowry's Gap
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: into Coon Valley, he said. End of Section 3. Section 4.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: Police Operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information, or to
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: by Alex Booley. Woodbridge, Virginia. Police Operation. By H. Beam
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Piper Section 4 After Parker and the state policeman had gone,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: the man whom they had addressed as Richard Lee returned
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: to his log and sat smoking his rifle across his knees.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: From time to time he glanced at his wristwatch and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: raised his head to listen. At length, faint in the distance,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: he heard the sound of a motor starting. Instantly he
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: was on his feet. From the end of the hollow
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: log on which he had been sitting, he produced a
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: canvas musette bag. Walking briskly to a patch of damp
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: ground beside the little stream, he leaned the rifle against
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: a tree and opened the bag. First he took out
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: a pair of gloves of some greenish rubber-like substance and
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: put them on, drawing the long gauntlets up over his coat-sleeves.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Then he produced a bottle and unscrewed the cap. Being
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: careful to avoid splashing his clothes, he went about pouring
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: a clear liquid upon the ground in several places. Where
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: he bored, white vapors rose and twigs and grass crumbled
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: into brownish dust. After he had replaced the cap and
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: returned the bottle to the bag, he waited for a
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: few minutes, then took a spatula from the mousset and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: dug where he had poured the fluid, prying loose four
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: black irregular-shaped lumps of matter, which he carried to the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: running water and washed carefully, before wrapping them up and
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: putting them in the bag, along with the gloves. Then
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: he slugged the bag and the rifle and started down
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the trail to where he'd parked the jeep. Half an
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: hour later, after driving through the little farming village of
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Rudder's Fort, he pulled into the barnyard of a run-down
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: farm and backed through the open doors of the barn.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: He closed the double doors behind him and barred them
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: from within. Then he went to the rear wall of
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: the barn, which was much closer from the front from
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: the outside dimensions of the barn than what I've indicated.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: He took from his pocket a black object that looked
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: like an automatic pencil. Hunting over the rough, blank wall,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: he found a small hole in the inserted pointed end
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of the pseudo-pencil, pressing in the other end. For an instant,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: nothing happened. Then a ten-foot square section of the wall
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: receded two feet and slid noiselessly to the side. The section,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: which had slid inward, had been built of three-inch steel.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Masked by a thin covering of boards, the wall around
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: it was too free concrete, similarly camouflaged. He stepped quickly inside.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Fumbling at the right side of the opening, he found
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: a switch and flicked it. Instantly, a massive steel plate
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: slid back into place with the wall, with a soft,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: oily click. As it did, lights came on within the
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: hidden room, disclosing a great semi-globe of some fine metallic mesh,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: 30 feet in diameter and 15 in height. There was
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: a sliding door at one side of this. The man
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: called Richard Lee opened and entered through it, closing it
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: behind him. Then he turned to the center of the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: hollow dome, where an armchair was placed in front of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: a small desk below a large instrument panel. The gauges
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: and dials on the panel, and the levers and switches
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: and buttons on the desk control board, were all lettered
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: in numbers with characters not of the Roman alphabet or
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the Arabic notation, and with instant reach of the occupant
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: of the chair. The postal-like weapon lay on the desk,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: had a conventional index finger trigger and a handgrip fit,
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: but instead of a tubular barrel, Two slender parallel metal
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: rods extended about four inches forward of the receiver joined
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: together at what would have corresponded to the muzzle of
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: a streamlined knob of some light blue ceramic or plastic substance.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: The man with the handsome and mobile face deposited his
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: rifle and mosaic on the floor beside the chair and
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: sat down. First, he picked up the pistol-like weapon and
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: checked it. Then, he examined the many instruments on the
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: panel in front of him. Finally, he flicked a switch
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: on the control board. At once, a small humming began.
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: From some point overhead, it wavered and shrilled and mounted
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: in intensity, and then fell to a steady monotone. The
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: dome about him flickered with a clear, cold iridescence, and
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: slowly vanished. The hidden room vanished, and he was looking
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: into the shadowy interior of a deserted barn. The barn vanished.
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: Blue sky appeared above, streaked with wisps of high cirrus clouds.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: The autumn landscape flickered unreally. Buildings appeared and vanished, and
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: other buildings came and went in a twinkling. All around him...
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: Half-seen shapes moved briefly and disappeared. Once the figure of
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: a man appeared inside the circle of a dome. He
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: had an angry face, brutal face, and he wore a
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: black tunic piped with silver. and black breeches and polished
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: black boots, and there was an insignia composed of a
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: cross and thunderbolt on his cap. He held an automatic
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: pistol in his hand. Instantly the man at the desk
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: snatched up his own weapon and thumbed off the safety.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Before he could lift and aim it, the intruder stumbled
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: and passed outside the force field which surrounded the chair
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: and instruments. For a while there were fires raging outside,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: and for a while the man at the desk was
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: surrounded by a great hall with a high vaulted ceiling.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: to which figures flitted and vanished. For a while there
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: were vistas and deep forests always set in the same
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: background above mountains and always under the same blue cirrus-laced sky.
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: There was an interval of flickering blue-white light of unbearable intensity.
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: Then the man at the desk was surrounded by the
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: interior of vast industrial works. The moving figures around him
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: slowed and became more distinct. For an instant, the man
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: in the chair grinned as he found himself looking into
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: a big washroom where a tall blonde girl was taking
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: a shower bath, and a pert little redhead was vigorously
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: drying herself with a towel. The dome grew visible, Corus
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: scatting with many colored lights, and then the humming died
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: and the dome began to cold and inert mesh a
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: fine white metal. A green light above flashed on and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: off slowly. He stabbed a button, flipped a switch, then
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: got to his feet, picking up his rifle and musette
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: and fumbling under his shirt for a small mesh bag,
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: from which he took an inch-wide disc of blue plastic.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: Unlocking a container on the instrument panel, he removed a
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: small roll of slidiograph film, which he stowed in his bag.
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: Then he slid open the door and emerged into his
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: own dimension of space-time. Outside was a wide hallway with
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a pale green floor, paler green walls, in a ceiling
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: of greenish-off white. A big hole had been cut to
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: accommodate the dome, and across the hallway a desk had
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: been set up, and at its side a clerk and
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: a pale blue tunic. but was just taking the audio
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: plugs of a music box out of his ears. A
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: couple of policemen in green uniforms, with ultrasonic paralyzers dangling
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: by thongs from their left wrists and bolstered sigmarine needlers
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: like the one in the desk inside the dome, were
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: kidding with some girls in vivid orange and scarlet and
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: green smocks. One of these, in bright green, was a
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: duplicate of the one he had seen rubbing herself down
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: with a towel. here comes your boss man one of
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the girls told the cops as he approached they both
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: turned and saluted casually the man who had lately been
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: using the name of richard lee responded their greeting and
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: went to the desk the policemen grasped their paralyzers drew
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: their needlers and hurried to the dome Taking the disc
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: of blue plastic from his packet, he handed it to
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: the clerk on the desk, who dropped it into a
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: slot in the voter in front of him. Instantly, a
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: mechanical voice responded,' Virkin Val, Blue Seal Noble, Heredity of
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Mirav of Neros, Special Chief's Assistant, Paratime Police, Special Assignment.'
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: Subject to no orders below those of Tortha Karf, Chiefs
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of Paratime Police. to be given all courtesies and cooperation
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: within Paratime Transportation Code and the Police Powers Code. Further particulars?
