Dead Giveaway is a Science Fiction Story. Logic's a wonderful thing; by logical analysis, one can determine the necessary reason for the existence of a dead city of a very high order on an utterly useless planet. Obviously a shipping transfer point! Necessarily. "Mendez?" said the young man in the blue and green tartan jacket. "Why, yes … sure I've heard of it. Why?" The clerk behind the desk looked again at the information screen. "That's the destination we have on file for Scholar Duckworth, Mr. Turnbull. That was six months ago". He looked up from the screen, waiting to see if Turnbull had any more questions. Turnbull tapped his teeth with a thumbnail for a couple of seconds, then shrugged slightly. "Any address given for him?" "Yes, sir. The Hotel Byron, Landing City, Mendez". Turnbull nodded. "How much is the fare to Mendez?" The clerk thumbed a button which wiped the information screen clean, then replaced it with another list, which flowed upward for a few seconds, then stopped. "Seven hundred and eighty five fifty, sir", said the clerk. "Shall I make you out a ticket?" Turnbull hesitated. "What's the route?" The clerk touched another control, and again the information on the screen changed. "You'll take the regular shuttle from here to Luna, then take either the Stellar Queen or the Oriona to Sirius VI. From there, you will have to pick up a ship to the Central Worlds either to Vanderlin or BenAbram and take a ship from there to Mendez. Not complicated, really. The whole trip won't take you more than three weeks, including stopovers".
