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    The Unnecessary Man
    The Unnecessary Man
    The Unnecessary Man
    Ebook54 pages39 minutes

    The Unnecessary Man

    By Martinez and Randall Garrett

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Unnecessary Man

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      Book preview

      The Unnecessary Man - Martinez

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Unnecessary Man, by Gordon Randall Garrett

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Unnecessary Man

      Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

      Illustrator: Martinez

      Release Date: February 6, 2008 [EBook #24529]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNNECESSARY MAN ***

      Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      THE

      UNNECESSARY

      MAN

      BY RANDALL GARRETT

      Sometimes an organizational setup grows, sets its ways, and becomes so traditional that once-necessary jobs become unnecessary. But it is sometimes quite hard to spot just which man is the unnecessary one. In this case ... not the one you think!

      Illustrated by Martinez

      I recall, said the Businessman, "that William Wrigley, Junior, once said: 'When two men in a business always agree, one of them is unnecessary.' How true that is."

      The Philosopher cast his eyes toward Heaven. O God! The Mercantile Mind! He looked back at the Businessman. When two men in a business always agree, one of them will come in handy as a scapegoat.

      THE IDLE WORSHIPERS

      by R. Phillip Dachboden

      ord Barrick Sorban, Colonel, H.I.M.O.G., Ret., sipped gently at his drink and looked mildly at the sheaf of newsfacsimile that he'd just bought fresh from the reproducer in the lobby of the Royal Hotel. Sorban did not look like a man of action; he certainly did not look like a retired colonel of His Imperial Majesty's Own Guard. The most likely reason for this was that he was neither.

      Not that he was incapable of action on a physical level if it became necessary; he was past forty, but his tough, hard body was in as fine a shape as it had been fifteen years before, and his reflexes had slowed only slightly. The only major change that had occurred in his body during that time had been the replacement of an irreparably damaged left hand by a prosthetic.

      But Lord Barrick Sorban preferred to use his mind, to initiate action in others rather than himself, and his face showed it. His was a precision mind, capable of fast, accurate computations, and his eyes betrayed the fact, but the rest of his face looked, if anything, rather like that of a gentle, persuasive schoolteacher—the type whom children love and parents admire and both obey.

      Nor was he a retired colonel of the Imperial bodyguard, except on paper. According to the official records, he had been retired for medical reasons—the missing left hand. In reality, his position in the Imperium was a great deal higher than that of an ordinary colonel, and he was still in the active service of the Emperor. It was a secret known only to a comparative few, and one that was carefully guarded.

      He was a fairly tall man, as an Imperial Guardsman had to be, with a finely-shaped head and dark hair that was shot through with a single streak of gray from an old burn wound. In an officer's uniform, he looked impressive,

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