Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition, December 1955 — page 94: what you’re looking at

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

92 ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION # study of his powers, to find a means of artificially nullifying all electronic devices and, therefore, an irresistible weapon. He urged Langley to find Saris for the Society, the only humane and neutral power: but when the spaceman demurred, let him go, giving him a secret communicator with which to call if he decided to coéperate. Brannoch had, indeed, engineered the raid, only to learn that his prisoners could not help; under mental probing, they had merely indicated that Langley would know Saris’ whereabouts if anyone did. The Thrymans, actually Bran- noch’s superiors rather than his advisors, ordered him to have the prisoners killed. Langley visited the embassy in the hope of getting his friends released. Chanthavar had him too heavily guarded for another kidnaping, so Brannoch blandly denied any part in the affair and argued that Sol was not as peaceful as claimed. He also said he was having a gift sent to Langley’s apartment. When the spaceman was gone, the Thrymans complained that they could not read his mind, his thoughts came through as gibberish. Brannoch had hopes for his own scheme. The gift was a slave girl, Marin, who had been surgically made into a replica of Langley’s wife. He did not have the heart to send her back, but neither was he so grateful as to be ready to help Brannoch. Chanthavar appeared, all but ordering Langley to find Saris under severe penalties: as a last resort, he would use mental probing, though it would be worse than useless if Langley really did not know. Seeing Marin, Chanthavar formed another plan instead. That night the girl was kidnaped by unknowns, and Langley was nearly crazed by worry over her. But she was returned unharmed, with no memory of what had happened or any idea of the reason. : Sickened, Langley decided to aid Valti on condition the Society got him and Marin away from Sol. Among the lost colonies they might find a more agreeable world. The trader got them past both Solar and Centaurian agents. Langley, recalling conversations with Saris, told him:the alien was probably. hiding in Carlsbad Caverns. | There, indeed, they found him, and he agreed to help the Society in exchange for defences for his own planet. Valti took them all to his Himalayan hideaway prior to leaving Earth in the superdrive ship which, like all foreign agents, he had out in a secret orbit. He let slip that the true rulers of the Society, to whom he turned in his reports and from whom he got his orders, were unknown —even to himself. He thought this only a security precaution, but Langley wondered. Brannoch and an armed party stormed the hideaway and captured all present. He had had Marin subconsciously conditioned to send him a call when Saris was found, and this she had unknowingly done over the radio. Learning that Blaustein and Matsumoto had been murdered, Langley was so shocked he wanted nothing further to do with her. Brannoch took all the prisoners to an African hideout. There his conversation with the Thrymans showed Langley that these must be the real rulers of the Centaurian alliance. Locked away together, Langley and Saris had a secret language, English: and the alien explained that a telepath must know one’s language to read one’s mind, so that they were both immune to Thryman probing. His sensitivity also revealed to him that Marin had a Connie nooks. conn