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: The clerk pressed the No button. The blue seagull fell
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: out of the release shot and was handed back to
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: its bearer, who was drawing up his left sleeve. You'll
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: want to be sure I'm your working ball, I suppose,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he extended, sending his arm. Yes, quite, sir. The clerk
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: touched his arm with a small instrument, which is swabbed
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: with antiseptic, drew a minute blood sample, and medicated the
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: needle prick all in one almost painless operation. He put
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: the blood drop on a slide and inserted it at
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: one side of a comparison microscope, nodding. Showed the same
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: distinctive permanent colloid pattern as the sample he had ready
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: for comparison. the colloid pattern given in infancy by ejection
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: to the man in front of him to set him
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: apart from all the myriad other virken voles on every
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: other probability line of paratime right sir the clerk nodded
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: The two policemen came out of the dome, their needlers holstered,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: and their vigilance relaxed. They were lighting cigarettes as they emerged.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: It's all right, sir, one of them said. You didn't
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: bring anything in with you this trip. The other cop chuckled.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Remember that fifth-level wild man who came in on the
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: freight conveyor at Jandar last month, he asked? If he
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: was hoping that some of the girls would want to know,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: what mild man, it was a vain hope. With a
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: blue seal mav rat around, what chance did a couple
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: of ordinary coppers have? The girls were already converging on
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Verkin Ball. When are you going to get that monstron
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: city out of our restroom, the little redhead in green
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: coveralls was demanding. If it wasn't for that thing, I'd
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: be taking a shower right now. You were just finishing
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: one about fifty paraseconds off when I came through, Verkin
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: Ball told her. The girl looked at him in obvious
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: feigned indignation. Why, you, you pair of peeper. Birkenvall chuckled
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: and turned to the clerk. I want a strato-rocket and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: pilot for Deherbar right away. Call Deherbar Paratime Police Field
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and give them my ETA. Have an air taxi meet
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: me and have the chief notified that I'm coming in.
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: Extraordinary report. Keep a guard over the conveyor. I think
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I'm going to need it again soon. He turned to
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: the little redhead. You want to show me the way
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: out of here to the rocket field, he asked. Outside
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: in the open landing field, Verkan Ball glanced up at
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: the sky, then looked at his watch. It had been
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: twenty minutes since he backed up the jeep up into
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: his barn. On that distant other timeline, the same delicate
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: lines of white cirrus were etched across the blue above.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: The consistency of the weather, even across two hundred thousand
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: parallel years of perpendicular time, never failed to impress him.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: The long curve of mountains were the same, and they
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: were modeled with the same autumn colors, but where the
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: little village of Rudder's Fort stood on that other line
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: of probability, The white towers of an apartment city rose,
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: the living quarters of the plant personnel. The rocket that
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: was to take him to headquarters was being hoisted with
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a crane that lowered in front of the firing stand.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: He walked briskly toward it, his rifle and musette slung.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: A boyish-looking pilot was on the platform, opening the door
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: of the rocket. He stood aside for Verkan Ball to enter,
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: then followed and closed it, dogging it shut while his
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: passenger stowed his bag and rifle and strapped himself into
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: a seat. Darabar, commercial terminal, sir, the pilot asked, taking
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the adjoining seat of the controls. Paratine police field, back
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: of the Paratine administration building. Right, sir, twenty seconds to
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: blast when you're ready. Ready now, Verkan Ball relaxed, counting
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: seconds subconsciously. The rocket trembled, and Verkan Vall found himself
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: being pushed gently back against the upholstery. The seats and
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the violence instrument panel in front of them swung on gimbals,
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: and the finger of the indicator swept slowly over a
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: ninety-degree arc as the rocket rose and leveled. By then,
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: the high cirrus clouds Verkan Vall had watched from the
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: field were far below. They were well into the stratosphere.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: There would be nothing to do now for the three
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: hours in which the rocket sped northwest across the pole
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: and downward to the Deherbar. Navigation was entirely in the
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: electronic hands of their robot controls. Birkenbau got out his
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: pipe and lit it. The pilot lit a cigarette. It's
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: an odd pipe, sir. Out time item. Yes, fourth probability level.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Typical of the whole paratime belt I was working in.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Vorkinvall handed it over for inspection. The bull's natural briar root,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: the stem sort of a plastic made from the sap
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: of certain tropical trees. The little white dot is the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: marker's trademark. It's made of elephant tusk. Sounds pretty crude
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: to me, sir, the pilot handed it back. Nice workmanship, though.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: Looks like good machine reduction. Yes, the sector I was
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: on is really quite advanced for an electrochemical civilization. The
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: weapon I brought back with me, that solid missile projector,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: is typical of most fourth-level culture. Moving parts machined to
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: the closest tolerances is interchangeable with similar parts of all
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: similar weapons. The missile's a small bolt of copro-alloy-coated lead,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: propelled by expanding gases from the ignition of some nitrocellulose compound.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Most of their scientific advance occurred within the past century,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and most of that in the past forty years. Of course,
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: the life expectancy on that level is only seventy years. Hmm,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: I'm seventy-eight, last birthday, the boyish-looking pilot snorted. Their medical
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: signs must be mostly witchcraft. Until quite recently it was.
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: Same story there as in everywhere else. Rapid advancement in
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: the past few decades, after thousands of years of cultural inertia.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: You know, sir, I don't really understand this Paratime stuff,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: the pilot confessed. I know that all time is totally present,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: and that every moment has its own past, future, or
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: line of event sequence. and that all events in space-time
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: occur according to the maximum probability. But I just don't
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: get this alternate probability stuff. If something exists, it's because
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: the maximum probability effect of prior causes. Why does anything
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: exist on any other line? Merkin Ball blew smoke at
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: the Air Renovator. A lecture on Paratime Theory would nicely
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: fill in the three-hour interval until landing at Terre Gabar.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: At least this kid was asking intelligent questions. Well, you
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: know the principle of time passage, I suppose, he began. Yes,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: of course, Rogam's doctrine, the basis of most of our
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: physical science. We exist perpetually at all moments within our lifespan.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Our extra-physical ego component passes from the ego existing at
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: one moment to the ego existing at the next. During
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: the unconsciousness, the EPC is time-free. It may detach and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: connect at some other moment with the ego existing at
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: that time point. That's how we precog. We take an
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: auto-hypno and recover memories brought back from the future moment
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: and buried in the subconscious mind. That's right, Rickenball told him.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: And even without the auto-hypno, a lot of precognitive matter
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: leaks out of the subconscious and into the conscious mind,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: usually in distorted forms, or else inspires instinctive acts, the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: motivation for which is not brought to the level of consciousness.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: For instance, suppose you're walking along a north promenade in
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: Deharag Bar, and you come to the Martian Palace Cafe,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: and you go in for a drink, meet same girl,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and strike up an acquaintance with her. This chance acquaintance
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: develops into a love affair and a year later out
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: of jealousy she raised you half a dozen times with
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: a needler just about that happened to a friend of
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: mine not long ago the pilot said go on sir
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: while on the microsecond or so before you die or
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: afterward for that matter because we know that the extra
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: physical component survives physical destruction your epc slips back a
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: couple years and reconnects at some point password of your
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: first meeting with this girl, and carries it with the
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: memories of everything to the moment of attachment, all of
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: which are indelibly recorded in your subconscious mind. So when
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you re-experience the event of standing outside the Martian palace
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: with thirst, you go onto the Starways, or into Hergals,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: or some other bar. In both cases, on both timelines,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you follow the line of maximum probability. In the second case,
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: your subconscious future memories are an added casual factor. And
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: when I slip back after I've been needled, I generate
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: a new timeline? Is that it? Verkan Vall made a
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: small set of impatience. No such thing, he exclaimed. It's
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: semantically inadmissible to talk about the total presence of time
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: with one breath and another generating about new timelines with
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the next. All timelines are totally present in perpetual coexistence.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: The theory is that EPC passes from one moment on
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: one timeline to the next moment on the next line,
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: so that the true passage of the EPC from the
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: moment to moment is a two-dimensional diagonal. So in the
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: case we're using, the event of your going to the
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Martian Palace exists on one timeline, and the event of
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: passing along to the Starway exists on another, but both
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: events are in real existence. Now, what we do in
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Paratime Transposition is... is to build up a hyper-temporal field
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to include the time line we want to reach, then
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: shift over it. Same point in the phantom, same point
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: in primary time. plus primary time elapsed during mechanical and
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: electronic lag in the relays, but a different line of
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: secondary time. Then why don't we have past, future time
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: travel on our own timeline, the pilot wanted to know.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: That was a question every paratimer has to answer every
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: time he talks paratime to the laity. Birkenvall had been
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: expecting it. He answered patiently. The Galdron Hester field generator
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: is like every other mechanism. It can operate only in
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the area of primary time in which it exists. It
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: can transpose to any other timeline and carry with it
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: anything that's inside its field. but it can go outside
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: its own temporal area of existence, any more than a
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: bullet from the rifle that can hit a target a
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: week before it's fired, Verkenvold pointed out. Anything inside the
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: field is supposed to be unaffected by anything outside. Supposed
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: to be is a way to put it. It doesn't
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: always work. Once in a while, something pretty nasty gets
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: picked up in transit, he thought briefly of the men
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: in the black tunic. That's why we have armed guards
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: at terminals. Suppose you pick up a blast from a
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: nucleonic bomb, or something red-hat or radioactive, the pilot asked.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: We have a monument at Paratime Police Headquarters in Deherg Bar,
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: bearing the names of our own personnel who didn't make
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: it back. It's a large monument, over the past 10,000 years.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: It's been inscribed with quite a few names. You can
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: have it. I'll stick to rockets, the pilot replied. Tell
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: me another thing, though. What's this all about levels and
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: sectors and belts? What's the difference? Purely arbitrary terms. There
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: are five main probability levels derived from the possible five
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: outcomes of the attempt to colonize this planet 75,000 years ago.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: We're on the first level. Complete success and colony fully established.
