Walters studied the thin face and then turned to Captain Strong. "There's only one thing to do, Steve. There's no telling how many of these rats are inside our organization. Relieve every civilian in any position of trust and put in our own man. I'll make a public teleceiver broadcast in half an hour. I'm declaring martial law."
"Yes, sir," replied Strong grimly.
"If you hadn't been in the code room when this message from Mercury came in, we would never have known the Nationalists were trying to get the Mercurians to join them in their attack on us until it was too late. It's the only break we've had, so far, learning that the Mercurians are still decent, loyal Solar citizens. I hate to think of what would have happened if they hadn't warned us."
"He very nearly got away with it, sir," said Strong. "If I hadn't heard the signal for a top-secret message come through on the coding machine, I never would have suspected him. He tried to hide it in his tunic. He also confessed to trying to kidnap the cadets when he heard me tell them that a cab would be waiting for them."
"Well, we know now," said Walters. He turned to one of the guardsmen. "Sergeant, I'm holding you personally responsible for this man."
"Aye, aye, sir," said the guard, stepping toward the secretary, but Walters stopped him and addressed the man.
"I'll give you one last chance to tell me where your base is and how many ships you have," he said.
The secretary looked down at his feet and mumbled, "I don't know where the base is, and I don't know how many ships there are."
"Then what does this list we found in your tunic mean?" snapped Strong. "These are the names of ships that have been lost in space."