Auberson and Handley exchanged a glance. What the hell—?
Krofft was saying, “Oh, I understand. Yes, I won’t mention HARLIE to anyone.”
“Fine, fine. Um—” Dome looked momentarily at a loss. “If you want to leave now, Dr. Krofft—”
“I’d rather not,” said Krofft. “As the second largest stockholder of Stellar-American shares, I think I have the right to sit in on this meeting.”
“Yes, well — there’s only one matter left to take care of, and that’s the vote. Uh, Carl, did you want to say something before we…” He trailed off.
Elzer didn’t look well. He levered himself up in his seat. “I—” He was suddenly aware of Auberson’s curious stare and broke off. He mumbled, “I was only concerned about HARLIE’s validity, and this seems to confirm it. I don’t have anything else to say — uh, I still have some personal doubts about the G.O.D. Proposal, but uh, they’re personal. I — oh, never mind.” He sank down again in his chair.
Auberson stared, totally confused. He leaned toward Handley. “Do you know what’s going on?”
“Uh uh — not unless someone slipped him a mickey.” Dome looked around the table. “Well, then, if there’s no further discussion, let’s bring it to a vote.” He glanced at a note before him, then said, “I’d like to add a comment of my own here… I think that both Auberson and Handley, and also HARLIE, have done fine jobs on this proposal. Ah, I think they deserve a vote of thanks and perhaps, ah, a handsome bonus for their work on this theoretical problem. We have, ah, proved that HARLIE is a worthwhile tool. He can be used for designing new projects, or just for working out scientific theories; he’s demonstrated a range of abilities all the way from the theoretical to the technical, and he’s more than proven his value.
“For that reason, I would like to separate the two issues here into two votes. We know that we want to keep HARLIE on our corporate team. However, this, ah, G.O.D. Proposal is something we all want to take a little better look at.”
Handley whispered to Auberson, “Watch out, here it comes.”
“While the proposal is not in itself ill-conceived, the monetary picture for this company is simply not such that we can embark on a program of this scale at this time. Therefore, I want to recommend that we—”
Krofft stood up. “Hold on a minute, there—”
“I — I beg your pardon?”
“Mr. Chairman, you are not playing fair!”
“I don’t understand what you—”
“You know damn well what I mean, you mealy-mouthed oaf! Stop changing the rules of the game to suit yourself; it ain’t fair to the other players. You started this clambake with a single proposition on the table. Let’s play it that way: Either HARLIE’s worth his resistors and the G.O.D. is practical, or HARLIE isn’t worth the trouble to scrap him and the G.O.D. is a waste of time. The stakes were all or nothing.”
“I — I—” said Dome.
“Shut up! I’m not through. Now that Auberson here has proven his point, proven that his computer can jump through your hoops, you’re still trying to cut the rug out from under him—”
“It’s just a simple parliamentary procedure,” said Dome. “Dividing the question; it’s perfectly legal—”
“Sure it’s legal,” said Krofft, “but it ain’t ethical. If we weren’t playing with your marbles, I’d say pick up and leave. You told Auberson it was an all-or-nothing game. Why aren’t you willing to stick by your own rules?”
Dome opened his mouth to speak, gasped like a fish out of water. Auberson stared at the both of them. It was almost too good to be true!
Dome regained some of his composure, then said, “This is a business corporation. We don’t gamble with all-or-nothing stakes.”
“That’s funny,” said Krofft. “It sure looked like it from where I sit. Would you like to trade places with me? Let me see if it looks any different from up there?”
“Huh?”
“Lessee, the next scheduled election of Directors ought to be in March, but I’ll bet they’d move it up for me if I asked. How many chairs around this table do you think twenty-four percent is worth?”
Dome swallowed loudly. “I — I can’t rightly say.”
“I can. At least one-fourth. That’s at least six seats. Hmm, and I think I know where I can scare up one or two more in addition to that—”
Handley whispered to Auberson, “What’s this all about?”
“It’s a one-man stockholders’ rebellion. Krofft owns twenty-four percent of Stellar-American. We’re a subsidiary of Stellar; that makes him twenty-four percent owner of us.”
“Yeah, but twenty-four percent isn’t a majority.”
“Shh! Maybe Dome doesn’t know that.”
Krofft was saying, “—when I invented the hyper-state process, I traded the patent on it to Stellar-American for a chunk of their stock. Plus options to buy more. You’d better believe Stellar was a small company then. Now it’s a big company, and I see a lot of fat-assed baboons shepherding my dollar bills around their tables.
“Idiots! I don’t care if that’s how you get your jollies — just don’t forget whose dollars those are. If it weren’t for my hyper-state layering techniques, there wouldn’t be any company here at all. And don’t think I can’t take back my patent. I can pull the rug out from under all of you! The deal was that the company gets the patent, I get unlimited research facilities. Up till now, it’s worked fine. All of a sudden you chuckleheads are trying to deprive me of one of my research tools. That makes me unhappy — what makes me unhappy, makes the company unhappy. I need HARLIE. Period. HARLIE says he needs the G.O.D. He says it’s the other half of him. He says he won’t really be complete until it’s finished. He says it’ll make him a more valuable scientific tool. And he says if his financing proposals are followed, the company will be able to afford it. That’s all I need to know.
I’m ready to vote. Now, let’s see, if I can trade my 24 percent of each subsidiary for 96 percent of one—”
Dome sat down loudly. “You have made your point, Dr. Krofft.” He looked around the table at the other Directors. They seemed as stunned as he. “I — I think we’ll want to take this under consideration.”
“Consideration? Christ! Auberson tells me you’ve been considering it for a week now! What more do you need to know? The choice is simple: You vote yes on the G.O.D. or I’ll fire you.” He sat down in his chair and folded his arms.
Elzer had touched Dome on the arm and was whispering something to him. Dome shook his head. Elzer insisted. At last Dome relented and turned to the meeting. “All right, we vote.”
“Now that’s more like it.” Krofft nudged Auberson. “Now you see why I hate to leave my lab. It tires me out too much to have to do other people’s thinking for them.”
After that, it was all formalities, and even those didn’t take long. Auberson was flushed with exultation. He pounded Handley on the back and shook his hand and hollered a lot. Then he kissed Annie, a deep lasting kiss, and she was jumping up and down and yelling too, and all three of them were cheerfully, joyfully, wonderfully insane. Annie threw her arms around Krofft and kissed him too — and he surprised her by returning the kiss every bit as enthusiastically. When he let go, she said, “Whew.”
“Hey, now!” protested Auberson.
“It’s okay, son,” Krofft said, “a man has to keep in practice.”
Handley was grinning at his side. “Hey, Aubie, don’t you think someone should tell HARLIE?”
“Hey, that’s right! Don—”
“Uh uh. This one is your privilege.”
Auberson looked at Annie and Krofft. She was beaming at him. Krofft smiled too, revealing broken teeth, but a lot of good will.
“I’ll only take a minute.” He pushed through the milling Directors, shaking off their congratulations as meaningless, and made his way toward the console at the end of the room. It was already switched on.
HARLIE, he typed. WE’VE DONE IT!
THE G.O.D. PROPOSAL HAS BEEN PASSED? YES. WE’VE GOT FULL APPROVAL. WE CAN START IMPLEMENTING YOUR PLANS IMMEDIATELY.
HARLIE paused.