Adventure stories; Dictatorship -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories
"We've had that helmet planted in your palace for two years, waiting
for this moment. The Autarch android was studied carefully, and the
agent who looked most like him--myself--was sent here. Your records
were tampered with so that it would look as though I had always been a
citizen of Apollyon. I was put under deep hypnosis, and false memories
were implanted. It had to be deep so that your own hypnosis wouldn't
dig anything up. But my compulsion vanished as soon as the assassin
entered the Palace.
"It was all perfectly legal, you see. One human assassin is allowed.
That was me. It's perfectly legal to use trickery. The other assassin
which is causing so much trouble upstairs is an android--a special job,
like your Peace Commissioner. It's controlled by a League man. But that
android hasn't killed anyone but androids, anymore than I have."
Quom sat up. He giggled foolishly. "You mean _I_ set it up? I brought
you here? I picked you out? Why, that's wonderful! Nobody but me could
defeat me--and I did it! That was quite a performance, young man;
quite a performance. I'll see that you're properly rewarded. I'll make
you Autarch! Yes! And give you a medal, too! I have lots of pretty
medals! And I'll make you another uniform--with more gold on it!" Then
he looked up, almost wistfully. "And this time, can I wear a pretty
uniform, too?"
As he had been babbling, Bartol leaned over and gently grasped both his
hands.
"Sure you can have a uniform."
"With gold on it?"
"With diamonds," said Bartol. And then the special energy flowed
through his hands from the helmet, and the old man collapsed into
painless unconsciousness.
Bartol released him and said softly, "Only I don't think you'll want
anything that gaudy when the League psychiatrists finish with you."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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