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communicator. He heard a faint click as Jackson's wrist speaker switched on,
and said quickly, "Wayne, are you in a position to speak?"
"I am at the moment," Jackson's voice replied cautiously.
Colonel Thayer said, "Norm Vaughn just crashed in here with something he
claims was found in the diggings.
Sanford saw it, and obviously recognized it. We might be able to keep him
quiet. But now some questions. Was that item actually dug up just now?"
"Apparently it was," Jackson said. "I didn't see it happen I was talking to
Black at the moment. But there are over a dozen witnesses who claim they did
see it happen, including five or six of the new agency men."
"And they knew what it was?"
"Enough of them did."
Thayer cursed softly. "No chance that one of them pitched the thing into the
diggings for an Earthside sensation?"
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"I'm afraid not," Jackson said. "It was lying in the sifter after most of the
sand and dust had been blown away."
"Why didn't you call me at once?"
"I've been holding down something like a mutiny here, Silas. Vaughn got away
before I could stop him, but I
grounded the other aircars till you could decide what to do. Our visitors
don't like that. Neither do they like the fact that I've put a guard over the
section where the find was made, and haven't let them talk to Norm's work
crew.
"Ronald Black and his staff have been fairly reasonable, but there's been
considerable mention of military highhandedness made by the others. This is
the first moment I've been free."
"You did the right thing," Thayer said, "but I doubt it will help much now.
Can you get hold of Ronald Black?"
"Yes, he's over there. . . ."
"Colonel Thayer?" another voice inquired pleasantly a few seconds later.
"Mr. Black," the colonel said carefully, "what occurred in the diggings a
short while ago may turn out to be matter of great importance."
"That's quite obvious, sir."
"And that being the case," the colonel went on, "do you believe it would be
possible to obtain a gentleman's agreement from all witnesses to make no
mention of this apparent discovery until the information is released through
the proper channels? I'm asking for your opinion."
"Colonel Thayer," Ronald Black's voice said, still pleasantly, "my opinion is
that the only way you could keep the matter quiet is to arrest every civilian
present, including myself, and hold us incommunicado. You have your duty, and
we have ours. Ours does not include withholding information from the public
which may signal the greatest shift in the conduct of the Geest War in the
past two decades."
"I understand," Thayer said. He was silent for some seconds, and perhaps he,
too, was gazing during that time at a
Fort Roye of the future a Class A military base under his command, with
Earth's great war vessels lined up along the length of the peninsula.
"Mr. Black," he said, "please be so good as to give your colleagues this word
from me. I shall make the most thorough possible investigation of what has
occurred and forward a prompt report, along with any material evidence
obtained, to my superiors on Earth. None of you will receive any other
statement from me or from anyone under my command. An attempt to obtain such a
statement will, in fact, result in the arrest of the person or persons
involved.
Is that clear?"
"Quite clear, Colonel Thayer," Ronald Black said softly. "And entirely
satisfactory."
* * *
"We have known for the past eight weeks," the man named Cranehart said, "that
this was not what it appears to be . .
. that is, a section of a Geest weapon."
He shoved the object in question across the desk towards Commissioner Sanford
and Ronald Black. Neither of the two attempted to pick it up; they glanced at
it, then returned their eyes attentively to Cranehart's face.
"It is, of course, an excellent copy," Cranehart went on, "produced with a
professional forger's equipment. As I
imagine you're aware, that should have made it impossible to distinguish from
the original weapon. However . . .
there's no real harm in telling you this now . . . Geest technology has taken
somewhat different turns than our own.
In their weapons they employ traces of certain elements which we are only
beginning to learn to maintain in stable form. That is a matter your
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government has kept from public knowledge because we don't wish the Geests to
learn from human prisoners how much information we are gaining from them.
"The instrument which made this copy naturally did not have such elements at
its disposal. So it employed their lower homologues and in that manner
successfully produced an almost identical model. In fact, the only significant
difference is that such a gun, if it had been a complete model, could not
possibly have been fired." He smiled briefly.
"But that, I think you will agree, a significant difference! We knew as soon
as the so-called Geest gun was is examined that it could only have been made
by human beings."
"Then," Commissioner Sanford said soberly, "its apparent discovery on Roye
during our visit was a deliberate hoax "
Cranehart nodded. "Of course."
Ronald Black said, "I fail to see why you've kept this quiet. You needn't have
given away any secrets. Meanwhile the wave of public criticism at the
government's seeming hesitancy to take action on the discovery that is, to
rush protection to the threatened Territorial Segments has reached almost
alarming proportions. You could have stopped it before it began two months ago
with a single announcement."
"Well, yes," Cranehart said. "There were other considerations. Incidentally,
Mr. Black, we are not unappreciative of the fact that the news media under
your own control exercised a generous restraint in the matter."
"For which," Black said dryly, "I am now very thankful."
"As for the others," Cranehart went on, "the government has survived periods
of criticism before. That is not important. The important thing is that the
Geest War has been with us for more than a human life span now . . . and it
becomes difficult for many to bear in mind that until its conclusion no acts
that might reduce our ability to prosecute it can be tolerated."
Ronald Black said slowly, "So you've been delaying the announcement until you
could find out who was responsible for the hoax."
"We were interested," Cranehart said, "only in the important men the dangerous
men. We don't care much who else is guilty of what. This, you see, is a matter
of expediency, not of justice." He looked for a moment at the politely
questioning, somewhat puzzled faces across the desk, went on, "When you leave
this room, each of you will be conducted to an office where you will be given
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