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: The fifth level is the probability of complete failure. No
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: human population established on this planet and ingenious quasi-human life
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: evolved indignously. On the fourth level, the colonists evidently met
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: with some disaster and lost all memory of their extraterrestrial origin,
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: as well as all extraterrestrial culture. As far as they know,
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: they are an indigeneous race. They have a long prehistory
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: of Stone Age savagery. Sectors are the area of paratime
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: on any level. in which the prevalent culture has a
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: common origin and common characteristics. They are divided more or
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: less arbitrarily into subsectors. Belts are areas within subsectors where
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: conditions are the result of recent alternate probabilities. For instance,
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: I've just come from the European-American sector of the fourth level,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: an area of about 10,000 peri-years in depth, in which
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: the dominant civilization developed on the northwest continent of the
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: major landmass and spread there to the minor landmass. The
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: line on which I was operating is also part of
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: a sub-sector of about 3,000 peri-years depth, and a belt
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: developing from one of several probable outcomes of a war
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: concluded about three elapsed years ago. On that timeline, the
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: field at the Hagerman Synthetics Works, where we took off,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: is part of an abandoned farm. On this side of
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Hagobrand City is a little farming village. Both things are there,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: right now, both in primary time and in the plenum.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: There are about 250,000 pair-years perpendicular to each other, and
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: each is the same general order of reality. The red
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: light overhead flashed on. The pilot looked into his visor
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: and put his hands on manual controls, in case of
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: failure of the robot controls. The rocket landed smoothly, however,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: there was a slight jar as it grappled by the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: crane and hoisted upright, the seats turning in their gimbals.
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: The pilot and passenger unstrapped themselves and hurried through the
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: refrigerated outlet and away from the glowing hot rocket. End
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: of Section 4 Section 5 Police Operation This is a
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: For more information, or to find out how you can volunteer,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Bowie. Woodbridge, Virginia. Police
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: Operation by H. Bean Piper. Section 5 An air taxi,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: emblazoned with the device of the Paratime Police, was waiting.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Verkan Vall said goodbye to the rocket pilot and took
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: his seat beside the pilot of the air cab. The
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: latter lifted his vehicle above the building level and then
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: set it down on the landing stage of the Paratime
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Police building in a long, side-spooping glide. An express elevator
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: took Verkan Vall down to one of the middle stages,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: where he showed his sigil to the guard outside the
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: door of Tortha Karf's office and was admitted at once.
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: The Paratime police chief rose from behind the semicircular desk
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: with its array of keyboards and viewing screens and communicators.
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: He was a big man, well past his two-hundredth year.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: His hair was iron-gray and thinning in front, and he
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: had begun to grow thick at the waist, and his
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: calm features bore the lines of middle age. He wore
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: the dark green uniform of the Paratime Police.' Well, Vol?'
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: he asked.' Everything secure?'' Not exactly, sir.' Birkin Vol came
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: around the desk, deposited his rifle and bag on the floor,
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: and sat down in one of the spare chairs. I'll
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: have to go back again. So? His chief lit a
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: cigarette and waited. I traced Gavran Sarn. Verkanval got out
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: his pipe and began to fill it. But that's only
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the beginning. I have to trace something else. Gavran Sarn
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: exceeded his paratime permit and took one of his pets along.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: A Venusian nighthound. Tortha Karf's expression did not alter. It
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: merely grew more intense. He used one of the short,
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: semantically ugly terms which serve, in place of profanity, as
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: the emotional release of a race that has forgotten all
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: the taboos and terminologies of supernaturalistic religion and sex inhibition.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: You're sure of this, of course. It was less a
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: question than a statement. Verkan Vall bent and took cloth-wrapped
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: objects from his bag, unwrapping them and laying them on
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: the desk. They were casts in hard black plastic of
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: the footprints of some large three-toed animal.' What do these
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: look like, sir?' he asked. Torthekar fingered them and nodded.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Then he became as visibly angry as a man of
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: his civilization and culture level ever permitted himself.' What does
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: that fool think we have a paratime code for?' he demanded.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: It's entirely illegal to transpose any extraterrestrial animal or object
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to any timeline in which space travel is unknown. I
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: don't care if he is a green seal thav-rad. He'll
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: face charges when he gets back for this. He was
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: a green seal thav-rad, Birkenvall corrected, and he won't be
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: coming back. I hope you didn't have to deal summarily
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: with him. Tortha Karf said, with his title and social position,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: his family's political importance. That might make difficulties. Not that
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: it wouldn't be all right with me, of course, but
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: we never seem to be able to make either the
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: management or the public realize the extremities to which we
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: are forced at times. He sighed. We probably never shall.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Verkan Voss smiled faintly. Oh, no, sir, nothing like that.
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: He was dead before I transposed to that timeline. He
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: was killed when he wrecked a self-propelled vehicle he was using,
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: one of those fourth-level automobiles. I posed as a relative
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: and tried to claim his body for the burial ceremony
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: observed at that cultural level, but was told that it
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: had been completely destroyed by the fire when the fuel
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: tank of this automobile burned. I was given certain of
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: his effects which had passed through the fire. I found
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: his sigil concealed inside what appeared to be a cigarette case.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: He took a green disc from the bag and laid
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: it on the desk. There's no question, Gavran Sarn died
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: in that wreck of an automobile. And the nighthound? It
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: was in the car with him, but it escaped. You
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: know how fast those things are. I found that track,
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: he indicated one of the black casts, in some dried
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: mud near the scene of the wreck. As you see,
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: the cast is slightly defective. The others refreshed this morning
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: when I made them. And what have you done so far?
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: I rented an old farm near the scene of the
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: wreck and installed my fuel generator there. It runs through
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: to the Hagraban Synthetics Works, about a hundred miles east
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: of Thanalsjavsar. I have my this-line terminal in the girls'
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: restroom at the durable plastics factory, handled on that local
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: power writ. Since then, I've been hunting for the nighthound.
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: I think I can find it, but I'll need some
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: special equipment and hypnomech indoctrination. That's why I came back.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: Has it been attracting any attention? Tortha Carfast asked anxiously.
