Isaac Asimov: Fantastic Voyage II: Destination Brain

"Fair enough," said Rodano, rising. "I will arrange that if I can and I suspect I can. The twenty-four hours is yours. Make the most of it. I agree that you'll have precious little time to yourself thereafter. And from now on, for quite a while, resign yourself to being the most strictly guarded person in America, not excluding the President."

"Good," said Morrison. "I'll call for a dinner for one."

Rodano and Friar had finished their own dinner. It had been an unusually silent meal in an isolated and guarded room.

Once it was over, Rodano said, "Tell me, Dr. Friar, do you think Morrison is right in this matter of telepathy?"

Friar sighed and said cautiously, "I will have to consult with some of my colleagues who are more knowledgeable concerning the brain than I am, but I feel he is right. He is very convincing. - And now I have a question for you?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think Morrison was correct as to the necessity of cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union in this matter?"

There was a lengthy pause and finally Rodano said, "Yes, I think he's right there, too. Of course, there'll be howls from every direction, but we can't risk the Soviets getting there first. Everyone will see that. They'll have to."

"And the Soviets? Will they see it, too?"

"They'll have to, also. They can't risk us getting there first. Besides, the rest of the world will undoubtedly get wind of what is going on and they will clamor for a piece of the action and demand that no new cold war be started. It may take some years, but in the end we will cooperate."

Rodano then shook his head and said, "But do you know what really strikes me as peculiar, Professor Friar?"

Friar said, "What in this whole course of events can possibly strike you as not peculiar?"

"Nothing, I suppose, but what strikes me as most peculiar is this. I met Morrison last Sunday afternoon to urge him to go to the Soviet Union. At the time, my heart sank. He struck me as a man without guts, as a zero, as a wimp, as someone who wasn't even bright except in an academic sense. I didn't think he could be relied on to accomplish anything. I was simply sending him to his death. So I thought - and so I said to a colleague the next day - and, so help me, so I still think. He's nothing and it's simply a miracle that he survived and that's only thanks to others. And yet -"

"And yet?"

"And yet he returned, having made an incredible scientific discovery and having set in motion a process whereby the United States and the Soviet Union will both be forced, against their separate wills, to cooperate. And, to top it off, he has made himself the most important and, once we publicize these events, the most famous scientist in the world - possibly of all time.

"He has, in a sense, destroyed the political system of the world and built a new one - or at least initiated the process of building a new one - and he has done it all between the afternoon of last Sunday and the afternoon of today, Saturday. He has done it in six days. Somehow that's a frightening thought."

Friar leaned back and laughed aloud. "It's more frightening than you think. He plans to rest on the seventh day."