"I don't hear Wanda."

"For good reason. She's out shopping with her mother."

Seldon seated himself and looked good-humoredly at the chaos of reference material. "How's the book coming?"

"It's doing fine. It's me who might not survive." He sighed. "But for once, we'll get the straight p.o.o.p on Dahl. n.o.body's ever written a book devoted to that section, wouldja believe?"

Seldon had always noted that, whenever Raych talked of his home sector, his Dahlite accent always strengthened.

Raych said, "And how are you, Dad? Glad the festivities are over?"

"Enormously. I hated just about every minute of it."

"Not so anyone could notice."

"Listen, I had to wear a mask of sorts. I didn't want to spoil the celebration for everyone else."

"You must have hated it when Mom chased after you onto the Palace grounds. Everyone I know has been talking about that."

"I certainly did hate it. Your mother, Raych, is the most wonderful person in the world, but she is very difficult to handle. She might have spoiled my plans."

"What plans are those, Dad?"

Seldon settled back. It was always pleasant to speak to someone in whom he had total trust and who knew nothing about psychohistory. More than once he had bounced thoughts off Raych and had worked them out into more sensible forms than would have been the case if those same thoughts had been mulled over in his mind. He said, "Are we shielded?"

"Always."

"Good. What I did was to set General Tennar thinking along curious lines."

"What lines?"

"Well, I discussed taxation a bit and pointed out that, in the effort to make taxation rest evenly on the population, it grew more and more complex, unwieldy, and costly. The obvious implication was that the tax system must be simplified."

"That seems to make sense."

"Up to a point, but it is possible that, as a result of our little discussion, Tennar may oversimplify. You see, taxation loses effectiveness at both extremes. Overcomplicate it and people cannot understand it and pay for an overgrown and expensive tax organization. Oversimplify it and people consider it unfair and grow bitterly resentful. The simplest tax is a poll tax, in which every individual pays the same amount, but the unfairness of treating rich and poor alike in this way is too evident to overlook."

"And you didn't explain this to the General?"

"Somehow, I didn't get a chance."

"Do you think the General will try a poll tax?"

"I think he will plan one. If he does, the news is bound to leak out and that alone would suffice to set off riots and possibly upset the government."

"And you've done this on purpose, Dad?"

"Of course."

Raych shook his head. "I don't quite understand you, Dad. In your personal life, you're as sweet and gentle as any person in the Empire. Yet you can deliberately set up a situation in which there will be riots, suppression, deaths. There'll be a lot of damage done, Dad. Have you thought of that?"

Seldon leaned back in his chair and said sadly, "I think of nothing else, Raych. When I first began my work on psychohistory, it seemed a purely academic piece of research to me. It was something that could not he worked out at all, in all likelihood, and, if it was, it would not be something that could be practically applied. But the decades pa.s.s and we know more and more and then comes the terrible urge to apply it."

"So that people can die?"

"No, so that fewer people can die. If our psychohistorical a.n.a.lyses are correct now, then the junta cannot survive for more than a few years and there are various alternative ways in which it can collapse. They will all he fairly b.l.o.o.d.y and desperate. This method-the taxation gimmick-should do it more smoothly and gently than any other if-I repeat-our a.n.a.lyses are correct."

"If they're not correct, what then?"

"In that case, we don't know what might happen. Still, psychohistory must reach the point where it can be used and we've been searching for years for something in which we have worked out the consequences with a certain a.s.suredness and can find those consequences tolerable as compared with alternatives. In a way, this taxation gimmick is the first great psychohistoric experiment."

"I must admit, it sounds like a simple one."

"It isn't. You have no idea how complex psychohistory is. Nothing is simple. The poll tax has been tried now and then throughout history. It is never popular and it invariably gives rise to resistance of one form or another, but it almost never results in the violent overthrow of a government. After all, the powers of governmental oppression may be too strong or there may be methods whereby the people can bring to bear their opposition in a peaceful manner and achieve redress. If a poll tax were invariably or even just sometimes fatal, then no government would ever try it. It is only because it isn't fatal that it is tried repeatedly. The situation on Trantor is, however, not exactly normal. There are certain instabilities that seem clear in psychohistorical a.n.a.lysis, which make it seem that resentment will be particularly strong and repression particularly weak."

Raych sounded dubious. "I hope it works, Dad, but don't you think that the General will say that he was working under psychohistorical advice and bring you down with him?"

"I suppose he recorded our little session together, but if he publicizes that, it will show clearly that I urged him to wait till I could a.n.a.lyze the situation properly and prepare a report-and he refused to wait."

"And what does Mom think of all this?"

Seldon said, "I haven't discussed it with her. She's off on another tangent altogether."

"Really?"

"Yes. She's trying to sniff out some deep conspiracy in the Project-aimed at me! I imagine she thinks there are many people in the Project who would like to get rid of me." Seldon sighed. "I'm one of them, I think. I would like to get rid of me as director of the Project and leave the gathering responsibilities of psychohistory to others."

Raych said, "What's bugging Mom is Wanda's dream. You know how Mom feels about protecting you. I'll bet even a dream about your dying would be enough to make her think of a murder conspiracy against you."

"I certainly hope there isn't one."

And at the idea of it both men laughed.

21

The small Electro-Clarification Laboratory was, for some reason, maintained at a temperature somewhat lower than normal and Dors Venabili wondered idly why that might be. She sat quietly, waiting for the one occupant of the lab to finish whatever it was she was doing.

