by Perry Rhodan
Half an hour after Adams had read the prospectus he had a lengthy phone conversation with Señior Ramirez in Callao, the owner of the prospective gold mine. Ramirez was overjoyed to have found so quickly a partner for his enterprise and promised to sent Adams the same day the expert appraisal by a reputable geologist.
That same evening General Cosmic Company made the largest single purchase ever known to have been transacted in the history of the financial world. Homer G. Adams bought $1,451,788,000.00 worth of shares of the newly-founded Peruvian Gold Company, representing altogether 71% of the total original stock. This night the usually so level-headed Homer G. Adams was so excited that he could not fall asleep at all.
"Wait, wait!" yelled Raleigh. "Don't shoot! We need him alive! He's only bluffing you with this weapon. Seize him!"
In vain Rhodan had been waiting for the moment when the four guards' attention would be sufficiently diverted for him to grab his thermo-ray gun. At least three of the men kept him every instant under surveillance. Nevertheless, it was Raleigh's intervention at this moment which permitted Rhodan's escape from certain death.
It happened in a not very dramatic manner. In one of the two doors, which Raleigh's men apparently had left open, appeared the heavy-set figure of Captain Barina. He held a late model machine gun in his hands. Rhodan was the first to spot him. A second later he was also discovered by the two guards standing off to the side behind Rhodan.
"Keep cool!" said Barina calmly. "Any move and you're dead! Drop your guns !"
The men reluctantly released their grip on their pistols, which, noisily, one after the other, fell to the ground. Rhodan put his psycho-raygun back into his pocket and brought out instead his pulseray weapon. "That's the thing I was telling you about earlier," he remarked in an ironic tone.
Barina handcuffed the men while Rhodan kept him covered. None of the guards or Raleigh offered any resistance. Then they were placed in Rhodan's car. Barina, who had come in his own car, closely followed behind Rhodan's car with his prisoners. Rhodan led the way up into the Sierra Nevada mountains. During the ride Rhodan sent a radio message to Terrania.
Around midnight the two vehicles arrived at a lonely area near Lake Tahoe. There a transporter jet of the New Power was already waiting for them. Rhodan handed over the prisoners and wrote instructions for Reginald Bell, requesting him to inform him immediately of the results they would obtain in Terrania after interrogating Raleigh and his men.
At a quarter past midnight the powerful plane lifted off the shores of Lake Tahoe and disappeared in the nocturnal sky. The next morning already the first news from the interrogation was presented.
Raleigh didn't remember anything. He no longer knew anything about the automated harrows and plough-shares he had been selling. Neither could he recall anything about the man he had planned to have killed by his four bodyguards. He quickly proceeded to believe that he was being detained and questioned by some fools and energetically demanded his release.
Khrest, who was conducting the interviews, would not hear of anything of the sort. He knew that Raleigh had been under exceedingly strong hypnotic influence from the day he began selling his automated agricultural machines. This hypnotic spell had vanished as soon as it became evident that Raleigh's number was up.
For the time being Khrest had not yet been able to determine who the man was under whose hypnotic influence Raleigh had acted. He must either be a telepath of incredibly powerful ability or he must have used some mechanical hypnotic instrument.
Khrest was convinced that whatever Raleigh had done and experienced while he was under the stranger's influence, must still be buried in his memory somewhere. However, in those areas of his conscious mind which were no longer accessible to Raleigh's will. Raleigh was therefore not lying when he asserted he didn't have the slightest awareness of all those things he was blamed for.
Khrest was certain he could bring up to Raleigh's conscious awareness the contents of his subconscious memory banks, which in turn would provide valuable information for Rhodan. Unfortunately this would take several weeks to accomplish. This would not he of much help to Rhodan during his first phase of counter-attack.
Rhodan realized that he had come out safe and sound from this first encounter but still had lost the battle. Together with Barina he had made a thorough search of the facilities of the Farming Tool & Machinery the following night but had found nothing which might give him a clue as to the man or the power behind this enterprise.