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: Killing cattle in the locality, causing considerable excitement. Fortunately, it's
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: a locality of forest mountains and valley farms, rather than
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: a built-up industrial district. Local police and wild game protection
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: officers are concerned. All the farmers excited and going armed.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: The theory is that it's either a wildcat of some
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: sort or a maniac armed with a cullis. Either theory
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: would conform, more or less, to the nature of its depredations.
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: Nobody has actually seen it. That's good. Torthekarf was relieved. Well,
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: you'll have to go and bring it out, or kill
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: it and obliterate the body. You know why as well
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: as I do. Certainly, Sir Verkanvar replied. In a primitive culture,
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: things like this would be assigned supernatural explanations, and embedded
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: in the locally accepted religion. But this culture, while nominally religious,
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: is highly rationalistic in practice. Typical lag effect, characteristic of
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: all expanding cultures.' And this Europa-American sector really has an
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: expanded culture.' A hundred and fifty years ago, the inhabitants
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: of this particular timeline didn't even know how to apply
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: steam power.' Now they've begun to release nuclear energy in
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a few crude forms.'' Tortha Karf whistled softly.' That' s quite
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: a jump. There's a sector that'll be in for trouble
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: in the next few centuries.'' That is realized locally, sir.''
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Brook and Vol concentrated on relighting his pipe for a moment,
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: then continued.' I would predict space travel on that sector
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: within the next century, 'maybe the next half-century at least
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: to the moon,' and the art of taxidermy is very
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: highly developed.' Now suppose some farmer shoots that thing.' What
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: would he do with it, sir?'' Tortha Carve grunted.' Nice logic, Vol.'
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: On a most uncomfortable possibility, he'd have it mounted and
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: be put in a museum somewhere. And as soon as
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: the first spaceship reaches Venus, and they find those things
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: in a wild state, they'll have the mounted specimen identified. Exactly.
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: And then, instead of beating their brains about where their
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: specimen came from, they'll begin asking when it came from.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: You're quite capable of such reasoning, even now. A hundred
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: years isn't a particularly long time, Torth or Karth considered.
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: I'll be retired then, but you'll have my job, and
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: it'll be your headache. You'd better get this cleaned up
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: now while it can be handled. What are you going
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: to do? I'm not sure now, sir. I want a
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: hypnomech and diaturation first. Verkanval gestured toward the communicator on
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: the desk. May I, he asked? Certainly, Torthekarf slid the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: instrument across the desk. Anything you want? Thank you, sir.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: Verkan Vall snapped on the code index, found the symbol
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: he wanted, then punched it in on the keyboard. Special
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: Chief's Assistant Verkan Vall, he identified himself. Speaking from the
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: office of Tortha Karf, Chief Paratime Police. I want a
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: complete hypno-mech on Venusian nighthounds. Emphasis on wild state, special
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: emphasis domesticated nighthounds averted to wild state and terrestrial surroundings.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: Extra special emphasis hunting techniques applicable to same. The word
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: nighthound will do for trigger symbol. He turned to Tortha Karf.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: Can I take it here? Tortha Karf nodded, pointing to
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: a row of booths along the far wall of the office.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: Make setup for wired transmission. I'll take it here. Very well, sir.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: In fifteen minutes, a voice replied out of the communicator.
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: Verkan Voss led the communicator back. By the way, sir,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I had a hitchhiker on the way back. Carried him
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: about a hundred or so pair of years. Picked him
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: up in about three hundred pair of years after leaving
• 43:04
  Speaker 1: my other line terminal. Nasty-looking fellow in a black uniform.
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: Looked like one of these private army stormtroopers you find
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: all through that sector. Armed and hostile. I thought I'd
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: have to array him, but he blundered outside the field
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: almost at once. I have a record if you'd care
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: to see it. Yes, put it on. Torthekarf gestured toward
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: the solideograph projector. It's set for miniature reproduction here on
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: the desk. That be all right? Verkanval nodded, getting out
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: the film and loading it in the projector. When he
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: pressed a button, a dome of radiance appeared on the desktop.
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: Two feet in width and a foot in height. In
• 43:41
  Speaker 1: the middle of this appeared a small solideograph image of
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: the interior of the conveyor, showing the desk, the control board,
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: and the figure of Verkanval seated at it. The little
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: figure of the stormtrooper appeared, pistol in hand. The little
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: Verkan Vall snatched up his tiny needler. The stormtrooper moved
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: to one side of the dome and vanished. Verkan Vall
• 44:02
  Speaker 1: flipped the switch and cut out the image.' Yes, I
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: don't know what causes that, but it happens now and then,'
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: Tortha Karf said.' Usually at the beginning of a transposition.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I remember when I was just a kid. About a
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty years ago. A hundred and thirty-nine, to
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: be exact. I picked up a fellow on the fourth level.'
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: just about where you're operating, and dragged him a couple
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: of hundred pair of ears. I went back to find
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: him and return him to his own timeline, but before
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: I could locate him, he'd been arrested by the local
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: authorities as a suspicious character and got himself shot trying
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: to escape. I felt badly about that, but... Torthekarf shrugged.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Anything else happen on the trip? I ran through a
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: belt of intermittent nucleonic bombing on the second level. Verkanval
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: mentioned an approximate maritime location. Ah, that Kif-Tan civilization, by
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: courtesy so-called. Torthekar pulled a wry face. I suppose the
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: intra-family enmities of the Hvadka dynasty have reached critical mass again.
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: They'll fool around till they blast themselves back to the
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: Stone Age. Intellectually, they're about there now. I had to
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: operate in that sector once. Oh yes, another thing, sir.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: This rifle. Verkan Vall picked it up and emptied the
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: magazine and handed it to his superior. The supplies office
• 45:27
  Speaker 1: slipped up on this. It's not appropriate to my line
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: of operation. It's a lovely rifle, but it's about 200%
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: in advance of existing arms designed on my line. It
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: excited the curiosity of a couple of police officers and
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: a game protector, who should be familiar with the weapons
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: of their own timeline. I evaded by disclaiming ownership or
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: intimate knowledge, and they seemed satisfied, but it worried me. Yes,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: that was made in our duplicating shops here in Dahargbar.
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Torthekarf carried it to a photographic bench behind his desk.
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: I'll have it checked while you're taking your hypno-mech. Want
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: to exchange it for something authentic? Why, no, sir. It's
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: been identified to me, and I'd excite less suspicion with
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: it than I would if I abandoned it and mysteriously
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: acquired another rifle. I just wanted to check, and supplies
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: warned to be more careful in the future. Tortha Karf
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: nodded approvingly. The young mavrat of Narrows was thinking as
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: a paratimer should. What's the designation of your line again?
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: Vergenval told him. It was a short numerical term of
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: six places, but it expressed a number of the order
• 46:39
  Speaker 1: of ten to the fortieth power, exact to the last digit.
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Torthekarf repeated it into his steno-memograph with explanatory comment. There
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: seems to be quite a few things going wrong in
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: that area, he said. Let's see now. He punched the
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: designation on a keyboard instantly. It appeared on a translucent
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: screen in front of him. He punched another combination, and
• 47:03
  Speaker 1: at the top of the screen, under the number, there appeared,
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: events past the lap to five years. He punched again,
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: but below this line appeared the subheading, events involving paratime transposition.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: Another code combination added a third line, attracting public notice
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: among inhabitants. He pressed the start button. The headings vanished
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: to be replaced by page after page of print. succeeding
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: one another on the screen as the two men read.
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: They told strange and apparently disconnected stories of unexplained fires
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: and explosions, of people vanishing without trace, of unaccountable disasters
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: to aircraft. There were many stories of an epidemic of
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: mysterious disc-shaped objects seen in the sky, singly or in numbers.
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: To each account was appended one or more reference numbers.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: Sometimes Tortha Karf or Vurkenvald would plunge one of these
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: and read, on an adjoining screen, the explanatory matter referred to. Finally,
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: Tortha Karf leaned back and lit a fresh cigarette.' Yes, indeed, Val.
