The Psilent Partner Read online

do. The service psis wouldcatch Standskill, would test the ethics of it now that Joyce hadspilled, would cause Standskill to be disbarred. But Standskill didn'tknow! A dream. _A lunatic dream._

  Four A.M. The coincidence of the timing of his wakings struck himthen. For a moment the latest dream eluded him and then the sense ofairless cold, a bleak, cratered landscape, stark stars staring in alunar night swept coldly across his mind. He shivered, drew theblanket over him, thought: _How many shares? Six thousand? I can doit. I'll contact the broker in the morning. Six thousand at twohundred per. One million two hundred thousand dollars._

  But that would raise the price, the attempt to buy so many shares. Youcan't buy a million plus in one stock without driving the priceup--_unless you manage to buy all the shares at once_! If only hecould persuade--psionically persuade--but he couldn't! It wasn'tethical.

  His mind drifted.... I'll call the broker in the morning. Perhaps hecan start picking up some of the independent shares when the marketopens. If only he could snag the four thousand that--what was thatname in Lawrence's mind?--yes, Redgrave! The four thousand thatRedgrave has! That would be a start!

  Redgrave had always fought Lawrence tooth and nail. Lawrence wouldderive vast personal satisfaction from seeing Redgrave an_ex_-stockholder. Thankless cad! Investment in the corporation hadhelped make Redgrave a very wealthy man. Lawrence stock was only partof his vast holdings. Redgrave was definitely out of the red!

  Black chuckled, then told himself that this was a grave and not alaughing matter. Sleep was coming again.... _Out of the red. Grave.Redgrave!_

  Five A.M. He awoke in a cold sweat.... This time the dream came backslowly, drenching him with fear as it came. It was sheer madness, thisdream! To have even considered investing in Lawrence Applied Atomics!The Government would never condone the deal Lawrence wascontemplating--the Applied Atomics Corporation was nearly insolvent,the BEB psis were investigating it....

  Black tossed fitfully on the bed, seeking sleep desperately, seekingto escape the black night pressing in, to evade the imagined--or wasit real?--probing minds of service psis.

  Six A.M. He almost forgot the fears that had assailed him an hourbefore. He realized then that in the last few minutes or seconds orhowever long the latest transient phantasm had been in his mind he haddreamt of his broker pacing a dimly-lighted chamber, muttering, "Theman's out of his mind. Economic instability, that's certain. Thinkingof selling good stock to invest in Lawrence Applied Atomics! Not thatLawrence stock isn't fairly good, but he'll never make enough out ofthe corporation's piles; the returns are not that great!"

  8 A.M. Black stretched, felt strangely relaxed. He realized then thatas he had slept and, despite the fitfulness of his sleeping, his mindhad apparently gone on analyzing the possible reactions to the bigdeal.

  He arose, took a shower, shaved, ate breakfast. Then he went to thevisiphone and buttoned Charles Wythe, his broker, at his office.

  "Charlie," Black said to the cadaverous looking man who answered."Where's the boss?"

  "Went to see a psychiatrist."

  "Why?"

  "I don't know. What's on your mind?"

  "I want you to do some selling and buying for me. Sell whatever youlike, but buy Lawrence Applied Atomics."

  "Look, Marty, let's not go off half-cocked. Last year you had a suddenbrainstorm and remember what happened. Lawrence may be a good stock,but it won't help you to build up to that thirty percent you need. Notin the time you have to do it in. It's bad enough for you to take abig licking once. Let's not be stupid again."

  "Now, Charlie, don't be nasty. I want you to buy Lawrence as quietlyas you can. I want six thousand shares at the current price. Get themfor me."

  "Are you shaken loose from your psyche or id or whatever?" Wythecried. "Do it quietly, the man says, do it quietly! You can do itabout as quietly as they launched the space station. Where do youthink I can get six thousand shares of Lawrence?"

  "Why, you buy them!" Black answered innocently. "Isn't that what youdo down at the Stock Exchange?"

