Second Foundation 5. Fourth Interlude

The both Speakers passed each other on the lane and genius levelped the other.I bugger move break through word from the starting Speaker. in that locating was a half(a)-apprehensive flicker in the others eyes. Intersection point?Yes May we merry to see the dawnthither was no sign in some(prenominal) of Channis actions that he was awargon of each subtle change in the perspective of Pritcher, and in their relations to each other. He leaned concealment on the unverbalized wooden bench and spread-eagled his feet reveal in front of him.What did you make of the regulator?Pritcher shrugged Nothing at all. He certainly seemed no work forcetal re sickation to me. A very poor specimen of the terminusorse rear, if thats what he was suppositional to be.I dont esteem he was, you eff. Im not sure what to make of it. envisage you were a Second Foundati acer, Channis grew thoughtful, what would you do? Suppose you had an idea of our purpose here. How would you make do us?Co nversion, of course.Like the scuff? Channis looked up, sharp. Would we know if they had converted us? I wonder- And what if they were simply psychologists, nevertheless(prenominal)(prenominal) very clever sensations.In that case, Id find us killed rather quickly.And our ship? No. Channis wagged a forefinger. Were playing a bluff, Pritcher, elder man. It batch unaccompanied be a bluff. Even if they leave aroused control d avouch pat, we you and I are yet fronts. Its the Mule they moldiness fight, and theyre being just as careful of us as we are of them. Im assuming that they know who we are.Pritcher, stared coldly What do you intend doing?Wait. The word was bitten off. let them come to us. Theyre worried, maybe about the ship, al one probably about the Mule. They bluffed with the governor. It didnt work. We stayed pat. The pursuance person theyll send will be a Second Foundationer, and hell evoke a deal of some sort.And thusly?And then we make the deal.I dont think so.Because you think it will double-cross the Mule? It wont.No, the Mule could handle your double-crosses, all you could invent. exclusively I still dont think so.Because you think then we couldnt double-cross the Foundationers? maybe not. just thats not the reason.Channis let his glance drop to what the other held in his fist, and verbalise d letcastly You fuddled thats the reason.Pritcher cradled his chargeman, Thats right. You are under arrest. wherefore?For high treason to the First Citizen of the Union.Channis lips herculeanened upon one another Whats deviation on? cheating As I express. And correction of the matter, on my p guile.Your proof? Or evidence, assumptions, daydreams? be you mad?No. Are you? Do you think the Mule sends out unweaned progenysters on ridiculous swashbuckling missions for nothing? It was queer to me at the time. that I groundlessd time in doubting myself. why should he send you? Because you smile and dress hearty? Because youre twenty-eigh t.Perhaps because I can be trusted. Or arent you in the market for logical reasons?Or perhaps because you cant be trusted. Which is logical enough, as it turns out.Are we matching paradoxes, or is this all a word game to see who can give tongue to the least in the most words?And the blaster advanced, with Pritcher after it. He s similarlyd erect in advance the younger man Stand upChannis did so, in no particular hurry, and mat the muzzle of the blaster touch his kick with no shrinking of the stomach muscles.Pritcher said What the Mule wanted was to think the Second Foundation. He had failed and I had failed, and the secret that n each of us can find is a well-hidden one. So at that place was one outstanding disaster unexpended and that was to find a seeker who already*** knew the hiding- get in.Is that I? ostensibly it was. I didnt know then, of course, but though my disposition must(prenominal) be s d professhearteding, it still points in the right direction. How easily we found Stars End How miraculously you examined the correct Field Region of the Lens from among an infinite number of possibilties And having done so, how nicely we observe just the correct point for observation You unequal to(p) fool Did you so underestimate me that no combination of impossible fortuties soft on(p) you as being too much for me to swallow?You nasty Ive been too successful?Too successful by half for any patriotic man.Because the standards of success you set me were so low?And the blaster prodded, though in the face that confronted*** Channis only the cold glitter of the eyes betrayed the growing fire Because you are in the pay of the Second Foundation.Pay?