Astounding Science Fiction (British Edition) — page 50: what you’re looking at

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

48 know! Real honest-to-God Oedipus theme, too. Most of these people don’t even know who their fathers were, much less give a damn about them one way or another.” He stacked the abstract with the other papers of the file, which by now was quite respectably thick, and drummed nervously on the stack with his fingertips. “Well,” he said reluctantly, “TI guess that’s it.”” He ripped the red tag from the file and clipped a black tag in its place, scribbled on the routing slip, and punched a button. A WAC corporal came in and the captain handed her the file. ““Take this in to the colonel for review,” he said. “Send him over to Intelligence for questioning in the morning,”’ he told the lieutenant. The lieutenant brought his eyes back from the window, nodded, and went out. Otto faced the German Intelligence lieutenant warily, but with outward blandness. So, he thought, now we get down to business. There was no brief- case by this lieutenant’s chair, but Otto did not doubt that their conver- sation was being recorded. He did not hope to catch this one clumsily turn- ing on the machine before his very eyes, this one knew his business. Otto treated him with alert respect, as became a dangerous and intelligent opponent— “Captain,” the colonel said, “‘Lieu- tenant Schindler says you’ve made a mistake on this man. He wants me to blue-tag him, or at least yellow, and turn him over to Intelligence. Says they need him to develop their contacts with the Resistance back of enemy lines.” The captain shook his head. “I’m sorry,” he said. ““The man is black.” “But, captain,’ the Intelligence lieutenant protested, “how can that ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION be? I have checked this man thor- oughly. He has been active in the Resistance for more than a year. We have positive identification from men who have worked with him, men who have been cleared one hundred per cent. by your section. We have identi- fication from his pre-war background, even fingerprints. There must be a mistake.” | “There is no mistake,” the captain said. “Backgrounds can be faked. Perhaps even fingerprints can be faked. But personality cannot, at the level which we measure. What we measure are the basic determinants of personality, forces the subject does not even know exist. “Look here, I'll show you how it works.” The captain picked up the interview abstract and flipped through the pages. ““‘Um-m-m, here’s a good one, subject’s views on international relations. Listen to this: ‘One must admire the Falangists for their war effort, but I do not think this admiration for our allies should blind the UN countries, and especially the Americans, to the fact that the Fa- langists are still basically just as anti- democratic as the enemy. We should accept their help, and in turn aid them to the greatest possible extent against the common enemy, but we should remember that our alliance is based solely on mutual self-interest, it is not necessary that we also love them. The Basque massacres, for ex- ample. To question the Falangist ex- planation at this time would serve no useful purpose, and would not be very tactful, but I think we should keep it well in mind, all the same, as a con- stant reminder that the tiger has not changed his stripes—’ ” *“That is bad?” the lieutenant asked stiffly. “It seems to me the man makes a quite pertinent point. You will remember, in the last war, the Katyn incident—’ ”’ EComichooks.co im