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Chameleon Corps



Chameleon Corps
By Ron Goulart

1. Chameleon
THE MIDDLE ROW of view screens showed a half-dozen images of a wrecked man. Resting his palms
on his backside, the Chief stopped pacing the office, "I can't buy him."

Azeler, the Junior Chief, Jerked his pale close-cropped head in agreement. "Too pathetic, not heroic."

Slouched in a dark wing chair Ben Jolson said, "Which is why you sent for a Chameleon Corps man?"

Chief Prittikin said, "Can't you sit up straight during a briefing, Jolson? After all, the Political Espionage
Office should command every good man's respect."

Azeler added, "We put your file through one of PEO's personnel brains, Jolson. You're not the best man
in the Chameleon Corps by any means."

Jolson's dark eyes narrowed. "For the last five months I've been in the wholesale pottery business. Then
yesterday CC recalled me for an emergency mission. You're free to request another man."

"You're all that's available in these tense times," said Chief Prittikin.

"We're hoping," said Azeler, "your notorious instability won't crop up on this assignment." Jolson's slump
was making Azeler uneasy and he kept absently throw-tog his narrow shoulders back. "Once on Peregrine
you refused to stop playing your role. It took six Police Corps men to make you come back home to
Barnum here."

"I liked that part," said Jolson. "Being the ruler of that jungle kingdom. I like outdoor work."

"Later, on Murdstone, you spent two months being a baboon," continued the Junior Chief.

"That was a mistake now that I look back on it."

"This," said Chief Prittikin, pointing at the hollow looking man on the screens, "is our problem at the
moment."



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 Chameleon Corps

"Can you become him?" Azeler asked Jolson.

"Sure. You don't want him looking that bad, though, do you?"

"Of course not," said the Chief. "That's the whole trouble."