E I Schadeberg 
Out Among the Moondust 

Forty years after the world’s four strongest nations banned all wars, fostered equality for all, and made major leaps in education and research, the Custodian of the World Ralph Rathbone looks at the gruesome picture appearing on his computer: the mutilated body of the chief geneticist at his laboratory in Rosamund, California.Two years ago, when his father Jordan Rathbone’s planet hopper was lost in space, Ralph earned the title that his father held for many years, by winning all martial arts bouts. Now the four autocratic rulers, the Big Four, summon Ralph to come and solve this murder.Ralph had heard the stories of the Big Four’s greed, self-interest, and disregard for the population. It was rumoured that they kept the population in a state of stupor with free drugs readily available: to make it easier to keep them in subjugation. Ralph realizes that he has to outwit these icons-no easy task as they are highly educated and held in deep respect by a large percentage of the population.This is the story of one man with the interest of his people at heart, pitting himself against four multimillionaires who, for years, had been held in high esteem by the population.