"He'd be gone," Dill said. "He turns up again and again on the outskirts this way. We'll never get him; there're a million ratholes he can slither down."
Barris said, "You almost did get him."
"When?"
"In the hotel room. When that robot tracking device entered and made for him. It almost succeeded in burning him up, but he was quite fast; he managed to roll away and get it first."
Dill said, "What robot tracking-device? Describe it." As Barris described it, Dill stared at him starkly. He swallowed noisily but did not interrupt until Barris had finished.
"What's wrong?" Barris said. "From what I saw of it, it seems to be the most effective counterpenetration weapon you have. Surely you'll be able to break up the Movement with such a mechanism. I think your anxiety and preoccupation is excessive."
In an almost inaudible voice, Dill said, "Agnes Parker."
"Who is that?" Barris said.
Seemingly not aware of him, Dill murmured, "Vulcan 2. And now a try at Father Fields. But he got away." Putting down his pencil beam he reached into his coat; rummaging, he brought out two reels of tape. He tossed the tape down on the desk.
"So that's what you've been carrying," Barris said with curiosity. He picked up the reels and examined them.
Dill said, "Director, there is a third force."
"What?" Barris said, with a chill.
"A third force is operating on us," Jason Dill said, and smiled grotesquely. "It may get all of us. It appears to be very strong."
He put his pencil beam away, then. The two of them faced each other without it.
CHAPTER 9
The police raid on the Bond Hotel, although carried out expertly and thoroughly, netted nothing.
Jason Dill was not surprised.
In his office by himself he faced a legal dictation machine. Clearing his throat he said into it hurriedly, "This is to act as a formal statement in the event of my death, explaining the circumstances and reasons why I saw fit as Unity Managing Director to conduct sub rosa relations with North American Director William Barris. I entered into these relations knowing full well that Director Barris was under heavy suspicion concerning his position vis-à-vis the Healers' Movement, a treasonable band of murderers and-" He could not think of the word so he cut off the machine temporarily.
He glanced at his watch. In five minutes he had an appointment with Barris; he would not have time to complete his protective statement anyway. So he erased the tape. Better to start over later on, he decided. If he survived into the later on.
I'll go meet him, Jason Dill decided, and go on the assumption that he is being honest with me. I'll co-operate with him fully; I'll hold nothing back.
But just to be on the safe side, he opened the drawer of his desk and lifted out a small container. From it he took an object wrapped up and sealed; he opened it, and there was the smallest heat beam that the police had been able to manufacture. No larger than a kidney bean.
Using the adhesive agent provided, he carefully affixed the weapon inside his right ear. Its color blended with his own; examining himself in a wall mirror he felt satisfied that the heat beam would not be noticed.
Now he was ready for his appointment. Taking his overcoat, he left his office, walking briskly.
He stood by while Barris laid the tapes out on the surface of a table, spreading them flat with his hands.
"And no more came after these," Barris said.
"No more," Dill said. "Vulcan 2 ceased to exist at that point." He indicated the first of the two tapes. "Start reading there."
This Movement may be of more significance than first appears. It is evident that the Movement is directed against Vulcan 3 rather than the series of computers as a whole. Until I have had time to consider the greater aspects, I suggest Vulcan 3 not be informed of the matter.
"I asked why," Dill said. "Look at the next tape."
Consider the basic difference between Vulcan 3 and preceding computer. Its decisions are more than strictly factual evaluations of objective data; essentially it is creating policy at a value level. Vulcan 3 deals with teleological problems... the significance of this cannot be immediately inferred. I must consider it at greater length.
"And that's it," Dill said. "The end. Presumably Vulcan 2 did consider it at greater length. Anyhow, it's a metaphysical problem; we'll never know either way."
"These tapes look old," Barris said. Examining the first one he said, "This is older than the other. By some months."
Jason Dill said, "The first tape is fifteen months old. The second-" He shrugged. "Four or five. I forget."
"This first tape was put out by Vulcan 2 over a year ago," Barris said, "and from that time on, Vulcan 3 gave out no directives concerning the Healers."
Dill nodded.
"You followed Vulcan 2's advice," Barris said. "From the moment you read this tape you ceased informing Vulcan 3 about the growth of the Movement." Studying the older man he said, "You've been withholding information from Vulcan 3 without knowing why." The disbelief on his face grew; his lips twisted with outrage. "And all these months, all this time, you went on carrying out what Vulcan 2 told you to do! good God, which is the machine and which is the man? And you clasp these two reels of tape to your bosom-" Unable to go on, Barris clamped his jaws shut, his eyes furious with accusation.
Feeling his own face redden, Dill said, "You must understand the relationship that existed between me and Vulcan 2. We had always worked together, back in the old days. Vulcan 2 was limited, of course, compared with Vulcan 3; it was obsolete-it couldn't have held the authoritative position Vulcan 3 now holds, determining ultimate policy. All it could do was assist..." He heard his voice trail off miserably. And then resentment clouded up inside him; here he was, defending himself guiltily to his inferior officer. This was absurd!
Barris said, "Once a bureaucrat, always a bureaucrat. No matter how highly placed." His voice had an icy, deadly quality; in it there was no compassion for the older man. Dill felt his flesh wince at the impact. He turned, then, and walked away, his back to Barris. Not facing him, he said:
"I admit I was partial to Vulcan 2. Perhaps I did tend to trust it too much."
"So you did find something you could trust. Maybe the Healers are right. About all of us."
"You detest me because I put my faith in a machine? My God, every time you read a gauge or a dial or a meter, every time you ride in a car or a ship, aren't you putting your faith in a machine?"
Barris nodded reluctantly. "But it's not the same," he said.
"You don't know," Dill said. "You never had my job. There's no difference between my faith in what these tapes tell me to do, and the faith the water-meter reader has when he reads the meter and writes down the reading. Vulcan 3 was dangerous and Vulcan 2 knew it. Am I supposed to cringe with shame because I shared Vulcan 2's intuition? I felt the same thing, the first time I watched those goddam letters flowing across that surface."
"Would you be willing to let me look at the remains of Vulcan 2?" Barris said.
"It could be arranged," Dill said. "All we need are papers that certify you as a maintenance repairman with top clearance. I would advise you not to wear your Director's stripe, in that case."
"Fine," Barris said. "Let's get started on that, then."
At the entrance of the gloomy, deserted chamber, he stood gazing at the heaps of ruin that had been the old computer. The silent metal and twisted parts, fused together in a useless, shapeless mass. Too bad to see it like this, he thought, and never to have seen it the way it was. Or maybe not. Beside him, Jason Dill seemed overcome; his body slumped and he scratched compulsively at his right ear, evidently barely aware of the man whom he had brought.