Empire Part 15

Craven smiled, a sardonic twisting of his lips. "I heard something about it."

"I thought you had," said Chambers sourly. "If not, you would have been the only one who hadn't heard how Ben Wrail took Chambers for a ride."

"He really took you then," commented Craven. "I thought maybe it was just one of those stories."

"He took me, but that's not what's worrying me. I want to know how he did it. No man, not even the most astute student of the market, could have foretold the trend of the market the way he did. And Wrail isn't the most astute. It isn't natural when a man who has always played the safe side suddenly turns the market upside down. Even less natural when he never makes a mistake."

"Well," demanded Craven, "what do you want me to do about it? I'm a scientist. I've never owned a share of stock in my life."

"There's an angle to it that might interest you," said Chambers smoothly, leaning back, puffing at the cigar. "Wrail is a close friend of Manning. And Wrail himself didn't have the money it took to swing those deals. Somebody furnished that money."

"Manning?" asked Craven.

"What do you think?"

"If Manning's mixed up in it," said Craven acidly, "there isn't anything any of us can do about it. You're bucking money and genius together.

This Manning is no slouch of a scientist himself and Page is better.

They're a combination."

"You think they're good?" asked Chambers.

"Good? Didn't they discover material energy?" The scientist glowered at his employer. "That ought to be answer enough."

"Yes, I know," Chambers agreed irritably. "But can you tell me how they worked this market deal?"

Craven grimaced. "I can guess. Those boys didn't stop with just finding how to harness material energy. They probably have more things than you can even suspect. They were working with force fields, you remember, when they stumbled onto the energy. Force fields are something we don't know much about. A man monkeying around with them is apt to find almost anything."

"What are you getting at?"

"My guess would be that they have a new kind of television working in the fourth dimension, using time as a factor. It would penetrate anything. Nothing could stop it. It could go anywhere, at a speed many times the speed of light ... almost instantaneously."

Chambers sat upright in his chair. "Are you _sure_ about this?"

Craven shook his head. "Just a guess. I tried to figure out what I would do if I were Page and Manning and had the things they had. That's all."

"And what would you do?"

Craven smiled dourly. "I'd be using that television right in this office," he said. "I'd keep you and me under observation all the time.

If what I think is true, Manning is watching us now and has heard every word we said."

Chambers' face was a harsh mask of anger. "I don't believe it could be done!"

"Doctor Craven is right," said a quiet voice.

Chambers swung around in his chair and gasped. Greg Manning stood inside the room, just in front of the desk.

"I hope you don't mind," said Greg. "I've been wanting to have a talk with you."

Craven leaped to his feet, his eyes s.h.i.+ning. "Three dimensions!" he whispered. "How did you do it?"

Greg chuckled. "I haven't patented the idea, Doctor. I'd rather not tell you just now."

"You will accept my congratulations, however?" asked Craven.

"That's generous of you. I really hadn't expected this much."

"I mean it," said Craven. "d.a.m.ned if I don't." Chambers was on his feet, leaning across the desk, with his hand held out. Greg's right hand came out slowly.

"Sorry, I really can't shake hands," he said. "I'm not here, you know.

Just my image."

Chambers' hand dropped to the desk. "Stupid of me not to realize that.

You looked so natural." He sat back in his chair again, brushed his gray mustache. A smile twisted his lips. "So you've been watching me?"

"Off and on," Greg said.

"And what is the occasion of this visit?" asked Chambers. "You could have held a distinct advantage by remaining unseen. I didn't entirely believe what Craven told me, you know."

"That isn't the point at all," declared Greg. "Maybe we can get to understand one another."

"So you're ready to talk business."

"Not in the sense you mean," Greg said. "I'm not willing to make concessions, but there's no reason why we have to fight one another."

"Why, no," said Chambers, "there's no reason for that. I'll be willing to buy your discovery."

"I wouldn't sell it to you," Greg told him.

"You wouldn't? Why not? I'm prepared to pay for it."

"You'd pay the price, all right. Anything I asked ... even if it bankrupted you. Then you'd mark it down to loss, and sc.r.a.p material energy. And I'll tell you why."

A terrible silence hung in the room as the two men eyed one another across the table.

"You wouldn't use it," Greg went on, "because it would remove the stranglehold you have on the planets. It would make power too cheap. It would eliminate the necessity of your rented acc.u.mulators. The Jovian moons and Mars could stand on their feet without the power you s.h.i.+p to them. You could make billions in legitimate profits selling the apparatus to manufacture the energy ... but you wouldn't want that. You want to be dictator of the Solar System. And that is what I intend to stop."

"Listen, Manning," said Chambers, "you're a reasonable man. Let's talk this thing over without anger. What do you plan to do?"

"I could put my material engines on the market," said Greg. "That would ruin you. You wouldn't move an acc.u.mulator after that. Your Interplanetary stock wouldn't be worth the paper it is written on.

Material energy would wipe you out."

"You forget I have franchises on those planets," Chambers reminded him.

"I'd fight you in the courts until h.e.l.l froze over."

"I'd prove convenience, economy and necessity. Any court in any land, on any planet, would rule for me."