the job?"

"It is a great opportunity," Jordan said, and he meant it.

"What do you think about what we do to them after we capture them?"

The new man shrugged. "I suppose it's the only thing to do. It's not as
though they were human."

"Yeah," the chief said. "I guess so. Anyway, good luck."

Jordan arose and shook the chief's hand. However, just as he was
stepping through the door, his superior asked him another question. "Did
you know that one of them stutters?"

He turned back, puzzled. "Stutters? Why should he stutter? How could
that be?"

The chief shook his head and started cleaning out his pipe.

"I don't know for sure. You'd better get started." He sat back in his
seat and watched the back of the new man as he disappeared through the
doorway.

That young fellow has a lot to learn, he thought to himself. But even
so, maybe he's better off than I am. Maybe I've had too much experience.
Maybe too much experience puts you back where you started from. You've
done the wrong thing so many times and profited so many times from your
mistakes that you see errors and tragedies in everything.

He was depressed, and he did something that usually made him feel better
again. He reached under the edge of his desk and pulled a little switch
that made the galactic map on the wall light up in three-dimensional
depth, then he swung around in his chair so he could see it. Eight
thousand planets that his race had conquered, eight thousand planets
hundreds of light-years apart. Looking at the map gave him a sense of
accomplishment and pride in humanity which even a stupid war and its
aftermath could not completely destroy.

* * * * *

Jon Hall, the fugitive, walked along the highway leading south from the
rocket port. There was very little traffic, only an occasional delivery
truck carrying meat or groceries. The real highway was half a mile
overhead where the copters shuttled back and forth up and down the state
in neat orderly layers.

The seventeen were inside his head, looking through his eyes, and
feasting on the blueness of the sky, and the rich green vegetation that
covered the fertile fields. From time to time they talked to him, giving
advice, asking questions, or making comments, but mostly they looked,
each knowing that the hours of their sight might be very few.

After walking a while, Hall became aware of someone's footsteps behind
him. He stopped suddenly in apprehension