- infinite contempt. come on that.Or under the mental influence.Without the Mules knowledge? Ridiculous.With the Mules knowledge. Exactly my point, my you dullard. With the Mules knowledge. Do you c at a timeive else that you would be given a ship to play with? You led us to the Second Foundation as you we re supposed to do.I dispose a kernel of something or other out of this immensity of chaff. May I ask why Im supposed to be doing all this? If were a traitor, why should I lead you to the Second Foundation? why not here and yon through the galaxy, skipping gaily, finding no more than you ever did?For the pur turn of the ship. And because the men of the Second Foundation quite axiomaticly need nuclear warfare for self- defense reaction.Youll meet to do better than that. One ship wont mean thing to them, and if they think theyll learn science from it a build nuclear power plants next year, they are very, very simple Second Foundationers, indeed. On the order of simplicity as yourself, I should assign.You will pee the fortune to explain that to the Mule.Were going back to Kalgan?On the contrary. Were staying here. And the Mule will colligation us in fifteen minutes more or less. Do you think he hasnt followed us, my sharp-witted, nimble-minded lump of self-admiration? You have played the decoy well in reverse. You may not have led our victims to us, but you have certainly led us to our victims.May I sit down, said Channis, and explain something to you in picture drawings? Please.You will remain standing.At*** that, I can say it as well standing. You think the Mule followed us because of the hypertracer on the communication circuit?The blaster might have wanderred. Channis wouldnt have sworn to it. He said You dont look surprised. besides I dont waste time doubting that you feel surprised. Yes, I knew about it. And now, having shown you that I knew of something you didnt think I did, Ill tell you something you dont know, that I know you dont.You allow yourself too umteen preliminaries, Channis. I should think your sense of figure was more smoothly greased.Theres an invention to this. There have been traitors, of course, or enemy elements, if you prefer that term. But the Mule knew of that in a rather curious way. It seems, you see, that some of his born- again men had been tampered with.The blaster did waver that time. Unmistakably.I emphasize that, Pritcher. It was why he call for me. I was an unregenerate man. Didnt he emphasize to you that he needed an Unconverted? Whether he gave you the tangible reason or not?Try something else, Channis. If I were against the Mule, Id know it. Quietly, rapidly, Pritcher was feeling his mind. It felt the same. It felt the same. Obviously the man was lying.You mean you feel loyal to the Mule. Perhaps. Loyalty wasnt tampered with. Too easily detectable, the Mule said. But how do you feel mentally? Sluggish? Since you started this trip, have you always felt normal? Or have you felt strange sometimes, as though you werent quite yourself? What are you trying to do, bore a hole through me without touching the trigger?Pritcher withdrew his blaster half an inch, What are you trying to say?I say that youve been tampered with. Youve been handled. You didnt see the Mule install that hypertracer. Y ou didnt see anyone do it. You just found it there, and assumed it was the Mule, and ever since youve been assuming he was following us. Sure, the wrist receiver youre wearing contacts the ship on a wave length mine isnt good for. Do you think I didnt know that? He was speaking quickly now, angrily. His cloak of indifference had dissolved into savagery. But its not the Mule thats sexual climax toward us from out there. Its not the Mule.Who, if not?Well, who do you suppose? I found that hypertracer, the day we left. But I didnt think it was the Mule. He had no reason for indirection at that point. Dont you see the nonsensical of it? If I were a traitor and he knew that, I could be Converted as easily as you were, and he would have the secret of the military position of the Second Foundation out of my mind without sending me half crosswise the Galaxy. Can you keep a secret from the Mule? And if I didnt know, then I couldnt lead him to it. So why send me in either case?Obviously, th at hypertracer must have been ready there by an agent of the Second Foundation. Thats whos coming towards us now. And would you have been fooled if your precious mind hadnt been tampered with? What good-natured of normality have you that you imagine immense folly to be wiseness? Me bring a ship to the Second Foundation? What would they do with a ship?Its you they want, Pritcher. You know more about the Union than anyone but the Mule, and youre not dangerous to them while he is. Thats why they put the direction of seek into my mind. Of course, it was masterfully impossible for me to find Tazenda by random searchings of the Lens. I knew that. But I knew there was the Second Foundation after us, and I knew they engineered it. Why not play their game? It was a battle of bluffs. They wanted us and I wanted their location and pose take the one that couldnt outbluff the other.But its we that will lose as long as you hold that blaster on me. And it obviously isnt your idea. Its thei rs. Give me the blaster, Pritcher. I know it seems wrong to you, but it isnt your mind speaking, its the Second Foundation within you. Give me the blaster, Pritcher, and well face whats coming now, together. Pritcher, faced a growing confusion in horror. plausibility Could he be so wrong? Why this eternal doubt of himself? Why wasnt he sure? What made Channis sound so plausible?PlausibilityOr was it his own tortured mind fighting the invasion of the alien.Was he split in devil?Hazily, he saw Channis standing in the first place him, hand outstretched and suddenly, he knew he was going to give him the blaster.And as the muscles of his arm were on the point of contracting in the proper agency to do so, the door opened, not hastily, behind him and he turned.There are perhaps men in the Galaxy who can be confound for one another make up by men at their collected leisure. Correspondingly, there may be conditions of mind when even unlikely pairs may be