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: Very definitely we will have to take action in the
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: matter of the runaway nighthound, of the late Gavran Sarn,'
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: he said.' I' d forgotten that this was the timeline unto
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: which the Ardrath expedition launched those anti-grav discs.' If this
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: extraterrestrial monastrority turns up, on the heels of that flying
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: saucer business, everybody above the order of intelligence of a
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: cretin will suspect some connection. What really happened in the
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Andrath matter? Verkan Ball inquired. I was on the third level,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: on that Levarian Empire operation at that time. That's right,
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: you missed that. Well, it was one of those joint
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: operation things. the Paratime Commission and the Space Patrol were
• 48:53
  Speaker 1: experimenting with a new technique for throwing a spaceship into Paratime.
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: They used the cruiser Ardrath, Calzarn Jan commanding, went into
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: space about halfway to the moon and took up orbit,
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: keeping on the sunlit side of the planet to avoid
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: being observed. That was all right, but then Captain Calzarn
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: ordered away a flight of anti-grav disks, fully manned to
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: take pictures, and finally authorized a landing in the western
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: mountain range, northern continent, minor landmass. That's when the trouble started.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: He flipped the run-back switch till he had recovered the
• 49:28
  Speaker 1: page he wanted. Verkan Vall read of a fourth-level aviator
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: and his little air-screw-drive craft, citing nine high-flying saucer-like objects.
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: That was how it began, Torthek Arf told him. Before long,
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: as other incidents of the same sort occurred, our people
• 49:46
  Speaker 1: on that line began sending back to know what was
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: going on. Naturally, from the different descriptions of these saucers,
• 49:53
  Speaker 1: they recognized the objects as anti-grav landing disks from a spaceship.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: So I went to the commission and raised atomic blazes
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: about it, and the Ardrath was ordered to confine operations
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: to the lower areas of the fifth level. Then our
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: people on that timeline went to work with corrective action. Here.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: He wiped the screen and then began punching combinations. Page
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: after page appeared, bearing accounts of people who claimed to
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: have seen the mysterious disks. And each report was more
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: fantastic than the last. The standard smother-out technique, Verkenval grinned.
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: I only heard a little talk about the flying saucers,
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: and all of that was in joke. In that order
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: of culture, you can always discredit one true story by
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: setting up ten others, palpably false, parallel to it. Wasn't
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: that the timeline the Thar Max Trading Corporation almost lost
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: their Paratime license on? That's right, it was! They bought
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: up all the cigarettes and caused this conspicuous shortage after
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: the fourth-level cigarettes had been introduced on this line and
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: had become popular. They should have spread their purchases over
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: a number of lines. and kept them within the local
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: supply-demand frame, and they also got into trouble with the
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: local government for selling undressed petrol and automobile tires. We
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: had to send in a special operations group, and they
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: came closer to having to engage in out-time local politics
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: than I care to think of. Torthekarv quoted in a
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: line from a currently popular song about the sorrows of
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: a policeman's life, We're jugglers of all, trying to keep
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: our traders and sociological observers and tourists and plain idiots
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: like the late Gavron Sarn out of trouble, trying to
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: prevent panics and disturbances and dislocations of the local economy
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: as a result of our operations, trying to keep out
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: of out-of-time politics, and at all times, at all costs
• 51:48
  Speaker 1: and hazards, by all means, guarding the secret of maritime transposition.
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: Sometimes I wish Gahaljan Karf and Hesthor Grom had strangled
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: in their cradles. Verkenval shook his head No, chief, he said.
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: You don't mean that, not really, he said. We've been
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: paratiming for the past 10,000 years. When the Gahaldrin-Hesthor trans-temporal
• 52:14
  Speaker 1: field was discovered, our ancestors had pretty well exhausted the
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: resources of this planet. We had a world population of
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: half a billion, and it was all they could do
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: to keep alive. After we began paratime transposition, our population
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: climbed to 10 billion, and there it stayed for the
• 52:31
  Speaker 1: last 8,000 years. Just enough enough to joy our planet
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: and the other planets of the system to the fullest.
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: Enough of everything for everybody that nobody needs to fight
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: anybody for anything. We've tapped the resources of those other
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: worlds and other timelines. A little here, a little there.
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: Not enough to really hurt anybody. We've left our mark
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: in a few places. The Dakota Badlands and the Gobi
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: on the fourth level, for instance. But we've done no
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: great damage to any of them. except the time they
• 53:00
  Speaker 1: blew up half the southern island continent over about 500
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: peri-years on the third level, Tortha Karf mentioned. Regrettable accident,
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: to be sure, Vorkenvold conceded. And look how much we've
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: learned from the experiences of those other timelines. During the
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: crisis after the first interplanetary war, we might have adopted
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: Polnar Sand's dictatorship of the chosen scheme. if we hadn't
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: seen what an exactly similar scheme had done to the
• 53:27
  Speaker 1: Jakhaka civilization on the second level. When Polnarsarn was told
• 53:33
  Speaker 1: about that, he went into maritime to see for himself,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: and when he returned, he renounced his proposal in horror.
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: Torthekarft nodded. He wouldn't be making any mistake in turning
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: his post over to the Mavrat of Neros on his retirement. Yes,
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: of all I know, he said. But when you've been
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: at this desk as long as I have, you'll have
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: a sour moment in two, now and then, too. All
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: LibriVox recordings are in.
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: The public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: visit LibriVox.org. Police Operation by H. Beam Piper Section 6
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: A blue light flashed over one of the booths across
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: the room. Verkan Val got to his feet, removing his
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: coat and hanging it on the back of his chair,
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: and crossed the room, rolling up his left shirt sleeve.
• 54:36
  Speaker 2: There was a relaxer chair in the booth, with a
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: blue plastic helmet above it. He glanced at the indicator
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: screen to make sure he was getting the indoctrination he
• 54:44
  Speaker 2: called for, and then sat down in the chair and
• 54:46
  Speaker 2: lowered the helmet over his head, inserting the air plugs
• 54:49
  Speaker 2: and fastening the chin straps. Then he touched his left
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: arm with an injector, which was on the arm of
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: the chair, and at the same time flipped the starter switch. Soft,
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: slow music began to chant out of the earphones. The
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: insidious fingers of the drug blocked off his senses, one
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: by one. The music diminished, and the words of the
• 55:06
  Speaker 2: hypnotic formula lulled him to sleep. He woke, hearing the
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: lively strains of dance music. For a while, he lay relaxed.
• 55:14
  Speaker 2: Then he snapped off the switch, took out the earplugs,
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: removed the helmet, and rose to his feet. Deep in
• 55:19
  Speaker 2: his subconscious mind was the entire body of knowledge about
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: the Venusian nighthound. He mentally pronounced the word, and at
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: once it began flooding into his conscious mind. He knew
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: the animal's evolutionary history, its anatomy, its characteristics, its dietary
• 55:33
  Speaker 2: and reproductive habits, how it hunted, how it fought its enemies,
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: how it eluded pursuit, and how best it could be
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: tracked down and killed. He nodded. Already, a plan for
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: dealing with Gavran Sarn's renegade pet was taking shape in
• 55:46
  Speaker 2: his mind. He picked a plastic cup from the dispenser,
• 55:51
  Speaker 2: filled it from a cooler tap with amber-colored spiced wine,
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: and drank, tossing the cup into the disposal bin. He
• 55:58
  Speaker 2: placed a fresh injector on the arm of the chair,
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: ready for the next user of the booth. Then he emerged,
• 56:03
  Speaker 2: glancing at his fourth-level wristwatch and mentally translating to the
• 56:06
  Speaker 2: first-level timescale. Three hours had passed. There had been more
• 56:10
  Speaker 2: to learn about his quarry than he had expected. Torthekarf
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: was sitting behind his desk, smoking a cigarette. It seemed
• 56:17
  Speaker 2: as though he had not moved since Firkin Val had
• 56:20
  Speaker 2: left him, though the special agent knew that he had dined,
• 56:23
  Speaker 2: attended several conferences, and done many other things. I checked
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: up on your hitchhiker, Val, the chief said. We won't
• 56:29
  Speaker 2: bother about him. He's a member of something called the
• 56:32
  Speaker 2: Christian Avengers, one of those typical Europo-American race and religious
• 56:36
  Speaker 2: hate groups. He belongs in a belt that is the
• 56:38
  Speaker 2: outcome of the Hitler victory of 1940, whatever that was.
