His father looked at him, astonished.
Warren McCord began to gush an incoherent apology, but his boy took him firmly by the arm. "Listen, Dad, any confessions to the authorities at this point wouldn't accomplish anything, and might do a great deal of harm to innocent people — including mother. Now listen to me.
"Tomorrow I want you to apply for retirement. What you do then is up to you. You've really always wanted to spend your final years in the South. Possibly that's what you'll do."
"And you?" his father said anxiously.
"I'm going to drop out of the Education Sequence. Drop all my academic honors and make a new start. I'll tell you about it later." He grinned again at the old man. "Don't worry about it. I'm certainly not."
He started down the line of chattering I.B.M. machines, saying happily over his shoulder, "See you later, Dad. I've got some business."
Nadine looked up from her auto-typer and smiled her Nadine smile at him. "You were tight this morning, Academician McCord," she accused. "You didn't know what you were saying. Your mother must have had quite a celebration for you last night."
He said, "Not as big as the one you and I are going to have tonight, and the name is Roy."
"Ah, ha," she said, keeping it light. "So that's the question you decided to ask — have dinner with you. You can hardly expect a Senior Effective to be gallivanting around with an Academician. What would people say? You'd be accused of pulling your rank to overwhelm a poor . . ."
Roy said, grinning mockingly at her, "That's why I'm resigning my Educational Sequence prerogatives. Tonight, at dinner, under the proper romantic setting, I'm going to propose to you. But I'm giving you fair warning, it's going to be a stepdown for you. By that time, I'll be a lowly Apprentice Effective in the Creative Arts Sequence."
She blinked at him.
His face went thoughtful. "We'll have to think about the honeymoon. What do you say the South Seas, or perhaps Greece? You know, I always wanted to see the Acropolis by moonlight."
THE END
About the Author
Dallas McCord Reynolds (1917-1983 )also wrote under the pseudonyms of Dallas Ross , Mark Mallory , Clark Collins , Dallas Rose , Guy McCord , Maxine Reynolds , and Bob Belmont.
Most of Reynolds' stories took place in Utopian societies, many of which fulfilled L. L. Zamenhof's dream of Esperanto used worldwide as a universal second language. His novels predicted many things which have come to pass, including pocket computers and a worldwide computer network with information available at one's fingertips.
Many of his novels were written within the context of a highly mobile society in which few people maintained a fixed residence, leading to "mobile voting" laws which allowed someone living out of the equivalent of a motor home to vote when and where they chose.
Reynolds was also the first author to write an original novel based upon the 1966-1969 NBC television series Star Trek. The book, Mission to Horatius (1968), was aimed at young readers. In 1972, he used the name 'Maxine Reynolds' on two romantic suspense novels, House in the Kasbah and Home of the Inquisitor.
Several of his last books are credited as co-authored with Dean Ing. When Reynolds knew he had a brief time to live, he tried to write enough to provide an income for his wife after his passing. To this end, he wrote as many novel outlines as he could, with the arrangement that Ing would finish them.
Other works by Mack Reynolds
The Towns Must Roll
Depression or Bust
The Expert
Expediter
Fad
Depression or Bust
Depression or Bust
Homer Crawford
Blackman's Burden / Border, Breed nor Birth
The Cold War . . . Continued
Black Sheep Astray
Blackman's Burden
Mercenary
Joe Mauser Mercenary from Tomorrow (with Michael A. Banks and Mack Reynolds)
Mercenary from Tomorrow
The Earth War
Frigid Fracas
Frigid Fracas
The Fracas Factor
Time Gladiator (by Mack Reynolds with Michael A. Banks)
Julian West
Looking Backward, From the Year 2000
Equality: In the Year 2000
Lagrange
The Five Way Secret Agent
Satellite City
Lagrange Five
The Lagrangists
Chaos in Lagrangia
Trojan Orbit (with Dean Ing)
Police Patrol
Romp
Criminal in Utopia
Extortion, Inc.
Cry Wolf!
Police Patrol: 2000 A.D.
