Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from Fantastic Universe March 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
the psilent partner
by ... Edward S. Staub and John Victor Peterson
A pstrange probing mind that crossed pstate lines, thepseas, even high in the psky—to bring psomething new toWall Pstreet.
He had never cast his consciousness so far before. It floated highabove New York, perceiving in the noonday sky the thin, faint crescentof a waning moon. He wondered if one day he might cast his mind evento the moon, knew with a mounting exultation that his powers werealready great enough.
Yet he was as afraid to launch it on that awesome transit as he stillwas to send it delving into the tight subway tunnels in the rock ofManhattan. Phobias were too real now. Perhaps it would be differentlater....
He was young, as a man, younger as a recognized developing psi. Ashis consciousness floated there above the bustling city, exultant,free, it sensed that back where his body lay a bell was ringing. Andthe bell meant it—his consciousness—must return now to thatbody....
Dale V. Lawrence needed a lawyer urgently. Not that he hadn't a scoreof legal minds at his disposal; a corporation president must maintaina sizable legal staff. You can't build an industrial empire withouttreading on people's toes. And you need lawyers when you tread.
He sat behind his massive mahogany desk, a stocky, slightly-balding,stern-looking man of middle age who was psychosomatically creatinganother ulcer as he worried about the business transaction which hecould not handle personally because of the ulcer operation he wasabout to have. Neither the business transaction nor the operationcould be delayed.
He needed a particularly clever lawyer, one not connected with thecorporation. Not that he had committed or that he contemplatedcommitting a crime. But the eyes of the law and the minds of the psisof the government's Business Ethics Bureau were equally keen. Anyonein the business of commercially applied atomics was automatically andimmediately investigated in any proposed transaction as soon as BEBhad knowledge thereof. There was still the fear that someone somewheremight attempt, secretly, to build a war weapon again.
Lawrence had an idea, a great, burning, impossible-to-discard idea.Lawrence Applied Atomics, Inc., had been his first great idea—theidea that had made him a multi-millionaire. But through some deviousfinancing he had lost control of the corporation. And although hisideas invariably realized millions, the other major stockholders werebecoming cautious about risking their profits. Overly cautious, hethought. And on this new idea he knew they would never support him.They'd consider it a wild risk. He could blame BEB with its psis forthat. BEB was too inquisitive. A business man just couldn't take adecent gamble any longer.
The real estate firm in Los Angeles was secretly securing options from