Project Gutenberg's No Shield from the Dead, by Gordon Rupert Dickson

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Title: No Shield from the Dead

Author: Gordon Rupert Dickson

Release Date: May 18, 2010 [EBook #32410]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from IF Worlds of Science Fiction January
1953. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

NO SHIELD FROM THE DEAD

By Gordon R. Dickson

_No conceivable force could penetrate Terri's shield. Yet he
was defenseless._

* * * * *

It was a nice little party, but a bit obvious. Terri Mac saw through
it before he had taken half a dozen steps into the apartment. A light
flush staining his high cheek-bones. "This is ridiculous," he said.

The light chatter ceased. Cocktail glasses were set down on various
handy tables and ledges; and all faces in the room turned toward a man
in his late fifties who sat propped up invalid-wise on pillows in a
chair in a corner of the room.

"The Comptroller is perspicacious," said the old man, agreeably,
waving one hand in a casual manner. "On your way, children."

And the people present smiled and nodded. Quite as if it were an
ordinary leave-taking, they pushed past Terri Mac and filed out the
door. Even the blonde, Terri had picked up at the embassy ball and who
had brought him here, strolled off casually, but in a decidedly less
drunken fashion than she had exhibited earlier in the evening.

"Sit down," said the old man. Terri Mac did so, gazing searchingly at
the skinny frame and white eyebrows in an unsuccessful effort to
connect him with something in memory. "This is ridiculous," he
repeated.

"Really?" The old man smiled benignly. "And why so?"

"Why--" the situation was so obvious that Terri fumbled--a little at a
loss for words. "Obviously you inte