Page:Astounding Science Fiction (1950-01).djvu/62

. Production methods will improve."

"Yes, production methods. But a few years from now will be too late for our purposes. The. world is drawing together, even now, becoming organized. Governments will become more centralized, and it will be harder to do things without their knowledge. We don't care about secrecy at this moment. If a thousand, or a million people of today knew what I was doing, it wouldn't matter. What does matter is that there must be no record for the future telling what I have done. It must be a secret, not from the present, but from the future, and only the present can leave records that will tell it to the future. These years now are the last offering permanent secrecy. Therefore this is the time,"

Tredel shook his head. "You couldn't bring money back with you, yet all this has cost—a lot," he finished weakly.

"I could bring knowledge. I've been in this time now for more than thirty years. It is only in the last five that I've started to store weapons. Before that, everything was preparation.

"I brought knowledge of what the stock market would do. Of what goods would be scarce in certain years. Of what wars there would be. Of rationing. Knowledge, sure knowledge, was the only thing required to get capital. After that it was simple. Now, under hundreds of names I control thousands of businesses. Each, indirectly and without knowledge, is contributing to the project in some way. I control everything by remote control, with my own knowledge, and with these filing cabinets."

"It's big—too big, for one man to control."

"Yes. I've had to use short cuts. Hundred of them, and many I didn't like. I brought knowledge with me of business machines that would aid, but many of them could not be built in this time. They are just too advanced for present techniques.

"So I've had to use too many short cuts. For the Life Destructor, the weapon that originally aroused your curiosity, I assigned the letter T. All parts of it were manufactured in a city beginning with T, and companies using it in normal production all started with T. It was so with all other weapons. It wasn't a good way, but it cut down my work, made it easier to remember. I don't have the control over this brain that I should have."

"You could have a staff helping you. If you can make people forget what you wish them to—"

"I could hire them and use them, then make them forget afterward. That's true. But what could I do while they were actually working for me? What would protect me against their sabotage, innocent or intentional? There would be suspicions, an utter lack of morale among them, countless errors. Attempts, no doubt, to attack me. It wouldn't work."

Tredel could see that it wouldn't. 62