 Section 1, police operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Bowie, Woodbridge, Virginia. Visit me on the web at G-A-M-S-I-T dot ten G-B dot org. Police operation by H. Bean Piper. Section 1, John Strawmeyer stood, an ear figure in faded overalls and sweat white and black shirt. Apart from the others, his back to the weathered farm buildings and the line of yellowing woods, and the serious strict blue October sky. He thrust out a work gnarled hand, accusingly. Mayor Heffero was worth two hundred, two hundred and fifty dollars he clamored, and that their dog was just like one of the family. And now look at him. I don't like to use profane language, but he's gotta do something about this. Steve Parker, the district game protector, aimed his leek at the carcass of the dog and snapped the shutter. We're doing something about it, he said shortly. Then he stepped ten feet to the left, an edger on the mangled heifer, choosing an angle for his camera shot. The two men in the gray whip cords of the state police, seeing that Parker was through with the dog, moved in and squatted to examine it. The one with the triple chevrons on his sleeves took it by both four feet and flipped it over on its back. It had been a big brute of nondescript breed with a rough black and brown coat. Something had clawed it deeply about the head, its throat was slashed transversely several times, and it had been disemboweled by a single slash that had opened its belly from breastbone to tail. They looked at it carefully and then went to stand beside Parker while he photographed the dead heifer. Like the dog, it had been tailing or aching on either side of the head, and its throat had been slashed deeply several times. In addition, flesh had been torn from one of the flanks in great strips. I can't kill a bear out of season, no, strawmire continued to cling. But a bear comes and kills my stock and my dog, and that's there all right. That's the kind of deal Fama always gets in the state. I don't want to use profane language, then don't, Parker barked to him impatiently. Don't use any kind of language, just put him in your claim and shut up. He turned to the men in whip cords and gray satsons. You boys seen everything? He asked. Then let's go. End of section one. Section two, police operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Bowie, Woodbridge, Virginia. August 20th, 2006. Police operation by H. Beam Piper. Section two, they walked briskly back to the barnyard, strawmire following them. Still vociferating about the wrongs of the farmer at the hands of a cynical and corrupt state government. They climbed into the state police car, the sergeant in the private front and Parker into the rear, laying his camera on the seat beside a Winchester carbine. Weren't you pretty sure of that fellow back there, Steve? The sergeant asked as the private started the car. Not too short. I don't like to use profane language. Parker mimicked and grieved he for owner. And then he went on to specify. I'm morally certain that he's shot at at least four illegal deer in the last year. One and if I ever get anything on him, he's going to be sorry for himself than he is now. They're the characters that always beef their heads off, the sergeant agreed. You think that whatever this did was on the same of the others? Yes, the dog must have jumped at it while it was eating at the heifer. Same superficial scratches down about the head and deep cuts on the throat or belly. The bigger the animal, the farther front the big slashes occur. Evidently, something grabs them by the head with the front claws and slashes with the hind claws. That's why I think it's a bobcat. You know all the private said. I saw a lot of wounds like that during the war. My outfield landed on Minanio where the gruelas had been active. And this looks like Bolo worked to me. The surplus stores are full of machetes and jungle lives, the sergeant continued. I think I'll call up Doc Winters at the county hospital and see if all his squirrel fodder is present and accounted for. Most of the livestock was eaten at like the heifer, Parker objected. By definition, nuts have a normal taste, the sergeant replied, or the eating might have been done later by foxes. I'd hope so. That'd let me out. Ha! Listen to the man, the private howled, stopping the car at the end of the lane. He thinks a nut with a machete and a tarzan complex is just good clean fun. Which way now? Well, let's see. The sergeant had unfolded a quadrangle sheet. The game protector leaned forward to look at it over his shoulder. The sergeant ran a finger from one of his nuthers, series of variously colored crosses which had been marked on the map. Monday night over here in Copperhead Mountain, that cow was killed, he said. The next night at about ten o'clock, the sheep flock was hit on this side of Copperhead. Right about here. Early Wednesday night, that mule got slashed up in the woods in the back of Weston Farm. It was only slightly injured, must have kicked the what's hit and got away. But the what's hit wasn't too badly hurt because a few hours later, it hit that turkey-flotting rhymer farm. And last night it did that. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the strawmire farm. See, following the ridges working toward the southeast, avoiding open ground and killing away at night, could be a bobcat of that. Or Jinx maniac with the machete. Parker agreed. Let's go up behind Men's Gap and see if we can see anything. End of Section 2. Section 3. Police Operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Bowie, Woodbridge, Virginia. G-A-M-S-I-T dot 10-G-B dot org, August 20th, 2006. Police operation by H. Beam Piper. Section 3. They turned, after a while, into a rutted dirt road which deteriorated settling to a grass-grown track through the woods. Finally, they stopped and the private backed off the road. The three men got out. Parker with his windchester, the sergeant checking the drum of a Thompson and the private pumping a book sales shot into the chamber of a riot gun. For half an hour, they followed the brush-gallon trail beside the little stream. Once, they passed a dark gray commercial model jeep back to one side. Then they came to the head of the gap. A man wearing a tweed coat, tan field boots, and khaki breeches was sitting on a log, smoking a pipe. He had a bolt-action rifle across his knees and a pair of binoculars hung from his neck. He seemed about 30 years old, and any bobby-sox recital of the screen would have envied him the handsome regularity of strangely mobile features. As Parker and the two state policemen approached, he rose, slinging his rifle and greeted them. Sergeant Haynes, he asked presently, are you gentlemen out hunting the critter, too? Good afternoon, Mr. Lee. I thought that was your jeep I saw down the road a little. The sergeant turned to the others. Mr. Richard Lee, staying at the old kinswater place, the other side of Rudder's Fort. This is Mr. Parker, the district game protector, and Private Zinkowski. He glanced at the rifle. Are you out hunting for it, too? Yes, I might thought I'd find something up here. What do you think? It is. I don't know, the sergeant admitted. It could be a bobcat. Can I add to the links? Jinkier has a theory that it's some escapee from the paper doll factory with a machete. Me, I hope not, but I'm ignoring the possibility. The man with the mat and knees idols face nodded. It could be a lynx. I understand they're not unknown in this section. We paid bounties on two in this country. In last year, Parker said, odd rifle you have there, mind if I look at it? Not at all. The man who had been introduced as Richard Lee, unslunged, handed it over. The chambers loaded, he cautioned. I never saw one like this, Parker said, foreign. I think so. I don't know anything about it. It belongs to a friend of mine who loaned it to me. I think the actions German are checked. The rest of it's a custom job by some West Coast gunmaker. It's chambered for some ultra-velocity wildcat load. The rifle passed from hand to hand. The three men examined it in turn, commenting admirably. You find anything, Mr. Lee? The sergeant asked, handing it back. Not a trace. The man called Lee slung the rifle and began to dump the ashes from his pipe. I was along the top of this ridge for about a mile on either side of the gap, and down the other side of the square is a hide man's run. I didn't find any tracks or any indication of where it made a kill. The game protector nodded, turning to Sergeant Haynes. There's no use of us going any farther, he said. Ten to one. It followed that line of woods back to Strawminers and crossed over to the other ridge. I think our best bet would be to go to the Hollow at the end of Lowry's run. What do you think? The sergeant agreed. The man called Richard Lee began to refill his pipe methodically. I think I shall stay here for a while, but I believe you're right. Lowry's run or across Lowry's gap into Coon Valley, he said. End of section three. Section four, police operation. