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THE DESTROYER: DEADLY SEEDS
Copyright (c) 1975 by Richard Sapir and Warren Murphy
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
An original Pinnacle Books edition, published for the first time
anywhere.
ISBN: 0-523-41236-3
First printing, November 1975 Second printing, January 1976 Third printing, September 1976 Fourth printing, April 1978 Fifth printing, May 1979 Sixth printing, October 1980
Cover illustration by Hector Garrido Printed in the United States of America
PINNACLE BOOKS, INC.
2029 Century Park East
Los Angeles, California 90067
For Derek Cross -my favorite pessimist
DEADLY SEEDS

CHAPTER ONE
When James Orayo Fielding looked at people, he saw bugs. Except bugs didn't cry or quiver or try to hide their terror when he fired them or told them he might fire them. Bugs went squish when he stepped on them. And then his manservant Oliver would clean up the little blotches with his thumbnail and James Orayo Fielding would ask:
"Don't you hate that, Oliver? Doesn't it make your stomach turn to put your fingers in a bug's belly?"
And Oliver would say:
"No, Mr. Fielding. My job is to do whatever you wish."
"What if I told you to eat it, Oliver?"
"Then I would do as you wish, Mr. Fielding."
"Eat it, Oliver."
And James Orayo Fielding would watch very closely and inspect Oh'ver's hands to make sure he hadn't pushed a remnant of the insect up into his sleeve, or in some other manner deceived his employer.
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"People are bugs, Oliver." "Yes, Mr. Fielding."
"I'll wear grays today."
"Yes, Mr. Fielding."
And James Orayo Fielding waited by the immense picture window that gave him the glorious view of the Rocky Mountains, stretching in white peaks right to Canada and left to Mexico. The Fieldings were one of the old Denver, Colorado, families, descended from English nobility on the father's side and French on the mother's, although it was rumored some Arapaho had made its way into the bloodstream, culminating in James Orayo Fielding, owner of the Fielding ranches, Fielding sugar beet plants, and Fielding Enterprises Inc., which included manufacturing plants in New Mexico and Texas which few Denverites knew anything about. James did not discuss them.
Oliver knelt as he held out the soft gray flannel pants for Mr. Fielding to step into. He fitted the Italian shoes over Mr. Fielding's feet, then the broadcloth white shirt, tied the black and orange stripes of Princeton around Mr. Fielding's neck, slipped the Phi Beta Kappa key into Mr. Fielding's gray vest, and buttoned the vest down to Mr. Fielding's belt. The gray jacket went on over the vest and Oliver brought the mirror for inspection. It was full length and silver-framed and rolled on wheels to the center of Mr. Fielding's dressing room.
Fielding looked at himself, a man in his early forties, without gray in his temples, full soft brown hair which Oliver now combed to that casual neatness, a patrician countenance with delicate straight nose, an honestman's mouth, and a gentle cool in his blue eyes. He formed a sincere involved expression with his face, and
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thought to himself that that expression would be just fine.
He used it that afternoon in El Paso when he told union negotiators that he was closing down Fielding Conduit and Cable Inc.
"The costs, gentlemen, just don't allow me to continue operations."
"But you can't do that," said the union negotiator. "There are 456 families that depend on Fielding Conduit and Cable for their existence."
"You don't think I'd close down a factory just to watch 456 families wriggle and squirm, do you?" asked Fielding, using the expression he had practiced earlier in the day in his Denver home, "If you wish, gentlemen, I will explain it to your membership in person."
"You'd stand up in front of our membership and tell them they're all out of jobs? In an economy like today?" asked the union negotiator, trembling. He lit a cigarette while one burned unfinished in the ashtray. Fielding watched it.
"Yes, yes, I would," said Fielding. "And I think you should bring the families too."
"Sir," said the corporation counsel for Fielding Conduit and Cable. "You don't have to do that. It's not your responsibility. It's the union's job."
"I want to," said Fielding.
"What if we took a pay cut?" asked the union negotiator. "An across-the-board pay cut?"
"Hmmm," said Fielding and had the company's profit-and-loss statement brought to him. "Hmmm. Maybe," said Fielding after examining the printed sheet.
"Yes? Yes?" said the union negotiator.
"Maybe. Just maybe," said Fielding.
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"Yes!" said the union negotiator.
"We could use the factory itself to inform the families we're closing. You can get them together in two hours, can't you? I know almost the entire membership is down at the union hall."
"I guess we could do that," said the negotiator, crushed.
"Maybe in two hours, I can work out something. Okay?"