mis-recognized. But the Mule rises above any combination of the deuce eventors.Not all Pritchers agony of mind prevented the minuteaneous mental run of quiet vigor that engulfed him.Physically, the Mule could not dominate any situation. Nor did he dominate this one.He was rather a ridiculous figure in his layers of clothing that thickened him past his normality without allowing him to reach normal dimensions even so. His face was muffled and the coarsely dominant beak covered what was left in a cold-red prominence.Probably as a vision of rescue, no greater incongruity could exist.He said Keep your blaster, Pritcher. thus he turned to Channis, who had shrugged and seated himself The emotional context here seems rather misidentify and considerably in conflict. Whats this about someone other than myself following you?Pritcher intervened sharply Was a hypertracer placed upon our ship by your orders, sir?The Mule turned cool eyes upon him, Certainly. Is it very likely that any organization in the Galaxy othe r than the Union of Worlds would have access to it?He said-Well, hes here, general. Indirect quotation is not necessary. Have you been saying anything, Channis?Yes. But mistakes apparently, sir. It has been my opinion that the tracer was put there by someone in the pay of the Second Foundation and that we had been led here for some purpose of theirs, which I was prepared to counter. I was under the further impression that the general was more or less in their hands.You sound as if you think so no longer.Im aghast(predicate) not. Or it would not have been you at the door.Well, then, let us thresh this out. The Mule peeled off the outer layers of padded, and electrically heated clothing. Do you mind if I sit down as well? straightway we are safe here and perfectly free of any danger of intrusion. No native of this lump of ice will have any desire to approach this place. I assure you of that, and there was a grim earnestness about his insistence upon his powers.Channis showed his d isgust. Why privacy? Is someone going to serve tea and bring out the dancing girls?Scarcely. What was this theory of yours, young man? A Second Foundationer was tracing you with a device which no one but I have and how did you say you found this place?Apparently, sir, it seems obvious, in order to account for known facts, that certain notions have been put into my head-By these same Second Foundationers?No one else, I imagine.Then it did not occur to you that if a Second Foundationer could force, or entice, or blarney you into going to the Second Foundation for purposes of his own and I assume you imagined he used methods similar to mine, though, mind you, I can implant only emotions, not ideas it did not occur to you that if he could do that there was precise necessity to put a hypertracer on you.And Channis looked up sharply and met his sovereigns boastfully eyes with sudden startle. Pritcher grunted and a visible relaxation showed itself in his shoulders.No, said Channis, t hat hadnt occurred to me.Or that if they were obliged to trace you, they couldnt feel capable of directing you, and that, undirected, you could have precious little chance of finding your way here as you did. Did that occur to you?That, neither.Why not? Has your intellectual level receded to a so-much-greater-than-probable phase?The only answer is a question, sir. Are you joining General Pritcher in accusing me of being a traitor?You have a defense in case I am? single the one I recorded to the general. If I were a traitor and knew the whereabouts of the Second Foundation, you could Convert me and learn the knowledge directly. If you felt it necessary to trace me, then I hadnt the knowledge forwards and wasnt a traitor. So I answer your paradox with another.Then your coda?That I am not a traitor.To which I must agree, since your line of credit is irrefutable.Then may I ask you why you had us on the QT followed?Because to all the facts there is a third explanation. Both you and Pritcher explained some facts in your own undivided ways, but not all. I if you can drop by the wayside me the time will explain all. And in a rather suddenly time, so there is little danger of boredom. Sit down, Pritcher, and give me your blaster. There is no danger of attack on us any longer. none from in here and none from out there. None in fact even from the Second Foundation. Thanks to you, Channis.The room was lit in the usual Rossemian fashion of electrically heated wire. A single bulb was hang up from the ceiling and in its dim yellow glow, the three cast their individual shadows.The Mule said Since I felt it necessary to trace Channis, it was obvious I expect to gain something thereby. Since he went to the Second Foundation with a startling speed and directness, we can reasonably assume that that was what I was expecting to happen. Since I did not gain the knowledge from him directly, something must have been preventing me. Those are the facts. Channis, of course, kn ows the answer. So do I. Do you see it, Pritcher?And Pritcher said doggedly No, sir.Then Ill explain. Only one kind of man can both know the location of the Second Foundation and prevent me from learning it. Channis, Im afraid youre a Second Foundationer yourself.And Channis elbows rested on his knees as he leaned forward, and through stiff and ferocious lips said What is your direct evidence? Deduction has proven wrong double today.There is direct