• 56:42
  Speaker 2: Something unpleasant, I dare say. We don't owe him anything.
• 56:45
  Speaker 2: People of that sort should be stepped on, like cockroaches.
• 56:48
  Speaker 2: And he won't make any more trouble on the line
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: where you dropped him than they have there already. It's
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: in a belt of complete social and political anarchy. Somebody
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: probably shot him as soon as he emerged because he
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: wasn't wearing the right sort of uniform. 1940 what, by
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: the way? Elapsed years since the birth of some religious leader,
• 57:06
  Speaker 2: Birkin Bell explained. And did you find out about my rifle?
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, it's reproduction of something that's called the Sharps
• 57:13
  Speaker 2: Model 37.235 Ultra Speed Express, made on an adjoining part-time
• 57:18
  Speaker 2: belt by a company that went out of business 67
• 57:21
  Speaker 2: years ago, elapsed time on your line of operation. What
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: made the difference was the second war between the states.
• 57:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know what that was, either. I'm not too
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: well up on fourth-level history, but whatever your line of
• 57:33
  Speaker 2: operation didn't have it. Probably just as well for them,
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: though they very likely had something else, as bad or worse.
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: I put in a complaint to supplies about it, and
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: got you some more ammunition and reloading tools. Now tell
• 57:45
  Speaker 2: me what you're going to do about this nighthound business.
• 57:49
  Speaker 2: Torthekarf was silent for a while, after Vergenval had finished.
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: You're taking some awful chances, Val, he said at length.
• 57:55
  Speaker 2: The way you plan doing it, the advantages will all
• 57:58
  Speaker 2: be with the nighthound. Those things can see as well
• 58:01
  Speaker 2: at night as you can in daylight. I suppose you
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: know that, though. You're the nighthound specialist now. Yes, but
• 58:07
  Speaker 2: they're accustomed to the Venus Hotland marshes. It's been dry
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: weather for the last two weeks, all over the northeastern
• 58:12
  Speaker 2: section of the northern continent. I'll be able to hear
• 58:15
  Speaker 2: it long before it gets close to me, and I'll
• 58:17
  Speaker 2: be wearing an electric headlamp. When I snap that on,
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: it'll be dazzled for a moment. Well, as I said,
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: you're the nighthound specialist. There's the communicator. Order anything you need.
• 58:27
  Speaker 2: He lit a fresh cigarette from the end of the
• 58:29
  Speaker 2: old one before crushing it out. But be careful, Val.
• 58:32
  Speaker 2: It took me close to 40 years to make a
• 58:34
  Speaker 2: paratimer out of you. I don't want to have to
• 58:36
  Speaker 2: repeat the process with somebody else before I can retire.
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
• 58:59
  Speaker 2: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 59:02
  Speaker 2: visit LibriVox.org. Police Operation by H. Beam Piper, Section 7.
• 59:10
  Speaker 2: The grass was wet as Verkan Vall, who reminded himself
• 59:12
  Speaker 2: that here he was called Richard Lee, crossed the yard
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: from the farmhouse to the ramshackle barn in the early
• 59:18
  Speaker 2: autumn darkness. It had been raining that morning when the
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: strata rocket from Durgobar had landed him at the Hagerband
• 59:24
  Speaker 2: Synthetic Works on the first level, Unaffected by the probabilities
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: of human history, the same rain had been coming down
• 59:30
  Speaker 2: on the old Kinchwalter Farm near Rudder's Fort on the
• 59:33
  Speaker 2: fourth level. It had persisted all day in a slow,
• 59:37
  Speaker 2: deliberate drizzle. He didn't like that. The woods would be wet,
• 59:41
  Speaker 2: muffling his quarry's footsteps and cancelling his only advantage over
• 59:45
  Speaker 2: the night prowler he hunted. He had no idea, however,
• 59:48
  Speaker 2: of postponing the hunt. If anything, the rain had made
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: it all the more imperative that the nighthound be killed
• 59:53
  Speaker 2: at once. At this season, a falling temperature would speedily follow.
• 59:58
  Speaker 2: The nighthound, a creature of the hot Venus marshes, would
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 2: suffer from the cold, and, taught by years of domestication
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 2: to find warmth among human habitations, it would invade some
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 2: isolated farmhouse, or worse, one of the little valley villages.
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 2: If it were not killed tonight, the incident he had
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 2: come to prevent would certainly occur. Going to the barn,
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: he spread an old horse blanket on the seat of
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: the jeep, laid his rifle on it, and then backed
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 2: the jeep outside. Then he took off his coat, removing
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 2: his pipe and tobacco from the pockets, and spread it
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: on the wet grass. He unwrapped a package and took
• 1:00:30
  Speaker 2: out a small plastic spray gun he had brought with
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: him from the first level, aiming it at the coat
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 2: and pressing the trigger until it blew itself empty. A sickening,
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: rancid fetter tainted the air, the scent of the giant
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: poison roach of Venus, the one creature for which the
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: night hound bore an inborn, implacable hatred. It was because
• 1:00:49
  Speaker 2: of this compulsive urge to attack and kill the deadly
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: poisoned roach that the first human settlers on Venus, long
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: millennia ago, had domesticated the ugly and savage nighthound. He
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: remembered that the Gavran family derived their title from their
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: vast Venus-taught lands' estates, that Gavran Sarn, the man who
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 2: had brought this thing to the fourth level, had been
• 1:01:07
  Speaker 2: born on the inner planet. When Verkan Vall donned that coat,
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 2: he would become his own living bait for the murderous
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: fury of the creature he sought. At the moment, mastering
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 2: his queasiness and putting on the coat, he objected less
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: to that danger than to the hideous stench of the
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 2: scent to obtain which a valuable specimen had been sacrificed
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 2: at the Durga Bar Museum of Extraterrestrial Zoology the evening before.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: Carrying the wrapper and the spray gun to an outside fireplace,
• 1:01:32
  Speaker 2: he snapped his lighter to them and tossed them in.
• 1:01:35
  Speaker 2: They were highly inflammable, blazing up and vanishing in a moment.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 2: He tested the electric headlamp on the front of his cap,
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: checked his rifle, drew the heavy revolver, an authentic product
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: of his line of operation, and flipped the cylinder out
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: and in again. Then he got into the jeep and
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: drove away. For half an hour he drove quickly along
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 2: the valley roads. Now and then he passed farmhouses, and dogs,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: puzzled and angered by the alien scent his coat bore,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 2: barked furiously. At length he turned into a back road,
• 1:02:04
  Speaker 2: and from this to the barely discernible trace of an
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 2: old log road. The rain had stopped, and, in order
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 2: to be ready to fire in any direction at any time,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 2: he had removed the top of the jeep. Now he
• 1:02:15
  Speaker 2: had to crouch below the windshield to avoid overhanging branches.
