Astounding Science Fiction (British edition) — page 25: what you’re looking at

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

SAM a very long while, the squad leader shook his head. ‘‘No!”’ The man behind him pulled out a gun and shot him in the back. Thornberg smiled. **As a matter of fact,’ he told So- rensen, “I was bluffing. All I had was a tennis ball with a few small electrical parts glued on it. Not that it made much difference at that stage, except to me.” “Matilda will be handy for us in mopping up,” said Sorensen. “Want to stay on?” “Sure, at least till my son arrives. That'll be next week.” “Youll be glad to hear we’ve finally contacted the Guard in space: just a short radio message, but the commander has agreed to obey what- ever government is in power when he arrives. That'll be us, so -your boy won’t have to do any fighting.” There were no words for that. Instead Thornberg said, with a hard- held casualness, ‘“You know, I’m sur- prised that you should have been an undergrounder.” “There were a few of us even in Security,” said Sorensen. ““We were organized in small cells, spotted throughout the nation, and wangled things so we could hypnoquiz each other.” He grimaced. “It wasn’t a pleasant job, though. Some of the things I had to do—Well, that’s over with now.” He leaned back in his chair, putting his booted feet on the desk. A Libera- tion uniform was usually pretty sloppy, they didn’t worry about spit- and-polish, but he had managed to be immaculate. ““There was a certain amount of suspicion about Sam Hall at first,” he said. “The song, you know, and other items. My bosses HALL 23 weren’t stupid. I got myself detailed to investigate you; a close check-up gave me grounds to suspect you of revolutionary thoughts, so naturall I gave you a clean bill of health. Later on I cooked up this fantasy of the psychological mask and got several high-ranking men worried about it. When you followed my lead on that, I was sure you were on our side.” He grinned. “So naturally our army never attacked Matilda!” ‘““You must have joined your forces quite recently.” “Yeah, I had to scram out of Se- curity during the uproar and witch hunt you started. You almost cost me my life, Thorny, know that? Well — worth it, though, just to see those cockroaches busily stepping on each other.” Thornberg leaned gravely over his desk. “I always had to assume you rebels were sincere,’ he said. “‘I’ve never been sure. But now I can check up. Do you intend to destroy Matilda?” Sorensen nodded. “After we’ve used her to help us find some people we want rather badly, and _ get re- organized—of course. She’s too power- ful an instrument. It’s time to loosen the strings of government.” “Thank you,” said Thornberg. He chuckled after a moment. “And that will be the end of Sam Hall,”’ he said. ““He’ll go to whatever Val- halla is reserved for the great charac- ters of fiction. I can see him squab- bling with Sherlock Holmes and shock- ing King Arthur and striking up a beautiful friendship with Long John Silver. You know how the ballad ends?” He sang softly: “Now up in heaven I dwell, in heaven I dwell—” Unfortunately, the conclusion is pretty rugged. Sam Hall never was satisfied. Conniclooolkks.conn