Two of you'll be
closer than man and wife."

"Assistant?" Ronny said, bewildered. "What do I need an assistant for?" He
turned his eyes to the girl. "No reflection on you, Miss ... ah, Tog."

Sid Jakes laughed easily. "Section G operatives always work in pairs,
Ronny. Especially new agents. The advantages will come home to you as you
go along. Look on Tog Lee Chang Chu as a secretary, a man Friday. This
isn't her first assignment, of course. You'll find her invaluable."

The supervisor plucked a card from an order box. "Now here's the dope. Can
you leave within four hours? There's a UP Space Forces cruiser going to
Merlini, they can drop you off at New Delos. Fastest way you could
possibly get there. The cruiser takes off from Neuve Albuquerque in, let's
see, three hours and forty-five minutes."

"New Delos?" Ronny said, taking his eyes from the girl and trying to catch
up with the grasshopper-like conversation of his superior.

"New Delos it is," Jakes said happily. "With luck, you might catch him
before he can get off the planet." He chuckled at the other's expression.
"Look alive, Ronny! The quarry is flushed and on the run. Tommy Paine's
just assassinated the Immortal God-King of New Delos. A neat trick, eh?"

-------------------------------------

The following hours were chaotic. There was no indication of how long a
period he'd be gone. For all he knew, it might be years. For that matter,
he might never return to Earth. This Ronny Bronston had realized before he
ever applied for an interplanetary appointment. Mankind was exploding
through this spiral arm of the galaxy. There was a racial enthusiasm about
it all. Man's destiny lay out in the stars, only a laggard stayed home of
his own accord. It was the ambition of every youth to join the snowballing
avalanche of man into the neighboring stars.

It took absolute severity by Earth authorities to prevent the depopulation
of the planet. But someone had to stay to administer the ever more
complicated racial destiny. Earth became a clearing house for a thousand
cultures, attempting, with only moderate success, to co-ordinate her
widely spreading children. She couldn't afford to let her best seed
depart. Few there were, any more, allowed to emigrate from Earth. New
colonies drew their immigrants from older ones.

Lucky was the Earthling able to find service in interplanetary affairs, in
any of the thousands of tasks that involved journey betwe