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Alex Pooley, Woodbridge, Virginia. Police operation by H. Beam Piper. After Parker and the state policemen had gone, the man whom they had addressed as Richard Lee returned to his log and sat smoking his rifle across his knees. From time to time he glanced at his wristwatch and raised his head to listen. At length, faint in the distance, he heard the sound of a motor starting. Instantly he was on his feet. From the end of the hollow log on which he had been sitting, he produced a canvas musette bag walking briskly through a patch of damp ground beside the little stream. He leaned the rifle against the tree and opened the bag. First he took out a pair of gloves of some greenish rubber-like substance and put them on, drawing a long gauntlet up over his coat sleeves. Then he produced a bottle and unscrewed the cap. Being careful to avoid splashing his clothes, he went about pouring a clear liquid upon the ground in several places. Where he poured, white vapors rose and twigs and grass crumbled into brownish dust. After he had replaced the cap and returned the bottle to the bag, he waited for a few minutes. Then took a spatula from the musette and dug where he poured the fluid. Prying loose four black irregular sheet blooms of matter, which he carried to the running monitor and washed carefully before wrapping them up and putting them in the bag, along with the gloves. Then he slugged the bag and the rifle and started down the trail to where he'd parked the Jeep. Half an hour later, after driving through the little farming village of Rutter's Fort, he pulled into the barnyard of a rundown farm and backed through the open doors of the barn. He closed the double doors behind him and barred them from within. Then he went to the rear wall of the barn, which was much closer from the front from the outside dimensions of the barn, what I've indicated. He took from his pocket a black object that looked like an automatic pencil. Honing over the rough blank wall, he found a small hole and insert the pointed end of the pseudo pencil, pressing on the other end. For an instant nothing happened. Then a ten foot square section of the wall receded, two feet, and slid noiselessly to the side. The section, which had slid inward, had been built of three inch steel, masked by a thin covering of boards. The wall around it was too free concrete, similarly camouflaged. He stepped quickly inside. Fumbling at the right side of the opening, he found a switch inflicted. Instantly, a massive steel plate slid back into a place with the wall with a soft, oily click. As it did, lights came on within the hidden room, disclosing a great semi-globe of some fine metallic mesh, 30 feet in diameter and 15 in height. There was a sliding door on one side of this. The man called Richard Lee opened and entered through it, closing it behind him. Then he turned to the center of the hollow dome, where an armchair was placed in front of a small desk below a large instrument panel. The gauges and dials on the panel, and no levers and switches and buttons on the desk control board were all lettered in numbers with characters not of their own alphabet or the Arabic notation, and with instant reach of the occupant of the chair. It was to like weapon lay on the desk, had a conventional index finger-tringer and a handgrip fit, but instead of a tubular barrel, two slender parallel metal rods extended about four inches forward of the receiver. Joined together, Alwo would of course bond to the muzzle with a string-lined knob of some light blue ceramic or plastic substance. The man with the handsome and mobile face deposited his rifle on the floor beside the chair and sat down. First, he picked up the pistol-like weapon and checked it. Then he examined the many instruments on the panel in front of him. Finally, he flicked a switch on the control board. At once, a small humming began. From some point overhead, it wavered and shrilled and mounted in intensity and then fell to a steady monotone. The dome about him flickered with a clear, cold iridescence and slowly vanished. The hidden room vanished and he was looking into the shadowy interior of a deserted barn. The barn vanished, blue sky appeared above, streaked with wisps of high, serious clouds. The autumn landscape flickered unreally. Buildings appeared and vanished and other buildings came and went in a twinkling. All around him, half-seen shapes moved briefly and disappeared. Once the figure of a man appeared inside the circle of a dome, he had an angry face, brutal face, and he wore a black tunic piped with silver and black breeches and polished black boots and there was an insignia composed of a cross and thunderbolt on his cap. A dramatic pistol in his hand. Instantly, the man at the desk snatched up his own weapon and thumbed off the safety. Before he could lift and aim it, the intruder stumbled and passed outside the force field which surrounded the chair and instruments. For a while, there were fires raging outside and for a while, the man at the desk was surrounded by a great hall with a high vaulted ceiling to which figures flitted and vanished. For a while, there were vistas and deep forests always sat in the same background above the mountains and always under the same blue seriously sky. There was an interval of flickering blue and white light of unbearable intensity. Then the man at the desk was surrounded by the interior of vast industrial works. The moving figures around him slowed and became more distinct. For an instant, the man in the chair grinned as he found himself looking into a big washroom where a tall blonde girl was taking a shower bath and a pert little redhead was vigorously drying herself with a towel. The dome grew visible, corused scatting with many colored lights and then the humming died and the dome began to cold and inert mesh a fine white metal, a green light above flashed on and off slowly. He stabbed a button and flipped a switch then got to his feet, picking up his rifle and a musette and fumbling under his shirt for a small mesh bag which he took an inch wide disc of blue plastic. Unlocking container on the instrument panel he removed a small roll of Soledio graph film which he stowed in his bag. Then he slid open the door and emerged into his own dimension of space-time. Outside was a wide hallway with a pale green floor, pale green walls and a ceiling of greenish off-white. A big hole had been cut to accommodate the dome and across the hallway a desk had been set up and it sat a clerk and a pale blue tunic who was just taking the audio plugs of a music box out of his ears. A couple of policemen in green uniforms with ultrasonic paralyzers dangling by thongs from their left wrists and bolstered signatory needleers like the one in the desk inside the dome were kidding with some girls in vivid orange and scarlet and green smocks. One of these in bright green was a duplicate of the one he had seen rubbing herself down with a towel. Here comes your boss man one of the girls told the cops as he approached. They both turned and saluted casually. The man who hadn't lately been using the name of Richard Lee responded their greeting and went to the desk. The policemen grasped their paralyzers, drew their needleers and hurried to the dome. Taking the disk of blue plastic from his packet he handed it out to the clerk on the desk who dropped it into a slot and the voter in front of him instantly a mechanical voice responded Virkin Vall, blue seal noble heredity a mirab of narrows special chiefs assistant, paratime police special assignment subject to no orders below those of Torthekarf chiefs of paratime police to be given all courtesies and co-operation within paratime transportation code and the police powers code for their particulars the clerk pressed the no button the blue seagull fell out of the release shot and was handed back to its bear who was drawing up his left sleeve he wanted to be sure I'm your working ball I suppose he extended sending his arm yes quite sir the clerk touched his arm with a small instrument which is swabbed with antiseptic drew a minute blood sample and medicated the needle prick all in one almost painless operation he put the blood drop on a slide and inserted it at one side the Paris microscope knotting showed the same distinctive permanent colloid pattern as the sample I had ready for comparison the colloid pattern given