The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Very Secret Agent, by Mari Wolf

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Title: The Very Secret Agent

Author: Mari Wolf

Illustrator: Ed Emsh

Release Date: March 12, 2010 [EBook #31612]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VERY SECRET AGENT ***

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from If Worlds of Science Fiction November
1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.

THE VERY SECRET AGENT

BY MARI WOLF

Illustrated by Ed Emsh

_Poor Riuku!... Not being a member of the human race, how
was he supposed to understand what goes on in a woman's mind
when the male of the same species didn't even know?_

* * * * *

In their ship just beyond the orbit of Mars the two aliens sat looking
at each other.

"No," Riuku said. "I haven't had any luck. And I can tell you right
now that I'm not going to have any, and no one else is going to have
any either. The Earthmen are too well shielded."

"You contacted the factory?" Nagor asked.

"Easily. It's the right one. The parking lot attendant knows there's a
new weapon being produced in there. The waitress at the Jumbo Burger
Grill across the street knows it. Everybody I reached knows it. But
not one knows anything about what it is."

Nagor looked out through the ports of the spaceship, which didn't in
the least resemble an Earth spaceship, any more than what Nagor
considered sight resembled the corresponding Earth sense perception.
He frowned.

"What about the research scientists? We know who some of them are. The
supervisors? The technicians?"

"No," Riuku said flatly. "They're shielded. Perfectly I can't make
contact with a single mind down there that has the faintest inkling of
what's going on. We never should have let them develop the shield."

"Have you tried contacting every