On the contrary: he was now absolutely convinced that this whole episode with the robot-guided agricultural machines had been staged for the sole purpose of luring some important member of the New Power to Sacramento in order to capture him there. Raleigh had merely been the instrument to activate the mechanism of the trap. Undoubtedly he had known at once that his intended victim had arrived the moment Rhodan had phoned him under the assumed name of Wilder.
Rhodan had barely escaped from this trap with the vigorous support of Captain Barina. But the unknown enemy had been warned and Rhodan had not succeeded in compensating for this disadvantage by obtaining further dues and new information from Raleigh.
For the time being there remained only the hope that Lieutenant Richman might have uncovered some news in Salt Lake City. Perhaps the trail could he pursued further from this point on.
The fact that no new incidents had occurred in Terrania during the past few days was hardly cause for relief. For this fact was most likely due not to the increased security measures around the important installations in the huge metropolis but perhaps rather to the fact that the unknown foe was preoccupied with other tasks in the meantime.
The day after the big purchase Elmer Bradley appeared again in Adams' office and paid back the money he had borrowed. Hanson & Sons had shot up amazingly all of a sudden—the second sensational event of Wall Street during this week—and Bradley had earned $15,000 above the $30,000 he had received as a loan from Adams.
Bradley paid back with stock. And he kept his earnings also in the form of shares. Adams tried to persuade him to keep the borrowed sum of $30,000. "You've helped me to such a fabulous business coup," he said smiling, "that I'd like to show my appreciation in this manner."
But he couldn't talk Bradley into accepting the money. He only indicated that he wanted to take a vacation with the financial gains of the past few days to recover his strength after the excitement of the whole transaction.
He said goodbye to Homer G. Adams, who never laid eyes on him again.
For three days regular news came in from Lieutenant Richman. Its tone was not encouraging: Nothing new so far! Am searching for clues!
One consolation at least, Lieutenant Richman kept after the unknown opponent.
The fourth day no report came from Salt Lake City. Rhodan was worried but Captain Barina's optimistic outlook was increased by this lack of communication. "No news in the case of Richman," he explained, "means he must have found something."
Therefore they paid no special attention to Richman's silence. But the same evening they read in the newspaper that the police in Salt Lake City had found a dead body in one of the storage sheds near the Union Pacific Railroad Station. The report also contained a photo and a description which left no doubt that the dead body was that of Lieutenant Richman.
That same night Rhodan and Barina drove to Salt Lake City. Barina had never been so silent as during these hours. It was quite obvious that he was blaming himself for not having paid sufficient attention to his colleague's safety.
In Salt Lake City they went to the police. Captain Barina revealed his identity while Perry Rhodan still pretended to he a certain Mr. Wilder, whose interest in Richman's murder remained a mystery to the police.
The clues they received were rather pitiful. Two policemen on patrol duty had found the corpse. According to the coroner's report at this moment Richman seemed to have been dead for three hours at least. There were certain indications that Richman had been killed right on the spot w
here he had been found rather than his body having been brought there after he had been killed. But the owner of the storage shed was a most reputable man who had a most reliable alibi that he could neither have been the murderer nor had any involvement in this case.
Barina and Rhodan spent the night in a hotel and when the next day dawned and the first papers appeared the world had ready a new sensation for them. This sensational news item did not concern Barina at all but Rhodan was all the more startled by it. So much so that he immediately interrupted his stay in Salt Lake City and flew to New York. The newspapers were enormous headlines and sensational reports about one big news item:
GENERAL COSMIC CO. LOSES $1½ BILLION OVERNIGHT!
3/ A GLIMPSE OF THE ENEMY
The loss was far greater in reality.
General Cosmic was a concern consisting of a large number of apparently independent firms. What was generally known under the name of General Cosmic Co. was actually nothing but the administrative center of hundreds of subsidiary enterprises.
