He had gone over his plan in detail, sketching out the whole thing. But the general, in particular, couldn't get it through his head that this whole dumping of manufactured goods wasn't a sinister scheme on the part of the Kremlin. .
"Look," Mike had said at one point. "For half a century the world has been in the Second Industrial Revolution. The revolution of the computer and automated factories. Man's age-old problem has finally been solved- the production of sufficient food, clothing and shelter, medical needs and education for everyone. Different groups accomplished it by somewhat different methods -the United States and the Soviet Complex, Mexico and Sweden, Japan and Brazil, Yugoslavia and Israel-but at this stage, it's been achieved by just about all."
The general had huffed, "But with that prime ingredient, freedom in the West."
Mike nodded. "Correct, but let's not read into that term more than is there It means various things and sometimes one man's freedom isn't another man's definition of it. Remember when we were using it most often at the height of the Cold War? The so-called 'free world' included Saudi-Arabia, Spain, Portugal, Formosa, South Korea and South Vietnam. Evidently, a country was 'free' simply because it was on our side, rather than with the Russkies. Actually freedom is never complete. Every society puts restrictions on the freedom of its people. The moment there is more than one person in a society, there are restrictions on the freedom of each individual. But that's not the important point. The thing is that even in those Cold War days everything was in a condition of flux. Scientific discoveries, breakthroughs in medicine, population explosion, fantastic industrial boom. And, above all, changes in society. The governments of every major nation on Earth were in a state of change."
Lawrence Bigelow had cleared his throat at that point and Mike turned on him.
"Who would contend that the administrations following Nixon were the same type of government as the administration of, say, Hoover? True enough we retained the outer symbols of classical capitalist democracy, but the inner changes taking place were fantastic."
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"Ummm," the President said. "I was talking to the British Ambassador just the other day. He pointed out that Her Majesty's, government has seen many changes in the past half century. What is called a Conservative today would have been considered a flame-snorting, left-wing Laborite before. The so-called Welfare State has developed far beyond the point ever dreamed of by the Mid Fabian Socialists. But, I must say, the changes taking place on the Soviet side are just as shaking."
"That's the point," Mike said, glad to see he was evidently winning Thomas Clark over. "The Russia of Stalin had little resemblance to that of Lenin. But the Russia of Khrushchev evolved even more. Nikita was hard put to run fast enough with those chubby short legs of his, to keep out in front of his rapidly changing politico-economic system, his developing New Class. And after Khrushchev? Well, the Old Bolshevik, complete with a bomb in one hand and a copy-of the Communist Manifesto in his hip pocket, just had no place in the new Soviet Complex; he was as extinct as the economic Robber Baron of the American Nineteenth Century."
"What are you getting at?" the general had growled.
Mike laid it on the line. "If we're going to survive in this continuing battle for men's minds, we've got to recognize the changes that have taken place and are taking place. Recognize them and adapt to them. If we can do this better than the Russkies, then we'll have a considerable advantage. As it is now, they're as befuddled about us as we are about them."
At the end they had wound up giving him carte blanche for all practical purposes. Frank Jones was assigned to be his assistant and his liaison man with the Bureau of International Investigation through which all funding would go, secretly. Mike Edwards was granted an annual salary of $35,000 and Jones $25,000; a considerably larger amount than either had ever expected to earn. Mike was to make his reports through Bigelow to the President, and they were to be kept to a minimum, for the sake of as tight security as they could manage. The President was to keep in touch with General Mac-Henry, .the sole NATO representative to be in on the secret.
Chapter XIV
The initial meeting with the President, Bigelow and General MacHenry had taken a full six hours. Mike Edwards was exhausted by the time he and Frank had returned to their suite. All of his instincts were to flop immediately into bed. But time was the important thing at this stage of the game. He had won every point. They had conceded him his whole program. Now .he had to put up or shut up.
He sat down in the living room, took a deep breath and said, "All right. Pull up a drink, assistant, and start assisting."
Frank Jones went over to the small bar, fished around in the refrigerator and came up with a bottle of Tabor beer. He popped the cork, poured the brew into a pewter tankard, whilst saying, "Now that I'm rich, I could afford more expensive beer, but the trouble is, this is the best brew going, no matter what you pay for it. The wealthy have their problems." He returned with the drink to sit across from Mike.
He said, "All right, shoot."
"Shoot it is," Mike said. "From now on in, I don't want to be seen either entering the White House or your Bureau of International Investigations. I'm still under wraps as far as they're concerned. Undercover.
I don't want some smart assed Russkie agent wondering about me and looking me up. So you'll do the legwork. Like Bigelow said, you're the liaison man."
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"Makes sense," Frank nodded, taking a plug at his beer.
Mike said, "First of all, I want an island where we can stash a half-dozen or so prominent men for a year or two. A place where they'll be under the tightest security. No communication with the mainland. The people who take care of them and maintain the security will also have no contact with the mainland. It will possibly be a little complicated to set up their supply system, but I'm sure you have people who can work out an arrangement."
Frank was staring at him. "Have you gone completely around the corner?" he demanded. "You can't do that in a democracy. Besides, why?"
"You'll see later," Mike told him. "Yes, you can do it in a democracy. I didn't say we were going to kidnap them. It'll be voluntary on their part. We'll offer them money. All the money they want."
"Offer who money, for Christ's sakes?"
"That brings us to the second of the things I need done. I want you to round up for me the dozen or so most celebrated scholars of comparative religion in this country. Just to be sure they'll come, you might get letters off to them from the White House, signed by the President. A request that they come to Greater Washington for an interview."
"What in the hell"
Mike went over to the bar and poured himself a snifter glass of the stone age cognac there, and returned with it to his seat
"Then I want a seminary," he said.
"A seminary?"
"Yes, or some complex of buildings that can be quickly converted into one. A religious school, in short.
And it'll have to be big enough for several hundred students. Stock its library with all sorts of religious crap. All sorts. Every religion."
He thought about it. "Oh, yeah. One other thing you better get to work on. I assume you've got Number One Priority in the National Data Banks?"
"I can get it through the Chief," Jones said.
"All right. Possibly this will take some time. I want to have the computers go through the dossiers of every man and woman in the country between the ages of twenty-five and forty. First pull all those who speak and read and write Russian, and the various other languages spoken in the Soviet Complex."
Frank looked his dismay and took down half of what remained of his beer "There'll be millions of them.