TY - BOOK AU - Jones,Bascom TI - Assassin T2 - Produced from Worlds of If Science Fiction, January 1961 AV - PS PY - 2019/// CY - Salt Lake City, UT PB - Project Gutenberg KW - Science fiction KW - Short stories KW - Impostors and imposture -- Fiction KW - Sabotage -- Fiction KW - Pentagon (Va.) -- Fiction N1 - Release date is 2019-12-12; Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net; Original publication data not identified N2 - "Assassin" by Bascom Jones, Jr. is a science fiction novel likely written during the early 1960s. The story revolves around themes of identity, infiltration, and the consequences of technological advancement, exploring the idea of a sentient machine society and its repercussions on humanity. The narrative delves into a dystopian future where aliens pose a significant threat, leading to a mission that aims to eliminate the human population through means of deception and violence. The plot follows a character, initially disguising himself as General Spicer, who infiltrates the Pentagon to further an agenda of mass destruction against Earth’s inhabitants. As the story unfolds, he successfully assumes the identity of Secretary Bartlett after eliminating the real ones, showcasing his training and purpose to dismantle the human race. The novel climaxes with the destruction of the Master Machine — a system controlling all human functions — which then stops the functioning of its humanoid robots, effectively ending humanity’s existence. In the aftermath, two survivors ponder the future of their kind and what opportunities await them on a new world, leaving readers to reflect on the broader implications of reliance on technology and the nature of humanity itself. (This is an automatically generated summary.) UR - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/60907 ER -