Mission: Earth "Villainy Victorious" by Ron L. Hubbard Read Free Book Online

out something and gave it to Madison. "But don't spend any time on it. I tell you the chief is waiting! Hells, man, get DRESSED!"
    Madison went back toward his baggage, head in a whirl.
    Then it hit him suddenly. HE HAD BEEN SPEAKING VOLTARIAN!
    He couldn't understand how that had come about.
    He started to lay aside whatever it was the man had handed him. His eye caught at it.
    A NEWSPAPER!
    He read something about the storming of a mountain on Calabar where the Apparatus had lost a thousand troops to heavy fire from the rebel forces of Prince Mortiiy.
    NEWSPAPERS! THEY HAD NEWSPAPERS HERE!
    He suddenly felt more at home.
    Then he was startled to realize he was reading it all with ease!
    Had he forgotten English? He said, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." No, he could still speak English.
    He looked at the paper again. It had headlines and news stories, just like a paper should. It was all kind of bland, with no appeal to a PR, but it was a real newspaper, titled The Daily Speaker.
    Oh, this was great. It wasn't such a foreign world after all.
    He opened up the sheet to an inner page. There were some pictures, three-dimensional, in color. He turned another sheet.
    A small picture. Was it familiar?
    YES!
    JEROME TERRANCE WISTER!
    No, this must be just coincidence rampant. What would a picture of him be doing in a Voltar paper? Madison knew that even he wasn't good enough to reach out into circulation like that!
    He read the caption and story. It said:
    HELLER WHEREABOUTS
    UNKNOWN
    Commenting yesterday on the general arrest warrant broadcast on Homeview, a Fleet spokesman said, "The Fleet has no knowledge of any general warrant for Jettero Heller. The famed combat engineer was last reported on mission and the Fleet has no knowledge of his whereabouts. It is probable that the rumored general warrant is just some clerical blunder on the part of the Apparatus which, it might be pointed out, never loses a chance to defame the Fleet. As a combat engineer, Royal Officer Heller is empowered to act on his own cognizance and report back when he believes his assignment finished. The Fleet has no slightest worry about Jettero Heller."
    Madison stared at the picture.
    There could be no mistake!
    The photo was too lifelike!
    Almost no men-and nobody he had seen amongst Voltarians-were as handsome as that! Nobody else he knew had ever worn such a devil-may-care expression.
    IT WAS WISTER!
    Captain Slash had gotten tired of waiting. "Blast it, Madison, GET DRESSED! The chief goes absolutely crazy when he doesn't get what he wants in a rush. And he wants you! NOW!"
    Rushing now to get dressed, Madison was in a daze. Maybe he hadn't failed on Wister. A general warrant? Of course, that wasn't good enough. It was even being denied. And then a thrill went through him. Maybe God was giving him another chance! He must hurry over to see this powerful and frantic chief.
PART SEVENTY-TWO
Chapter 1
    J. Walter Madison, dressed in a neat gray flannel suit and blue bow tie, walked out of the training barracks on the heels of Captain Slash of the 43rd Death Battalion.
    They walked across a littered yard, old papers and dust blowing around. It was a sort of stockade but it had long rows of training rooms: Madison, not knowing he had been hypno-language-trained in the past week, was amazed to find he could read all the signs, even Check Out Here.
    Captain Slash made him sign a book and then a receipt. A clerk handed him his wallet: his money was gone. When he tried to ask what had happened to it, they gave him an identoplate that said J. Walter Madison. PR Man. Coordinated Information Apparatus. When you pushed the back of it his picture flashed on it. When you pushed it a second time, his fingerprints showed up. They must have gotten these when he was in a coma. He pushed the back a third time and a legend flashed, Pay Status- No Pay-P. Oh dear, thought Madison, he was certainly off to a bad start! How on earth could he remedy that? He wasn't on