have the time and the resources to get a billion people off. Which is the billion that goes? And what happens if those who are in charge start saving only their own kind?'
Wyler growled, 'It doesn't bear thinking of.'
'It doesn't,' agreed Fisher. 'Let's be glad we'll be long gone before even the barest beginning can be made.'
'If it comes to that,' said Wyler, his voice suddenly dropping. 'The barest beginning may already have been made. I suspect we have hyper-assistance now, or just about have it.'
Fisher's expression was one of deep cynicism. 'What makes you think that? Dreams? Intuition?'
'No. I know a woman whose sister knows someone on the Old Man's staff. Will that do you?'
'Of course not. You'll have to give me more than that.'
'I'm not in a position to. Look, Crile, I'm your friend. You know I helped you get back your status in the Office.'
Crile nodded. 'I do and I appreciate it. And I've tried to make an adequate return now and then.'
'You have done so and I appreciate that. Now what I want to do is give you some information which is supposed to be confidential and which I think you will find useful and important. Are you ready to accept it and keep me clear?'
'Always ready.'
'You know what we've been doing, of course.'
Fisher said, 'Yes.' It was the kind of useless, rhetorical question that required no other answer.
For five years agents of the Office (for the last three years, Fisher among them) had been rummaging in the informational garbage heaps of the Settlements. Scavenging.
Every Settlement was working on hyper-assistance, just as Earth itself was, ever since the word had leaked out that Rotor had it, and certainly ever since Rotor had proved the fact by leaving the Solar System.
Presumably most Settlements, perhaps all, had obtained some scrap of what it was that Rotor had done. By the Open Science Agreement, each one of those scraps should have been laid on the table and if all were then put together, it might have meant practical hyper-assistance for all. That, however, was clearly too much to ask in this particular case. There was no telling what useful side effects might be born of the new technique and no Settlement could abandon the hope that it might be first in the field and, in this way, gain an important lead on the others in one way or another. So each hoarded what it had - if it had anything - and not one of them had enough.
And Earth itself, with its vastly elaborate Terrestrial Board of Inquiry, sniffed at all the Settlements indiscriminately. Earth was fishing, and Fisher, appropriately enough, was one of the fishermen.
Wyler said slowly, 'We've put what we've got together and I gather it's enough. We'll be able to have hyper-assisted travel. And I'm thinking we'll go out to the Neighbor Star. Wouldn't you want to be on that trip when it goes out there?'
'Why do I want to be on it, Garand? If there's going to be such a trip, which I doubt.'
'I'm pretty sure there will be. I can't give you my source, but take my word for it, it's reliable. And, of course, you'll want to make the trip. You might see your wife. Or if not her - your kid.'
Fisher moved restlessly. It seemed to him he spent half his days now trying not to think of those eyes. Marlene would be six years old now, talking in a quiet deliberate way - like Roseanne. Seeing through people - like Roseanne.
He said, 'You're talking nonsense, Garand. Even if there were such a flight, why would they let me be on it? They would send specialists of one sort or another. Besides, if there's one person the Old Man will keep off, it's me. He may have let me get back into the Office and given me assignments, but you know how he is about failures, and I certainly failed him on Rotor.'
'Yes, but that's the very point. That's what makes you a specialist. If he's going after Rotor, how can he fail to include the one Earthman who lived on Rotor for four years? Who would understand Rotor better and who would know better how to deal with them? Ask to see him. Point this out, but remember, you're not supposed to know that we have hyper-assistance. Just talk possibilities, make use of the subjunctive. And don't drag me into it in any way. I'm not supposed to know about it