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  how much more time are we going to give Reed?
 How long are we going to sit and take it? French hammered for
silence.
 We ve got several plans. But we ve got to figure well ahead. Suppose
we kill Reed 
 That wouldn t be easy. He doesn t take chances!
 He can t win if most of the colony s against him! And it will be.
We ve got to spread our organization. Once we get rid of Reed and
Hale we ll be on top and able to stay there. We ll have the fort. And
there isn t a thing on Venus that can smash the fort!
 Hale s no fool. Neither is Reed. If they get wind of us 
French said:  Every man takes a lie-detector test before he leaves one
of our meetings. No traitors live.
* * *
 I haven t lived a thousand years without figuring out how to fool a
lie-detector, the Logician said to Hale.
Hale turned away from his light-latticed window that looked down so
far on the walls which had once seemed so high to them all. He said
coldly,  I know you were at that meeting. I have spies, too.
 Did your spy recognize me?
 He didn t recognize anybody. He got there afterward. But he smelled
pipe smoke and that rank tobacco of yours. Anyway I know a little about
what goes on around here.
 What, for example?
 I know when discipline begins to fail. When men are sloppy about
saluting. When they don t polish their brassards. I learned discipline in
the Free Companies. I saw the crack-up start in Mendez s company before
his men killed him. I noticed signs of trouble here months ago. That s
when I put my spies to work. I knew what to expect, and I was right. It s
beginning.
 What?
 Mutiny. I know a few of the ringleaders not all.
 Does Sam Reed know?
 I ve discussed it with him. But I think he discounts the danger. He s
been guarding himself so thoroughly he mistakes personal safety for
colony safety. I want you to tell me what s going on. I know you can. If
you don t, I can get the information elsewhere, but I d like to discuss it
with you if you re willing.
 I know you can find out elsewhere, Crowell said:  I ll be glad to talk.
I ve been waiting for you to ask me, hoping you would, because I couldn t
volunteer anything without upsetting the pattern. I got into this passively,
you know. Guess I looked like a malcontent. God knows why. No, I do
know. Do you? He squinted at Hale over the hand that cradled his pipe.
Hale shook his head.  No, I . . . wait. Maybe I do. He strolled to the
window again and looked down at the busy courts. There was much more
of a pattern to the activities in Plymouth Colony than there had been five
years ago. Discipline had stiffened into iron rigidity. It seemed to the
average man that as the need for discipline lessened with their growing
conquests of the land, the meaningless forms of it grew more and more
inflexible.
 Sam has his reasons, Hale said, looking down.  I don t know what
they are, but I can guess. His time s running out. The balance is going to
shift pretty soon. Men are losing faith in immortality and beginning to
wonder. Sam knows the balance is tilting already, but I don t think it s
dawned on him what he s weighing in the balance. Men. And not Keep
men any longer. Men like you and me, who know what independence
means. No wonder they spotted you for a malcontent. You ve lived in a
world where every man had to shift for himself or go under. So have I. I
suppose the marks of it are plain.
 Right. Crowell grinned.  Keep people want their leaders to do their
thinking for them. Our men landside have had to think for themselves.
Those who didn t well, they just don t survive. It s the old pioneer
feeling come back, son, and I like the feel of it. It means trouble, but I like
it.
 Trouble is right. Serious trouble, unless we move at the right time.
 Now? Crowell was watching the Free Companion keenly.
 Not yet, Hale said, and the Logician s smile was faint, but satisfied.
 No, not quite yet. Partly I want to sound this thing out, see how far it s
going to spread. Like the Man Underground plant, you ve got to locate
the root. And partly I don t know, exactly. I ve got a sort of feeling that [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]