The Project Gutenberg EBook of --And Devious the Line of Duty, by Tom Godwin

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Title: --And Devious the Line of Duty

Author: Tom Godwin

Illustrator: Schelling

Release Date: September 12, 2007 [EBook #22585]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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--And Devious
the Line of Duty

Sometimes the most diligent and loyal thing
an old man can do is fumble,
drink beer, and let a young man get into trouble....

by Tom Godwin

Illustrated by Schelling

"We're almost there, my boy." The big, gray-haired man who would be
Lieutenant Dale Hunter's superior--Strategic Service's Special Agent,
George Rockford--opened another can of beer, his fifth. "There will be
intrigue already under way when this helicopter sets down with us.
Attempted homicide will soon follow. The former will be meat for me. You
will be meat for the latter."

Rockford was smiling as he spoke; the genial, engaging smile of a fond
old father. But the eyes, surrounded by laughter crinkles, were as
unreadable as two disks of gray slate. They were the eyes of a poker
player--or master con man.

"I don't understand, sir," Hunter said.

"Of course not," Rockford agreed. "It's a hundred light-years back to
Earth. Here on Vesta, to make sure there _is_ an Earth in the future,
you're going to do things never dreamed of by your Terran Space Patrol
instructors there. You'll be amazed, my boy."

[Illustration]

Hunter said nothing but he felt a growing dislike for the condescending
Rockford. Only a few weeks ago President Diskar, himself, had said: _For
more than a century these truly valiant men of the Space Patrol have
been our unwavering outer guard; have fought and died by legions, that
Earth and the other worlds of the Terran Republic might remain free--_

"I suppose you know," Rockford said, "that there will be no more than
f