‘And I was going to have her address Congress \’ the President whispered to General Cordeen.
Then Lola put her whole personality into a smile, directed apparently not only at each separate individual within sight, but also individually at every person on the globe – and when Brownie Montandon set out to make a production of a smile, it had the impact of a pile-driver. Then came her gently-flowing, friendly thought:
‘My name, friends of this world Ormolan, is Lola Montandon. Those of you who are now looking at teevee screens can
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see my imaged likeness. All of you can see me very much better within your own minds.
‘I am not here as an invader in any sense, but only as a citizen of the First Galaxy of our common universe. I have attuned my mind to each of yours in order to give you a message from the United Galaxian Societies.
‘There are four of us Galaxians in this Exploration Team. As Galaxians it is our purpose and our duty here to open your minds to certain basic truths, to be of help to you in clearing your minds of fallacies, of lies, and of indefensible prejudices, to the end that you will more rapidly become Galaxians yourselves …”
‘Okay. This will go on and on. That’s enough to give you an idea of what a trained and polished performer can do. What do you think of her, Chief?’ Belle deliberately knocked the Secret Service man out of his Lola-induced mood.
‘Huh? Oh, yes.’ Avengord was still groggy. ‘She’s phenomenal – good – I don’t mean goody-goody, but sincere and really…’
‘Yes, but don’t fall in love with her. Everybody does and it doesn’t do any of them a bit of good. That’s her specialty and she’s very good at it. I told you she’s a smooth, smooth worker.’
‘You can say that again. But it isn’t an act. She means it and its true.’
‘Of course, she means it and of course it’s true. Otherwise even she, with all her training, couldn’t sell such a big bill of goods.’ Then, in answer to the man’s unspoken question, ‘Yes, we’re all different. She’s the contactor, the shining example of purity and sweetness and light – in short, the spreader of good old oil. I’m a fighter, myself. Do you think she could actually have de-handed those men? Uh-uh. At the last minute she would have weakened and brought them in whole. My job in this operation is to knock hell out of the ones Lola can’t convince, such as those spies you and I are going to interview pretty quick.’
‘Even they ought to be convinced. I don’t see how anybody could help but be.’
‘Oh no. It’ll bounce off like hailstones from a tin roof. The only thing to do to that kind of scum is kill them. If you’ll give
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me a thought as to where your office is we’ll hop over and …’
Belle and Avengord disappeared from the stand; and, such was Lola’s hold, no one on the platform or in the throng even noticed that they were gone. They materialized in Avengord’s private office – he sitting as usual at his desk, she reclining in ease in a big leather chair.
‘… get to work.’ Belle’s thought had not been interrupted by any passage of time whatever. ‘What do you want to do first?’
‘But I thought you were covering Miss Montandon?’
‘I am. Like a blanket. Just as well here as anywhere. I will be, until she gets back to the Pleiades. What first?’
‘Oh. Well, since I don’t know what your limits are – if you have any – you might as well do whatever you think best and I’ll watch you do it.’
‘That’s the way to talk. You’re going to get a shock when you see who the Head Man is. George T. Basil.’
‘Basil! I’ll say it’s a shock!’ Avengord steadied, frowned in concentration. ‘Could he, though. He would never be suspected – but they’re very good at that.’
‘Yeah. His name used to be Baslovkowitz. He was trained for years, then planted. None of this can be proved, since his record is perfect. Born citizen, highest standing in business and social circles. Unlimited entry and top security clearance. Right?’
‘Right … and getting enough evidence, in such cases as that, is pure, unadulterated hell.’
‘I suppose I could kill him, after we’ve recorded everything he knows,’ Belle suggested.
‘No!’ he snapped. ‘Too many people think of us as a strong-arm squad now. Anyway, I’d rather kill him myself than wish the job off onto – you don’t like killing, do you?’
“That’s the understatement of the century. No civilized person does. In a hot fight, yes; but killing anyone who is helpless to fight back – in cold blood – ugh! It makes me sick in my stomach even to think of it.’
‘With the way you can read minds, we can get evidence enough to send them all to jail, and that will have to do.’
‘How about this?’ Belle grinned as another solution came to mind. ‘From those first eight top men, we’ll find out a lot of others lower down, and so on, until we have ’em all locked up
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here. We’ll announce that exactly so many spies and agents -giving names, addresses, and facts, of course – got panicky after Lola’s address. They fired up their hidden planes and flew back behind the Curtain. Then, when we’ve scanned their minds and recorded everything you want, I’ll back them all, very snugly and carefully, into Sovig’s private office. With the world situation what it then will be, he won’t dare kill them -he simply won’t know what to do.” Avengord did not merely laugh; he roared. Then, quieting, he began to whistle boyishly, as he had not whistled for many years, as he reached out and flipped the switch of his intercom. ‘Miss Kimling, come in please.’
The door burst open. ‘Why, it is you! But you were on the rostrum just a minute … oh!’ She saw Belle, and backed, eyes wide, toward the door she had just entered. ‘She was there, too, and it’s fifteen miles…’
‘Steady, Fram. I’d like to present you to Prime Operator Belle Bellamy, who is cleaning out the entire Curtain organization for us.’
‘But how did you… ?’.
‘Never mind that. Teleportation. It took her half an hour to pound it into me, and we can’t take time to explain anything now. I’ll tell everybody everything I know as soon as I can. In the meantime, don’t be surprised at anything that happens, and by that I mean anything. Such as solid people appearing on this carpet – on that spot right there – instantaneously. I want you to pay close attention to everything your mind receives, put your memory into high gear, listen to everything I record, stop me any time I’m wrong, and be sure I get everything we need.’
‘I don’t know exactly what you’re talking about, sir, but 111 try.’
‘Frankly, I don’t, either – we’ll just have to roll it as we go along. We’re ready for George T. Basil now, Miss Bellamy – I hope. Don’t jump, Fram.’
Basil appeared and Fram jumped. She did not scream, however, and did not run out of the office. The master spy was a big, self-assured, affluent type. He had not the slightest idea of how he had been spirited out of his ultra-secret sub-basement and into this room; but he knew where he was and, after one
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glance at Belle, he knew why. He decided instantly what to do about it.
‘This is an outrage!’ he bellowed, hammering with his fist on Avengord’s desk. ‘A stupid, high-handed violation of the rights…’
Belle silenced him and straightened him up.
‘High-handed? Yes,’ she admitted quite seriously. ‘However, from the Galaxian standpoint, you have no rights at all and you are going to be extremely surprised at just how high-handed I am going to be. I am going to read your mind to its very bottom – layer by layer, like peeling an onion – and everything you know and everything you think is going down in Mr. Avengord’s Big Black Book.’
Belle linked all four minds together and directed the search, making sure that no item, however small, was missed. Aven-gord recorded every pertinent item. Fram Kimling memorized and correlated and double-checked.
Soon it was done, and Basil, shouting even louder about this last and worst violation of his rights – those of his own private mind – was led away by two men and ‘put away where he would keep’.
‘But this is a flagrant violation of law…’ Miss Kimling began.
‘You can say that again!’ her boss gloated. ‘And if you only knew how tickled I am to do it, after the way they’ve been kicking me around!’
‘But I wonder … are you sure we can get away with it?’