Free American Science Fiction Five Classic Novels 1956-58 by Gary K. Wolfe Page B

his policies and attitudes—and I need not be specific.
    But Clifton looked worried. Before he could speak the ship’s horn brayed out, “Captain is requested to come to the control room. Minus four minutes.”
    Dak said quickly, “You all will have to settle it. I’ve got to put this sled in its slot—I’ve got nobody up there but young Epstein.” He dashed for the door.
    Corpsman called out, “Hey, Skip! I wanted to tell you——” He was out the door and following Dak without waiting to say good-by.
    Roger Clifton closed the door Corpsman had left open, came back, and said slowly, “Do you want to risk this press conference?”
    “That is up to you. I want to do the job.”
    “Mmm . . . Then I’m inclined to risk it—if we use the written-questions method. But I’ll check Bill’s answers myself before you have to give them.”
    “Very well.” I added, “If you can find a way to let me have them ten minutes or so ahead of time, there shouldn’t be any difficulty. I’m a very quick study.”
    He inspected me. “I quite believe it—Chief. All right, I’ll have Penny slip the answers to you right after the ceremonies.
    Then you can excuse yourself to go to the men’s room and just stay there until you are sure of them.”
    “That should work.”
    “I think so. Uh, I must say I feel considerably better now that I’ve seen you. Is there anything I can do for you?” 
    “I think not, Rog. Yes, there is, too. Any word about— him? ” 
    “Eh? Well, yes and no. He’s still in Goddard City; we’re sure of that. He hasn’t been taken off Mars, or even out in the country. We blocked them on that, if that was their intention.” 
    “Eh? Goddard City is not a big place, is it? Not more than a hundred thousand? What’s the hitch?”
    “The hitch is that we don’t dare admit that you—I mean that he —is missing. Once we have this adoption thing wrapped up, we can put you out of sight, then announce the kidnapping as if it had just taken place—and make them take the city apart rivet by rivet. The city authorities are all Humanity Party appointees, but they will have to co-operate—after the ceremony.
    It will be the most wholehearted co-operation you ever saw, for they will be deadly anxious to produce him before the whole Kkkahgral nest swarms over them and tears the city down around their ears.”
    “Oh. I’m still learning about Martian psychology and customs.”
    “Aren’t we all!”
    “Rog? Mmm . . . What leads you to think that he is still alive? Wouldn’t their purpose be better served—and with less risk—just by killing him?” I was thinking queasily how simple it had turned out to be to get rid of a body, if a man was ruthless enough.
    “I see what you mean. But that, too, is tied up with Martian notions about ‘propriety.’” (He used the Martian word.)
    “Death is the one acceptable excuse for not carrying out an obligation. If he were simply killed, they would adopt him into the nest after his death—and then the whole nest and probably every nest on Mars would set out to avenge him. They would not mind in the least if the whole human race were to die or be killed—but to kill this one human being to keep him from being adopted, that’s another kettle of fish entirely. Matter of obligation and propriety—in some ways a Martian’s response to a situation is so automatic as to remind one of instinct. It is not, of course, since they are incredibly intelligent. But they do the damnedest things.” He frowned and added, “Sometimes I wish I had never left Sussex.”
    The warning hooter broke up the discussion by forcing us to hurry to our bunks. Dak had cut it fine on purpose; the shuttle rocket from Goddard City was waiting for us when we settled into free fall. All five of us went down, which just filled the passenger couches—again a matter of planning, for the Resident Commissioner had expressed the intention of