alled the spaceport--in your name of course," I told him.
"Ordered a fast courier ship. I'll leave within the hour."

"Aren't you getting a little ahead of yourself, diGriz," he said. Voice
chill as the icecap. "I still give the orders and I'll tell you when
you're ready for an independent command."

I was sweetness and light because a lot depended on his decision. "Just
trying to help, chief, get things ready in case you wanted more info.
And this isn't really an operation, just a reconnaissance. I can do that
as well as any of the experienced operators. And it may give me the
experience I need, so that some day, I, too, will be qualified to join
the ranks...."

"All right," he said. "Stop shoveling it on while I can still breathe.
Get out there. Find out what is going on. Then get back. Nothing
else--and that's an order."

By the way he said it, I knew he thought there was little chance of its
happening that way. Since my forced induction into the Corps six months
earlier I had been stuck on this super-secret planetoid that was its
headquarters and main base. I had very little sitting-down patience
anyway, and it had been long since exhausted.

* * * * *

It had been interesting at first. Particularly since up until the time
I was drafted into the Special Corps I wasn't even certain it really
existed. It was too much like a con man's nightmare to be real. A secret
worry. After a few happy years of successful crime you begin to wonder
how long it will last. Planetary police are all pushovers and you start
to feel you can go on forever if they're your only competition. What
about the League though? Don't they take any interest in crime? Just
about that time you hear your first rumor of the Special Corps and it
fits the bad dreams. A shadowy, powerful group that slip silently
between the stars, ready to bring the interstellar lawbreaker low.
Sounds like TV drama stuff. I had been quite surprised to find they
really existed.

I was even more surprised when I joined them. Of course there was a
little pressure at the time. I had the alternative choice of instant
death. But I still think it was a wise move. Under the motto "Set a
thief to catch one," the Corps supposedly made good use of men like
myself to get rid of the more antisocial types that infest the universe.

This was still all hearsay to me. I had been pulled into headquarters
and given routine administration work for traini