"How long will it take?" He looked at his watch; it was a little past 2100.
"We have been over this before and discussing it again will not change any of the factors." Eigg's voice was distant as he removed the tiny plate and began to examine the machine's interior with a magnifying probe. "I have experimented on the two stolen teddy tapes, carefully timing myself at every step. I do not count removal or restoration of the tape, this is just a few minutes for each. The tracking and altering of the tape in both instances took me under ten hours. My best time differed from my worst time by less than fifteen minutes, which is not significant. We can therefore safely say— ahh…" He was silent for a moment while he removed the capsule of the memory spools."… We can safely say that this is a ten-hour operation."
"That is too long. The boy is usually awake by seven, we must have the teddy back by then. He must never suspect that it has been away."
"There is little risk; you can give him some excuse for the time. I will not rush and spoil the work. Now be silent."
The two governmental specialists could only sit back and watch while Eigg inserted the capsule into the bulky machine he had assembled in the room. This was not their specialty.
"Let me go…" the tiny voice said from the wall speaker, then was interrupted by a burst of static. "Let me go… bzzzzzt. . no, no Davy, Mummy wouldn't like you to do that. . fork in left, knife in right. . bzzzt… if you do you'll have to wipe. . good boy good boy good boy…"
The voice squeaked and whispered and went on and the hours of the clock went by one by one. Numen brought in coffee more than once and towards dawn Torrence fell asleep sitting up in the chair, only to awake with a guilty start. Of them all Eigg alone showed no strain nor fatigue, working the controls with fingers regular as a metronome. The reedy voice from the capsule shrilled thinly through the night like the memory of a ghost.
"It is done," Eigg said, scaling the fabric with quick surgeon's stitches.
"Your fastest time ever," Numen sighed with relief. He glanced at the nursery viewscreen that showed his son, still asleep, starkly clear in the harsh infrared light.
"And the boy is still asleep. There will be no problem getting it back after all. But is the tape. .?"
"It is right, perfect, you heard that. You asked the questions and heard the answers. I have concealed all traces of the alteration and unless you know what to look for you would never find the changes. In every other way the memory and instructions are like all others. There has just been this single change made."
"Pray God we never have to use it," Numen said.
"I did not know that you were religious," Eigg said, turning to look at him, his face expressionless. The magnifying loupe was still in his eye and it stared, five times the size of its fellow, a large and probing questioner.
"I'm not," Numen said, flushing.
"We must get the teddy back," Torrence broke in. "The boy just moved."
Davy was a good boy and, when he grew older, a good student in school. Even after he began classes he kept Teddy around and talked to him while he did his homework.
"How much is seven and five, Teddy?"
The furry toy bear rolled its eyes and clapped stub paws. "Davy knows. . shouldn't ask Teddy what Davy knows…"
"Sure I know — I just wanted to see if you did. The answer is thirteen."
"Davy. . the answer is twelve. . you better study harder Davy. . that's what Teddy says…"
"Fooled you!" Davy laughed. "Made you tell me the answer!" He was learning ways to get around the robot controls, permanently fixed to answer the question of a smaller child. Teddies have the vocabulary and outlook of the very young because their job must be done during the formative years. Teddies teach diction and life history and morals and group adjustment and vocabulary and grammar and all the other things that enable men to live together as social animals. A teddy's job is done early in the most plastic stages of a child's life, and by the very nature of its task its conversation must be simple and limited. But effective. By the time teddies are discarded as childish toys the job is done.
By the time Davy became David and was eighteen years old, Teddy had long since been retired behind a row of shelves on a high shelf. He was an old friend who had outgrown his useful days, but he was still a friend and certainly couldn't be discarded. Not that David ever thought of it that way. Teddy was just Teddy and that was that. The · nursery was now a study, his cot a bed and with his birthday past David was packing because he was going away to the university. He was sealing his bag when the phone bleeped and he saw his father's tiny image on the screen.
"David. ."
"What is it, Father?"
"Would you mind coming down to the library now. There is something rather important…"
David squinted at the screen and noticed for the first time that his father's face had a pinched, sick look. His heart gave a quick jump.
"I'll be right there!"
Dr. Eigg was there, arms crossed and sitting almost at attention. So was Torrence, his father's oldest friend, who, though no relation, David had always called Uncle Torrence. And his father, obviously ill at ease about something. David came in quietly, conscious of all their eyes upon him as he crossed the room and took a chair. He was a lot like his father, with the same build and height, a relaxed, easy-to-know boy with very few problems in life.
"Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Not wrong, Davy," his father said. He must be upset, David thought, he hasn't called me that in years. "Or rather something is wrong, but with the state of the world, and has been for a long time."
"Oh, the Panstentialists," David said, and relaxed a little. He had been hearing about the evils of panstentialism as long as he could remember. It was just politics; he had been thinking something very personal was wrong.
"Yes, Davy, I imagine you know all about them by now. When your mother and I separated I promised to raise you to the best of my ability and I think I have. But I'm a governor and all my friends work in government so Fm sure you have heard a lot of political talk in this house. You know our feelings and I think you share them."
"I do — and I think I would have no matter where I grew up. Pan-stentialism is an oppressing philosophy and one that perpetuates itself in power."
"Exactly. And one man, Barre, is at the heart of it. He stays in the seat of power and will not relinquish it and, with the rejuvenation treatments, will be good for a hundred years more."
"Barre must go!" Eigg snapped. "For twenty-three years now he has ruled and forbidden the continuation of my experiments. Young man, he has stopped my work for a longer time than you have been alive, do you realize that?"
David nodded, but did not comment. What little he had read about Dr. Eigg's proposed researches into behavioral human embryology had repelled him and, secretly, he was in agreement with Barre's ban on the work. But on this only, he was truly in agreement with his father: Panstentialism was a heavy and dusty hand on the world of politics— as well as the world at large.
"Fm not speaking only for myself," Numen said, his face white and strained, "but for everyone in the world and the system who is against Barre and his philosophies. I have not held a government position for over twenty years — nor has Torrence here — but I think he'll agree that is a small thing. If this was a service to the people we would gladly suffer it. Or if our persecution was the only negative result of Barre's evil works I would do nothing to stop him."
"I am in complete agreement," Torrence nodded. "The fate of two men is of no importance in comparison with the fate of us all. Nor is the fate of one man."
"Exactly!" Numen sprang to his feet and began to pace agitatedly up and down the room. "If that wasn't true, wasn't the heart of the problem, I would never consider being involved. There would be no problem if Barre suffered a heart attack and fell dead tomorrow."