in infancy by injection to the man in front of him to set him apart from all the Marriott other Virkin Valls on every other probability line of paratime right sir the clerk knotted the two policemen came out of the dome their needlers hosted and their vigilance relaxed they were lighting cigarettes as they emerged it's alright sir one of them said you didn't bring anything in with you this trip the other cop chuckled one of that fifth level wild man who came in on the freaking bear agenda our last month he asked if he was hoping some of the girls would want to know what wild man it was a vain hope with a blue seal mav rat around what chance did a couple of ordinary coppers have the girls were already converging on Virkin Vall when are you going to get that one strun city out of our restroom the little red head and green coveralls was demanding if it wasn't for that thing I'd be taking a shower right now you were just finishing when about 50 pair of seconds off when I came through Virkin Vall told her the girl looked at him an obvious feigned indignation why you you para peeper Virkin Vall chuckled and turned to the clerk I want a strato rocket and pilot for a dare bar right away call dare bar paratime police field and give them my ETA have an air taxi meet me and have the chief notified that I'm coming in extraordinary report keep a guard over the conveyor I think I'm going to need it again soon he turned a little red head you want to show me the way out of here to the rocket field he asked outside in the open landing field Virkin Vall glanced up at the sky then looked at his watch it had been 20 minutes since he backed at the Jeep up into his barn on that distant other timeline the same delicate lines of white cirrus were etched across the blue above the consistency of the weather even across 200,000 para years of perpendicular time never failed to impress him the long curve of mountains were the same and they were modeled with the same autumn colors but where the little village of rudders floor stood on the other line of probability the white towers of apartment city rose the living quarters of the plant personnel the rocket that was to take him to headquarters were being hoisted with a crane that lowered and funded the firing stand he walked personally toward it his rifle knew that slung a boyish looking pilot was on the platform opening the door of the rocket he stood aside for Virkin Vall to enter followed and closed it while his passenger stowed his bag and rifle and strapped himself into a seat there by a commercial terminal sir the pilot asked taking the adjoining seat of the controls paratime police field back of the paratime administration and building right sir 20 seconds to blast when you're ready ready now Virkin Vall relaxed counting seconds subconsciously the rocket trembled and Virkin Vall found himself being pushed gently back against the upholstery the seats and the violence instrument panel in front of them swung on gimbals and the finger of the indicator swiped slowly over a 90 degree arc as this rocket rose and leveled by then the high serious clouds of Virkin Vall had watched from the field were far below they were well into the stratosphere there would be nothing to do now for the three hours in which the rocket sped northwest across the pole and downward to this the hair bar navigation was entirely in the electronic hands of their robot controls Virkin Vall got out his pipe and lit a cigarette it's an odd pipe sir out time item yes fourth probability level typical of the whole paratime build I was working in Virkin Vall handed it over for inspection the bull's natural briar root the stem sort of a plastic made from the sap of certain tropical trees the little white dot is the markers trademark it's made of elephant tusk sounds pretty crude to me sir the pilot handed it back nice workmanship though looks like good machine reduction yes the sector I was on is really quite advanced for an electrochemical civilization the weapon I bought back with me that solid missile projector is typical of most fourth level culture moving parts machined to the closest tolerances is interchangeable similar parts of all similar weapons the missiles a small bolt of copro alloy coated lead propelled by expanding gasses from the ignition of some nitrocellulose compound most of their scientific advance occurred within the past century and most of that in the past 40 years of course the life expectancy on that level is only 70 years hmm I'm 78 last birthday the boys looking pilot snorted their medical signs must be mostly witchcraft until quite recently it was same story there as in everywhere else rapid advancement in the past few decades after thousands of years of cultural inertia you know sir I don't really understand this pair of time stuff the pilot confessed I know that all time is totally present and that every moment has its own past feature aligned of event sequence and that all events in space time occur according to the maximum probability but I just don't get this alternate probability stuff if something exists it's because the maximum probability effect of prior causes why does anything exist on any other line work involve blue smoke with the air renovator a lecture and pair of time theory would nicely fill in the 3 hour interval until landing at Tehrig bar at least this kid was asking intelligent questions well you know the principle of time passage I suppose he began yes of course rogums doctrine the basis of most of our physical science we exist perpetually at all moments within our lifespan our extra physical ego component passes from the ego existing at one moment to the ego existing at the next during unconsciousness the EPC is time free it may detach and connect at some other moment with the ego existing at that time point pre-cog we take an auto-hypno and recover memories brought back from the future moment and buried in the subconscious mind that's right work involve told him and even without the auto-hypno a lot of pre-cognitive matter leaks out of the subconscious and into the conscious mind usually in distorted forms or as inspires instinctive acts the motivation for which is not brought to the level of consciousness for instance suppose you're walking along north promenade in derg bar and you come to the martian palace cafe and you go in for a drink meet same girl and strike up an acquaintance with her this chance acquaintance develops into a love affair and a year later out of jealousy she raise you half a dozen times with a needler just about that happened to a friend of mine not long ago the pilot said go on sir while on the microsecond or so before you die or afterward for that matter the extra physical component survives physical destruction your apc slips back a couple years and reconnects at some point password of your first meeting with this girl and carries it with the memories of everything to the moment of attachment all of which are indelibly recorded in your subconscious mind so when you re-experience the event of standing outside the martian palace with thirst you go on to the star ways or in a hergles or some other bar in both cases on both timelines you follow the line of maximum probability in the second case your subconscious future memories are an added casual factor and when I slip back after I've been needled I generate a new timeline is that it? Birkenvall made a strong sign of impatience no such thing he exclaimed it's semantically inadmissible to talk about the total presence of time with one breath and another generating about new timelines with the next all timelines are totally present in perpetual coexistence the theory is that EPC passes from one moment on one timeline to the next moment on the next line so that the true passage of the EPC from the moment to moment is a two dimensional diagonal so in the case we're using the event of your going to the martian palace exists on one timeline and the invent of passing along to the star way exists on another but both events are in real existence now what we do in pair of time transposition is to build up a hyper temporal field to include the timeline we want to reach then shift over it same point in the phlegm same point in primary time plus primary time the lobster and mechanical and electronic lag in the relays but a different line a secondary time then why don't we have past feature time travel on our own timeline the pilot wanted to know that was a question every pair of timer has to answer every time he talks pair of time to the laity berkin ball had been expecting it he answered patiently the galdron has their field generators like every other mechanism it can operate only in the area of primary time in which it exists it can