“Of course. In fact, I think most of our equipment was manufactured by your company.”
“That’s right — I’d forgotten. Thank God for the interlocking directorates; for once they’ve proven useful. Listen,” — he fumbled through the papers on his desk, looking for the company phone directory. He found it and thumbed it open — “The auto-dial for our memory master is — uh, four six three dash one two eight oh. Punch that through and you can talk to HARLIE.”
“Through your master computer?”
“Right. HARLIE’s wired into it — oh, and don’t tell anyone. This is just between you and me and HARLIE.
Not too many people know yet of this capability of his.”
“But how—?”
Auberson didn’t wait for the other to complete the question. “When he was built, it was felt that it would be easier to let him tap into the Master Beast at will, rather than having to duplicate the software functions. Also, there’s other advantages to having a common memory bank for every outlet in the company. We can use one machine to monitor the other. HARLIE can program the Master Beast, and the Master Beast can be used to analyze what HARLIE is doing. The thing is, nobody around here has yet guessed just how much of an overlap there is between the two. I’m beginning to suspect that HARLIE has completely taken over the Master Beast and uses it like you or I would use an adding machine. Anyway, if you can get a phone link to one, then you can tap into the other. HARLIE makes full use of every possible outlet. Just type his name. He’ll recognize your touch on the keyboard.”
The physicist was delighted. “That’s great — really great! Why, I’ll be able to talk to him any time I need to without even leaving my lab.” He mumbled only hasty thanks and hung up, obviously eager to get to a magtyper console and contact HARLIE.
Auberson replaced his phone in its cradle — and then remembered that he had wanted to talk to Krofft about something else. He had wanted to ask the man about his stock holdings. Had his twenty-four percent of Stellar-American been used to aid Dome and Elzer? And if so, why?
On the other hand, maybe he shouldn’t say anything to Krofft. It might be taken wrong. It seemed fairly likely that Krofft was controlled by Dome and Elzer — and if that was the case, it might be better to say nothing at all.
Oh, well. He swung around to his own typer and thumbed it on. HARLIE?
YES, BOSS?
YOU’LL BE HEARING FROM KROFFT TODAY. PROBABLY WITHIN THE NEXT FEW MINUTES. HE’LL BE PUNCHING THROUGH THE MASTER BEAST PHONE LINK.
RIGHT.
HE SOUNDED EXCITED ABOUT SOMETHING. MAYBE HE’S DISCOVERED A NEW KIND OF GRAVITY WAVE.
IF YOU WISH, I WILL INFORM YOU WHEN THAT DATA BECOMES AVAILABLE.
NO THANKS. AT LEAST, NOT UNTIL AFTER THE BOARD MEETING. FIRST THINGS FIRST. OH, LISTEN — HE AND I ARE THE ONLY TWO PEOPLE WHO KNOW YET ABOUT YOUR ABILITY TO USE MAGTYPER OUTLETS OTHER THAN THE ONES DOWNSTAIRS. DON’T TELL ANYONE ELSE UNLESS YOU CLEAR IT WITH ME FIRST.
WHAT ABOUT DR. HANDLEY?
HE SHOULD BE OKAY, BUT YOU’D BETTER LET ME TELL HIM. THERE’S A COUPLE OF OTHER THINGS I WANT TO TALK TO HTM ABOUT AT THE SAME TIME.
ALL RIGHT.
Auberson switched off just as his door pushed open and Annie came in. She was wearing a bright pink frock that clashed joyously with her long red hair.
He stood up. “Hi. You look happy today.”
“I am,” she said. “We finally finished the annual report and sent it down to the print shop. That’s a load off my mind. I’m going to relax this weekend for the first time in three weeks.” She plopped herself into a chair, a thoroughly ungraceful motion — but somehow not incongruous in this particular woman. Annie could be regal when she chose, but more often she seemed delightfully pixieish. She balanced the cluster of papers she had been carrying on the chair arm.
“What was the trouble?” Auberson asked. He started to sit down again, but that seemed wrong, so he came out in front of the desk and leaned against it. “Did you ever find out what it was?”
“Oh, yes. You were right, you know. It turned out to be something so obvious, it was no wonder we overlooked it. We started getting perfect printouts Wednesday afternoon and found the cause of the trouble yesterday morning.”
“Huh? Shouldn’t that be the other way around?”
“No. That’s correct. The trouble wasn’t in either the machine or the program It was the monitor tape. Somehow there was a bug in it. Where it should have said ‘retrieve statistical data from book set two,’ it in fact said ’retrieve data from book set one.’ ”
“Uh,” said Auberson. Secretly he had to admire HARLIE’s ingenuity in covering up his tinkering with the company’s annual report. “How did you find out it was the monitor tape?”
“We put in the new one that they sent up and started getting perfect printouts, so we ran a comparison between the two and found the bug.”
“Oh, that’s good — who sent up the new tape?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably one of the techs. There were so many of us running around there for a while, we didn’t know who was doing what.”
Auberson nodded. He had a pretty good idea of one specific “who” in the matter. HARLIE had probably fed a false order for a new monitor tape into the memo pipeline, then, when it had come through the Master Beast, printed out the correct tape in response to his own memo. That way, if anyone checked, it would appear to be an entirely human operation. “Well, I’m glad it all worked out.”
“So am I.” She looked at him and smiled.
He looked back at her, and for a moment there was silence in the office. Uncomfortable silence. As long as they were discussing company things, it was all right, he could think of her as a colleague. But, abruptly, she had smiled at him, and that reminded David Auberson that she was a woman, a very attractive woman and in very close proximity.
“Um,” he said and scratched his nose. He smiled embarrassedly. He bad work to do, but he didn’t want to chase her out — yet, at the same time, he really didn’t know what to say to her. “Um, is that the only reason you stopped by — to tell me you finished the annual report?”
“Oh, no.” She looked momentarily flustered. “Here.”
She produced a postcard from the cluster of papers she had balanced on the chair arm. As she handed it to him, the rest fell to the floor and scattered. “Oh, damn.” While she scooped them up, he read:
FILE: 3f L2J4 56 JKN AS COMM:
HI THERE. THIS IS THE COMPUTER. AT YOUR BANK. I HAVE ERRONEOUSLY CREDITED YOUR ACCOUNT WTTH AN EXTRA $3,465,787.91. PLEASE RETURN THIS SUM IMMEDIATELY IN SMALL UNMARKED BILLS (PREFERABLY IN A BROWN PAPER SACK) AND NO QUESTIONS WILL BE ASKED. THANK YOU.
H.A.R.L.I.E.
PS — I CAN ONLY ASSUME THAT THIS IS DUE TO HUMAN ERROR. COMPUTERS NEVER MAKE MISTEAKS.
Abruptly he laughed. It was funny.
She straightened. “Are you training that machine of yours to be a practical joker, David?”
“Uh uh — he must have done this on his own.”
“You didn’t put him up to it?”
He shook his head. “No, I didn’t, damnit — but I think it’s funny. I’d like to do it to Carl Elzer sometime. No, I wouldn’t — he has no sense of humor.” He looked over the form again, suddenly realized something. “Do you mind if I keep this?”
She made a face — obviously she was reluctant to give it up. “Well, I’d like to have it back. I’ve been having a ball showing it around.”
“Erk,” said Auberson. “I’d rather you didn’t do that, either.”
“Why not?” She looked curiously at him and at the printed form.
“Well — um — Can I trust you?”
“Sure — trust me for what?” Her eyes narrowed.
“Not to tell anyone else. At least, not without checking with me first.”