they’re already doing at an alarming rate. Weakened by starvation, humanoids will be subject to disease, plague and pestilence, also brought by insects. This will be their coup de grace.”

“And yet, Doc, you’ve got a way in that cage there to stop them!” Red’s eyes were narrow lines behind dribbling paraette smoke.

“Right,” said Ward. “And these mercenaries are certain antidotes—if we can just turn them loose among the Mo-Sanshon leaders.”

“An insect menace,” said Red. “Back in the age I prefer, they even stopped publishing fantasy themes about insects—overworked and too trite. And now to be a hero of an insect menace theme—”

“Was that the reason they stopped publishing that kind of stories,” said Ward, “because it was overdone, trite? Maybe the editors were influenced by the Mo-Sanshon, even then. Charles Fort, you’ve read him? The excluded and the damned are marching.”

“Fort and Korzybski, my bibles, Doc. And that’s a good theory. The insects have been the most obvious threat to man’s dominant position, yet they were ignored, the whole idea dropped when too much publicity was current.”

Red looked at the cage. “Mercenaries,” he said. “Ingenious as hell. You’re a great brain, Doc.”

Ward studied the enigma that was labeled Red. There was no reason not to trust him now. He almost had to. “Yes. I’ve managed to breed a—”

The room’s lights glowed blue and then died. Ward turned, mouth suddenly dry and sticky. Someone was outside their door. Red’s face was twisted, his real expression showing through the plastimold and syntheskin make-up. It was one of burning hate. He leaped into the middle of the room in a half crouch. “It’s one of them!” he hissed between tight teeth. “It’s the Mo-Sanshon.”

Ward said, “How can you tell?”

“No time for dialectics,” said Red, voice trembling with emotion. “It’s the Executive Officer of the Sol, no less. And you can’t keep an Officer out. His keys’ll open the banks, anyway.”

Ward was getting callous. “Needle him, then. And he’ll disappear. They can’t blame us for a non-existent corpse.”

“No!” grated Red. “There are others aboard. He has others waiting in the hall. I’ve got to stay hidden, understand that, Doc. That’s the only way I can help you, 

 Prev. P 10/24 next