F. Wilson: Wheels Within Wheels

Haas held up his hand. “I’ve thought of that and it’s all taken care of. If we get an initial flood of orders-and I’ve no doubt we will-we’ll be able to produce the subsequent gates at a lower price because we’ll be able to increase production scale.” He leaned back with a what-do-you-think-of-that?

look on his face.

“I figured on that,” Jo said. “But what about Star Ways?”

“What about it?”

“Competition. Star Ways is the biggest conglomerate in the galaxy and the individual warper is their meat-and-potatoes product. You don’t think they’re just going to sit still and let you make their primary product obsolete, do you? They’re going to cut their prices down-way down-until you fold. And when you go out of business, they’ll come along and buy up the rights to the warp gate. The royalties you’ll receive from them will give you enough money to last you three lifetimes, of course, but your company will be gone. IBA can prevent that from happening, or at least give SW a battle the likes of which it’s never seen.”

“No,” Haas said, shaking his head, “that will never happen. SW will never get the rights to the gate because I own them completely-completely. And I’ll never sell: I’m not after money … it’s something more than that. The warp gate is my life, I’ve worked on nothing else for as long as I can remember. Only recently have I been able to devote my full time to it, but it has been with me always. I’ve worked as an engineer, an architect, even a technician when times weren’t so good, but I’ve always come home to the game. It’s part of me now … I would no sooner lease the gate to another company than I would lease my right arm to another man. The Haas company will only lease the rights from me and if the Haas company can’t sell the gate, no one will.”

Jo smiled inwardly. She wondered if deBloise was aware of Mr. Haas’s plans for his invention; this monomaniac was just asking for financial ruin.

“I wonder what your backers would say if they knew this?” she asked.

“They know and they’re with me one hundred percent!”

Jo was taken aback by this statement; it didn’t make sense.

“And just who are your backers?”

“I can’t tell you. It seems they wish to remain anonymous which is strange, but none of my concern.

I’ve searched long and hard to find men with vision such as these. We are in complete accord and everything is legal so I really don’t care if they want to remain anonymous.” He rose. “And now I must get back to my work. But I do want to thank you for stopping in; I’ve had the utmost confidence in the gate but you’ve managed to boost it even higher.”

“How’s that?” Jo asked, puzzled.

“I was, at first, a little surprised that you knew about the gate but then I realized that IBA has far-reaching contacts. The fact that you were interested enough in the gate to come here and try to get ‘in on the kill’ is proof that its success is guaranteed. IBA rarely takes on losers.”

Jo was tempted to say that IBA had a reputation for turning losers into winners but decided it wasn’t worth the effort to explain. She merely shrugged. IBA could have done a lot for him but under no circumstances could she work with a man such as Haas. She merely shrugged and headed for the door.

“And there’s one thing you forgot,” Haas said with a gloat in his voice.

Jo gave him a questioning glance.

“Military contracts! You forgot about military contracts! The gate is perfect for supply and personnel transport on a military scale!”

She wanted to laugh in his face. The Federation forces would, of course, be glad to know that such a thing as the warp gate was available, but they’d need very few in peacetime and the prospect of a war was highly unlikely.

“Yes,” he went on, beaming, “I don’t think there will be any problem in getting those initial orders.

We’ll just have to sit back and watch them roll in.”

Jo left the warehouse in a daze. How did people like Haas get into business? He was, no doubt, a brilliant designer and theorist-the existence of the gate proved that-but he had no idea of the economic forces he would be up against. IBA could have helped, could have mounted a campaign to convince the backwater planets to purchase their own gates to cheapen import costs. This might have got Haas over the hump; but without the man’s cooperation such a plan was out of the question. As things stood now, SW would wipe the company off the map in no time and deBloise and his circle would lose a pile of money.

But according to Haas, deBloise was well aware of this idiocy. That didn’t make sense. She had done some research on deBloise and he had proven to be an extremely crafty man who planned well and covered all exits. Involvement in this fiasco-to-be was highly out of character and that bothered Jo, bothered her very much.

Returning to Ragna, Jo filled Old Pete in on the details and he was none too happy with the situation either.

“It doesn’t fit, Jo,” he said. “I’ve been watching deBloise carefully ever since he made political hay out of Junior’s death and this isn’t like him at all. I don’t like it.”

“Well, there are only two possible answers,” Jo sighed. “He has either made a big mistake this time and completely underestimated the situation, or he knows something we don’t know.”

“Don’t worry about making a choice, Jo; the answer is simple: he knows something we don’t-he must!” The old man shook his head and smiled ruefully. “Imagine Denver Haas thinking that military contracts would pull him through! Ha! There’s no one to fight! I mean, who are we going to go to war with, the Tarks?”

Jo had been reaching for the handle of one of her desk drawers but froze at the mention of the Tarks.

Old Pete noted the arrested movement.

“Don’t be silly, Jo,” he said. “The Federation may not be on the best terms with the Tarks but there’s no war in sight. There are economic and territorial disputes and it may eventually come to blows but not in the near future.” He turned toward the door. “And deBloise and his faction are nowhere near powerful enough to start one. That’s a blind alley, I’m afraid.’

Jo smiled and nodded. “I guess you’re right. I’ll see you later.” But when he was gone her demeanor changed. She leaped upon the intercom. “Find William Grange-tell him to drop whatever he’s doing and get to my office immediately.” She cut off without waiting for a reply.

The Tarks were the key. Old Pete had been right about the war aspect: there was no way deBloise could start a war. But the pieces had suddenly fallen together for Jo-at least she hoped they had-and what she saw was a most ingenious, devious plan. Denver Haas had given her all the pieces and Old Pete had brought in the catalyst: the Tarks.

She couldn’t help but smile with admiration as she considered all the delicate aspects of the insidious plot. This deBloise character was a truly remarkable man. The Restructurists were lucky to have him on their side. But the Federation had Josephine Finch.

Grange came in then. “You wanted to see me, Miss Finch?”

“Yes, Bill. I need some quick information on SW.”

Grange visibly relaxed at this statement and took a seat. He knew more about Star Ways than many of its board members. The company had been the first to develop a commercial interstellar warp unit and quickly changed its name from Heller Technical to the more picturesque Star Ways Corporation.

Through innovative marketing and financial maneuvers and the tried and true business practice of hiring the best and making it worth their while to stay on, Star Ways had securely placed itself in the number one spot as far as gross income was concerned. The corporation had never needed the services of IBA.