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The World Swappers

By John Brunner

Scanned, proofed and formatted by BW-SciFi
Release Date: January, 11th, 2003
Version 1.0


THE WORLD SWAPPERS

Copyright й, 1959 by Ace Books, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any means, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without
permission in writing from the publisher.


All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, is purely coincidental.


An ACE Book
Printed in U.S.A.



CHAPTER I

Counce launched the end of his cigarette into the air with a gentle
flick of his fingers. It soared out over the side of the boat and
extinguished itself with the faintest of hisses in the green water of
mid-Pacific. Otherwise he did not move.

He was half-sitting, half-lying, with his back against the hard,
sun-warmed cover of the propulsor. One excessively long leg was
stretched out along the fender which rimmed the gunwale, barely sinking
into the resilient plastic; the other dangled over the reactor well.

A gull which had been circling down to look him over, and which had
almost decided he was not worth paying attention to, saw the white
object arc overboard, swooped, and neatly lifted the disintegrating butt
out of the sea. At once it dropped the sour-tasting thing again with a
mewing cry of dismay, gave Counce a hurt look, and flapped off with
injured dignity. Counce followed its movements idly for a few yards.

Then his face suddenly lost all traces of awareness, as if he had cut
himself off from the present. For a while he remained quite still, seeming
to listen, before his right hand shot out and twitched the helm and
accelerator levers together. The boat described a quarter turn and came
to rest again, rocking slightly in its own ripples, the steam from the