These facts had of course not remained unknown to the stockbrokers. Although Adams had organized his widely branched firm with utmost care, 20 out of 193 of the subsidiary companies only were known to be part of the GCC. Whoever was familiar with the proverbial curiosity of the stockbrokers was ready to admit that this alone represented a fabulous 'index of concealment.'
When the news spread that General Cosmic had suffered a loss of one and a half billion dollars a terrific slump took place in the stock market. Everyone tried to get rid of the stock they were holding in the 20 subsidiary firms. This in turn led the rest of the companies associated with General Cosmic, who were not known to belong to it, to sell their shares as fast as they could. This of course made matters even worse for the GCC. Fortunately, however, GCC owned at least 90% of the joint stock of all companies affiliated with it. As a result the loss was painful but not critical.
The sudden price drop was finally arrested when a number of sharp speculators began to buy up GCC stock that same afternoon. They believed this whole affair to be nothing but a successfully staged stock exchange swindle affording them a good opportunity to get rich quick. As it turned out later, they had calculated right. However not because the sudden crash had been caused by some tricky business but because the GCC was financially sound enough to weather such a storm. Rhodan arrived in New York toward noon on the day of the catastrophe. He went straight to Homer G. Adam's office where he found a man who had lost faith in himself and was close to a nervous breakdown.
Rhodan lost one precious hour trying to instil new courage in his desperate friend. His main argument was: "The GCC disposes of a capital amounting to more than 200 billion dollars. Due to the debacle with the gold mine and the ensuing crash we've lost altogether four billions. This is less than 2% of our capital! It isn't worth your while getting so upset; there are more important things we have to do."
It took quite awhile before Homer G. Adams was willing to listen to what these more important things were. Rhodan demanded that Adams tell him how this blunder had happened and what had led up to it. "Not because I don't trust you," Rhodan quickly added to his request, "but mainly because some unknown powers have lately been at work quite obviously attempting to bring about our ruin. The New Power needs you, Adams; we hope to get on their track with your help!"
Homer G. Adams gave a thorough report. He always carried with him a micro-tape recorder. All his talks with Bradley or with other people had been automatically recorded this way. Rhodan was far more interested in these recordings than in Adams' own report. Rhodan listened attentively to all the tapes, then played back for Adams the first conversation he had had with Bradley at the cafeteria near Wall Street. Adams concentrated and listened.
"Do you notice something peculiar here?" asked Rhodan finally.
Adams thought awhile. Then he shook his head. "No, nothing."
"Would you say you are normally the type of man who lends money easily?" inquired Rhodan.
Adams protested. "Never in my life. And for very valid reasons."
Rhodan didn't insist on hearing these reasons. "Then why did you lend $30,000 to Bradley?" he wanted to know.
Adams just shrugged his shoulders. "Why? I liked the fellow right away. I've racked my brains many a time why I should feel such great sympathy for the young man... but I simply was very fond of him."
Rhodan pointed to the tiny recorder. "Didn't you wonder why Bradley never wanted to know the reason you offered to lend him this sum?"
"No," admitted Adams in surprise.
"Of course I have no information as to what psychologists would have to say there," continued Rhodan, "but the way I see it, you'd definitely expect if a young man were to be offered such a large loan from a total stranger that he would be inquiring the reason for such generosity."
This made sense to Adams. He began to wonder why he hadn't noticed this already earlier on his own.
"There's only one plausible explanation for this," added Rhodan. "The reason Bradley didn't ask you for your motives was simply because he knew for a fact how much you must like him. He was certain to begin with that you would offer him that money and fulfill any wish he would utter in your presence."
Adams was dumbfounded. "How could he have known that?"
Rhodan leaned closer to Adams. "Bradley is in my opinion a most capable telepath. Besides he has undoubtedly the ability to give hypnotic commands with strong post-hypnotic effect."
