Read Online Tactics of Mistake by Gordon R. Dickson - Free Book Online

said to Dow. “Dad’s got something to say to me, I guess. He’s beckoning me over. I’ll be right back.”
    She left. The gazes of the two men met and locked.
    â€œSo,” said Dow, “you came off with flying honors—defeating a guerrilla band single-handed.”
    â€œNot exactly. There was Eachan and his pistol.” Cletus watched the other man. “Melissa might have been killed, though.”
    â€œSo she might,” said Dow, “and that would have been a pity.”
    â€œI think so,” said Cletus. “She deserves better than that.”
    â€œPeople usually get what they deserve,” said deCastries. “Even Melissas. But I didn’t think scholars concerned themselves with individuals?”
    â€œWith everything,” said Cletus.
    â€œI see,” said deCastries. “Certainly with sleight-of-hand. You know, I found a sugar cube under that middle cup after all? I mentioned it to Melissa and she said you’d told her you’d had cubes under all three cups.”
    â€œI’m afraid so,” Cletus said.
    They looked at each other.
    â€œIt’s a good trick,” said deCastries. “But not one that’d work a second time.”
    â€œNo,” said Cletus. “It always has to be different, a second time.”
    DeCastries smiled, an animal smile.
    â€œYou don’t sound much like a man in an ivory tower, Colonel,” he said. “I can’t help thinking you like theory less, and action more, than you admit. Tell me”—his eyes hooded themselves amusedly under his straight brows—“if it comes down to a simple choice, aren’t you tempted to practice rather than preach?”
    â€œNo doubt about it,” said Cletus. “But one drawback to being a scholar is you’re likely to be an idealist, too. And in the long run, when these new worlds are free to work out their own destinies without Earth’s influence, one man’s theories could have a longer and more useful effect than one man’s practice.”
    â€œYou mentioned that, back aboard ship,” deCastries said. “You talked about Alliance and Coalition influence being removed from worlds like Kultis. Do you still feel as safe talking like that here, with your Alliance superiors all around the place?”
    â€œSafe enough,” said Cletus. “None of them would believe it—any more than you do.”
    â€œYes. I’m afraid I don’t.” DeCastries picked up a wineglass from the small table beside which he was standing and held it briefly up to the light, twisting it slowly between thumb and forefinger. He lowered the glass and looked back at Cletus. “But I’d be interested in hearing how you think it’s going to happen.”
    â€œI’m planning to help the change along a little,” said Cletus.
    â€œAre you?” said deCastries. “But you don’t seem to have anything to speak of in the way of funds, armies or political influence to help with. Now, for example, I’ve got those things, myself, which puts me in a much stronger position. If I thought a major change could be accomplished—to my benefit, of course—I’d be interested in altering the shape of things to come.”
    â€œWell,” said Cletus, “we can both try.”
    â€œFair enough.” DeCastries held the wineglass, looking over it at Cletus. “But you haven’t told me how you’d do it. I told you what my tools are—money, armed troops, political power. What have you got? Only theories?”
    â€œTheories are enough, sometimes,” said Cletus. DeCastries slowly shook his head. He put the wineglass back down on the small table and lightly dusted against one another fingertips of the hand that had held the glass, as if to get rid of some stickiness.
    â€œColonel,” he said, quietly, “you’re either some new kind of agent the Alliance is