transpose to any other timeline and carry with anything inside his field but it can go outside its own temporal area of existence and even more than a bullet from the rifle hit a target a week before its fired berkin ball pointed out anything inside the field is supposed to be unaffected by anything outside supposed to be is a way to put it it doesn't always work once in a while something pretty nasty gets picked up in transit he thought briefly of the man in the black team that's why we have armed guards at terminals suppose you pick up a blast from a nucleonic bomb or something red a hat or radioactive the pilot asked we have a monument that pair of time police headquarters in the hair bar bearing the names of our own personnel who didn't make it back it's a large monument over the past ten thousand years it's been inscribed with quite a few names you can have i'll stick to rockets the pilot replied tell me another thing though what's this all about levels and sectors and belts what's the difference purely arbitrary terms there are five main probability levels from the possible five outcomes of the attempt to colonize this planet 75,000 years ago we're on the first level complete success and colony fully established the fifth level is the probability of complete failure no human population established on this planet an ingenious quasi-human life evolved indignously on the fourth level the colonists evidently met with some disaster lost all memory of their extraterrestrial origin as well as all extraterrestrial culture as far as they know they are an indignious race they have a long pre-history of stone age savagery sectors are the area of pair of time on any level in which the prevalent culture has a common origin and common characteristics they are divided more or less arbitrarily into sub-sectors belts are areas within sub-sectors where conditions are the result of recent alternate probabilities for instance i've just come from the european american sector for the fourth level an area of about 10,000 pair of years in depth in which the dominant civilization developed on the northwest continent of the major landmass and spread there to the minor landmass the line on which i was operating is also part of a sub-sector of about 3,000 pair of years depth and about developing from one of several probable outcomes of a war concluded about 3 elapsed years ago on that timeline the field at the hagglebrand synthetics works where we took off is part of an abandoned farm on the side of hagglebrand city is a little farming village both things are there right now both in primary time and in the plenum there are about 250,000 pair of years perpendicular to each other in each is the same general order of reality the red light overhead flashed on the pilot looked into his visor and put his hands on manual controls in case of failure of the robot controls the rocket landed smoothly however there was a slight jar as it re-grappled by the crane and hoisted upright the seats turning in their gimbals the pilot and passenger unstrapped themselves and hurried through the refrigerated outlet and away from the glowing hot rocket end of section 4 section 5 police operation this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Alex Bowie Woodbridge, Virginia police operation by H. Bean Piper section 5 an air taxi emblazoned with the device of the paratime police was waiting Verkan Vall said goodbye to the rocket pilot and took his seat beside the pilot of the air cab the ladder lifted his vehicle above the building level and then set it down on the landing stage of the paratime police building in a long side swooping glide an express elevator took Verkan Vall down to one of the middle stages where he showed his sigil to the guard outside the door of tortha carves office and was admitted at once the paratime police chief rose from behind the semicircular desk with its array of keyboards and viewing screens and communicators he was a big man well past his 200th year his hair was iron grain thinning in front and he had begun to grow thick at the waist and his calm features bore the lines of middle age he wore the dark green uniform of the paratime police well Vall he asked everything secure not exactly sir Verkan Vall came around the desk deposited his rifle and bag on the floor and sat down in one of the spare chairs I'll have to go back again so his chief lit a cigarette and waited I traced Gavran's son Verkan Vall got out his pipe and began to fill it but that's only the beginning I have to trace something else Gavran saw and exceeded his paratime permit and took one of his pets along a venusian nighthound tortha carves expression did not alter it merely grew more intense he used one of the short semantically ugly terms which serve in place of profanity as the emotional release of a race that has forgotten all the taboos and terminologies a super naturalistic religion and sex inhibition you're sure of this of course it was less a question than a statement Verkan Vall bent and took cloth-wrapped objects from his bag unwrapping them and laying them on the desk they were casts in hard black plastic of the footprints of some large three-toed animals what did these look like sir? he asked tortha car fingered them and nodded then he became as visibly angry as a man of his civilization and culture level ever permitted himself what does that fool think we have a paratime code for? he demanded it's entirely illegal to transpose any extraterrestrial animal or object to any timeline in which space travel is unknown I don't care if he is a green seal thavrad he'll face charges when he gets back for this he was a green seal thavrad Verkan Vall corrected and he won't be coming back I hope you didn't have to deal summarily with him tortha carf said with his title and social position his family's political importance that might make difficulties not that it wouldn't be alright with me of course but we never seem to be able to make either the management or the public realize the extremities to which we are forced at times he sighed we probably never shall Verkan Vall smiled faintly oh no sir nothing like that he was dead before I transposed to that timeline he was killed when he wrecked a self propelled vehicle he was using one of those fourth level automobiles I posed as a relative and tried to claim his body for the burial ceremony observed at that cultural level but was told that it had been completely destroyed by the fire when the fuel tank of this automobile burned I was given certain of his effects which had passed through the fire I found his sigil concealed inside would appear to be a cigarette case he took a green disc from the bag and laid it on the desk there's no question Gavran Sarn died in that wreck of an automobile in the night hound it was in the car with him but it escaped you know how fast those things are I found that track he indicated one of the black casts in some dried mud near the scene of the wreck as you see the cast is slightly defective the others refreshed this morning when I made them and what have you done so far I rented an old farm near the scene of the wreck and installed my fuel generator there it runs through to the Hagraban Synthetics Works about a hundred miles east of the now Javzar I have my this line terminal in the girls restroom at the durable plastics factory handled on that local power it since then I've been hunting for the night hound I think I can find it but I'll need some special equipment and hypnomech indoctrination that's why I came back has it been attracting any attention Tortha car fast anxiously killing cattle in the locality causing considerable excitement fortunately it's a locality of forest mountains and wily farms rather than a built up industrial district local police and wild game protection officers are concerned all the farmers excited and going on the theory is that it's either a wild cat of some sort or a maniac armed with a cullis either theory would conform more or less to the nature of its depredations nobody has actually seen it that's good Tortha car was relieved well you'll have to go and bring it out or kill it and obliterate the body you know why as well as I do certainly serve work and war applied in a primitive culture things like this would be assigned supernatural explanations and embedded in a locally accepted religion but this culture while nominally religious is highly rationalistic in practice typical lag effect characteristic of all expanding cultures and this Europa-American sector really has an expanding culture 150 years ago the inhabitants of this particular timeline didn't even know how to apply steam power now they've begun to release nuclear energy in a few crude forms Tortha