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teachers. They were indoctrinated with their purpose in life .
. . the destruction of our populations . . . and trained fully in the manner
of accomplishing it.
Eventually, each was shipped to a Federation world. Cover identities as
obscure Federation citizens with backgrounds and records had been prepared.
The final instructions given these agents were simple. They were to do nothing
to draw attention to themselves, make no attempt to contact one another. They
were to create their stocks of lethal organisms, provide methods of
distribution and, on a selected day, three Federation years away, release the
floods of death.
The voice paused briefly, went on. It is a sobering reflection that this
plan an attack by a comparatively minor race with one specialized skill on the
greatest human civilization in history might very well have been appallingly
successful.
But the Great Satogs failed, in part because of the very perfection of their
work.
From the human beings on board Ohl Cantrall s captured survey ship the Satog
scientists selected Cantrall himself and two female technicians on his staff
as the models to be followed in developing Kalechi s pseudo-humanity. In the
twelve hundred members of the group sent to the Federation ninety years later,
these three identity patterns are recognizable. They appear in varying degrees
of combination, but an occasional individual will show only one or the other
of the three patterns involved.
Ohl Cantrall was regarded as a great man in his time, and his identification
pattern is on record. That was the detail which first revealed the plot. When
three duplicates of that particular pattern and a considerable number of
approximate duplicates turned up simultaneously in identification banks at
widely separated points in the Federation, it aroused more than scientific
curiosity. Our security system has learned to look with suspicion on apparent
miracles. The unsuspecting
Cantralls were located and apprehended at once; the threat to the Federation
was disclosed; and an intensive though unpublicized search for the scattered
group of Kalechi agents began immediately . . .
The voice paused again.
The Satog image above the pit vanished. A clear light sprang up in the big
room. Simultaneously, Halder felt the nightmare immobility draining from him
and the sensation of dreamlike unreality fade from his mind. He turned to the
right, found Kilby s eyes already on him, saw the Rellis couple sitting beyond
her . . . Rane, no longer disguised, looking like a mirror image of Halder.
They were still fastened to their chairs. Halder s gaze shifted back quickly
to the center of the room. Where the pit had been, the flooring was now level,
carrying a massive, polished table. Behind the table sat a heavily built,
white-haired man with a strong face, harsh mouth, in the formal black and gold
robes of a Councilman of the Federation.
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I am Councilman Mavig. The voice was the one that had spoken in the dark; it
came now from the man at the table. I
am in charge of the operation against the Kalechi agents, and it is my duty to
inform them, after their arrest and examination, of the disposition that must
be made of them.
He hesitated, twisting his mouth thoughtfully, almost as if unwilling to
continue. You four have been thoroughly examined, he stated at last. Most
of the work has been done while you were still unconscious. A final check of
your emotional reactions was being made throughout the stress situation just
ended, in which you listened to a replay of a report on the Kalechi matter.
That part is now concluded.
Mavig paused, scowled, cleared his throat. I find, he went on, that some
aspects of this affair still strain my credulity! More than half of your group
have been captured by now; the remainder are at large but under observation.
The danger is past. The activities of the Great Satogs of Kalechi will receive
our very close scrutiny for generations to come.
They shall be given no opportunity to repeat such a trick; nor after they have
been made aware of the measures we are preparing against them will they feel
the slightest inclination to try it.
Now, as to yourselves. After we had tracked down the first dozen or so of
you, a startling pattern began to emerge.
You were not following Kalechi s careful instructions. In one way and
another in often very ingenious ways you were attempting primarily to
establish contact with one another. When captured and examined while
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