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by Mack Reynolds


  His father looked at him, astonished.

  Warren McCord began to gush an incoherent apology, but his boy took him firmly by the arm. "Listen, Dad, any confessions to the authorities at this point wouldn't accomplish anything, and might do a great deal of harm to innocent people — including mother. Now listen to me.

  "Tomorrow I want you to apply for retirement. What you do then is up to you. You've really always wanted to spend your final years in the South. Possibly that's what you'll do."

  "And you?" his father said anxiously.

  "I'm going to drop out of the Education Sequence. Drop all my academic honors and make a new start. I'll tell you about it later." He grinned again at the old man. "Don't worry about it. I'm certainly not."

  He started down the line of chattering I.B.M. machines, saying happily over his shoulder, "See you later, Dad. I've got some business."

  Nadine looked up from her auto-typer and smiled her Nadine smile at him. "You were tight this morning, Academician McCord," she accused. "You didn't know what you were saying. Your mother must have had quite a celebration for you last night."

  He said, "Not as big as the one you and I are going to have tonight, and the name is Roy."

  "Ah, ha," she said, keeping it light. "So that's the question you decided to ask — have dinner with you. You can hardly expect a Senior Effective to be gallivanting around with an Academician. What would people say? You'd be accused of pulling your rank to overwhelm a poor . . ."

  Roy said, grinning mockingly at her, "That's why I'm resigning my Educational Sequence prerogatives. Tonight, at dinner, under the proper romantic setting, I'm going to propose to you. But I'm giving you fair warning, it's going to be a stepdown for you. By that time, I'll be a lowly Apprentice Effective in the Creative Arts Sequence."

  She blinked at him.

  His face went thoughtful. "We'll have to think about the honeymoon. What do you say the South Seas, or perhaps Greece? You know, I always wanted to see the Acropolis by moonlight."

  THE END

  About the Author

  Dallas McCord Reynolds (1917-1983 )also wrote under the pseudonyms of Dallas Ross , Mark Mallory , Clark Collins , Dallas Rose , Guy McCord , Maxine Reynolds , and Bob Belmont.

  Most of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted many things which have come to pass, including pocket computers and a worldwide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.

  Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.

  Reynolds was also the first author to write an original novel based upon the 1966-1969 NBC television series Star Trek. The book, Mission to Horatius (1968), was aimed at young readers. In 1972, he used the name 'Maxine Reynolds' on two romantic suspense novels, House in the Kasbah and Home of the Inquisitor.

  Several of his last books are credited as co-authored with Dean Ing. When Reynolds knew he had a brief time to live, he tried to write enough to provide an income for his wife after his passing. To this end, he wrote as many novel outlines as he could, with the arrangement that Ing would finish them.

  Other works by Mack Reynolds

  The Towns Must Roll

  Depression or Bust

  The Expert

  Expediter

  Fad

  Depression or Bust

  Depression or Bust

  Homer Crawford

  Blackman's Burden / Border, Breed nor Birth

  The Cold War . . . Continued

  Black Sheep Astray

  Blackman's Burden

  Mercenary

  Joe Mauser Mercenary from Tomorrow (with Michael A. Banks and Mack Reynolds)

  Mercenary from Tomorrow

  The Earth War

  Frigid Fracas

  Frigid Fracas

  The Fracas Factor

  Time Gladiator (by Mack Reynolds with Michael A. Banks)

  Julian West

  Looking Backward, From the Year 2000

  Equality: In the Year 2000

  Lagrange

  The Five Way Secret Agent

  Satellite City

  Lagrange Five

  The Lagrangists

  Chaos in Lagrangia

  Trojan Orbit (with Dean Ing)

  Police Patrol

  Romp

  Criminal in Utopia

  Extortion, Inc.

  Cry Wolf!

  Police Patrol: 2000 A.D.

  Star Trek Universe

  Star Trek: The Original Series

  Star Trek Young Adult Novels

  Mission to Horatius

  United Planets

  Adaptation

  Ultima Thule

  Hatchetman

  Fiesta Brava

  Psi Assassin

  The Rival Rigelians and Planetary Agent X

  Planetary Agent X

  Dawnman Planet

  Beehive

  The Rival Rigelians

  Code Duello

  Amazon Planet

  Section G: United Planets

  Brain World

  The Case of the Little Green Men

  Of Godlike Power

  Space Pioneer

  After Some Tomorrow

  Computer War

  The Space Barbarians

  The Cosmic Eye

  Once Departed

  Computer World

  Tomorrow Might Be Different

  Ability Quotient

  Galactic Medal of Honor

  Day After Tomorrow

  After Utopia

  Space Visitor

  Perchance to Dream

  Trample an Empire Down

  Home Sweet Home: 2010 A.D. (with Dean Ing)