Rhodan's assumptions were soon to be fully confirmed. It turned out that there was no such person as Señior Ramirez in Callao with whom Adams believed he had had a phone conversation. And on top of that the ITT informed them that no phone call from the GCC's office had been made to Peru during the past three months.
Homer G. Adams had only imagined such a phone conversation had taken place. And this false memory had been the result of a post-hypnotic suggestion emanating from Bradley. The prospectus for which Adams had fallen proved to be an obvious swindle which would have been detected normally by any mere beginner.
The final proof came following a psychological examination that Adams was requested to undergo. It was found that Adams' brain activity—even almost 48 hours after he had last seen Bradley—was abnormally slow, a sure sign he had been subjected to some recent hypnotic and suggestive influence.
There could no longer be any doubt that Adams had become the victim of that mysterious unknown person who had also been responsible for the thefts and explosions in Terrania, and who must also be behind Mr. Raleigh's robot guided agricultural machines.
This man was at this moment by no means as satisfied as one would have expected. There was no doubt he had a number of successful actions to his credit now. But when he compared his actual achievements with his original expectations, he realized that only half of them had come true. At present he was sitting in his command center, situated 99 feet underground. Together with a house built directly above it, it formed an unassailable fortress. The mystery man was conducting a conversation via TV with the young man whom Adams had known as Elmer Bradley. The young man looked about as depressed as when Adams had first met him in that cafeteria near Wall Street in New York.
"What's the idea, you blundering idiot!" criticized Monterny. "Your orders were to cause the GCC to incur a loss of at least 10 billion dollars. And what did you accomplish? A lousy four billion! What's the meaning of that?"
Bradley lived in a modest little house in just as modest a little town in Northern California. The TV channels used by Monterny, the mutant master, in order to communicate with his mutant slaves, were inaccessible to any surveillance. Monterny's image didn't appear on the TV screen. The picture tube in Bradley's TV set produced nothing but a scrambled screen showing mainly a lot of white snow effects on a black background.
"I wasn't sure of myself," answered Bradley, depressed. "The data you supplied for me were so flimsy that anyone could see through them right away. I was sure my mission would be a total failu
re. How could a man like Adams possibly be deceived by that?"
"As you have been able to convince yourself," remarked Monterny sarcastically, "it happened even despite your silly doubts."
Bradley looked very tired. "Yes, you're right. But I was very glad when I finally could get away from there."
Monterny's voice over the TV suddenly turned icy cold. "You ruined my plan, Bradley! A coup which brought me within a hairbreadth of total success. You had enough time to thoroughly prepare this big blow against the GCC. Ten billion dollars was the lower limit I had set for this coup. With your talents you could have easily attained twice, three times that amount. If you can cause an enterprise of that size to lose over 10% of its capital, this usually spells the end of it."
"And all this depended on you, Bradley!
"You've let this opportunity slip through your fingers, Bradley! Out of fear you acted rashly, didn't prepare your job the way you should have! And what is the result? From now on I'll have to proceed extra cautiously in my attacks on the GCC, provided I can still even risk any! You'll have to undergo a new training session, Bradley!"
Bradley gave a start. When Monterny had first tracked him down, he had forced him, the outstanding telepath, to undergo an initial training session. Bradley was sure that even hell would be a picnic compared to that ordeal. The schooling served the sole purpose to activate Bradley's parapsychological talents to the utmost limit of his potential and to acquaint Bradley with the mutant master's goals. At the same time letting him come to the conclusion that there was no opposition possible against the master's dictates.
Bradley—who apart from his special talents had been a perfectly normal human being—had twice attempted to escape from Monterny's clutches. And twice he had suffered the brutal force of the mutant master. Twice he had been subjected to that sudden mental hammer blow which wiped out his own will from one instant to the next, leaving only room exclusively for the master's orders. Orders which had to be carried out on the spot. Bradley could well imagine that the second training session would not be any more pleasant than the first. But he did not object.