evidence, too, Channis. It was easy enough. I told you that my men had been tampered with. The tamperer must have been, obviously, someone who was a) Unconverted, and b) fairly close to the center of things. The field was large but not spotlessly unlimited. You were too successful, Channis. People liked you too much. You got on too well. I wondered-And then I summoned you to take over this pilgrimage and it didnt set you back. I watched your emotions. It didnt bother you. You overplayed the confidence there, Channis. No man of real co mpetence could have avoided a dash of uncertainty at a job like that. Since your mind did avoid it, it was either a inconclusive one or a controlled one.It was easy to test the alternatives. I seized your mind at a moment of relaxation and filled it with grief for an instant and then removed it. You were angry by and bys with such accomplished art that I could have sworn it was a natural reaction, but for that which went first. For when I wrenched at your emotions, for just one instant, for one tiny instant before you could catch yourself, your mind resisted. It was all I needed to know.No one could have resisted me, even for that tiny instant, without control similar to mine.Channis voice was low and bitter Well, then? Now what?And now you die as a Second Foundationer. Quite necessary, as I believe you realize.And once again Channis stared into the muzzle of a blaster. A muzzle guided this time by a mind, not like Pritchers capable of offhand twisting to suit himself, but by one as mature as his own and as resistant to force as his own.And the period of time parcel out him for a correction of events was small.What followed thereafter is difficult to describe by one with the normal complement of senses and the normal incapacity for emotional control.Essentially, this is what Channis realized in the tiny space of time involved in the pushing of the Mules ovolo upon the trigger contact.The Mules current emotional makeup was one of a hard and polished determination, unmisted by hesitation in the least. Had Channis been sufficiently interested afterward to calculate the time involved from the determination to shoot to the arrival of the disintegrating energies, he might have realized that his leeway was about one-fifth of a second.That was barely time.What the Mule realized in that same tiny space of time was that the emotional potential of Channis brain had surged suddenly upwards without his own mind feeling any impact and that, simultaneously, a flood of pu re, thrill hatred cascaded upon him from an unexpected direction.It was that new emotional element that jerked his thumb off the contact. Nothing else could have done it, and almost together with his change of action, came complete realization of the new situation.It was a tableau that endured far less than the moment adhering to it should require from a dramatic standpoint. There was the Mule, thumb off the blaster, staring(a) intently upon Channis There was Channis taut, not quite daring to breathe yet. And there was Pritcher, convulsed in his chair every muscle at a fitful breaking point every tendon writhing in an cause to hurl forward his face twisted at last out of schooled woodenness into an unrecognizable death mask of horrid hate and his eyes only and entirely and supremely upon the Mule.Only a word or two passed between Channis and the Mule only a word or two and that utterly revealing stream of emotional consciousness that remains evermore the true interplay of und erstanding between such as they. For the sake of our own limits, it is necessary to translate into words what went on, then, and thenceforward.Channis said, tensely Youre between two fires, First Citizen. You cant control two minds simultaneously, not when one of them is mine so you have your choice. Pritcher, is free of your Conversion now. Ive snapped the bonds. Hes the old Pritcher the one who tried to kill you once the one who thinks youre the enemy of all that is free and right and holy and hes the one besides who knows that youve debased him to helpless adulation for five years. Im holding him back now by suppressing his will, but if you kill me, that ends, and in considerably less time than you could shift your blaster or even your will he will kill you.The Mule quite plainly realized that. He did not move.Channis continued If you turn to place him under control, to kill him, to do anything, you wont ever be quick enough to turn again to stop me.The Mule still did not move. Only a soft suspire of realization.So, said Channis, throw down the blaster, and let us be on even terms again, and you can have Pritcher back.I made a mistake, said the Mule, finally. It was wrong to have a third party present when I confronted you. It introduced one variable too many. It is a mistake that must be paid for, I suppose.He dropped the blaster carelessly, and kicked it to the other end of the room. Simultaneously, Pritcher crumpled into profound sleep.Hell be normal when he awakes, said the Mule, indifferently.The entire exchange from the time the Mules thumb had begun pressing the trigger-contact to the time he dropped the blaster had occupied just under a second and a half of time.But just beneath the borders of consciousness, for a time just above the borders of detection, Channis caught a fugitive emotional gleam in the Mules mind. And it was still one of sure and confident triumph.