car whistled softly that's quite a jump there's a sector that'll be in for trouble in the next few centuries that is realized locally sir work and war concentrated on relighting his pipe for a moment then continued I would predict space travel on that sector within the next century maybe the next half century at least to the moon and the art of taxidermies very highly developed now suppose some farmer shoots that thing what would he do with it sir Tortha car grunted nice logic fall on a most uncomfortable possibility he'd have it mounted and be put in a museum somewhere and as soon as the first spaceship reaches Venus and they find those things in a wild state they'll have the mounted specimen identified exactly and then instead of beating their brains about where their specimen came from they'll begin asking when it came from they're quite capable of such reasoning even now 100 years isn't a particularly long time Tortha car considered I'll be retired then but you'll have my job and it'll be your headache you'd better get this cleaned up now it can be handled what else to do I'm not sure now sir I want to hit no mech in doctoration first work and wall gesture toward the communicator on the desk may I he asked certainly Tortha car slid the instrument across the desk anything you want thank you sir work and wall snapped on the code index found the symbol he wanted then punched him on the keyboard special chief's assistant work and wall he identified himself speaking from the office of Tortha car chief paratime police I want to complete hip no mech on Manusian nighthounds emphasis on wild state special emphasis domesticated nighthounds averted to wild state and terrestrial surroundings extra special emphasis hunting techniques applicable to same the word nighthound will do for trigger symbol he turned to Tortha car can I take it here Tortha car fnotted pointing to a row of boosts along the far wall of the office make set up for wired transmission I'll take it here very well sir in 15 minutes a voice replied out of the communicator work and wall slid the communicator back by the way sir I had a hitchhiker on the way back carried him about 100 or so parayers picked him up and about 300 parayers after leaving my other line terminal nasty looking fellow in a black uniform looked like one of these private army stormtroopers you find all through that sector armed and hostile I thought I'd have to array him but he blundered outside the field almost at once I have a record if you'd care to see it yes put it on Tortha car fjester toward the slidiograph projector it's set for miniature reproduction on here on the desk that'd be alright work and wall nodded getting out the film and loading it into projector when he pressed a button a dome of radiance appeared on the desktop two feet in width and a foot in height in the middle of this appeared a small slidiograph image of the interior of the conveyor showing the desk the control board and the figure of work and wall seated at it the little figure of the stormtrooper appeared pissed on hand the little work and wall snatched up a tiny needler the stormtrooper moved to the one side of the dome and vanished work and wall flipped the switch and cut up the image yes I don't know what causes that but it happens now and then Tortha carf said usually at the beginning of a transposition I remember when I was just a kid about 150 years ago 139 to be exact I picked up a fellow on the fourth level just about where you're operating and dragged him a couple of hundred pairs of years I went back to find him and returned to his own timeline but before I could locate him I was arrested by the local authorities as a suspicious character and got himself shot trying to escape I felt badly about that but Tortha carf shrugged anything else happened on the trip I ran through a belt of interment and nucleonic bombing on the second level Burke involved mentioned an approximate paratom location ah that kiff-ton civilization by courtesy so called Tortha carf pulled a rye face I suppose the intra-family enmities of the Havadka dynasty have reached critical mass again they'll fool around till they blast themselves back to the stone age intellectually they're about there now I had to operate in that sector once oh yes another thing sir this rifle Burke and Vaughn picked it up and emptied the magazine and handed it to his superior the supplies office slipped up on this it's not appropriate to my line of operation it's a lovely rifle but it's about 200% in advance of existing arms designed on my line it excited the curiosity of a couple of police officers and a game protector who should be familiar with the weapons of their own timeline I evaded by disclaiming ownership or intimate knowledge and they seemed satisfied but it worried me yes that was made duplicating shots here into herg bar Tortha carf carried it to a photographic bench behind his desk I'll have it checked while you're taking your hypno mech want to exchange it for something authentic why no sir it's been identified to me an unexiteless suspicion with it than I would if I abandoned it and mysteriously acquired another rifle I just wanted to check and supplies warned to be more careful in the future Tortha carf nodded approvingly the young mad rat of Narrows was thinking as a paratimer should what's the designation of your line again? Vergenvall told him it was a short numerical term of 6 places but it expressed a number of the order of 10 to the 40th power exact to the last digit Tortha carf repeated it into his steno-memograph with explanatory comment there seems to be quite a few things in this area he said let's see now he punched the designation on a keyboard instantly it appeared on a translucent screen in front of him he punched another combination and at the top of the screen under the number there appeared events past elapsed 5 years he punched again but the lowest line appeared the subheading events involving paratime transposition another code combination added a third line attracting public notice among inhabitants he pressed the start button the headings vanished to be replaced by page after page of print succeeding one another in the screen as the two men read they told strange and apparently disconnected stories of unexplained fires and explosions of people vanishing without trace of unaccountable disasters to aircraft there were many stories of an epidemic of mysterious disc-shape objects seen in the sky singly or in numbers teacher count was appended one or more reference numbers sometimes tortha karp for rick and vol would punch one of these and read, on an adjoining screen the explanatory matter referred to finally tortha karp leaned back and lit a fresh cigarette yes indeed vol very definitely we will have to take action in the matter of the runaway nighthound of the late gaveran sard he said i'd forgotten that this was the timeline until which the aardrath expedition launched those anti-grab discs if this extraterrestrial monestority turns up on the heels of that flying saucer business everybody above the order of intelligence of a cretin will suspect some connection what really happened in the andrath matter rick and vol inquired i was on the third level on that levarian empire operation at that time that's right you missed that well it was one of those joint operation things the paratime commission and the space patrol were experimenting with a new technique for throwing a spaceship into paratime they used the cruiser aardrath calzarn jane commanding went into space about half way to the moon and took up orbit keeping on the sunlit side of the planet to avoid being observed that was alright but then captain calzarn ordered a way of flight of anti-grab discs fully manned to take pictures and finally authorized a landing in the western mountain range northern continent, minor landmass that's when the trouble started he flipped the run back switch till he had recovered the page he wanted rick and vol right on the fourth level aviator in his little air screw drive craft citing nine high flying saucer like objects that was how it began torthekarf told him before long as other incidents of the same sort occurred our people on that line began sending back to know what was going on naturally from the different descriptions of these saucers they recognized the objects as anti-grab landing discs from a spaceship so I went to the commission and raised atomic blazes about it and the aardrath was ordered to confine operations to the lower areas of the fifth level then our people on that timeline went to work with corrective action here he wiped the screen and then began punching combinations page after page appeared bearing counts of people who claimed