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."It might be smart not to.Watch him with 'scopes.and when he gets upclose tothe box, better pull your beams off of it.DalNalten, I don't suppose it wouldbe quitebright for you to go swimming down there too, would it?""Very definitely not, which is why I am up here and dry.None of themwould gonear it."They waited, and finally Ossmen's purposeless wanderings brought him overthePage 183 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlspot on the lake's bottom which was the target of so many Tellurian eyes.Hegazed atthe discarded lunch-box as incuriously as he had looked at so many othersunkenobjects, and swam over it as casually -- and only the ultra-cameras caughtwhat heactually did.He swam serenely an."The box is still there," the spy-ray men reported, "but the package isgone.""Good!" Kinnison exclaimed."Can you 'scopists see it on him?""Ten to one they can't," Jack said."He swallowed it.I expected him toswallow itbox and all.""We can't see it, sir.He must have swallowed it.""Make sure.""Yes, sir.He's back on the boat now and we've shot him from allangles.He'sclean -- nothing outside.""Perfect! That means he isn't figuring on slipping it to somebody else ina crowd.This will be an ordinary job of shadowing from here on in, so I'll put in theumbrella."The detector ships were recalled.The Chicago and the various other shipsof warreturned to their various bases.The pleasure craft floated away.But on theother handthere were bursts of activity throughout the forest for a mile or so back fromthe shoresof the lake.Camps were struck.Hiking parties decided that they had hikedenough andbegan to retrace their steps.Lithe young men, who had been doing this andthat,stopped doing it and headed for the nearest trails.For Kinnison pere had erred slightly in saying that the rest of theenterprise was tobe an ordinary job of shadowing.No ordinary job would do.With the game thisnearly inthe bag it must be made absolutely certain that no suspicion was aroused, andyetSamms had to have facts.Sharp, hard, clear facts; facts so self-evidentlyfacts that nointelligence above idiot grade could possibly mistake them for anything butfacts.Wherefore Ossmen the Venerian was not alone thenceforth.From lake tohotel,from hotel to car, along the road, into and in and out of train and plane,clear to anordinary-enough-looking building in an ordinary business section of New York,.he wasnever alone.Where the traveling population was light, the Patrol operativeswere fewand did not crowd the Venerian too nearly; where dense, as in a metropolitanstation,they ringed him three deep.He reached his destination, which was of course spy-ray proofed, lateSundaynight.He went in, remained briefly, came out."Shall we spy-ray him, Virge? Follow him? Or what?""No spy-rays.Follow him.Cover him like a blanket.At the usual timegive him thePage 184 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlusual spy-ray going-over, but not until then.This time, make it thorough.Make certainthat he hasn't got it on him, in him, or in or around his house.""There'll be nothing doing here tonight, will there?""No, it would be too noticeable.So you, Fred, and Lyman, take the firsttrick; therest of us will get some sleep."When the building opened Monday morning the Lensmen were back, withdozensof others, including Knobos of Mars.There were also present or nearbyliterally hundredsof the shrewdest, most capable detectives of Earth."So this is their headquarters -- one of them at least," the Martianthought,studying the trickle of people entering and leaving the building."It is as wethought, Dal,why we could never find it, why we could never trace any wholesaler backward.None ofus has ever seen any of these persons before.Complete change of personnel peroperation; probably interplanetary.Long periods of quiescence.Check?""Check: but we have them now.""Just like that, huh?" Jack Kinnison jibed; and from his viewpoint hisidea was themore valid, for the wholesalers were very clever operators indeed.From the more professional viewpoint of Knobos and DalNalten, however,whohad fought a steadily losing battle so long, the task was not too difficult.Their forceswere beautifully organized and synchronized; they were present in suchoverwhelmingnumbers that "tails" could be changed every fifteen seconds; long beforeanybody,however suspicious, could begin to suspect any one shadow.Nor was itnecessary forthe tails to signal each other, however inconspicuously, or to indicate anysuspect atchange-over time.Lensed thoughts directed every move, without confusion or error.And there were tiny cameras with tremendous, protuberant lenses, the"longeyes" capable of taking wire-sharp close ups from five hundred feet; and otherdevicesand apparatus and equipment too numerous to mention here.Thus the wholesalers were traced and their transactions with the retailpeddlerswere recorded.And from that point on, even Jack Kinnison had to admit thatthe sailingwas clear.These small fry were not smart, and their customers were even lessso.Nonehad screens or detectors or other apparatus; their every transaction could beand wasrecorded from a distance of many miles by the ultra-instruments of the Patrol.And notonly the transactions.Clearly, unmistakably, the purchaser was followed frombuying tosniffing; nor was the time intervening ever long.Thionite, then as now, wasbought atretail only to use, and the whole ghastly thing went down on tape and film.The gasping,hysterical appeal; the exchange of currency for drug; the headlong rush to aPage 185 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlplace ofsolitude; the rigid muscle-lock and the horribly ecstatic transports; theshaken, soul-searing recovery or the entranced death.It all went on record.It wassickening to haveto record such things.More than one observer did sicken in fact, and had tobe relieved.But Virgil Samms had to have concrete, positive, irrefutable evidence.He gotit.Anypossible jury, upon seeing that evidence, would know it to be the truth; nopossible jury,after seeing that evidence, could bring in any verdict other than "guilty".Oddly enough, Jack Kinnison was the only casualty of that long and hecticday [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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."It might be smart not to.Watch him with 'scopes.and when he gets upclose tothe box, better pull your beams off of it.DalNalten, I don't suppose it wouldbe quitebright for you to go swimming down there too, would it?""Very definitely not, which is why I am up here and dry.None of themwould gonear it."They waited, and finally Ossmen's purposeless wanderings brought him overthePage 183 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlspot on the lake's bottom which was the target of so many Tellurian eyes.Hegazed atthe discarded lunch-box as incuriously as he had looked at so many othersunkenobjects, and swam over it as casually -- and only the ultra-cameras caughtwhat heactually did.He swam serenely an."The box is still there," the spy-ray men reported, "but the package isgone.""Good!" Kinnison exclaimed."Can you 'scopists see it on him?""Ten to one they can't," Jack said."He swallowed it.I expected him toswallow itbox and all.""We can't see it, sir.He must have swallowed it.""Make sure.""Yes, sir.He's back on the boat now and we've shot him from allangles.He'sclean -- nothing outside.""Perfect! That means he isn't figuring on slipping it to somebody else ina crowd.This will be an ordinary job of shadowing from here on in, so I'll put in theumbrella."The detector ships were recalled.The Chicago and the various other shipsof warreturned to their various bases.The pleasure craft floated away.But on theother handthere were bursts of activity throughout the forest for a mile or so back fromthe shoresof the lake.Camps were struck.Hiking parties decided that they had hikedenough andbegan to retrace their steps.Lithe young men, who had been doing this andthat,stopped doing it and headed for the nearest trails.For Kinnison pere had erred slightly in saying that the rest of theenterprise was tobe an ordinary job of shadowing.No ordinary job would do.With the game thisnearly inthe bag it must be made absolutely certain that no suspicion was aroused, andyetSamms had to have facts.Sharp, hard, clear facts; facts so self-evidentlyfacts that nointelligence above idiot grade could possibly mistake them for anything butfacts.Wherefore Ossmen the Venerian was not alone thenceforth.From lake tohotel,from hotel to car, along the road, into and in and out of train and plane,clear to anordinary-enough-looking building in an ordinary business section of New York,.he wasnever alone.Where the traveling population was light, the Patrol operativeswere fewand did not crowd the Venerian too nearly; where dense, as in a metropolitanstation,they ringed him three deep.He reached his destination, which was of course spy-ray proofed, lateSundaynight.He went in, remained briefly, came out."Shall we spy-ray him, Virge? Follow him? Or what?""No spy-rays.Follow him.Cover him like a blanket.At the usual timegive him thePage 184 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlusual spy-ray going-over, but not until then.This time, make it thorough.Make certainthat he hasn't got it on him, in him, or in or around his house.""There'll be nothing doing here tonight, will there?""No, it would be too noticeable.So you, Fred, and Lyman, take the firsttrick; therest of us will get some sleep."When the building opened Monday morning the Lensmen were back, withdozensof others, including Knobos of Mars.There were also present or nearbyliterally hundredsof the shrewdest, most capable detectives of Earth."So this is their headquarters -- one of them at least," the Martianthought,studying the trickle of people entering and leaving the building."It is as wethought, Dal,why we could never find it, why we could never trace any wholesaler backward.None ofus has ever seen any of these persons before.Complete change of personnel peroperation; probably interplanetary.Long periods of quiescence.Check?""Check: but we have them now.""Just like that, huh?" Jack Kinnison jibed; and from his viewpoint hisidea was themore valid, for the wholesalers were very clever operators indeed.From the more professional viewpoint of Knobos and DalNalten, however,whohad fought a steadily losing battle so long, the task was not too difficult.Their forceswere beautifully organized and synchronized; they were present in suchoverwhelmingnumbers that "tails" could be changed every fifteen seconds; long beforeanybody,however suspicious, could begin to suspect any one shadow.Nor was itnecessary forthe tails to signal each other, however inconspicuously, or to indicate anysuspect atchange-over time.Lensed thoughts directed every move, without confusion or error.And there were tiny cameras with tremendous, protuberant lenses, the"longeyes" capable of taking wire-sharp close ups from five hundred feet; and otherdevicesand apparatus and equipment too numerous to mention here.Thus the wholesalers were traced and their transactions with the retailpeddlerswere recorded.And from that point on, even Jack Kinnison had to admit thatthe sailingwas clear.These small fry were not smart, and their customers were even lessso.Nonehad screens or detectors or other apparatus; their every transaction could beand wasrecorded from a distance of many miles by the ultra-instruments of the Patrol.And notonly the transactions.Clearly, unmistakably, the purchaser was followed frombuying tosniffing; nor was the time intervening ever long.Thionite, then as now, wasbought atretail only to use, and the whole ghastly thing went down on tape and film.The gasping,hysterical appeal; the exchange of currency for drug; the headlong rush to aPage 185 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlplace ofsolitude; the rigid muscle-lock and the horribly ecstatic transports; theshaken, soul-searing recovery or the entranced death.It all went on record.It wassickening to haveto record such things.More than one observer did sicken in fact, and had tobe relieved.But Virgil Samms had to have concrete, positive, irrefutable evidence.He gotit.Anypossible jury, upon seeing that evidence, would know it to be the truth; nopossible jury,after seeing that evidence, could bring in any verdict other than "guilty".Oddly enough, Jack Kinnison was the only casualty of that long and hecticday [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]