D-99

D-99, H.B. Fyfe, Pyramid Books, 1962

Mankind has started to spread throughout the galaxy, and has met alien races with all sorts of, to humans, strange laws. When those laws are broken, and a human is thrown in jail, the Department of Interstellar Relations is tasked with getting them out and off the planet. When that doesn't work, D-99 gets the job. It's one of those super-secret agencies that officially does not exist.

A pair of men crash landed on a planet where such a thing is illegal. The natives had just finished an interplanetary war, so they were understandably wary of outsiders. The plan is to slip them pills which, when consumed, will make them look dead. The natives will dump their bodies in the nearby desert, where a ship will pick them up. A female journalist is arrested on a different planet for wanting to buy a souvenir, and for being excessively feminine. The plan is to have her transferred to a work farm outside the city, but she never gets there.

Meantime, back on Earth, a major power failure has stranded the D-99 employees at the office on the 99th floor of a skyscraper (that's where the "99" comes from). They can't call for help, because the D.I.R. will never let them hear the end of it. So everyone is stuck until the power is restored. A more serious problem concerns Lydman, one of the employees. He is an ex-spacer who spent time in an alien prison. Everyone is worried about what he will do when he learns that he is trapped at the top of a skyscraper. Does Lydman find his own solution? Despite the handicap, does D-99 rescue the detained humans?

The book is certainly interesting and readable, but there is not much reason to recommend it, either. I wish I could say more than just Meh.