The Plotters

hardfor me to define, and after a while I gave up trying to discover what itwas. I merely enjoyed it.

  When I took her home I knew that it was not fear of the dark that madeher walk so close to me. The movies had taught me a great deal aboutthis matter of love play. Although some of it was highly exaggerated, itshowed clearly enough the drives of these people, and some of theirmethods of acting them out.

  We were standing on the porch when I kissed Beth. It was the first timeI had ever pressed my lips to those of anyone else. My technique wasgood. I felt Beth respond, pressing harder against me.

  My mission was on its way to completion. I felt a moment of triumph. Andthen suddenly, crazily, my mission was gone from my mind. I felt only astrange exhilaration that swept over me and made my heart pound and myhead grow hot.

  "What's the matter, Marko?" Beth asked as I pulled away.

  I didn't know what was wrong. I didn't try to figure it out. I had toget out of there and try to regain my equilibrium. On a mission likemine I had to keep my head.

  "Shall I see you tomorrow?" I said.

  "All the tomorrow's you want," Beth answered.

  There was eagerness, and yet a note of regret. It was as though sheinstinctively knew that something was wrong. But my work had been welldone; she was in too far, and I had cut her emotional line of retreat.

  I saw Beth the next afternoon, and the next evening. My presence on theporch and in her home became such a common thing that the security agenthardly gave me a glance now.

  Those few days passed by swiftly, and yet each hour in those days waslong. I was very cautious; Beth and I kissed many times but I neverallowed myself to be moved as on that first time.

  Sunday loomed larger and larger, closer and closer. I was a constant andever present guest. It was an elementary matter to get Beth to invite mefor Sunday dinner. The invitation came on Saturday night, and that nightwhen I came back to my room I called Ristal for the first time since wehad arrived.

  "Tomorrow," I said into the _besnal_. "Early evening."

  "Good."

  That was all we said, but it was enough. Our frequency was too high tobe picked up. Still, we were taking no chances. Ristal knew preciselywhat I meant and he would be ready.

  I had the feeling that comes when a mission is about to be completed.There was a feeling of tension, and yet for the first time in my careerI had a lowering of spirits that I could not explain.

  The feeling persisted until late Sunday afternoon. Then I pushed it frommy mind. I dressed carefully, slipped the _besnal_ into my inner pocket,and put my _del_ gun in my coat pocket.

  "Take your coat off," Beth said when I came in. "You ought to knowthere's no formality here."

  "I'm really quite comfortable," I told her. "Am I late?"

  "No. Just on time. Dad will be down in a moment."

  He came down the stairs from his study while we were talking. He greetedme warmly, and yet I felt that this time he was scrutinizing me. Allduring the dinner his eyes were on me, weighing me. I felt what wascoming, and as we rose from the table it came.

  "I hope you won't be offended, Marko," Copperd said. "But there are somestrange things about you. Do you ever shave?"

  "No," I said. I looked out the window and saw it was growing darker.

  "That's odd. And about your hair ... have you ever realized that everystrand of it grows in a different direction? You could never comb it.Your skin is of an unusually fine texture. And when you reached forsomething at the table I observed strange folds of skin between yourfingers. You are somehow not like the rest of us."

  "Naturally," I said. It didn't matter now. It was dark enough.

  "Why naturally?"

  "Because," I told him, "I am a Venusian."

  * * * * *

  My tone was matter of fact. Yet they knew that I was not joking. Bethwas staring at me, a growing fear and horror in her eyes. Her fatherseemed dazed by the revelation. I took the _del_ gun from my pocket andshowed it to them.

  "This is a weapon strange to you. But it is effective at this range.Please don't make me use it."

  "But what do you want?" Copperd asked.

  "I want you to take a ride with me. In your car."

  I let them put on their coats and then we walked out onto the porch anddown the stairs. Across the street the security agent barely glanced atus. Then we got into Copperd's car, Beth and he in the front seat and Iin the back. I told him in which direction to go.

  At the outskirts of town we lost the car that was following us. I hadplanned this part of it perfectly. We pulled into a side road and turnedoff our lights. The agent went right past us.

  "What is it you want of me?" Copperd said as we started up again.

  "We want to have a long discussion with you about some matters on whichyou are an authority."

  "And that's what this whole affair with me was for? So that you couldget to my father!" Beth said accusingly. I saw her shoulders shake.

  "Yes. Now turn off here."

  We turned off the main road and followed a rutted trail onto an oldfarm.

  The farmhouse was a wreck, but the barn still good. Our ship was inthere.

  The door opened as we walked toward the barn. Ristal's tall figure wasframed in the doorway, and behind him stood Kresh, broad and ungainly.The others crowded up behind them.

  "Good work, Marko," Ristal said. We went into the ship, which filled thewhole interior of the barn.

  "This is Commander Ristal, of the Venusian Intelligence," I told Copperdand Beth.

  "What's _your_ official title?" Beth asked bitterly.

  "I am a special agent and language expert," I told her. Then I explainedwhy I had brought them here.

  "Our civilization is in some way far in advance of yours. As you see, wehave mastered interplanetary travel. But it is essentially a peacefulcivilization. Our weapons, such as we have, are of limited range andpower.

  "When it became known that Earth was developing monstrous weapons ofaggression we realized that we must be prepared for the worst. There wasonly one way to discover what you already had and what you were workingon. Once we arrived here we found that a man named Copperd was the primefigure in his country's atomic weapons research. It became our duty toseek him out."

  "I see," Copperd grunted. "And now you expect me to reveal secrets whichI am bound by oath to protect with my very life?"

  "You will reveal them," Ristal told him.

  I didn't like the way Ristal said that. There was a tinge of cruelty inhis tone and in the sudden tightening of his lips. I hadn't ever workedwith him before, or with Kresh, who was Ristal's second in command, butI didn't like the methods their manner implied. Copperd looked worried.

  "I told you we were a peaceful people," I put in.

  "Let me handle this," Ristal said. He pointed to a machine which stoodin a corner.

  "That," he explained to Copperd, "is a device which we ordinarily use insurgery and diagnosis. It has the faculty of making the nervesinfinitely more sensitive to stimuli. Also to pain. Do you understand?"

  "You can't use that on him!" I said. Ristal looked at me strangely.

  "Of course not. But on his daughter, yes. No father likes to see hisdaughter suffer."

  "That's out," I said flatly. "You know what our orders are."

  "I know what they were. This is my own idea, Marko. Please remember thatI am commander here."

  I was duty bound to obey him, and I thought that I _was_ going to obey.But as Kresh stepped toward Beth I found myself between them.

  "I think that those higher up may have something to say about this," Itold Ristal.

  "With the information this man can give me I shall be in a position toignore those higher up," Ristal grinned.

  Kresh reached for Beth and I hit him. I knew now what Ristal had inmind. With atomic weapons he could make himself master of Venus, and ofEarth. But even more important than that was the thought that he mustnot harm Beth.

  * *
* * *

  Kresh was coming back at me. I hit him again and he went down. Then theothers came piling in. There were four of them, too many for me. Ifought like a madman but they overwhelmed me and held me helpless.

  "Give him a shot of _bental_," Ristal ordered. "That ought to quiet him.Then dump him in a cabin. We'll dispose of him later."

  Then Kresh was coming at me with the hypodermic needle. I felt it stabinto my arm. He gave me a dose that might have killed an ordinary man.

  I knew how _bental_ worked. It was a drug that would throw me into astupor, that would render my mind blank. Already it was taking effect. Ipretended to be unconscious. Two men lifted me and carried me to acabin, dropped me on the bunk