"Then how about giving me your full cooperation until we--you, I, your
uncles--are all safely out of this?"
"At the moment," Jill observed, "I don't appear to have a choice in the
matter."
"I don't mean that. The drug will wear off in a few hours. You'll be
able to move around freely again, and whether you cooperate or not
will depend on you. How will you feel about it then?"
"That depends," Jill said, "on whether we have reached an agreement."
"Agreement about what?"
"A price for your silence, and for any assistance you can give in
keeping things quiet. You can, of course, set the price as high as you
wish. Terra will meet it."
Dowland stared at her, somewhat astounded. It was as cold-blooded an
attempt at bargaining as he'd run into, considering the circumstances.
And--considering an I.Q. of 181--it seemed rather unrealistic. "Miss
Trelawney," he said, "the only thing silence might get me is a
twenty-year stretch in an IPA pen. I'm not quite that foolish."
"You're also not aware of the true situation."
"All right," Dowland said, "what is it?"
"Miguel and Paul have earned the right to carry out the first of these
tests. They may not complete it. But duplicates of their machine in
the laboratory are concealed about the planet, waiting to be put into
action by other teams of Freeholder scientists. You see? The tests will
be continued until any problems connected with shifting back through
time are recognized and overcome."
Dowland said, "Then why is the entire haul of YM stacked away in the
laboratory here?"
"Because that's where it's to be used at present. You still don't
understand the extent of this operation, Dowland. If we need more of
the Overgovernment's YM, we'll simply take it. It can be done at any
time. The only way the Overgovernment could really prevent future raids
would be by destroying its supplies of YM-400. And it isn't going to do
that--at least not before we've obtained as much as we can use."
* * * * *
As far as his own information went, she could be right, Dowland
thought. He said, "So supposing some Freeholder scientists do succeed
eventually in traveling back in time. What will that accomplish?"
"Everything we want, of course," Jill said. "There'll be no more
reason to conceal our activities--and we'll have _time_. As much
time as we need. Thirty or fifty years perhaps. Scientific centers
and automatic factories will be set up in the past, and eventually
the factories will be turning out weapons superior to anything the
Overgovernment has. And then the weapons will come to the present--to
_this_ present, Dowland. Within a year from now, Terra will have
become a heavily armed world--overnight. There'll be no more talk then
of forcing us to remain under Overgovernment rule. Or of making Terra
another Open Planet...."
Theoretically, Dowland could see that such a plan might work. With the
time to do it in, and the resources of a world at the Freeholders'
disposal ... and there would be nothing to keep them from taking back
spaceships and mining the asteroids. For a moment, while Jill Trelawney
was talking, she had made it sound almost plausible.
Only for a moment. She was, of course, telling the truth as she knew
it. They were up to something very dangerous--and very illegal--here,
whatever it was, and they'd spread the time-travel idea around
among the lesser members of the group to help keep the real purpose
concealed. He said, "Just how far back in time are they planning to go,
Miss Trelawney?"
"Six hundred thousand years. The period is regarded as particularly
suitable for what is being planned."
Six hundred thousand years. Nothing half-hearted about the Freeholders,
Dowland thought sardonically, even as to the size of the lies they put
out. "When you waved me in here this evening," he said, "I had the
impression you were expecting someone else. Was I right?"
"Yes. But I wasn't waving you in, Dowland. I was attempting to wave you
off. If you'd been the man I thought it was, you would have realized
it.... Have you considered my suggestion?"
"About selling out to the Freeholders?"
"If you wish to call it that."
"Miss Trelawney," Dowland said amiably, "if I did sell out, would you
admire me for it?"