Short Fiction by Mack Reynolds (ready to read books .TXT) 📕

the other two. “If you think it’s the patriotic thing to do, why don’t one of you sell it to the government?”

Patricia said testily, “You don’t understand, Don. Even if we were so thoroughly in disagreement that we would act unilaterally, we couldn’t. You see, this is a three-way discovery. No one of us knows the complete process.”

His face twisted. “Look, maybe some of this egghead stuff doesn’t get through to me but I’m not stupid, see? You got the stuff, haven’t you? You gave me that shot this morning.”

Braun took over, saying reasonably, “Don, this discovery was hit upon by accident. The three of us are employed in the laboratories of a medical research organization. I am the department head. Patricia and Ross were doing some routine work on a minor problem when they separately stumbled upon some rather startling effects, practically at the same time. Each, separately, brought their discoveries to me, and, working you might say intuitively, I added some conclusions of my own, and⁠ ⁠… well, I repeat, the discovery was stumbled upon.”

Crowley assimilated that. “None of you knows how to do it, make those injections like, by himself?”

“That is correct. Each knows just one phase of the process. Each must combine with the other two.”

Patricia said impatiently, “And thus far we wish to keep it that way. Rossie believes the discovery should be simultaneously revealed on a worldwide basis, and let man adapt to it as best he can. I think it should be suppressed until man has grown up a little⁠—if he ever does. The doctor vacillates between the two positions. What he would truly like to see, is the method kept only for the use of qualified scientists, but even our good doctor realizes what a dream that is.”

Crowley took them all in, one at a time. “Well, what the devil are you going to do?”

“That’s a good question,” Ross said unhappily.

“This experiment was a farce,” Patricia said irritably. “After all our trouble locating Don, our Common Man, we have found out nothing that we didn’t know before. His reactions were evidently largely similar to our own and.⁠ ⁠…” She broke it off and frowned thoughtfully. The other three looked at her questioningly.

Patricia said, “You know, we simply haven’t seen this thing through as yet.”

“What do you mean, Pat?” Ross growled.

She turned to him. “We haven’t given Don the chance to prove which one of us is right. One day is insufficient. Half the things he wished to do, such as sneaking around picking up stock tips in Wall Street and inside information on sporting events.⁠ ⁠…”

“Hey, take it easy,” Crowley protested. “I was just, like, curious.”

Ross said heatedly, “That’s not fair. I’ll admit, I, too, thought of exactly the same possibilities. But thinking about them and going through with them are different things. Haven’t you ever thought about what you’d do if given the chance to be worldwide supreme dictator? But, truly, if the job was offered, would you take it?”

“Good heavens,” Patricia said disgustedly, “remind me to break off our engagement if I haven’t already done it. I hate overpowering men. All I’m saying is that we’ll have to give Don at least a week. One day isn’t enough.”

Dr. Braun cocked his head to one side and said uncomfortably, “I’m not sure but that in a week’s time our friend Don might be able.⁠ ⁠… See here, Don, do you mind going on down to the hotel’s bar while we three talk this through?”

Crowley obviously took umbrage at that, but there was nothing to be done. Frowning peevishly, he left.

The doctor looked from one to the other of his associates. “By Caesar, do you realize the damage friend Don could accomplish in a week’s time?”

Patricia laughed at him. “That’s what I keep telling the two of you. Do you realize the damage any person could do with invisibility? Not to speak of giving it to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the world.”

Ross said, “We’ve started this, lets go through with it. I back Pat’s suggestion, that we give Don sufficient serum to give him twelve hours of invisibility a day for a full week. However, we will ration it out to him day by day, so that if things get out of hand we can cut his supply.”

“That’s an idea,” Patricia said. “And I suspect that within half the period we’ll all be convinced that the process will have to be suppressed.”

Ross leaned forward. “Good. I suggest we three keep this suite and get Don a room elsewhere, so he won’t be inhibited by our continual presence. Once a day we’ll give him enough serum for one shot and he can take it any time he wishes to.” He ran his beefy hand back through his red crew cut in a gesture of satisfaction. “If he seems to get out of hand, we’ll call it all off.”

Dr. Braun cleared his throat unhappily. “I have premonitions of disaster, but I suppose if we’ve come this far we should see the experiment through.”

Patricia said ungraciously, “At least the lout will be limited in his accomplishments by his lack of imagination. Imagine going into that French girl’s dressing room.”

“Yeah,” Ross said ludicrously trying to make his big open face look dreamy.

“You wretch,” Patricia laughed. “The wedding is off!”

But Crowley was no lout. He was full of the folk wisdom of his people.

God helps those who help themselves.

It’s each man for himself and the devil take the hindmost.

Not to speak of.

Never give a sucker an even break.

If I didn’t do it, somebody else would.

Had he been somewhat more of a student he might also have run into that nugget of the ancient Greek. Morals are the invention of the weak to protect themselves from the strong.

Once convinced that the three eggheads were incapable of realizing the potentialities of their discovery, he had little difficulty in arguing himself into the stand that he should. It helped considerably to realize that in all the world only four persons, including himself, were aware