Atomsk is a clever and engaging spy novel....

Written by Paul M. A. Linebarger under the pen name of Carmichael Smith — shortly before he began writing as Cordwainer Smith. This book draws on the principles of Psychological Warfare, a field which my father helped to found. His book of that title, written under his own name, is one of the classics of the field.

Atomsk is out of print. Copies of it fetch hundreds of dollars in the used book market.

It's always been one of my favorites of my father's writings, so recently, for those of you who are readers more than collectors, I spent some time scanning in my copy and making an ebook.

You can read it onscreen or print it out.

Atomsk begins not long after World War II, with the American military in occupied Japan concerned about a very secret Russian city in Siberia. General Coppersmith asks Major Michael Dugan, "the greatest spy in the world," to help:

"I want you to spoil the secret of Atomsk."

"Atomsk?"

Coppermsith spelled it out, adding, "It's the Russian atomic center. We want them to know that we know all about it. We want them to guess as to how we know about it... For that, we need a man as a weapon."

"To go in, to get out, and after he was out, to leave traces?"

"Right."

Here's another bit, to give you more of a taste. This is from the third chapter. We are looking through the eyes of Captain Sarah Lomax, who is helping to prepare Major Dugan for his trip of impossible odds.

While Dugan was talking, Sarah studied him. He was of middle height. There was a quaint mobility to his face, a quickness of expression which made her suspect that in his early childhood some warm-hearted quickly responsive woman had taught him the rudiments of human relationships. He was acting a role, but it was a role which he enjoyed acting. He was talking, smiling, agreeing, dissenting, frowning, smiling again, all in turn.

Who was she to say that this was not the real, the true Dugan? People were not their dead selves but their live selves. Yet in the case of a man like Dugan, there must be alternative selves, other personalities patterned to the occasion and the culture. Dugan-the-Japanese must have been just as believable as Dugan-the-American; Japanese must have liked him because he was Japanese; otherwise he would have been found out and killed. How could she like a man who existed only by virtue of his own command, who played perpetually on a stage of make-believe?

What was he, anyway? Dugan was no name for a man with black hair, black eyes, olive skin -- or was it? Was he a Turk or a Greek, an Italian or an Egyptian, or (wildest chance of all, this) simply an American?... Swanson had just said, "I knew the pilot. They killed him. They had a right to, but I hate them for it just the same." Sarah supposed he was talking about the photo plane. Dugan responded by closing his face -- literally shutting out all expression for an instant -- so that he looked like a dead man. Or like a Japanese!

Sarah saw, with a flash of intuition, that she had caught him betraying himself -- for the first distinguishable second in days of their being together. For once, Dugan had gone back to his wartime role and had responded with the manner of a Japanese, the dead formal silence with which Japanese men bore news of disaster. He must have had many friends among the Japanese during his years of wartime spying; and of them, many must have died, so that the expression of quick military sorrow could have become habitual.

But before she could catch her breath or say anything, Dugan let his face go doleful in the American manner. He looked Irish again, and American too.... She picked up the thread of the conversation again. Dugan was protesting, "You mustn't hate the Russians. If you do have to fight them, hating them is no use, medically or psychologically. It reduces your own efficiency.

To order Atomsk for $9.95 and no shipping, click here,
and you will be transported to Clickbank, which handles our downloadable products.

To read or print out this ebook, you will need version 5 or later of the free program, Adobe Acrobat reader, which reads .PDF files. You may well have it on your computer, but if not, go to http://www.adobe.com, where the link to download the reader is always shown.