The Project Gutenberg EBook of Code Three, by Rick Raphael

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Title: Code Three

Author: Rick Raphael

Illustrator: Schoenherr

Release Date: August 24, 2006 [EBook #19111]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CODE THREE ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online
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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact--Science Fiction,
February 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

Code Three

The cars on high-speed highways
must follow each other like sheep.
And they need shepherds.
The highway police cruiser of tomorrow
however must be massively different--
as different as the highways themselves!

by Rick Raphael

Illustrated by Schoenherr

[Illustration]

* * * * *

[Illustration]

The late afternoon sun hid behind gray banks of snow clouds and a cold
wind whipped loose leaves across the drill field in front of the
Philadelphia Barracks of the North American Continental Thruway
Patrol. There was the feel of snow in the air but the thermometer
hovered just at the freezing mark and the clouds could turn either
into icy rain or snow.

Patrol Sergeant Ben Martin stepped out of the door of the barracks and
shivered as a blast of wind hit him. He pulled up the zipper on his
loose blue uniform coveralls and paused to gauge the storm clouds
building up to the west.

The broad planes of his sunburned face turned into the driving cold
wind for a moment and then he looked back down at the weather report
secured to the top of a stack of papers on his clipboard.

Behind him, the door of the barracks was shouldered open by his junior
partner, Patrol Trooper Clay Ferguson. The young, tall Canadian
officer's arms