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: Once three deer, a buck and two does, stopped in
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: front of him and stared for a moment, then bounded
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 2: away with a flutter of white tails. He was driving
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: slowly now, laying behind him a reeking trail of scent.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: There had been another stalk killing the night before, while
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 2: he had been on the first level. The locality of
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 2: this latest depredation had confirmed his estimate of the beast's
• 1:02:39
  Speaker 2: probable movements, and indicated where it might be prowling tonight.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: He was certain that it was somewhere near. Sooner or later,
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 2: it would pick up the scent. Finally, he stopped, snapping
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 2: out his lights. He had chosen this spot carefully while
• 1:02:52
  Speaker 2: studying the geological survey map that afternoon. He was on
• 1:02:56
  Speaker 2: the grade of an old railed road line, now abandoned
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: and its track long removed, which had served the logging
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: operations of fifty years ago. On one side, the mountain
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: slanted sharply upward. On the other, it fell away sharply.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: If the nighthound were below him, it would have to
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 2: climb that 45-degree slope and could not avoid dislodging loose
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: stones or otherwise making noise. He would get out on
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 2: that side. If the nighthound were above him, the cheap
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 2: would protect him when it charged. He got to the ground,
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 2: thumbing off the safety of his rifle, and an instant
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: later he knew that he had made a mistake which
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 2: could easily cost him his life, a mistake from which
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 2: neither his comprehensive logic nor his hypnotically acquired knowledge of
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 2: the beast's habits had saved him. As he stepped to
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: the ground, facing toward the front of the jeep, he
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 2: heard a low, whining cry behind him, and a rush
• 1:03:42
  Speaker 2: of padded feet. He whirled, snapping on the headlamp with
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 2: his left hand, and thrusting out his rifle, pistol-wise, in
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 2: his right. For a split second, he saw the charging animal,
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: its long, lizard-like head split in a toothy grin, its
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: talon-tipped forepaws extended. He fired, and the bullet went wild.
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 2: The next instant, the rifle was knocked from his hand, Instinctively,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: he flung up his left arm to shield his eyes.
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 2: Claws raked his left arm and shoulder, something struck him
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: heavily along the left side, and his cap light went
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: out as he dropped and rolled under the jeep, drawing
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: in his legs and fumbling under his coat for the revolver.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: In that instant, he knew what had gone wrong. His
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 2: plan had been entirely too much of a success. The
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: nighthound had winded him as he had driven up the
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: old railroad grade and had followed. Its best running speed
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: had been just good enough to keep it a hundred
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: or so feet behind the jeep. and the motor noise
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 2: had covered the padding of its feet. In the few
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: moments between stopping the little car and getting out, the
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 2: nighthound had been able to close the distance and spring
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 2: upon him. It was characteristic of first-level mentality that Verkan
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 2: Vall wasted no moments on self-reproach or panic. While he
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 2: was still rolling under his jeep, his mind had been
• 1:04:49
  Speaker 2: busy with plans to retrieve the situation. Something touched the
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 2: heel of one boot, and he froze this leg into
• 1:04:55
  Speaker 2: immobility at the same time trying to get the big
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: Smith and Wesson free. The shoulder holster he had found
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 2: was badly torn, though made of the heaviest skirting leather,
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: and the spring which retained the weapon in place had
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 2: been wrenched and bent until he needed both hands to draw.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: The eight-inch slashing claw of the nighthound's right intermediary limb
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: had raked him. Only the instinctive motion of throwing his
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: arm up and the fact that he wore the revolver
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 2: and shoulder holster had saved his life. The nighthound was
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 2: prowling around the jeep, whining frantically. It was badly confused.
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 2: It could see quite well, even in the close darkness
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: of the starless night. Its eyes were of a nature
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: capable of perceiving infrared radiations as light. There were plenty
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 2: of these. The jeep's engine, lately running on four-wheel drive,
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 2: was quite hot. Had he been standing alone, especially on
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 2: this raw, chilly night, Verkan Vall's own body heat would
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 2: have lighted him up like a jack-o'-lantern. Now, however, the
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: hot engine above him masked his own radiations. Moreover, the
• 1:05:49
  Speaker 2: poison roach scent on his coat was coming up through
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: the floorboard and mingling with the scent on the seat.
• 1:05:54
  Speaker 2: yet the nighthound couldn't find the two-and-a-half-foot insect-like thing that
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 2: should have been producing it. Verkenval lay motionless, wondering how
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 2: long the next move would be in coming. Then he
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 2: heard a thud above him, followed by a furious tearing
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 2: as the nighthound ripped the blanket and began rending at
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: the seat cushion. Hope it gets a pawful of seat springs,
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 2: Verkenval commented mentally. He had already found a stone about
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 2: the size of his two fists, and another slightly smaller,
• 1:06:21
  Speaker 2: and had put one in each of the side pockets
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 2: of the coat. Now he slipped his revolver into his
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: waist belt and writhed out of the coat, shedding the
• 1:06:28
  Speaker 2: ruined shoulder holster at the same time. Wriggling on the
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 2: flat of his back, he squirmed between the rear wheels
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: until he was able to sit up behind the jeep. Then,
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 2: swinging the weighted coat, he flung it forward over the
• 1:06:40
  Speaker 2: nighthound and the jeep itself, at the same time drawing
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 2: his revolver. Immediately, the nighthound, lured by the sudden movement
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: of the principal source of the scent, jumped out of
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 2: the jeep and bounded after the coat, and there was
• 1:06:50
  Speaker 2: considerable noise in the brush on the lower side of
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 2: the railroad grade. At once, Verkan Vall swarmed into the
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 2: jeep and snapped on the lights. His stratagem had succeeded beautifully.
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 2: The stinking coat had landed on the top of a
• 1:07:02
  Speaker 2: small bush about ten feet in front of the jeep
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 2: and ten feet from the ground. The nighthound, erect on
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 2: its haunches, was reaching out with its front paws to
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 2: drag it down and slashing angrily at it with its
• 1:07:12
  Speaker 2: single-clawed intermediary limbs. Its back was to Verkan Vall. His
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 2: sights clearly defined by the lights in front of him.
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 2: The paratimer centered them on the base of the creature's spine.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: just above its secondary shoulders, and carefully squeezed the trigger.
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 2: The big. 357 Magnum bucked in his hand and belched
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 2: flame and sound. If only these fourth-level weapons weren't so
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 2: confoundedly boisterous. The nighthound screamed and fell. Recocking the revolver,
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 2: Verkan Vall waited for an instant, then nodded in satisfaction.
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 2: The beast's spine had been smashed, and its hindquarters, and
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 2: even its intermediary fighting limbs, had been paralyzed. He aimed
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 2: carefully for a second shot, and fired into the base
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 2: of the thing's skull. It quivered and died. Section 8
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 2: of Police Operation This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 2: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 2: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Police Operation by H. Beam
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 2: Piper Section 8 Getting a flashlight, he found his rifle,
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 2: sticking muzzle down in the mud a little behind and
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 2: to the right of the jeep, and swore briefly in
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 2: the local fourth-level idiom, for Verkan Vall was a man
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: who loved good weapons, be they sigma-ray needlers, neutron-disruption blasters,
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: or the solid-missile projectors of the lower levels. By this time,
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: he was feeling considerable pain from the claw wounds he
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 2: had received. He peeled off his shirt and tossed it
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 2: over the hood of the jeep. Torthekarf had advised him
• 1:08:50
  Speaker 2: to carry a needler, or a blaster, or a neurostat gun.
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 2: but Verkan Vall had been unwilling to take such arms
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 2: onto the fourth level. In the event of mishap to himself,
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 2: it would be all too easy for someone else. a
• 1:09:00
  Speaker 2: weapon to fall into the hands of someone able to
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 2: deduce from it scientific principles too far in advance of
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 2: the general fourth-level culture. but there had been one first-level
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 2: item which he had permitted himself, mainly because, suitably packaged,
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 2: it was not readily identifiable as such. Digging a respectable
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 2: fourth-level leatherette case from under the seat, he opened it
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 2: and took out a pint bottle with a red poison
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 2: label and a towel. Saturating the towel with the contents
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 2: of the bottle, he rubbed every inch of his torso
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 2: with it, so as not to miss even the smallest
• 1:09:30
  Speaker 2: break made in his skin by the septic claws of
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 2: the night-hound. Wherever the lotion-soaked towel touched raw skin, a
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 2: pain like the burn of a hot iron shot through him.
