Null-ABC by Henry Beam Piper;John Joseph McGuire
page 21 of 140 (15%)
page 21 of 140 (15%)
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gonna take a lot more than you to change it."
The fellow's name, he recalled, was Kettner; Lancedale had given him a briefing which had included some particulars about him. He was an Independent-Conservative ward-committeeman. He had gotten his present job after being fired from his former position as mailman for listening to other peoples' mail with his pocket recorder-reproducer. "Yetsko," he had said. "Kick this bum out on his face." "You can't get away with--" Kettner had begun. Yetsko had yanked him out of his chair with one hand and started for the door with him. "Just a moment, Yetsko," he had said. Thinking that he was backing down, they had all begun grinning at him. "Don't bother opening the door," he had said. "Just kick him out." After the third kick, Kettner had gotten the door open, himself; the fourth kick sent him across the hall to the opposite wall. He pulled himself to his feet and limped away, never to return. The next morning, the school was spotless. It had stayed that way. Beside him, Yetsko must also have returned mentally to the past. "Looks better now than it did when we first saw it, captain," he said. "Yes. It didn't take us as long to clean up this mess as it did to clean up that mutinous guards company in Pittsburgh. But when we |
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