Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net POLICE YOUR PLANET By ERIC VAN LHIN SCIENCE FICTION AVALON BOOKS 22 EAST 60TH STREET NEW YORK Copyright, 1956, by Eric van Lhin [Transcriber's note: This is a rule 6 clearance. A copyright renewal could not be found.] Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 56-13313 PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN THE DOMINION OF CANADA BY THE RYERSON PRESS, TORONTO PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY THE COLONIAL PRESS INC., CLINTON, MASSACHUSETTS CONTENTS I One Way Ticket II Honest Izzy III The Graft Is Green IV Captain Murdoch V Recall VI Sealed Letter VII Electioneering VIII Vote Early and Often IX Contraband X Marriage of Convenience XI The Sky's the Limit XII Wife or Prisoner? XIII Arrest Mayor Wayne! XIV Full Circle XV Murdoch's Mantle XVI Get the Dome! XVII Security Payoff POLICE YOUR PLANET Chapter I ONE WAY TICKET There were ten passengers in the little pressurized cabin of the electric bus that shuttled between the rocket field and Marsport. Ten men, the driver--and Bruce Gordon. He sat apart from the others, as he had kept to himself on the ten-day trip between Earth and Mars, with the yellow stub of his ticket still stuck defiantly in the band of his hat, proclaiming that Earth had paid his passage without his permission being asked. His big, lean body was slumped slightly in the seat. There was no expression on his face. He listened to the driver explaining to a couple of firsters that they were actually on what appeared to be one of the mysterious canals when viewed from Earth. Every book on Mars gave the fact that the canals were either an illusion or something which could not be detected on the surface of the planet. He glanced back toward the rocket that still pointed skyward back on the field, and then forward toward the city of Marsport, sprawling out in a mess of slums beyond the edges of the dome that had been built to hold air over the central part. And at last he stirred and reached for the yellow stub.