[Madam Broshkina]

A collection of stories from Everett B. Cole. Some were originally published in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine.

Includes:

The Player

Opening lines:

A Playboy is someone with power, too much time on his hands, and too little sense of a goal worth achieving. And if the Playboy happens to belong to a highly advanced culture…

THE BEST MADE PLANS

Opening lines:

There are some people that it is extremely unwise to cross… and the fireworks start when two such people cross each other!

NDIRECTION

Opening lines:

The best way to keep a secret is to publish it in a quite unbelievable form—and insist that it is the truth.


ALARM CLOCK

Opening lines:

Most useful high explosives, like ammonium nitrate, are enormously violent… once they're triggered. But they will remain seemingly inert when beaten, burned, variously punished—until the particular shock required comes along…