to have seen the mysterious discs and each report was more fantastic than the last the standard smother out technique working well grand I only heard a little talk about the flying saucers and all of that was in joke in that order of culture you can always discredit one true story by setting up ten others palpably false parallel to it wasn't that the timeline the thar max trading cooperation almost lost their paratime license on that's right it was they bought up all the cigarettes and causes conspicuous shortage after the fourth level cigarettes had been introduced on this line and had become popular they should have spread their purchases over a number of lines and kept them within the local supply demand frame and they also got into trouble with the local government for selling undrash and petrol and automobile tires we had to send in a special operations group and they came closer to having to engage in out time local politics than I care to think of Torthacarve quoted in a line from a currently popular song about the sorrows of a policeman's life we're jugglers of all trying to keep our traders and sociological observers and tourists and plain idiots like the late Gavron Sarn out of trouble trying to prevent panics and disturbances and dislocations of the local economy as a result of our operations trying to keep out of out of time politics and at all times at all costs and hazards by all means guarding the secret of paratime transposition sometimes I wish Gahaljan Karf and Hestor Grom had strangled in their cradles Rukinval shook his head no chief he said you don't mean that not really he said we've been paratiming for the past 10,000 years when the Gahaljan Hestor trans-temporal field was discovered our ancestors had a pretty well exhausted the resources of this planet we had a ordered population of half a billion and it was all they could do to keep alive after we began paratime transposition our population climbed to 10 billion and there it stayed for the last 8,000 years just enough enough to enjoy our planet and the other planets of the system to the fullest enough of everything for everybody that nobody needs to fight anybody for anything we've tapped the resources of those other worlds and other timelines a little here a little there not enough to really hurt anybody we've left our mark in a few places the Dakota Badlands and the Gobi on the fourth level for instance but we've done no great damage to any of them except the time they blew up half the southern island continent over about 500 parayers on the third level Torthacarf mentioned a regardable accident to be sure of working well conceded and look how much we've learned from the experiences of those other timelines during the crisis after the first interplanetary war we might have adopted Paul-Nar-San's dictatorship of the chosen scheme if we hadn't seen what an exactly similar scheme had done to the Jokkaka civilization on the second level when Paul-Nar-San was told about that he went into maritime deceit for himself and when he returned he announced his proposal on horror Torthacarf denotted he wouldn't be making any mistake in turning his post over to the mad rat of narrows on his retirement yes of all I know he said but when you've been at this desk as long as I have a sorrow moment in two now and then too end of section 5 section 6 of police operation this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org police operation by H. B. Piper section 6 a blue light flashed over one of the booths across the room Verkin Val got to his feet removing his coat and hanging it on the back of his chair and crossed the room rolling up his left shirt sleeve there was a relaxer chair in the booth with a blue plastic helmet above it he glanced at the indicator screen to make sure he was getting the indoctrination he called for and then sat down in the chair and lowered the helmet over his head inserting the air plugs and fastening the chin strap then he touched his left arm with an injector which was on the arm of the chair and at the same time flipped the starter switch soft slow music began to chant out of the earphones the insidious fingers of the drug blocked off his senses one by one the music diminished and the words of the hypnotic formula ruled him to sleep he woke hearing the lively strains of dance music for a while he lay relaxed then he snapped off the switch took out the air plugs removed the helmet and rose to his feet deep in his subconscious mind was the entire body of knowledge about the venusian nighthound he mentally pronounced the word and at once he began flooding into his conscious mind he knew the animal's evolutionary history its anatomy its characteristics its dietary and reproductive habits how it hunted, how it fought its enemies how it eluded pursuit and how best it could be tracked down and killed he nodded already a plan for dealing with Gavron Sarn's renegade pet was taking shape in his mind he picked a plastic cup from the dispenser filled it from a cooler tap with amber-colored spiced wine and drank, tossing the cup into the disposal bin he placed a fresh injector on the arm of the chair ready for the next user of the booth then he emerged glancing at his fourth level wristwatch and mentally translating to the first level timescale three hours had passed there had been more to learn about his quarry than he had expected Torthacarf was sitting behind his desk smoking a cigarette it seemed as though he had not moved since Ferkin Ball had left him so the special agent knew that he had dined attended several conferences and done many other things I checked up on your hitchhiker Val, the chief said we won't bother about him he's a member of something called the Christian Avengers one of those typical Europa-American race and religious hate groups he belongs in a belt that is the outcome of the Hitler victory of 1940 whatever that was something unpleasant I dare say we don't owe him anything, people of that sort should be stepped on like cockroaches you might get any more trouble on the line where you dropped him than they have there already it's in a belt of complete social and political anarchy somebody probably shot him as soon as he emerged because he wasn't wearing this bright sort of uniform 1940 what? by the way elapsed years since the birth of some religious leader Ferkin Ball explained and did you find out about my rifle? oh yes, it's reproduction of something that's called the Sharps model 37.235 ultra-speed express made on an adjoining part-time belt by a company that went out of business 67 years ago elapsed time on your line of operation what made the difference was the second war between the states I don't know what that was either I'm not too well up on fourth level history but whatever your line of operation didn't have it probably just as well for them though they very likely had something else as bad or worse I put in a complaint to supplies about it and got you some more ammunition and reloading tools now tell me what you're going to do about this nighthound business Tortharkarff was silent for a while after Ferkin Ball had finished you're taking some awful chances Val he said at length, the way you plan doing it the advantages will all be with the nighthound those things can see as well at night as you can in daylight I suppose you know that though you're the nighthound specialist now yes, but they're custom to the Venus Hotland marches it's been dry weather for the last two weeks all over the northeastern section of the northern continent I'll be able to hear it long before it gets close to me and I'll be wearing an electric headlamp when I snap that on, it'll be dazzled for a moment well, as I said, you're the nighthound specialist there's the communicator, order anything you need heal it a fresh cigarette from the end of the old one before crushing it out but be careful Val, it took me close to 40 years to make a pair of timer out of you I don't want to have to repeat the process with somebody else before I can retire end of section 6 section 7 of police operation this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org police operation by H. B. Piper section 7 the grass was wet as Virkin Val reminded himself that here he was called Richard Lee crossed the yard from the farmhouse to the ramshackle barn in the early autumn darkness it had been raining that morning when the Strato rocket from Durga Bar had landed him at the Hagreband Synthetic Works on the first level unaffected by the probabilities of human history the same rain had been coming down on the old Kinchwater farm near Rutter's Fort on the fourth level it had persisted all day in a slow, deliberate drizzle he didn't like that the woods would be wet muffling