Young Bleys by Gordon R. Dickson

Author:Gordon R. Dickson [Dickson, Gordon R.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
ISBN: 9780812509472
Publisher: New York : T. Doherty Associates, 1992, c1991.
Published: 1994-05-07T23:00:00+00:00

"I still don't understand," said Hammer, and his voice was beautifully controlled.

"All right, then," said Bleys, "we'll say no more about it."

"Good!" Relief was in Hammer's voice.

"Of course you know," said Bleys, "that I will have to tell Dahno when I get back to Association?"

"Whatever you think is right," said Hammer, tightly. He was no longer smiling.

"You see," said Bleys, quietly, "we've found that certain things are necessary in situations and organizations; or as part of an organization operating by itself; and one of those is that the person in charge necessarily has some things which must be kept secret—from everybody. On the other hand, very often they're things that he can't merely trust to memory. So, as a result, inevitably, there are secret files."

"I don't," said Hammer, "have any secret files."

"I think we should talk about them, anyway," protested Bleys, still mildly. "You see, one of the things that brings about a secret file is that anyone at all, in control or not, necessarily has a private life as well as an organizational one, and again it's inevitable that things from the private life will splash over and affect the organizational life. This is the sort of thing that needs to be kept secret. As I say, it always happens."

"You can tell Dahno," said Hammer between his teeth, "that this is one place where that rule's broken down. I never have had any need to keep anything secret from the organization; and I haven't. I repeat, there's nothing in the way of secret files here on Freiland."

"Good. I'll tell him exactly that," said Bleys. "Now, why don't we get off the subject? I'm sorry I had to bring it up in the first place; but you understand that it's something that is going to have to be asked at every stop I make?"

Hammer's tight jaw muscles stayed tense.

"Yes . . . ," he said, grudgingly moving toward a tone of better humor, "I can see that. Just as long as you make it perfectly clear to Dahno that there's nothing like that here."

"You can trust me," said Bleys, smiling at him. "I'll be bringing him the exact facts on every Others' out-world organization we have."

With that apparently touchy subject behind them, both men made an apparent effort to smooth over the emotions it had aroused, and find more interesting and pleasant topics for conversation.

Hammer began to give Bleys a description of the various teachers and trainers he was using for his trainees, and how he intended to use the trainee class once they graduated—since those trainees that the out-world organizations produced were for their own use. The aim was eventually to have an effectively-trained person at every point where highly valuable information could be garnered.

Such talk took up most of the dinner, and after that Bleys made his excuses, although Hammer hinted that he might like to look at the recreational elements of night-life on Freiland. He was, Bleys said, a little more tired out from the trip here than he had thought.

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