THE RAT RACE by JAY FRANKLIN The Astonishing Narrative of a Man Who Was Somebody Else ... Mixed Up With Politics and Three Luscious Women! _A COMPLETE NOVEL_ GALAXY PUBLISHING CORP. 421 HUDSON STREET NEW YORK 14, N. Y. GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Novels, selected by the editors of GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Magazine, are the choice of science fiction novels both published and original. This novel has been slightly abridged for the sake of better pacing. GALAXY _Science Fiction_ Novel No. 10 _Copyright 1947 by Crowell-Collier Publishing Company_ _Copyright 1950 by John Franklin Carter_ _Reprinted by arrangement with the publishers_ PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA _by_ THE GUINN COMPANY, INC. NEW YORK 14, N. Y. [Transcriber's Note: Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] "THE RAT RACE" By Jay Franklin When an atomic explosion destroys the battleship Alaska, Lt. Commander Frank Jacklin returns to consciousness in New York and is shocked to find himself in the body of Winnie Tompkins, a dissolute stock-broker. Unable to explain his real identity, Jacklin attempts to fit into Tompkins' way of life. Complications develop when Jacklin gets involved with Tompkins' wife, his red-haired mistress and his luscious secretary. Three too many women for Jacklin to handle. His foreknowledge of the Alaska sinking and other top secret matters plunges him into a mad world of intrigue and excitement in Washington--that place where anything can happen and does! Where is the real Tompkins is a mystery explained in the smashing climax. Completely delightful, wholly provocative, the Rat Race is a striking novel of the American Scene. CHAPTER 1 When the bomb exploded, U.S.S. Alaska, was steaming westward, under complete radio silence, somewhere near the international date-line on the Great Circle course south of the Aleutian Islands. It was either the second or the third of April, 1945, depending on whether the Alaska, the latest light carrier to be added to American naval forces in the Pacific, had passed the 180th meridian. I was in the carrier, in fact in the magazine, when the blast occurred and I am the only person who can tell how and why the Alaska disappeared without a trace in the Arctic waters west of Adak. I had been assigned by Navy Public Relations to observe and report on Operation Octopus--the plan to blow up the Jap naval base at Paramushiro in Kuriles with the Navy's recently developed thorium bomb.