his quarry's footsteps and cancelling his only advantage over the night prowler he hunted he had no idea however of postponing the hunt if anything the rain had made it all the more imperative that the nighthound be killed at once at this season a falling temperature would speedily follow the nighthound a creature of the hot venus marshes would suffer from the cold and taught by years of domestication to find warmth among human habitations it would invade some isolated farmhouse or worse, one of the little valley of villages if it were not killed tonight the incident he had come to prevent would certainly occur going to the barn he spread an old horse blanket on the seat of the jeep laid his rifle on it and then backed the jeep outside then he took off his coat removing his pipe and tobacco from the pockets and spread it on the wet grass he unwrapped a package and took out a small plastic spray gun he had brought with him from the first level aiming it at the coat and pressing the trigger until it blew itself empty a sickening rancid fetter tainted the air the scent of the giant poison roach of venus the one creature for which the nighthound bore an inborn, implacable hatred it was because of this compulsive urge to attack and kill the deadly poison roach that the first human settlers on venus long millennia ago had domesticated the ugly and savage nighthound he remembered that the gavern family derived their title from their vast venus hotlands estates that gavern sarned the man who had brought this thing to the fourth level had been born on the inner planet when verkenval donned that coat he would become his own living bait for the murderous fury of the creature he sought at the moment, mastering his queasiness and putting on the coat, he objected less to that danger than to the hideous stench of the scent to obtain which a valuable specimen had been sacrificed at the Durgabar Museum of Extraterrestrial Zoology the evening before carrying the wrapper and the spray gun to an outside fireplace, he snapped his lighter to them and tossed them in they were highly inflatable blazing up and vanishing in a moment he tested the electric headlamp on the front of his cap, checked his rifle drew the heavy revolver, an authentic product of his line of operation and flipped the cylinder out and in again then he got into the jeep and drove away for half an hour he drove quickly along the valley roads, now and then he passed farmhouses and dogs puzzled and angered by the alien scent his coat bore marked furiously at length he turned into a back road and from this to the barely discernable trace of an old log road the rain had stopped and in order to be ready to fire in any direction at any time he had removed the top of the jeep now he had to crouch below the windshield to avoid overhanging branches once three deer, a buck and two does, stopped in front of him and stared for a moment then bounded away with a flutter of white tails he was driving slowly now laying behind him a reeking trail of scent there had been another stalk killing the night before while he had been on the first level the locality of this latest depredation had confirmed his estimate of the beast's probable movements and indicated where it might be prowling tonight he was certain that it was somewhere near sooner or later it would pick up the scent finally he stopped snapping out his lights he had chosen this spot carefully while studying the geological survey map that afternoon he was on the grade of an old railed road line now abandoned and its track long removed which had served to the logging operations of fifty years ago on one side the mountains slanted sharply upward on the other it fell away sharply if the nighthound were below him it would have to climb that forty-five degree slope and could not avoid dislodging loose stones or otherwise making noise he would get out on that side if the nighthound were above him the jeep would protect him when it charged he got to the ground thumbing off the safety of his rifle and an instant later he knew that he had made a mistake which could easily cost him his life from which neither his comprehensive logic nor his hypnotically acquired knowledge of the beast's habits had saved him as he stepped to the ground facing toward the front of the jeep he heard a low whining cry behind him and a rush of padded feet he whirled snapping on the headlamp with his left hand and thrusting out his rifle pistol-wise in his right for a split second he saw the charging animal its long lizard-like head split into the grin its talon tipped four paws extended he fired and the bullet went wild the next instant the rifle was knocked from his hand instinctively he flung up his left arm to shield his eyes claws raked his left arm and shoulder something struck him heavily along the left side and his cap light went out as he dropped and rolled under the jeep drawing in his legs and fumbling under his coat for the revolver in that instant he knew what had gone wrong his plan had been entirely too much of a success the nighthound had winged him as he had driven up the old railroad grade and had followed its best running speed had been just good enough to keep it a hundred or so feet behind the jeep and the motor noise had covered the padding of its feet in the few moments between stopping the little car and getting out the nighthound had been able to close the distance and spring upon him it was characteristic of first-level mentality the vurkin vol wasted no moments on self-reproach or panic while he was still rolling under his jeep his mind had been busy with plans to retrieve the situation something touched the heel of one boot and he froze this leg into mobility at the same time trying to get the big smith and wasn't free the shoulder holster he had found was badly torn though made of the heaviest skirting leather and the spring which retained the weapon in place had been wrenched and bent until he needed both hands to draw the eight inch slashing claw of the nighthound's right intermediary limb had raked him only the instinctive motion of throwing his arm up and the fact that he wore the revolver and a shoulder holster had saved his life the nighthound was prowling around the jeep whining frantically it could see quite well even in the close darkness of the starless night its eyes were of a nature capable of perceiving infrared radiations as light there were plenty of these the jeep's engine, lately running on four-wheel drive was quite hot had he been standing alone especially on this raw chilly night vurkin vol's own body heat would have lighted him up like a jack-o'-lantern now however the hot engine above him masked his own radiations moreover the poison roach scent on his coat was coming up through the floorboard and mingling with the scent on the seat yet the nighthound couldn't find the two-and-a-half foot insect light thing that should have been producing it vurkin vol lay motionless wondering how long the next move would be incoming then he heard the thought above him followed by a furious tearing as the nighthound ripped the blanket and began rending at the seat cushion hope it gets a pawful of seat springs vurkin vol commented mentally he had already found a stone about the size of his two fists and another slightly smaller and had put one in each of the side pockets of the coat now he slipped his revolver into his waist-belt and writhed out of the coat shedding the ruined shoulder holster at the same time wriggling on the flat of his back he squirmed between the rear wheels until he was able to sit up behind the jeep then, swinging the weighted coat he flung it forward over the nighthound and the jeep itself at the same time drawing his revolver immediately the nighthound lured by the sudden movement of the principal the source of the scent jumped out of the jeep and bound it after the coat and there was considerable noise in the brush on the lower side of the railroad grade at once vurkin vol swarmed into the jeep and snapped on the lights his stratagem had succeeded beautifully the stinking coat had landed on the top of a small bush about ten feet in front of the jeep and ten feet from the ground the nighthound, erect on its haunches was reaching out with its front paws to drag it down and slashing angrily at it with its single-clawed intermediary limbs its back was to vurkin vol his sights clearly defined by the lights in front of him the paratimer centered them on the base of the creature's spine just above its secondary shoulders and carefully squeezed the trigger the big 357 magnum bucked in his hand and belched flame and sound if only these fourth-level weapons weren't so confoundedly boisterous the nighthound screamed and fell