  The broker groaned. "Sure, that's all I do. Buy, that is. But notLawrence. Look, Marty, see this chart? Yesterday was a big day forLawrence Applied Atomics. It was unusually active. Three hundredshares changed hands. The day before it was one hundred. Once in mymemory Lawrence had a four thousand share day. That must have beenwhen Redgrave bought in. Now you tell me how I'm going to get you sixthousand shares, get them quietly, and get them at the current price!"

  "Start buying," Black said, "because I've got a hunch you'll findthem. My mother had hunches, didn't she? Did she ever tell you or theboss to buy the wrong stocks? Did she--"

  "That was your mother, Marty. What about that hunch you had last year,the one that cost you a couple of hundred thou--"

  "That was last year!"

  "So, what's changed?" asked Wythe.

  "Maybe _I've_ changed, Charlie. Do it; that's all I ask."

  "Okay, Marty. But I think you're out of your mind, especially withwhat was on the morning news."

  "And what was that?"

  "Lawrence is in bad shape. He's not likely to pull through. Theyoperated last night, in case you didn't know."

  "But that should drive the stock down!"

  "Why? It won't affect the profits from the corporation's piles."

  "No. I agree. But that's not the only thing that keeps the price up.What about Lawrence's reputation?"

  "Well, there's also a rumor about a government investigation of thecorporation," Wythe admitted. "That might have some downward effect."

  "Buy, Charlie, buy! I'll ring you later."

  Black rang off. He felt an overwhelming confidence. He had only onesmall doubt in his mind--during or following one of those disturbingdreams had he been sufficiently overwrought to have relaxed his mentalblock, thereby letting in a fleeting probe from a service psi whowould then have gleaned, in a moment, knowledge of the proposedtransaction?

  The unease waned. The exuberant confidence was in him again. Theprescience of Martha Black?

  He went out and caught a heli-cab to the law offices. He'd be a goodtrainee to the eyes and minds of anyone who might check. If theservice psis were on his trail, he'd show them how good a trainee hewas. He could check with Charlie Wythe later.

  V

  At ten A.M., Standskill's partner, G. D. Rich left the office toattend court.

  At ten-thirty A.M., a contact call came whispering to Black's mind. Hethought it at first a probe and blocked part of his mind; thenrelaxed as it realized it was a psi asking with overbearing politenessfor him to connect the visiphone circuit. The mental touch seemedsomehow familiar, but it wasn't Joyce. He knew it wasn't Joyce; therewas something unsure and tentative about the whisper of thought.

  Black psionically cut in the outer office visiphone connection. Thebell rang almost immediately. He switched on the inner officeinstrument and a familiar face came in sync on the screen--that ofPeter Dodson, the principal administrative officer of the BEB psis.

  Dodson's blondly handsome face showed concern. He said, "I wantedvisiphone contact, Black, because of an unfavorable report I'vereceived on you. I'll get to that in a minute. First, I'd like toexplain the background. As you may have learned from the news thismorning, we're investigating Lawrence Applied Atomics because of a tipwe'd received from Los Angeles that Lawrence is engaged in a venturewhich will eventually affect corporation funds without proper advanceauthorization.

  "Finding that Lawrence had some dealings with Standskill in the past,we thought that Standskill might be able to shed some light on the newventure. When we were unable to contact Standskill, we sought tocontact you psionically last night, but found that your mind was acompletely unreadable jumble of nightmares, filled with phobias andinstabilities. We stopped probing then, realizing that you might beseriously ill."

  Apparently visual examination had convinced Dodson that Black wasn'tas ill as had been thought. Black felt the feather touch of a probecoming now and he blocked, his thin face expressi
onless.

  "I did have a rather bad night," Black said. "Association. Semanticinstability." He felt the tentacle of thought that was sweeping acrosshis mind.

  "Well," Dodson said, his eyes probing from the screen, "it's obvious_you_ know nothing of the Lawrence deal. Strange, though, sincethere's a record of a call placed to that office by Lawrenceyesterday, and as far as we have been able to determine only you werethere and only you could have answered. How do you explain that?"

  Easy now! The block is most difficult to maintain when you're lying.Easy....

  "There was a call,"