  Eternity (with Dean Ing)

  Space Search

  The Other Time (with Dean Ing)

  Deathwish World (with Dean Ing)

  Subversive

  Summit

  Revolution

  Unborn Tomorrow

  Gun for Hire

  Mercenary

  Adaptation

  I'm a Stranger Here Myself

  Medal of Honor

  Happy Ending (with Fredric Brown)

  The Discord Makers

  Give the Devil His Due (as Dallas Ross)

  Isolationist

  He Took It With Him (as Clark Collins)

  United We Stand

  Fido

  Precognition

  The Man in the Moon

  Down the River

  The Word from the Void

  You Might Say Virginia Dared! (as Dallas Ross)

  Long Beer - Short Horn

  Tall Tale

  One of Our Planets Is Missing!

  Six-Legged Svengali (with Fredric Brown)

  The Spark

  The Devil Finds Work

  Tourists to Terra

  Ask Me No Questions!

  Dark Interlude (with Fredric Brown)

  Troubador

  The Switcheroo (with Fredric Brown)

  Overtime

  Not in the Rules

  I'm a Stranger, Myself (as Dallas Ross)

  Cartoonist (with Fredric Brown)

  Second Advent

  The Martians and the Coys

  Mercy Flight

  With This Ring . . . (as Dallas Ross)

  Displaced Person

  Ultimate Answer (as Dallas Ross)

  Halftripper

  The Gamblers (with Fredric Brown)

  He Knew All the Answers (as Dallas Ross)

  Chowhound

  The Hatchetman (with Fredric Brown)

  Doctor's Orders

  How Green Was My Martian

  Four-Legged Hotfoot

  Your Soul Comes C.O.D.

  Final Appraisal

&n
bsp; The Business, As Usual

  The Cosmic Bluff

  Alternate Universe

  Me and Flapjack and the Martians (with Fredric Brown)

  Stowaway

  Dogfight - 1973

  Advice from Tomorrow

  No Return from Elba

  D. P. from Tomorrow

  Please to Remember

  Potential Enemy

  Optical Illusion

  Off Course

  A Zloor for Your Trouble

  The Other Alternative

  Last Warning

  The Galactic Ghost

  And Thou Beside Me

  Husbands, Care and Feeding of

  Paradox Gained

  Prone

  A Dream . . . Dying

  Desperate Remedy

  Meddler's World (with Theodore R. Cogswell and Mack Reynolds)

  The Long Way Home

  Albatross

  Space Gamble

  Operation Triplan

  Buck and the Space War

  Compleated Angler

  Burnt Toast

  The Triangulated Izaak Walton

  After Some Tomorrow

  Fair Exchange

  Compounded Interest

  Case Rests

  Dog Star

  Obedience Guaranteed

  Posted (as Mark Mallory)

  Devil to Pay

  Slow Djinn

  Dead End

  The Man Who Stole His Body (as Mark Mallory)

  Happy Ending (with Fredric Brown)

  The Truth and the Image (as Mark Mallory)

  Of Pot and Potter

  Gladiator

  Sin Planet

  Alternatives, Inc.

  Pieces of the Game

  Unborn Tomorrow

  Toro!

  The Hunted Ones

  The Good Seed (as Mark Mallory)

  Russkies Go Home!

  Summit

  Revolution

  Combat

  Russkies Go Home

  Medal of Honor

  Gun for Hire

  I'm a Stranger Here Myself

  Freedom

  Farmer

  I. Q.

  Status Quo

  Earthlings Go Home!

  Good Indian

  Subversive

  The Common Man (as Guy McCord)

  Speakeasy

  Spaceman on a Spree

  Pacifist

  Genus Traitor

  Photojournalist

  By the Same Door

  Time of War

  Last of a Noble Breed

  The Switcheroo Revisited

  Survivor

  Arena

  Radical Center

  Relic

  The Enemy Within

  The Throwaway Age

  How We Banned the Bombs

  Among the Bad Baboons

  Love Conquers All

  Where's Horatius?

  What the Vintners Buy

  Spying Season

  Utopian

  Buck and the Gents from Space

  City's End

  Come in, Spaceport

  Survival, A.D. 2000

  Spooky

  Generation Gap

  Second Advent

  Nostradamus (as Clark Collins)

  Visitor

  All Things to All . . .

  A Halo for Horace

  The Case of the Disposable Jalopy

  Golden Rule

  Hell's Fire (with Gary Jennings)

  What the Vintners Buy

  Escape Velocity

  The Union Forever

  Closer Encounter

  The Hand of the Bard

  Idealist

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