"Good Vog! Do you really think so?"
"It's the only explanation."
"Good work, K-17. We'll be on our guard."
K-17 hung up and sat down again to read further. The next story dealt with an Earth landing on Mars.
But Earthmen hadn't landed on Mars.
Or had they?
This situation was becoming complicated. K-17 thought over all the possibilities. Was it possible that this magazine contained only Fiction? The title of the thing was Atomic Science Stories. He remembered that he had read a similar magazine called Impossible Science Fiction. Was the distinction between "stories" and "fiction" significant? A fiction was obviously false; but a story could be any narrative, true or not. Did this mean—? Good Vog, he wished he knew more about Earth culture. But that was what he was here to find out. They knew nothing, absolutely nothing, about Earth people. And they didn't want to try to kill the inhabitants and take over the planet without knowing more about them.
He looked closely at the title page of Atomic Science Stories. He recalled that Impossible Science Fiction, which he had, of course, read every word of, carried an announcement that all the stories were fiction. He did not see any such announcement on the title page of Atomic. Doubt was wavering into certainty in his mind.
He telephoned the offices of the Young Publishing Co., which published the magazine. The secretary informed him that the editor, Mr. Holderness, had been discharged that very morning.