Star Trek Universe
Star Trek: The Original Series
Star Trek Young Adult Novels
Mission to Horatius
United Planets
Adaptation
Ultima Thule
Hatchetman
Fiesta Brava
Psi Assassin
The Rival Rigelians and Planetary Agent X
Dawnman Planet
Beehive
The Rival Rigelians
Code Duello
Amazon Planet
Section G: United Planets
Brain World
The Case of the Little Green Men
Of Godlike Power
Space Pioneer
After Some Tomorrow
Computer War
The Space Barbarians
The Cosmic Eye
Once Departed
Computer World
Tomorrow Might Be Different
Ability Quotient
Galactic Medal of Honor
Day After Tomorrow
After Utopia
Space Visitor
Perchance to Dream
Trample an Empire Down
Home Sweet Home: 2010 A.D. (with Dean Ing)
Eternity (with Dean Ing)
Space Search
The Other Time (with Dean Ing)
Deathwish World (with Dean Ing)
Subversive
Summit
Revolution
Unborn Tomorrow
Gun for Hire
Mercenary
Adaptation
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Medal of Honor
Happy Ending (with Fredric Brown)
The Discord Makers
Give the Devil His Due (as Dallas Ross)
Isolationist
He Took It With Him (as Clark Collins)
United We Stand
Fido
Precognition
The Man in the Moon
Down the River
The Word from the Void
You Might Say Virginia Dared! (as Dallas Ross)
Long Beer - Short Horn
Tall Tale
One of Our Planets Is Missing!
Six-Legged Svengali (with Fredric Brown)
The Spark
The Devil Finds Work
Tourists to Terra
Ask Me No Questions!
Dark Interlude (with Fredric Brown)
Troubador
The Switcheroo (with Fredric Brown)
Overtime
Not in the Rules
I'm a Stranger, Myself (as Dallas Ross)
Cartoonist (with Fredric Brown)
Second Advent
Mercy Flight
With This Ring . . . (as Dallas Ross)
Displaced Person
Ultimate Answer (as Dallas Ross)
Halftripper
The Gamblers (with Fredric Brown)
He Knew All the Answers (as Dallas Ross)
Chowhound
The Hatchetman (with Fredric Brown)
Doctor's Orders
How Green Was My Martian
Four-Legged Hotfoot
Your Soul Comes C.O.D.
Final Appraisal
&n
bsp; The Business, As Usual
The Cosmic Bluff
Alternate Universe
Me and Flapjack and the Martians (with Fredric Brown)
Stowaway
Dogfight - 1973
Advice from Tomorrow
No Return from Elba
D. P. from Tomorrow
Please to Remember
Potential Enemy
Optical Illusion
Off Course
A Zloor for Your Trouble
The Other Alternative
Last Warning
The Galactic Ghost
And Thou Beside Me
Husbands, Care and Feeding of
Paradox Gained
Prone
A Dream . . . Dying
Desperate Remedy
Meddler's World (with Theodore R. Cogswell and Mack Reynolds)
The Long Way Home
Albatross
Space Gamble
Operation Triplan
Buck and the Space War
Compleated Angler
Burnt Toast
The Triangulated Izaak Walton
After Some Tomorrow
Fair Exchange
Compounded Interest
Case Rests
Dog Star
Obedience Guaranteed
Posted (as Mark Mallory)
Devil to Pay
Slow Djinn
Dead End
The Man Who Stole His Body (as Mark Mallory)
Happy Ending (with Fredric Brown)
The Truth and the Image (as Mark Mallory)
Of Pot and Potter
Gladiator
Sin Planet
Alternatives, Inc.
Pieces of the Game
Unborn Tomorrow
Toro!
The Hunted Ones
The Good Seed (as Mark Mallory)
Russkies Go Home!
Summit
Revolution
Combat
Russkies Go Home
Medal of Honor
Gun for Hire
I'm a Stranger Here Myself
Freedom
Farmer
I. Q.
Status Quo
Earthlings Go Home!
Good Indian
Subversive
The Common Man (as Guy McCord)
Speakeasy
Spaceman on a Spree
Pacifist
Genus Traitor
Photojournalist
By the Same Door
Time of War
Last of a Noble Breed
The Switcheroo Revisited
Survivor
Arena
Radical Center
Relic
The Enemy Within
The Throwaway Age
How We Banned the Bombs
Among the Bad Baboons
Love Conquers All
Where's Horatius?
What the Vintners Buy
Spying Season
Utopian
Buck and the Gents from Space
City's End
Come in, Spaceport
Survival, A.D. 2000
Spooky
Generation Gap
Second Advent
Nostradamus (as Clark Collins)
Visitor
All Things to All . . .
A Halo for Horace
The Case of the Disposable Jalopy
Golden Rule
Hell's Fire (with Gary Jennings)
What the Vintners Buy
Escape Velocity
The Union Forever
Closer Encounter
The Hand of the Bard
Idealist
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