Tom W. Harris 16 min read

'Get the information and you can have anything you want,' the industry boss tells the narrator, 'fail, and I'll wash you out of the whole industry', as an ordinary corporate errand turns strange.

Tom W. Harris's 1958 story is a wry colonization and social-SF tale. Clever, entertaining golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story of corporate intrigue and a reluctant spy sent to sniff out a rival's secret, which turns on an unexpected truth about Mars, in a light, well-turned golden-age piece with a satisfying twist and a satirical eye on business.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

16 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

D. Bruce Berry