E-text prepared by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
(http://www.pgdp.net/)
Transcriber's note:
This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction, March, 1950. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the copyright on this publication was renewed.
THE MERCENARIES
BY H. BEAM PIPER
Illustrated by Brush
Once, wars were won by maneuvering hired fighting men; now wars are different—and the hired experts are different. But the human problems remain!
Duncan MacLeod hung up the suit he had taken off, and sealed his shirt, socks and underwear in a laundry envelope bearing his name and identity-number, tossing this into one of the wire baskets provided for the purpose. Then, naked except for the plastic identity disk around his neck, he went over to the desk, turned in his locker key, and passed into the big room beyond.
Four or five young men, probably soldiers on their way to town, were coming through from the other side. Like MacLeod, they wore only the plastic disks they had received in exchange for the metal ones they wore inside the reservation, and they were being searched by attendants who combed through their hair, probed into ears and nostrils, peered into mouths with tiny searchlights, and employed a variety of magnetic and electronic detectors.