his place in Peiping.That absolves both us and the Chinese Government of any complicity. Wesave face for them, and they save face for us. Since he turned up here,in the States, it's obvious that he couldn't have been in China." Hechuckled, but there was no mirth in it. "So the cold war stillcontinues. We know what they did, and--in a way--they know what we did.But not how we did it."
The senator looked at the other two men who were with him on the fifthfloor office of the _Society for Mystical and Metaphysical Research_.Taggert was relaxing on his couch, and Spencer Candron, just out of thehospital, looked rather pale as he sat in the big, soft chair thatTaggert had provided.
The senator looked at Candron. "The thing I don't understand is, why wasit necessary to knock out Ch'ien? He'll have a sore jaw for weeks. Whydidn't you just tell him who you were and what you were up to?"
Candron glanced at Taggert, but Taggert just grinned and nodded.
"We couldn't allow that," said Candron, looking at Senator Kerotski."Dr. James Ch'ien has too much of a logical, scientific mind for that.We'd have ruined him if he'd seen me in action."
The senator looked a little surprised. "Why? We've convinced otherscientists that they were mistaken in their observations. Why notCh'ien?"
"Ch'ien is too good a scientist," Candron said. "He's not the type whowould refuse to believe something he saw simply because it didn't agreewith his theories. Ch'ien is one of those dangerous in-betweens. He'stoo brilliant to be allowed to go to waste, and, at the same time, toorigid to change his manner of thinking. If he had seen me teleport orlevitate, he wouldn't reject it--he'd try to explain it. And that wouldhave effectively ruined him."
"Ruined him?" The senator looked a little puzzled.
Taggert raised his heavy head from the couch. "Sure, Leo," he said tothe senator. "Don't you see? We _need_ Ch'ien on this interstellarproject. He absolutely _must_ dope out the answer somehow, and no oneelse can do it as quickly."
"With the previous information," the senator said, "we would have beenable to continue."
"Yeah?" Taggert said, sitting up. "Has anyone been able to dope outFermat's Last Theorem without Fermat? No. So why ruin Ch'ien?"
"It would ruin him," Candron broke in, before the senator could speak."If he saw, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that levitation andteleportation were possible, he would have accepted his own senses asusable data on definite phenomena. But, limited as he is by hisscientific outlook, he would have tried to evolve a scientific theory toexplain what he saw. What else could a scientist _do_?"
Senator Kerotski nodded, and his nod said: "I see. He would havediverted his attention from the field of the interstellar drive to thefield of psionics. And he would have wasted years trying to explain aninherently nonlogical area of knowledge by logical means."
"That's right," Candron said. "We would have set him off on a wild goosechase, trying to solve the problems of psionics by the scientific, thelogical, method. We would have presented him with an unsolvableproblem."
Taggert patted his knees. "We would have given him a problem that hecould not solve with the methodology at hand. It would be as though wehad proved to an ancient Greek philosopher that the cube _could_ bedoubled, and then allowed him to waste his life trying to do it with astraight-edge and compass."
"We know Ch'ien's psychological pattern," Candron continued. "He's notcapable of admitting that there is any other thought pattern than thelogical. He would try to solve the problems of psionics by logicalmethods, and would waste the rest of his life trying to do theimpossible."
The senator stroked his chin. "That's clear," he said at last. "Well, itwas worth a cracked jaw to save him. We've given him a perfectly logicalexplanation of his rescue and, simultaneously, we've put the Chinesegovernment into absolute confusion. They have no idea of how you got outof there, Candron."
"That's not as important as saving Ch'ien," Candron said.
"No," the senator said quickly, "of course not. After all, the Secretaryof Research needs Dr. Ch'ien--the man's important."
Spencer Candron smiled. "I agree. He's practically indispensable--asmuch as a man can be."
"He's the Secretary's right hand man," said Taggert firmly.
THE END
+--------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note and Errata | | | | This etext was produced from Astounding Science Fiction, | | February 1960. Extensive research did not uncover any | | evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was | | renewed. | | | | One instance each of 'secondhand' and 'second-hand' occur in | | the text. | +--------------------------------------------------------------+
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