Ooh, look, it's an Ace Double!
THE ODDS WERE RIGHT FOR VICTORY
The problem with computer warfare is that the computer is always logical while the human enemy is not—or doesn't have to be.
And that's what the Betastani enemy were doing—nothing that the Alphaland computers said they would. Those treacherous foemen were avoiding logic and using such unheard-of devices as surprise and sabotage, treason and trickery. They even had Alphaland's Department of Information believing Betastani propaganda without even realising it.
Of course he still thought he was being loyal to Alphaland, because he thought one and one must logically add up to two. And that kind of thinking could make him the biggest traitor of all.
Section G, the top secret security unit of United planets, had a special problem on their hands with the situation on Firenze. And for that special problem , they gathered together the most unusual squad in Section G's unusual history. It included:
A research scientist who could bend steel bars like rubber band—
A middle-aged lady with total total recall—
An interplanetary cowboy whose bullwhip was deadlier than a ray gun—
A brazen young lady acrobat who looked like an eight year-old kid—
A mild young man who never lost a bet in his life—
And the best pickpocket that ever lived.
But Firenze with its CODE DUELLO was to prove a match for the lot of them!
A late entry in the Ace Doubles series by an author with a sense of fun and a knowledge of history. (Sometimes
too much knowledge of history, as he stops to explain the historical parallels with what his characters are doing.) However, for the most part these short novels are romps, blending the spy genre with space opera. If you're looking for some light reading and a little bit of relief from the real world, you could do far worse than a book by Mack Reynolds.