recaulking the revolver vurkin vol waited for an instant then nodded in satisfaction his spine had been smashed and at time quarters and even its intermediary fighting limbs had been paralyzed he aimed carefully for a second shot and fired into the base of the thing's skull they quivered and died end of section 7 section 8 of police operation this is a LiberVox recording all LiberVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LiberVox.org police operation by H. Beam Piper section 8 getting a flashlight he found his rifle sticking muzzle down in the mud a little behind and to the right of the jeep and swore briefly in the local fourth-level idiom for vurkin vol was a man who loved good weapons be they sigma ray needlers, neutron disruption blasters or the solid missile projectors of the lower levels by this time he was feeling considerable pain from the claw wounds he had received he peeled off his shirt and tossed it over the hood of the jeep tortha karth had advised him to carry a needler or a blaster or a neuro-stat gun but vurkin vol had been unwilling to take such arms onto the fourth level in the event of mishap to himself it would be all too easy for such a weapon to fall into the hands of someone able to deduce from it scientific principles too far in advance of the general fourth-level culture but there had been one first-level item which he had permitted himself mainly because suitably packaged it was not readily identifiable as such digging a respectable depth of leather at case from under the seat he opened it and took out a pint bottle with a red poison label and a towel saturating the towel with the contents of the bottle he rubbed every inch of his torso with it so as not to miss even the smallest break made in his skin by the septic claws of the nighthound wherever the lotion-soaked towel touched raw skin a pain like the burn of a hot iron shot through him before he was through he was in agony satisfied that he had disinfected every wound he dropped the towel and clung weakly to the side of the jeep he grunted out a string of English oaths and capped them with an obscene Spanish blasphemy he had picked up among the fourth-level inhabitants of his island home of Neros to the south and a thundering curse in the name of Moga fire god of dual in a third-level tongue he mentioned Fasif, great god of kift in a manner which would have got him an acid bath if the kift and priests had heard him he alluded to the Baroque amatory practices of the third-level Ilyalo people and soothed themselves in the classical Darhama tongue with one of those rambling genealogical insults favored in the Indo-Terranian sector of the fourth-level by this time the pain had subsided to an all-over-smarting itch he'd have to bear with that until his work was finished and he could enjoy a hot bath he got another bottle out of the first-aid kit a flat pint labeled old overholt containing a locally manufactured specific for inward and subjective wounds he dedicated himself copiously from it corking it and slipping it into his hip pocket against future need he gathered up the ruined shoulder holster and threw it under the back seat he put on his shirt then he went and dragged the dead knight hound onto the grade by its slumpy tail it was an ugly thing weighing close to 200 pounds with powerfully muscled hind legs which furnished the bulk of its motive power and 33 clawed front legs its secondary limbs with the weight back from its front shoulders were long and slender normally they were carried folded closely against the body and each was armed with a single curving claw the revolver bullet had gone in at the base of the skull and emerged under the jaw the head was relatively undamaged Verkan Vahl was glad of that he wanted that head for the trophy room of his home on Narrows grunting and straining he got the thing into the back of the jeep and flung his almost shredded tweed coat over it a last look around assured him that he had left the body of the bullet were suspicious the brush was broken where the knight hound had been tearing out the coat a bear might have done that there were splashes of the visset stuff the thing had used for blood but they wouldn't be there long terrestrial rodents liked knight hound blood and the woods were full of mice he climbed in under the wheel backed turned and drove away end of section 8 police operation section 9 while livervox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit livervox.org police operation by H. B. Piper section 9 inside the paratime transposition dome Verkan Vahl turned from the body of the knight hound which he had just dragged in and considered the inert form of another animal a stump-tailed tough-eared tawny canada lynx that particular animal had already made two paratime transpositions captured in the vast wilderness of fifth level north america it had been taken to the first level and placed in the dergabar zoological gardens and then requisitioned on the authority of tortha calf it had been brought to the fourth level by verkan vahl it was almost at the end of all its travels verkan vahl prodded the supine animal with the toe of his boot it twitched slightly its feet were cross bound with straps but when he saw that the narcotic was wearing off verkan vahl snatched a syringe part of the fur at the base of its neck and gave it an injection after a moment he picked it up in his arms and carried it out to the jeep alright pussycat he said placing it under the rear seat this is the one way ride the way you're doped up it won't hurt a bit he went back and rummaged in the debris of the long deserted barn he picked up a hoe and discarded it as too light an old plow share was too unhandy he considered a great bar from a heating furnace on the poleaxe lying among a pile of warm eaten boards its handle had been shortened at some time to about 12 inches converting it into a heavy hatchet he weighed it and tried it on a block of wood and then making sure that the secret door was closed he went out again and drove off an hour later he returned opening the secret door he carried the ruin shoulder holster and the straps that had bound the bobcat's feet and the axe now splotched with blood and tawny cat hairs into the dome then he closed the secret room and took a long drink from the bottle on his hip the job was done he would take a hot bath and sleep in the farmhouse till noon and then he would return to the first level maybe torthacarf would want him to come back here for a while the situation on this timeline was far from satisfactory even if the crisis created by gavron sarne's renegade pet had been averted the presence of a chief's assistant might be desirable at least he had the right to expect a short vacation he thought of the little redhead at the top of the hill and he was like, what was her name? something kara war vincara? that was it she would be coming off shift about the time he'd make first level tomorrow afternoon the claw wounds were still smarting vexatiously a hot bath and a night's sleep he took another drink, let his pipe picked up his rifle and started to cross the yard to the house end of section 9 section 10 of police operation all liber vox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit libervox.org police operation by h beam piper section 10 privates in kowski cradled the phone and got up from the desk stretching he left the orderly room and walked across the hall to the recreation room where the rest of the boys were loafing sergeant hains in a languid gin-rumming game corporal connor a sheriff's deputy and a mechanic from the service station down the road looked up well, sarge, i think we can write off those stop killings the privates said yeah? the sergeant's interest quickened yeah, i think the what-sits had it i just got a buzz from the railroad cops at logan sport it seems a track walker found a dead bobcat on the logan river branch about a mile or so below mmy signal tower looks like it tangled with that night freight up river and came off second best with a linear chop to hamburger mmy signal tower that's right below yoters crossing the sergeant considered the strawmire farm night before last the amreen farm last night yeah, that would be about right that'll suit steve parker bobcats aren't protected, so it's not his trouble and they're not a violation of state law so it's none of our worry, connor said your deal isn't it, sarge? yeah, wait a minute, the sarge got to his feet i promised sam cane at logan sport that i'd let him in on anything new he got up and started for the phone phantom killer he blew an impolite noise well, it was a lot of excitement while it lasted the deputy sheriff said just like that flying saucer thing the end end of police operation