hard to push. But then, that was his special talent, wasn't it. Humming the chorus from "Now I Am the Ruler of the Queen's Navee!," he closed young Ian D. Bowmont's folder over the conspicuously blank sheets contained therein and tossed it in the drawer of his desk.

An orderly brought the copies of Agent 661's medical examination to the desk of the Senior Medical Officer who scanned them rapidly, saying at length, "Yes. Ah, Would you mind stripping?" Ian com- plied and stepped from behind the disrobing screen with a towel clutched about his slim waist. The SMO looked him over for a short bit, then went into the hocus-pocus of Stethoscope, speculum, and sphygmomanometer.

"How have you been feeling, Bowmont?" "Fine."

"Nothing unusual?”

"Anything at all.”

"No that is except for a slight-but that's nothing. Really." Ian suddenly felt that anything out of the ordinary might well chain him to a desk with a lot of stuffy Civil Servants. He would rather have leprosy.

"See here, young man. Your duties depend in a great way on our fit- ness reports. As if it weren't enough you people abuse your bodies in all unspeakable manners and come running back here crying for a bit of sticking plaster to stop up the holes, no, you all have to play guessing games. 'Oh, doctor, sir. Guess whatever's the matter with me.' Let me tell you, there's nothing you can conceal from us—in the long run. Now, you may have a choice, either you tell me everything, down to the last freckle, or I'll have you in Infirmary so fast, your head will spin. And let me tell you, we can give you a more thorough examination than you ever believed possible. Oh, yes," the SMO looked pointedly at his watch. "I believe you've an appointment later this morning, with your Chief of Section."

The threat wasn't lost on Ian; it was a part of his job to run a con- stant race with risk, but this was aking just a bit too much. “Alright,” he said. "Three things only. Thing one-my weight has remained constant over the past six months but I've had to have trousers altered -my waist gets slimmer and it seems that all the weight has migrated bit south from there. Secondly, there has been a gradual loss of body hair-very gradual, but noticeable over six months time." The SMO

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