Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition, December 1955 — 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 “TI knew you would.” “Pm... can I say how sorry I am?” “You needn’t, Edwy. Forget it.” They returned to the street. Langley paid off his informant and got the address of a hotel. He walked there, holding her hand, but said nothing till they were safely alone. Then he kissed her, half afraid that she would recoil from him. But she responded with a sudden hunger. “I love you,” he said; it was a new and surprising knowledge. She smiled. ““That makes it mutual, I think.”’ Later, he told her what had happened. It was like turning on a light behind her eyes. “And we can get away?”’ she asked softly. ““We can really start over? If you knew how I’ve dreamed of that, ever since—” “Not so fast.’ The grimness was returning, it put an edge in his voice and he twisted his fingers nervously. ““This is a pretty complicated situation. I think I know what’s behind it—maybe you can help fill in the gaps. ‘“P’ve proven to myself that the Technon founded the Society and uses it as a spy and an agent of economic infiltration. However—the Technon is stuck away in a cave somewhere. It can’t go out and supervise affairs; it has to rely on information supplied by its agents. Some of these agents are official, part of the Solar government ; some of them are semiofficial, members of the Society ; some are highly unofficial, spies on other planets. “But two can play at the same game, you know. There’s another race around which has a mentality much like the Technon’s—a cold, impersonal mass-mind, planning centuries ahead, able to wait indefinitely long for some little seed to sprout. And that’s the race on Thrym. Their mental hookup practice makes them that kind: an individual doesn’t matter, because in a very real sense each individual is only a cell in one huge unit. You can see it operating in a case like the League, where they’ve quietly taken over the key positions, made themselves boss so gradually that the Thorians hardly realize it even today.” “And you think they have infiltrated the Society?”’ she asked. “I know they have. There’s no other answer. The Society wouldn’t be turning Saris over to Brannoch if it were truly independent. Valti tried hard to rationalize it, but I know more than he does. I know the Technon thinks it still owns the Society, and that it’d never give Centauri an advantage.” “But it has, you say,” she protested. “Uh-huh. Here’s the explanation as I see it. The Society includes a lot of races. One of those races is Thryman. Probably they’re not officially from~‘Fhrym. They could have been planted on a similar world, maybe with some slight surgical changes in their appearance, and passed them- selves off as natives They got members into the nomad bureacracy by the normal process of promotion and, being very able, eventually these members got high enough to learn the truth—that the Technon was behind the whole show. “What a windfall for them! They must have infiltrated the Society on general principles, to get control of still another human group, ou ieee cONNICOOCK<S COM