Dors eyed the woman carefully. Slim, with a long face. Not exactly attractive, with her thin lips and receding jawline, but a look of intelligence shone in her dark brown eyes. The glowing nameplate on her desk said: CINDA MONAY.

She turned to Dors at last and said, "My apologies, Dr. Venabili, but there are some procedures that can't be interrupted even for the wife of the director."

"I would have been disappointed in you if you had neglected the procedure on my behalf. I have been told some excellent things about you."

"That's always nice to hear. Who's been praising me?"

"Quite a few," said Dors. "I gather that you are one of the most prominent nonmathematicians in the Project."

Monay winced. "There's a certain tendency to divide the rest of us from the aristocracy of mathematics. My own feeling is that, if I'm prominent, then I'm a prominent member of the Project. It makes no difference that I'm a nonmathematician."

"That certainly sounds reasonable to me. -How long have you been with the Project?"

"Two and a half years. Before that I was a graduate student in radiational physics at Streeling and, while I was doing that, I served a couple of years with the Project as an intern."

"You've done well at the Project, I understand."

"I've been promoted twice, Dr. Venabili."

"Have you encountered any difficulties here, Dr. Monay? -Whatever you say will be held confidential."

"The work is difficult, of course, but if you mean, have I run into any social difficulties, the answer is no. At least not any more than one would expect in any large and complex project, I imagine."

"And by that you mean?"

"Occasional spats and quarrels. We're all human."

"But nothing serious?"

Monay shook her head. "Nothing serious."

"My understanding, Dr. Monay," said Dors, "is that you have been responsible for the development of a device important to the use of the Prime Radiant. It makes it possible to cram much more information into the Prime Radiant."

Monay broke into a radiant smile. "Do you know about that?-Yes, the Electro-Clarifier. After that was developed, Professor Seldon established this small laboratory and put me in charge of other work in that direction."

"I'm amazed that such an important advance did not bring you up into the higher echelons of the Project."

"Oh well," said Monay, looking a trifle embarra.s.sed. "I don't want to take all the credit. Actually my work was only that of a technician-a very skilled and creative technician, I like to think-but there you are."

"And who worked with you?"

"Didn't you know? It was Tamwile Elar. He worked out the theory that made the device possible and I designed and built the actual instrument."

"Does that mean he took the credit, Dr. Monay?"

"No no. You mustn't think that. Dr. Elar is not that kind of man. He gave me full credit for my share of the work. In fact, it was his idea to call the device by our names-both our names-but he couldn't."

"Why not?"

"Well, that's Professor Seldon's rule, you know. All devices and equations are to be given functional names and not personal ones-to avoid resentment. So the device is just the Electro-Clarifier. When we're working together, however, he gives the device our names and, I tell you, Dr. Venabili, it sounds grand. Perhaps someday, all of the Project personnel will use the personal name. I hope so."

"I hope so, too," said Dors politely. "You make Elar sound like a very decent individual."

"He is. He is," said Monay earnestly. "He is a delight to work for. Right now, I'm working on a new version of the device, which is more powerful and which I don't quite understand. -I mean, what it's to be used for. However, he's directing me there."

"And are you making progress?"

"Indeed. In fact, I've given Dr. Elar a prototype, which he plans to test. If it works out, we can proceed further."

"It sounds good," agreed Dors. "What do you think would happen if Professor Seldon were to resign as director of the Project? If he were to retire?"

Monay looked surprised. "Is the professor planning to retire?"

"Not that I know of. I'm presenting you with a hypothetical case. Suppose he retires. Who do you think would be a natural successor? I think from what you have said that you would favor Professor Elar as the new director."

"Yes, I would," responded Monay after a trifling hesitation. "He's far and away the most brilliant of the new people and I think he could run the Project in the best possible way. Still, he's rather young. There are a considerable number of old fossils-well, you know what I mean-who would resent being pa.s.sed over by a young squirt."

"Is there any old fossil you're thinking of in particular? Remember, this is confidential."

"Quite a few of them, but there's Dr. Amaryl. He's the heir apparent."

"Yes, I see what you mean." Dors rose. "Well, thank you so much for your help. I'll let you return to your work now."

She left, thinking about the Electro-Clarifier. And about Amaryl.

22

Yugo Amaryl said, "Here you are again, Dors."

"Sorry, Yugo. I'm bothering you twice this week. Actually you don't see anyone very often, do you?"

Amaryl said, "I don't encourage people to visit me, no. They tend to interrupt me and break my line of thought. -Not you, Dors. You're altogether special, you and Hari. There's never a day I don't remember what you two have done for me."

Dors waved her hand. "Forget it, Yugo. You've worked hard for Hari and any trifling kindness we did for you has long been overpaid. How is the Project going? Hari never talks about it-not to me, anyway."

Amaryl's face lightened and his whole body seemed to take on an infusion of life. "Very well. Very well. It's difficult to talk about it without mathematics, but the progress we've made in the last two years is amazing-more than in all the time before that. It's as though, after we've been hammering away and hammering away, things have finally begun to break loose."

"I've been hearing that the new equations worked out by Dr. Elar have helped the situation."

"The achaotic equations? Yes. Enormously."

"And the Electro-Clarifier has been helpful, too. I spoke to the woman who designed it."

"Cinda Monay?"

"Yes. That's the one."

"A very clever woman. We're fortunate to have her."