Astounding Science Fiction, August 1955 (British Edition) — page 110: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

108 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION it was stepped up again. “‘See, this thumb print is of the type known as a ‘tented arch.’ Observe the difference.” “That does it!’? Zostha Olv cried. ““Karf, for the first and last time, let me remind you that I opps this lunacy from the beginning. Now, what are oth going to do next?” I suggest that we get to Headquarters as soon as we can, * Tortha Karf said. “If we wait too long, we may not be able to get in.’ Yandar Yadd was back on the screen, denouncing Tortha Karf passion- ately. Tortha went over and snapped it off. “I suggest we transpose to Pol-Term,”’ Lovranth Rolk said. “It won’t be so easy for. them to serve a summons on us there.”’ “You can go to Pol-Term if you want to,” Tortha Karf retorted. ‘“’m going to stay here and fight back, and if they try to serve me with a summons, © they’d better send a robot for a process server.” “Fight back!’ Zostha Olv echoed. “You can’t fight the Council and the whole Management! They’ll tear you into inch bits!” *T can hold them off till Vall’s able to raid those Abzar Sector bases,” Tortha Karf said. He thought for a moment. “Maybe this is all for the best, after all. If it distracts the Organization’s attention—”’ ““T wish we could have made a boomerang-ball reconnaissance,’’ Ranthar Jard was saying, watching one of the viewscreens, in which a film, taken from an airboat transposed to an adjoining Abzar sector time line, was being shown. The boat had circled over the Ganges, a mere trickle between wide, deeply cut banks, and was crossing a gullied plain, sparsely grown with thornbush. ““The base ought to be about there, but we have no idea what sort of changes this gang has made.” “Well, we couldn’t; we didn’t dare take the chance of it being spotted. This has to be a complete surprise. It'll be about like the other place, the one the slaves described. There, won’t be any permanent buildings. This operation only started a few months ago, with the Croutha invasion; it may go on for four or five months, till the Croutha have all their surplus captives sold off. That country,’ he added, gesturing at the screen, ‘‘will be flooded out when the rains come. See how it’s suffered from flood-erosion. There won’t be a thing there that can’t be knocked down and transposed out in a day or so.” “Il wish you’d let me go along,” Ranthar Jard worried. “We can’t do that, either,” Vall said. ““Somebody’s got to be in charge here, and you know your own people better than I do. Beside, this won’t be the last operation like this. Next time, I’ll have to stay on Police Terminal and command from a desk; I want first-hand experience with the outtime end of the job, and this is the only way I can get it.” He watched the four police-girls who were working at the big terrain board showing the area of the Police Terminal time line around them. They had covered the miniature buildings and platforms and towers with a fine mesh, at a scale-equivalent of fifty feet; each intersection marked the location of a three-foot conveyer ball, loaded with a sleep-gas bomb and rigged with an automatic detonator which would explode it and release the gas as soon as it rematerialized on the Abzar Sector. Higher, on stiff wires that raised them to what represented three thousand feet, were the disks that stood for ten COMIC OOOKS. COM