Chapter 1

Cadet George Hanlon stood stiffly at attention. But as the long, long minutes dragged on and on, he found his hands, his spine and his forehead cold with the sweat of fear. He tried manfully to keep his eyes fixed steadily on that emotionless face before him, but found it almost impossible to do so.

Tension grew and grew and grew in the room until it seemed the very walls must bulge, or the windows burst to relieve the pressure. The cadet felt he could not stand another minute of it without screaming. Why didn’t that monster say something? What kind of torture was this, anyway? And why was he here in the first place? He couldn’t think of a single reg he had broken--yet why else would he be called before Admiral Rogers, the dread Commandant of Cadets?

In spite of his utmost efforts to stand eye to eye with the commandant, Hanlon couldn’t keep his gaze steadily on that feared visage. His eyes insisted on straying, time after time, although he always forced them back. He caught glimpses of the dozens of communicator studs and plates on the huge metal desk. He saw the bit of scenery showing through the window. He noted the pictures of great Corps heroes that adorned the walls. In fact, he had to look at anything except those boring, impassive eyes fixed so steadily on his own face. If only he could gain such perfect control of his nerves. If only he knew what this was all about!

By the big wall chronom he saw he had already been standing there at rigid attention a full five minutes. The second hand crept around again. Six minutes! It dragged slowly around once again. Seven minutes.

Then the unbearable silence was mercifully broken by the admiral’s voice.

“In some ways, Mister, you’re quite a stupid young man,” he said. “I’m inclined to be disappointed in you.”

Hanlon gave a start of surprise, and forced himself to scrutinize more carefully that enigmatic face.

“What ... what do you mean, sir?”

The stern eyes were still boring into his. But now the cadet thought he could detect a trace of secret amusement behind them.

“Why do you torture yourself like this? You know how to find out what it’s all about.”

There was a sinking feeling in George Hanlon’s mind. Did that mean what he was afraid it meant?

He sent out a tentative feeler of thought toward the mind behind that expressionless face. He expected to find it difficult to do, because of long disuse of the faculty. But he was amazed both at the ease with which the technique returned to him, and with the feeling of warm friendliness he found in that mind--almost like a sort of fatherly pride.

He probed a bit deeper, and was aware of assurance that he had done nothing to merit punishment. Indeed, it seemed he could catch exactly the opposite feeling.

He must have shown his relief, for the commandant’s stern face relaxed into a broad smile, and he lounged back in his big chair.

“That’s better. At ease, and sit down.”

Slowly, disbelieving the sudden change, the astonished young cadet gingerly sank onto the front edge of a chair. He had to, his legs were suddenly rubbery.

“I ... I don’t understand at all, sir.”

The admiral leaned forward and spoke impressively. “Do you think, Cadet Hanlon, that we would let any man get to within weeks of graduation without knowing all about him?”

The young man’s eyes widened, and his hands clutched at his knees in an effort to keep them from shaking.

“Oh, yes, we know all about you, George Spencer Newton Hanlon,” and the cadet’s eyes opened even wider at that name. “We know about your talent for mind-reading as a child, and how you suppressed it as you grew older and found how it got you into trouble. We know all about your father’s disgrace and disappearance; your mother’s death; your running away, and your adoption by the Hanlons, whose last name you assumed.”

“How ... how’d you learn all that, sir?”

“The Corps has its ways. And that’s why you’re here now. Oh, all the Fifth Year Cadets will be interviewed by myself or my assistants this coming week, to determine their first assignment after graduation. But I called you in today for a very, very special reason. And your ability to read minds is part of it.”

The cadet drew himself up stiffly. “I’m through with all that, sir, definitely!”

The commandant regarded him enigmatically for a moment. “Just what do you expect to do in the Corps, Mister?”

“Why, whatever I’m assigned to do, I suppose, sir. Or whatever I can do.”

“And just how far will you go for the Corps?” The admiral leaned forward and eyed him critically.

“All the way, sir, of course.”

“Don’t you believe a Corpsman should use all his abilities in his service?” The question was barked at him.

“Certainly, sir.” But his eyes showed he realized he had been trapped by that admission.

“You’re one of the few persons known who have ever actually been able to read another’s mind. That’s important--very important--to the Corps. It must be used!“

Hanlon’s eyes were still stormy, but he kept his lips tightly closed.

The commandant’s face grew kindly again. “We know how it got you into trouble when you were a boy, because the other children resented it, and avoided or abused you for using it on them. But now it will be a great assistance to you--and to the Corps. We know you will use that talent wisely, for it has been proven time and again, by test after test, that you are scrupulously honest. You’ve lost your allowance several times in card games, when you could have read what cards your opponents held, and so won. You have let yourself fail on examination questions you did not know, when you could have read the answers in your instructor’s mind.”

“No, not that, sir,” Hanlon shook his head. “I never could read from a mind such specific information as answers to questions or to problems.”

“I imagine that will come when you start using your talent maturely,” Admiral Rogers shrugged indifferently. “But at the moment I want to talk very seriously about your assignment. First, however, I must have your most solemn oath never to reveal what I am about to tell you, for it is our most carefully-guarded secret.”

“I swear by my mother’s memory, sir, never to reveal anything I am told to keep confidential.”

“Very well. I have been delegated by the High Command to ask you to join the Secret Service of the Inter-stellar Corps.”

Cadet George Hanlon drew in a sharp, startled breath and half-rose from his chair. “The ... the Secret Service, sir? I didn’t know there was one.”