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 2: Before he was through, he was in agony. Satisfied that
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 2: he had disinfected every wound, he dropped the towel and
• 1:09:44
  Speaker 2: clung weakly to the side of the jeep. He grunted
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 2: out a string of English oaths and capped them with
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 2: an obscene Spanish blasphemy he had picked up among the
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 2: fourth-level inhabitants of his island-home of Neiros, to the south,
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 2: and a thundering curse in the name of Moga, fire-god
• 1:09:59
  Speaker 2: of duel, in a third-level tongue. He mentioned Fasif, great
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 2: god of Kift, in a manner which would have got
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 2: him an acid bath if the Kiftan priests had heard him.
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 2: He alluded to the Baroque amatory practices of the third-level
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 2: Ilyala people and suited himself in the classical Darhalma tongue
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 2: with one of those rambling genealogical insults favored in the
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 2: Indo-Turanean sector of the fourth level. By this time, the
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 2: pain had subsided to an all-oversmarting itch. He'd have to
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: bear with that until his work was finished and he
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 2: could enjoy a hot bath. He got another bottle out
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: of the first aid kit, a flat pint labeled Old Overholt,
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 2: containing a locally manufactured specific for inward and subjective wounds,
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 2: and emedicated himself copiously from it, corking it and slipping
• 1:10:42
  Speaker 2: it into his hip pocket against future need. He gathered
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 2: up the ruined shoulder holster and threw it under the
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 2: back seat. He put on his shirt. Then he went
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 2: and dragged the dead nighthound onto the grade by its
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: slumpy tail. It was an ugly thing. weighing close to
• 1:10:57
  Speaker 2: 200 pounds, with powerfully muscle-tied legs which furnished the bulk
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 2: of its motive power, and 33 clawed front legs. Its
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 2: secondary limbs, about a third of the way back from
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 2: its front shoulders, were long and slender. Normally, they were
• 1:11:11
  Speaker 2: carried folded closely against the body, and each was armed
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 2: with a single curving claw. The revolver bullet had gone
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 2: in at the base of the skull and emerged under
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 2: the jaw. The head was relatively undamaged. Verkan Vall was
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 2: glad of that. He wanted that head for the trophy
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 2: room of his home on Naros. Grunting and straining, he
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 2: got the thing into the back of the jeep and
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: flung his almost shredded tweed coat over it. A last
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 2: look around assured him that he had left nothing unaccountable
• 1:11:35
  Speaker 2: or suspicious. The brush was broken where the nighthound had
• 1:11:38
  Speaker 2: been tearing out the coat. A bear might have done that.
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 2: There were splashes of the viscid stuff the thing had
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 2: used for blood, but they wouldn't be there long. Terrestrial
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 2: rodents liked nighthound blood, and the woods were full of mice.
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 2: He climbed in under the wheel, backed, turned, and drove away.
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 2: End of Section 8 POLICE OPERATION SECTION 9 This is
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 2: a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 2: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. POLICE
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 2: OPERATION BY H. BEAM PIPER SECTION 9 Inside the Paratime
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 2: Transposition Dome, Verkan Vall turned from the body of the
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 2: nighthound which he had just dragged in and considered the
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 2: inert form of another animal, a stump-tailed, tuft-eared, tawny Canada lynx.
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 2: That particular animal had already made two maritime transpositions. Captured
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 2: in the vast wilderness of Fifth Level, North America, it
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 2: had been taken to the First Level and placed in
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 2: the Durgabar Zoological Gardens, and then, requisitioned on the authority
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 2: of Tortha Kaff, it had been brought to the Fourth
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 2: Level by Verkan Vall. It was almost at the end
• 1:12:54
  Speaker 2: of all its travels. Verkan Vall prodded the supine animal
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: with the toe of his boot. It twitched slightly. Its
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 2: feet were cross-bound with straps, but when he saw that
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: the narcotic was wearing off, Birkenvall snatched a syringe, parted
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 2: the fur at the base of its neck, and gave
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 2: it an injection. After a moment, he picked it up
• 1:13:11
  Speaker 2: in his arms and carried it out to the jeep.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 2: All right, pussycat, he said, placing it under the rear seat.
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 2: This is the one-way ride. The way you're doped up,
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 2: it won't hurt a bit. He went back and rummaged
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 2: in the debris of the long-deserted barn. He picked up
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 2: a hoe and discarded it as too light. An old
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 2: plowshare was too unhandy. He considered a great bar from
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 2: a heating furnace, and then he found the poleaxe lying
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 2: among a pile of worm-eaten boards. Its handle had been
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 2: shortened at some time to about twelve inches, converting it
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 2: into a heavy hatchet. He weighed it and tried it
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 2: on a block of wood, and then, making sure that
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 2: the secret door was closed, he went out again and
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 2: drove off. An hour later he returned. Opening the secret door,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 2: he carried the ruined shoulder holster and the straps that
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 2: had bound the bobcat's feet, and the axe, now splotched
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 2: with blood and tawny cat hairs, into the dome. Then
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 2: he closed the secret room and took a long drink
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: from the bottle on his hip. The job was done.
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 2: He would take a hot bath and sleep in the
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 2: farmhouse till noon, and then he would return to the
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 2: first level. Maybe Tortha Karf would want him to come
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 2: back here for a while. The situation on this timeline
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 2: was far from satisfactory, even if the crisis created by
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 2: Gavran Sarn's renegade pet had been averted. The presence of
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 2: a chief's assistant might be desirable. At least he had
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 2: the right to expect a short vacation. He thought of
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 2: the little redhead at the Hagriban Synthetic Works. What was
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 2: her name? Something Kara. Morven Kara? That was it. She'd
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 2: be coming off shift about the time he'd make first level,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 2: tomorrow afternoon. The claw wounds were still smarting vexatiously, a
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 2: hot bath and a night's sleep. He took another drink,
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 2: lit his pipe, picked up his rifle, and started to
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: cross the yard to the house. End of section 9
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 2: Section 10 of Police Operation This is a LibriVox recording.
• 1:15:03
  Speaker 2: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 2: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Police Operation by H.
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 2: Beam Piper Section 10 Private Zinkowski cradled the phone and
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 2: got up from the desk, stretching. He left the orderly
• 1:15:23
  Speaker 2: room and walked across the hall to the recreation room,
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 2: where the rest of the boys were loafing. Sergeant Haynes,
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 2: in a languid gin-rumming game with Corporal Connor, a sheriff's deputy,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 2: and a mechanic from the service station down the road,
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 2: looked up.' Well, Sarge, I think we can ride off
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 2: those stock killings,' the private said.' Yeah?' The sergeant's interest quickened.' Yeah,
• 1:15:42
  Speaker 2: I think the what's-its had it. I just got a
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 2: buzz from the railroad cops at Logan Sport. It seems
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: a track walker found a dead bobcat on the Logan
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 2: River branch, about a mile or so below MMY Signal Tower.
• 1:15:53
  Speaker 2: Looks like it tangled with that night freight upriver and
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: came off second best.' It was near Chop to Hamburger.
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 2: MMY Signal Tower. That's right below Yoder's Crossing, the sergeant considered.
• 1:16:05
  Speaker 2: The Strawmire Farm night before last. The Amarine Farm last night? Yeah,
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 2: that would be about right. That'll suit Steve Parker. Bobcats
• 1:16:13
  Speaker 2: aren't protected, so it's not his trouble. And they're not
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 2: a violation of state law, so it's none of our worry,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 2: Connor said. Your deal, isn't it, Sarge? Yeah. Wait a minute,
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 2: the Sarge got to his feet. I promised Sam Kane,
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 2: the AP man at Logan Sport, that I'd let him
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 2: in on anything new. He got up and started for
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 2: the phone. Phantom killer, he blew an impolite noise. Well,
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 2: it was a lot of excitement while it lasted, the
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 2: deputy sheriff said. Just like that flying saucer thing. The
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 2: End End of Police Operation