Psychic ability -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation -- Fiction
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction May 1962.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.
SIGHT GAG
BY LARRY M. HARRIS
Intelligence is a great help in the evolution-by-survival--but
intelligence without muscle is even less useful than muscle
without brains. But it's so easy to forget that muscle--plain
physical force--is important, too!
ILLUSTRATED BY SCHOENHERR
* * * * *
Downstairs, the hotel register told Fredericks that Mr. John P. Jones
was occupying Room 1014. But Fredericks didn't believe the register.
He knew better than that. Wherever his man was, he wasn't in Room
1014. And whoever he was, his real name certainly wasn't John P.
Jones. "P for Paul," Fredericks muttered to himself. "Oh, the helpful
superman, the man who knows better, the man who does better."
Fredericks had first known of him as FBI Operative 71-054P, under the
name of William K. Brady. "And what does the K stand for?" Fredericks
muttered, remembering. "Killer?" Brady wouldn't be the man's real
name, either. FBI Operatives had as many names as they had jobs, that
much was elementary. Particularly operatives like Jones-Brady-X.
"Special talents," Fredericks muttered. "Psi powers," he said, making
it sound like a curse. "Superman."
Upstairs, in Room 1212, the superman sat in a comfortable chair and
tried to relax. He wasn't a trained telepath but he could read surface
thoughts if there were enough force behind them, and he could read the
red thoughts of the man downstairs. They worried him more than he
wanted to admit, and for a second he considered sending out a call for
help. But that idea died before it had been truly born.
Donegan had told him he could handle the situation. Without weapons,
forbidden to run, faced by a man who wanted only his death, he could
handle the situation.
Sure he could, he thought bitterly.
Of course, if he asked for reinforcements he would undoubtedly get
them. The FBI didn't want one of its Psi Operatives killed; there
weren't enough to go round as it was. But calling for help, when
Donegan had specifically told him he wouldn't need it, would mean
being sent back a grade automatically. A man of his rank and
experience, Donegan had implied, could handle the job solo. If he
couldn't--why, then, he didn't deserve the rank. It was all very
simple.
Unfortunately, he was still fresh out of good ideas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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