PAGE 15
Anchorite
by
“This anchor-setting technique was worked out at a time when the Belt Companies were trying to find ways to make the Belt self-sufficient. After they got the technique worked out so that it operated smoothly, the death rate dropped ‘way down. It stayed down for a little while, and then began to rise again. It has nearly reached an all-time high. Obviously, something is wrong, and we have to find out what it is.”
Danley scratched ruminatively behind his right ear and wished he’d had the opportunity to study history. He had been vaguely aware, of the broad outlines, but the details had never been brought to his attention before. “Suppose Alhamid is trying to hide something,” he said after a moment. “What would it be, do you think?”
Tarnhorst shrugged and spread his hands. “What could it be but some sort of money-saving scheme? Inferior materials being used at a critical spot, perhaps. Skimping on quality or quantity. Somewhere, somehow, they are shaving costs at the risk of the workers’ lives. We have to find out what it is.”
Peter Danley nodded. You don’t mean “we,” Danley thought to himself. I am the one who’s going to have to go out there and find it, while you sit here safe. He felt that there was a pretty good chance that these Belt operators might kill him to keep him from finding out what it was they were saving money on.
Aloud, he said: “I’ll do what I can, Mr. Tarnhorst.”
Tarnhorst smiled. “I’m certain you will. That’s why I needed someone who knows more about this business than I.”
“And when we do find it–what then?”
“Then? Why, then we will force them to make the proper changes or there will be trouble.”
* * * * *
Georges Alhamid heard the whole conversation early the next morning. The governor himself brought the recording over to his office.
“Do you think he knew he was being overheard?”
The governor shrugged. “Who knows. He waltzed all around what he was trying to say, but that may have been just native caution. Or he may not want Danley to know what’s on his mind.”
“How could he bring Danley out here without telling him anything beforehand?” Alhamid asked thoughtfully. “Is Danley really that ignorant, or was the whole conversation for our ears?”
“I’m inclined to think that Danley really didn’t know. Remember, George, the best way to hold down the ones below you is to keep them from gaining any knowledge, to keep data out of their hands–except for the carefully doctored data you want them to have.”
“I know,” Alhamid said. “History isn’t exactly a popular subject on Earth.” He tapped his fingers gently on the case of the playback and looked at it as if he were trying to read the minds of the persons who had spoken the words he had just heard.
“I really think he believed that his nullifying equipment was doing its job,” the governor continued. “He wouldn’t have any way of knowing we could counteract it.”
Alhamid shrugged. “It doesn’t matter much. We still have to assume that he’s primarily out to bring the Belt Cities under Earth control. To do that, all he’d have to do is find something that could be built up into a scandal on Earth.”
“Not, all, George,” the governor said. “It would take a lot more than that alone. But it would certainly be a start in the right direction.”
“One thing we do know,” Alhamid said, “is that nobody on Earth will allow any action against the Belt unless popular sentiment is definitely against us. As long as we are apparently right-thinking people, we’re all right. I wonder why Tarnhorst is so anxious to get us under the thumb of the People’s Congress? Is it purely that half-baked idealism of his?”