"I don't know. I just know what he said--and that he let me go without
trying to shoot me."
Mrs. Jamieson stopped on her way out of the room and laid a hand on his
arm. "Your father would have been proud of you," she said. "Soon you
will learn the truth about the Agents."
Beyond the closed door, out of sight of her son, Mrs. Jamieson gave
rein to the excitement that ran through her. He had wanted the names!
He didn't know why--not yet--but he would. "He'll do it yet!" she
whispered to the flowered wallpaper. She didn't care that no one heard
her.
She didn't know where the men were now, those who had killed her
husband. They could be anywhere. Agents moved from post to post; in ten
years they might be scattered all over Earth. In the killing of Konvs,
some cylinders might even be taken by Agents--and used by them, for
the power and freedom the cylinders gave must be coveted even by them.
And they were in the best position to gain them. She was consumed by
fear that one or more of the men on Earl's list might have acquired a
cylinder and were now Konvs themselves.
* * * * *
Two weeks later she read a news item saying that Tom Palieu had been
killed by a Konv. The assassin's identity was unknown, but agents were
working on the case.
She knew. She had found a gun in Earl's desk.