Page:Astounding Science Fiction (1950-01).djvu/49

 even in that first moment, when the first sense of loss and hurt came. He'd had his chance.

There was nothing tearful, about it, nothing of a scene. He'd come home from the office. When he entered the front door of the house, he knew she was gone. Not out : Gone. There was a note, very brief, very much to the point : "I'm leaving. You can find me if you ever want to." His name had not been at the beginning, nor here at the end.

There was that moment when he was determined to go after her. Yes, he could find her. Find her and make amends and—

Yes. And tell her what he was up against? Have her around when trouble came? Just as well to have her out of the way.

Still, he surprised Morton. Tredel buckled down to work at the office during the next two months. He knew Morton watched him often, wondering, surprised, but pleased.

For the first time since his return from the army fie seemed to take an actual, intelligent interest in the business. He went over sales and sales territories. He talked to the salesmen and got their ideas on products. He made a survey of what they were manufacturing and how they were manufacturing it. He took their fourteen-tube hi-fidelity amplifier over the jumps, adding a compressor and expander circuit, three output channels instead of two. Then he went to work on a new type phono pickup.

And all the tittle he was waiting for something to happen: Either at the office or at home. The T assembly was on his living room table, left there as something of a challenge. Every evening when he returned from the office, it was there. It was still there every morning when he got up.

In two months he revised his former estimates of what he might be facing. From a superefficient organization that took care of all the threads, they had become—what?

He didn't know. There was too much he didn't know. How could they have missed the path in the forest, with its obvious implications?

Unless, the ramifications were so tremendous that they could not keep up with everything.

Or, suppose there was more than one organization?

That didn't add. Somehow, they had missed. They shouldn't have missed. Whatever they were after, the very methods of their operations showed they couldn't afford to miss.

So, at the end of the second month, he went back to his pursuit.

There was no convenient, accidental starting point this time. That one assembly, and its Ts, and Higgenson, and Industrial Finance were traced. The problem then was to trace through Industrial Finance, to see where that would lead him. Or, to assume there were more assemblies, as there must be, more things being made in secret. Try to get one, trail it, see if it also led to Industrial Finance.

Could he expect the system to be NOT TO BE OPENED—