Final Weapon
Page 4
clean. He went to the range and motioned with hishead.
"Pull the drip pan," he ordered.
Graham came forward and pulled a flat sheet from the range, then openedan access door at the front of the stove.
Morely peered inside, then thrust a hand in. For a moment, he gropedaround, then he pulled his hand out and looked at it. It was clean. Hesniffed at his fingers, then turned away.
"You may replace the pan, Fellow." He went into the living room, notingthat the woman and three children were neat and in the proper attitudesof attention. One of the children was looking at him, wide-eyed. He sawthat the child was clean and apparently healthy.
In addition to the usual chairs, table, and divan, there were somebookcases which formed a small alcove around a combination desk anddrawing table. Morely circled the bookcases, to stand before the desk.
"What's this?" he demanded. He turned to a bookcase, to examine thetitles.
Most of the books were engineering texts and reference works. Therewere some standard works of philosophy and a few on psychology. None ofthe titles seemed to be actually objectionable.
"I--" Graham started to speak, but Morely silenced him with an upraisedhand.
"Later," he said coldly. "Bond, has this been reported to you, and haveyou investigated?"
Bond nodded. "Yes, sir," he said. "Graham is a design engineer, sir, andhas been granted permission to do some research in his quarters.
"He's commercially employed, sir, and it was a routine matter. Hisemployer says he has been keeping his production quotas, no alterationto the apartment has been made, and no community property has beendefaced. I'm told that several of Graham's designs have been of value inhis plant. I didn't think--"
"I see you didn't. What is this man working on now?"
"A new type of communicator, sir. I don't know all the details."
"Get them, Bond. Get them all, and give me a full report on his projectand its progress tomorrow. Since this work is being done during timewhen the man is not working for his employer, he's using community timeand the community becomes vitally interested in his results." Morelypaused, looking at the bookcase again.
"And, while we are on the subject," he added, "get me details on thoseprevious designs you spoke of. It's quite possible the community has notbeen getting royalty payments to which it's entitled." He picked out abook, flipping over its pages for a moment, then replaced it and lookedsearchingly at Bond.
"And get me a full inventory of this man's books and any equipment hemay have." He turned on Graham.
"Do you have purchase authorization and receipts for all of this?"
"Yes, sir." Graham motioned toward the desk.
"Very well. I shan't bother with that now. An investigating team cancheck that."
Morely took a final glance at the half-finished schematic on the drawingboard, then circled the bookcases again, to come out into the main room.
"We'll inspect the rest of your quarters."
* * * * *
At last, Morely left the quarters area, followed by Bond. As theyreached the helicopter, Morely turned, one hand on the door.
"Laxity, Bond, is something I don't tolerate. You should know that.Possibly this man, Graham, is doing nothing illegal, or even irregular.Possibly, he is not wasting community time, but I have very seriousdoubts. I'll venture to say the community has a financial interest inseveral of his recent designs, and I mean to find out which ones and howmuch. And it's certainly an unusual situation. The man's a leadman, youknow, and could spend his time more profitably in checking on the peoplehe's responsible for." He slid into the seat.
"I'll concede," he continued, "that employees are to be allowed acertain amount of recreation of their own choosing. They may have lightreading in their quarters, and they may even work on smallprojects--with permission, of course. But this man seems to have gonemuch farther than that. He has a small electronics factory of his own,as well as a rather extensive library. He's obviously spending a lot oftime at his activities, and that time must come out of his communityperformance. This certainly is not routine, and I can't condone yourfailure to make a report on it."
"But, I--"
Morely held up a hand sternly. "Let's not have a string of excuses," hesaid. "Give me a full report on the man's possessions, his history, andthe progress of whatever work he's doing in that private factory of his.Get the details on his previous designs, too. And bring your report into me in the morning, personally. I shall want to determine whether tomake this new device a community project, or whether to allow it to beoffered to his employer on a community royalty agreement. And I shallrequire details on his older designs for Fiscal to examine into.Research, you should know, is a community function, not something to bedone in any set of quarters. I shall want to talk to you further whenI've gone over this matter.
"Now, get me back to the district offices. I want to get home, andyou've work to do tonight."
* * * * *
The report was a long one. Morely smiled to himself as he thought of thetime it must have taken Bond to assemble the data and to make up hisfinal draft. Possibly in the future, that young man would be a littleless inclined to assume too much authority, or to be too soft in hisdealings with the employee classes. The spring in his swivel chairtwanged musically as the district leader leaned back to read.
First, there was an inventory of Graham's effects. It was a lengthylist, followed by a certification by a security inspector that all ofthe equipment inventoried was covered by authorizations and receiptsheld by Graham, and that none of the books and equipment were ofimproper nature for possession by a member of the employee classes.Morely grunted and tossed that section aside.
There was a detailed history of Graham's activities, so far as known toSecurity. Morely scanned through it hurriedly. There was nothing here ofan unusual nature.
Graham had been graduated from one of the large technical collegesduring the early nineties. Morely noted that it was one of those schoolswhich had been later closed as a result of one of the post-warinvestigations.
The subject had been employed by Consolidated Electronics as a juniorengineer, and had designed several improvements for Consolidated'sproducts. There was a record of promotions and a few awards. He had helda few patents, which had been taken over by the Central CoordinationProducts Division during the post-war reorganization. He had alsobelonged to the now proscribed Society of Electronic Engineers, hadcontributed articles to that organization's journal, and had taken anactive part in some of its chapter meetings.
During the war, he had worked on radio-controlled servos, doingacceptable work. When the professional and trade societies and otherorganizations were outlawed, he had promptly resigned from his society,and made the required declarations. But he had been reported asprivately remarking that it was "a sad thing to see the last vestiges ofpersonal freedom removed."
Morely pursed his lips. Not an unusual history, he decided. Of course,the man was completely ineligible for full citizenship--bad risk. He wasbarely qualified for second-class citizenship, his obvious ability beingthe only qualifying factor. Unlike many, he had no record of any effortto shirk duty, or do economic damage during the critical period. Thedistrict leader tossed the dossier aside and picked up the report onGraham's present activities.
There were a series of complex schematics, and several machine drawingswhich he shuffled to the back of his report. Those could be interpretedlater, if necessary. He was interested in the description of function.
The device Graham was working on was described as a communicator whichoperated by direct mind-to-mind transfer. Morely sat up straighter,reading the paragraph over again. Either this man was a true genius, whohad discovered a new principle, or he was completely a crackpot.
"Telepathy!"
Morely snorted and went over to the descriptions of the device, readingcarefully. Finally, he read the comments of a senior engineer, whocautiously admitted th
at the circuits involved, though highlyunconventional, were not of a type to cause spurious radiation, or tointerfere with normal communication in any way.
The engineer also noted that it was possible that the device might becapable of radiation effects outside of the electromagnetic spectrum,and that the power device was capable of integration into standardequipment--in fact, might be well worth adoption. He carefully declined,however, to give any definite opinion without an actual model to runtests on. And he added the comment that the first model was as yetincomplete.
Morely tossed the last sheet to his desk and leaned forward, tappingidly on the dull-finished plastic. Finally, he touched his call buttonand waited till the clerk came in.
"You