The Project Gutenberg EBook of Dead Giveaway, by Gordon Randall Garrett

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Title: Dead Giveaway

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Release Date: December 27, 2007 [EBook #24054]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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DEAD GIVEAWAY

BY RANDALL GARRETT

Illustrated by Martinez

[Transcriber's note: This etext was produced from Astounding Science
Fiction August 1959. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence
that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

_Logic's a wonderful thing; by logical analysis, one can determine the
necessary reason for the existence of a dead city of a very high order
on an utterly useless planet. Obviously a shipping transfer point!
Necessarily..._

"Mendez?" said the young man in the blue-and-green tartan jacket. "Why,
yes ... sure I've heard of it. Why?"

The clerk behind the desk looked again at the information screen.
"That's the destination we have on file for Scholar Duckworth, Mr.
Turnbull. That was six months ago." He looked up from the screen,
waiting to see if Turnbull had any more questions.

Turnbull tapped his teeth with a thumbnail for a couple of seconds, then
shrugged slightly. "Any address given for him?"

"Yes, sir. The Hotel Byron, Landing City, Mendez."

Turnbull nodded. "How much is the fare to Mendez?"

The clerk thumbed a button which wiped the information screen clean,
then replaced it with another list, which flowed upward for a few
seconds, then stopped. "Seven hundred and eighty-five fifty, sir," said
the clerk. "Shall I make you out a ticket?"

Turnbull hesitated. "What's the route?"

The clerk touched another control, and again the information on the
screen changed. "You'll take the regular shuttle from here to Luna, then
take either the _Stellar Queen_ or the _Oriona_ to Sirius VI. From
there, you will have to pick up a ship to the Central Worlds--either to
Vanderlin or BenAbram--and take a ship from there to Mendez. Not
complicated, really. The whole tri