The Common Man
Page 4
merely rolled out of thebed and left, leaving a startled bellhop behind staring at rumpledbedclothes which had seemed to stir of their own accord.
* * *
The rest of the day was little different from the first hours. He hadgone about gawking in places he couldn't have had he been visible. Intothe dressing room of the Roxie, into the bars of swank private clubs,into the offices of the F.B.I. He would have liked to have walked in ona poker game with some real high rollers playing, such as Nick theGreek, but he didn't have the time nor know-how to go about finding one.
Crowley wound it all up with a gesture of both hands, palms upward. "Igotta admit, it was fun, but what the devil good is it?"
They looked at him questioningly.
Crowley said, "I mean, how's it practical? How can you make a buck outof it, if you turn it over to the public, like? Everybody'd go aroundrobbing everybody else and you'd all wind up equal."
Dr. Braun chuckled in deprecation. "There would be various profitableuses, Don. One priceless one would be scientific observation of wildlife. For that matter there would be valid usage in everyday life. Thereare often personal reasons for not wishing to be observed. Celebrities,for instance, wishing to avoid crowds."
"Yeah," Crowley laughed, "or a businessman out with his secretary."
Dr. Braun frowned. "Of course, there are many other aspects. It wouldmean the end of such things as the Iron Curtain. And also the end ofsuch things as American immigration control. There are many, manyramifications, Don, some of which frighten us. The world would be neverquite the same."
Crowley leaned forward confidentially. "Well, I'll tell you. I wasthinking it all out. What we got to do is turn it over to the Army andsoak them plenty for it."
The others ignored his cutting himself a piece of the cake.
Ross Wooley merely grunted bitterly.
Patricia said impatiently, "We've thought most of these things through,Don. However, Dr. Braun happens to be quite a follower of Lord Russell."
Crowley looked at her blankly.
"He's a pacifist," she explained.
Braun pushed his glasses back more firmly on his nose and said, gently,"The military already have enough gadgets to destroy quite literallyeverything and I trust one set of them no more than the other. If_both_ sides had our discovery, then, very well, each would go aboutattempting to find some manner of penetrating the invisibility, ortaking various measures to protect their top secrets. But to give it tojust one would be such an advantage that the other would have to embarkimmediately upon a desperate attack before the advantage could be fullyrealized. If we turn this over to the Pentagon, for exclusive use, theSoviets would have to begin a preventative war as soon as they learnedof its existence."
"You a red?" Crowley said, scowling.
The doctor shrugged hopelessly. "No," he said.
Crowley turned to the other two. "If you think it's the patriotic thingto do, why don't one of you sell it to the government?"
Patricia said testily, "You don't understand, Don. Even if we were sothoroughly in disagreement that we would act unilaterally, we couldn't.You see, this is a three-way discovery. No one of us knows the completeprocess."
His face twisted. "Look, maybe some of this egghead stuff doesn't getthrough to me but I'm not stupid, see? You got the stuff, haven't you?You gave me that shot this morning."
Braun took over, saying reasonably, "Don, this discovery was hit upon byaccident. The three of us are employed in the laboratories of a medicalresearch organization. I am the department head. Patricia and Ross weredoing some routine work on a minor problem when they separately stumbledupon some rather startling effects, practically at the same time. Each,separately, brought their discoveries to me, and, working you might sayintuitively, I added some conclusions of my own, and ... well, I repeat,the discovery was stumbled upon."
Crowley assimilated that. "None of you knows how to do it, make thoseinjections like, by himself?"
"That is correct. Each knows just one phase of the process. Each mustcombine with the other two."
Patricia said impatiently, "And thus far we wish to keep it that way.Rossie believes the discovery should be simultaneously revealed on aworld-wide basis, and let man adapt to it as best he can. I think itshould be suppressed until man has grown up a little--if he ever does.The doctor vacillates between the two positions. What he would trulylike to see, is the method kept only for the use of qualifiedscientists, but even our good doctor realizes what a dream that is."
Crowley took them all in, one at a time. "Well, what the devil are yougoing to do?"
"That's a good question," Ross said unhappily.
"This experiment was a farce," Patricia said irritably. "After all ourtrouble locating Don, our _Common Man_, we have found out nothing thatwe didn't know before. His reactions were evidently largely similar toour own and...." She broke it off and frowned thoughtfully. The otherthree looked at her questioningly.
Patricia said, "You know, we simply haven't seen this thing through asyet."
"What do you mean, Pat?" Ross growled.
She turned to him. "We haven't given Don the chance to prove which oneof us is right. One day is insufficient. Half the things he wished todo, such as sneaking around picking up stock tips in Wall Street andinside information on sporting events...."
"Hey, take it easy," Crowley protested. "I was just, like, curious."
Ross said heatedly, "That's not fair. I'll admit, I, too, thought ofexactly the same possibilities. But _thinking_ about them and goingthrough with them are different things. Haven't you ever thought aboutwhat you'd do if given the chance to be world-wide supreme dictator?But, truly, if the job was offered, would you take it?"
"Good heavens," Patricia said disgustedly, "remind me to break off ourengagement if I haven't already done it. I hate overpowering men. AllI'm saying is that we'll have to give Don at least a week. One day isn'tenough."
Dr. Braun cocked his head to one side and said uncomfortably, "I'm notsure but that in a week's time our friend Don might be able.... Seehere, Don, do you mind going on down to the hotel's bar while we threetalk this through?"
Crowley obviously took umbrage at that, but there was nothing to bedone. Frowning peevishly, he left.
The doctor looked from one to the other of his associates. "By Caesar,do you realize the damage friend Don could accomplish in a week's time?"
Patricia laughed at him. "That's what I keep telling the two of you. Doyou realize the damage _any_ person could do with invisibility? Not tospeak of giving it to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world."
Ross said, "We've started this, lets go through with it. I back Pat'ssuggestion, that we give Don sufficient serum to give him twelve hoursof invisibility a day for a full week. However, we will ration it out tohim day by day, so that if things get out of hand we can cut hissupply."
"That's an idea," Patricia said. "And I suspect that within half theperiod we'll all be convinced that the process will have to besuppressed."
Ross leaned forward. "Good. I suggest we three keep this suite and getDon a room elsewhere, so he won't be inhibited by our continualpresence. Once a day we'll give him enough serum for one shot and he cantake it any time he wishes to." He ran his beefy hand back through hisred crew cut in a gesture of satisfaction. "If he seems to get out ofhand, we'll call it all off."
Dr. Braun cleared his throat unhappily. "I have premonitions ofdisaster, but I suppose if we've come this far we should see theexperiment through."
Patricia said ungraciously, "At least the lout will be limited in hisaccomplishments by his lack of imagination. Imagine going into thatFrench girl's dressing room."
"Yeah," Ross said ludicrously trying to make his big open face lookdreamy.
"You wretch," Patricia laughed. "The wedding is off!"
* * * * *
But Crowley was no lout. He was full of the folk wisdom of his people.
_God helps those who help themselve
s._
_It's each man for himself and the devil take the hindmost._
Not to speak of.
_Never give a sucker an even break._
_If I didn't do it, somebody else would._
Had he been somewhat more of a student he might also have run into thatnugget of the ancient Greek. _Morals are the invention of the weak toprotect themselves from the strong._
Once convinced that the three eggheads were incapable of realizing thepotentialities of their discovery, he had little difficulty in arguinghimself into the stand that he should. It helped considerably to