either.'
Fisher's brow furrowed in thought. Was it possible? He dared not hope.
30
The next day, while Fisher was still wondering whether to risk asking for an interview with Tanayama, the decision was taken out of his hands. He was summoned.
A simple agent is rarely summoned by the Director. There are plenty of deputies to grind away at them. And if an agent is summoned by the Old Man, it is almost never good news. So Crile Fisher prepared himself with grim resignation for an assignment as an inspector of the fertilizer factories.
Tanayama looked up at him from behind his desk. Fisher had seen him only rarely and briefly in the three years since Earth's discovery of the Neighbor Star, and he seemed unchanged. He had been small and shriveled for so long that there seemed no room for any further physical change. The sharpness of his eyes had not abated either, nor the withered grim set of his lips. He might even be wearing the same garments he had worn three years before. Fisher could not tell.
But if the harsh voice, too, was the same, the tone was surprising. Apparently, in the face of astronomical odds, the Old Man had called him in for the purpose of praising him.
Tanayama said in his queer, and not altogether unpleasant, distortion of Planetary English, 'Fisher, you have done well. I want you to hear that from me.'
Fisher, standing (he had not been invited to sit down), managed to suppress his small start of surprise.
The Director said, 'There can be no public celebration of this, no laser-beam parade, no holographic procession. It is not in the nature of things. But I tell you this.'
'That is quite enough, Director,' said Fisher. 'I thank you.'
Tanayama stared fixedly at Fisher out of his narrow eyes. Finally, he said, 'And is that all you have to say? No questions?'
'I presume, Director, you will tell me what I need to know.'
'You are an agent, a capable man. What have you found out for yourself?'
'Nothing, Director. I do not seek to find out anything but what I am instructed to find out.'
Tanayama's small head nodded very slightly. 'An appropriate answer, but I seek inappropriate ones. What have you guessed?'
'You seem pleased with me, Director, and it may therefore be that I have brought in some information that has proved useful to you.'
'In what respect?'
'I think nothing would prove more useful to you than having obtained the technique of hyper-assistance.'
Tanayama's mouth made a noiseless: 'Ah-h-h.' He said, 'And next? Assuming this to be so, what are we to do next?'
'Travel to the Neighbor Star. Locate Rotor.'
'Nothing better than that? That is all there is to do? You see no farther?'
And at this point, Fisher decided it would be foolish not to gamble. He could not possibly be handed a better opportunity. 'One thing better: that, when the first Earth vessel goes out of the Solar System by means of hyper-assistance, I be on it.'
Fisher had scarcely said that when he knew his gamble was lost - or at least not won. Tanayama's face darkened. He said in a sharply imperative tone, 'Sit down!'
Fisher could hear the soft movement of the chair behind him, rolling toward him at the words of Tanayama, words that its primitive computerized motor could understand.
Fisher sat down, without looking behind him to make certain the chair was there. To have done so would have been insulting and, at the present moment, there was no room to insult Tanayama.
Tanayama said, 'Why do you want to be on the vessel?'
With an effort, Fisher kept his voice level. 'Director, I have a wife on Rotor.'
'A wife you abandoned five years ago. Do you think she would welcome you back?'
'Director, I have a child.'
'She was one year old when you left. Do you think she knows she has a father? Or cares?'
Fisher was silent. These were points that he had thought about himself, over and over.
Tanayama waited briefly, then said, 'But there will be no flight to the Neighbor Star. There will be no vessel for you to be on.'
Again, Fisher had to suppress surprise. He said, 'Forgive me, Director. You did not say we had hyper-assistance. You said, "Assuming this to be so-" I should have noted your choice of words.'
'So you should have done. So you should always do. Nevertheless, we do have hyper-assistance. We can now move through space, just as Rotor has done; or at least we will, once we build a vehicle and are sure the design