PAGE 5
The Leader
by
He is uneasy at the attention he attracts, perhaps because his father was one of The Leader’s secretaries and was executed, it is presumed, for knowing too much. Telegraph me if you wish me to try to bring him to you.
Your friend–
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Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, Professor of Psychology at Laibach University, to Professor Albrecht Aigen, in care of The Mathematical Institute at Bozen:
Take tapes which produced answers Schweeringen predicted. Run them through computer when he knows nothing of it. Wire result.
Thurn.
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Telegram. Professor Albrecht Aigen, at The Mathematical Institute in Bozen, to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
How did you know? The tapes do not give the same answers when run through the computer without Schweeringen’s knowledge. The only possible answer is that the computer sometimes errs to match his predictions. But this is more impossible than precognition. This is beyond the conceivable. It cannot be! What now?
Aigen.
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Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach, to Professor Albrecht Aigen, care Mathematical Institute, Bozen.
Naturally I suspect psi. He belongs with my rat and she-dog. Try to arrange it.
Thurn.
* * * * *
Telegram from Professor Albrecht Aigen, Mathematical Institute, Bozen, to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
Schweeringen refuses further tests. Fears proof he causes malfunctioning of computer will cause unemployment here and may destroy all hope of hoped-for career in mathematics.
Aigen.
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Telegram from Professor Albrecht Aigen, at Mathematical Institute, to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
Terrible news. Riding bus to Institute this morning, Schweeringen was killed when bus was involved in accident.
Aigen.
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Telegram from Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach, to Professor Albrecht Aigen, care Mathematical Institute, Bozen.
Deeply regret death Schweeringen. When you come here please try to bring all known family history. Psi ability sometimes inherited. Could be tie-in his father’s execution and use of psi ability.
Thurn.
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Letter from Professor Albrecht Aigen, at Brunn University, to Dr. Karl Thurn, University of Laibach.
My dear Karl:
I have first to thank you for your warm welcome and to express my gratitude for your attention while I was your guest. Since my return I have written many inquiries about Schweeringen’s father. There are so far no replies, but I have some hope that people who will not tell of their own experiences may tell about someone else–especially someone now dead. This may be a useful device to get at least some information from people who so far have refused any. Naturally I will pass on to you anything I learn.
I try to work again upon the task assigned me–to investigate the rise and power of The Leader. I find it hard to concentrate. My mind goes back to your laboratory. I am deeply shaken by my experience there. I had thought nothing could be more bewildering than my own work. Consider: Today I received a letter in which a man tells me amazedly of the life he led in a slave-labor camp during the time of The Leader’s rule. He describes the attempt of another prisoner to organize a revolt of the prisoners. While he spoke of the brutality of the guards and the intolerably hard labor and the deliberately insufficient food, they cheered him. But when he accused The Leader of having ordered these things–the prisoners fell upon him with cries of fury. They killed him. I had this information verified. It was true.