“Then what’s the whole purpose of this department, sir?” Larry argued.
“Why’ve we been formed to combat foreign and domestic subversion?”
His chief sighed. “You shouldn’t have to ask that, Lawrence. The present
government cannot oppose the will of the majority if it votes, by
constitutional methods, to make any changes it wishes. But we can, and do,
unmask the activities of anyone trying to overthrow the government by
force and violence. Any culture protects itself against that.”
“What are we getting at, sir?” Steve Hackett said, impatiently.
The Boss shrugged. “I’m trying to point out that so far as my department
is concerned, thus far we have little against this Movement. Secret
Service may have, what with this wholesale counterfeiting, even though
thus far they seem to have made no attempt to pass the currency they have
allegedly manufactured. We wouldn’t even know of it, weren’t it for our
young Susan pilfering an amount.”
Larry said, desperately, “Sir, you just pointed out a few minutes ago that
this Movement is a secret organization trying to make changes in some
unique manner. In short, they don’t figure on using the ballot to put over
their revolution. That makes them as illegal as the Commies, doesn’t it?”
The Boss said, “That’s the difficulty; we don’t know what they want. From
your conversations with Susan Self and especially Professor Voss,
evidently they think the country needs some basic changes. What these
changes are, and how they expect to accomplish them, we don’t know. Unless
a foreign government is involved, or unless they plan to alter our
institutions by violence, this department just doesn’t have much
jurisdiction.”
Steve Hackett snorted, “Secret Service does! If those bales of money the
Self kid told us about are ever put into circulation, there’ll be hell to
pay.”
The Boss sighed. “Well,” he said, “Lawrence can continue on the
assignment. If it develops in such manner as to indicate that this
department is justified in further investigation, we’ll put more men on
it. Meanwhile, it is obviously more a Secret Service matter. I am sorry to
intrude upon your vacation again, Lawrence.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account