The Defiant Agents

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_THE
DEFIANT
AGENTS_


_By Andre Norton_

  RIDE PROUD, REBEL!
  STORM OVER WARLOCK
  GALACTIC DERELICT
  THE TIME TRADERS
  STAR BORN
  YANKEE PRIVATEER
  THE STARS ARE OURS!

_Edited by Andre Norton_

  SPACE PIONEERS
  SPACE SERVICE



_THE
DEFIANT
AGENTS_

_BY
ANDRE
NORTON_

[Illustration]

THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY

CLEVELAND AND NEW YORK


_Published by_ The World Publishing Company
2231 West 110th Street, Cleveland 2, Ohio

_Published simultaneously in Canada by_
Nelson, Foster & Scott Ltd.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-9063



FIRST EDITION

WP262

Copyright (C) 1962 by Andre Norton
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without written permission from the publisher,
except for brief passages included in a review appearing in
a newspaper or magazine. Printed in the United States of America.


_FOR P. SCHUYLER MILLER
who expressed a wish
for some Apache colonists,
and CHARLES F. KELLEY
who has a liking
for "time agent" tales._




_THE DEFIANT AGENTS_




1


No windows broke any of the four plain walls of the office; there was no
focus of outer-world sunlight on the desk there. Yet the five disks set
out on its surface appeared to glow--perhaps the heat of the mischief
they could cause ... had caused ... blazed in them.

But fanciful imaginings did not cushion or veil cold, hard fact. Dr.
Gordon Ashe, one of the four men peering unhappily at the display, shook
his head slightly as if to free his mind of such cobwebs.

His neighbor to the right, Colonel Kelgarries, leaned forward to ask
harshly: "No chance of a mistake?"

"You saw the detector." The thin gray string of a man behind the desk
answered with chill precision. "No, no possible mistake. These five have
definitely been snooped."

"And two choices among them," Ashe murmured. That was the important
point now.

"I thought these were under maximum security," Kelgarries challenged the
gray man.

Florian Waldour's remote expression did not change. "Every possible
precaution was in force. There was a sleeper--a hidden
classics

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