Part 2

When the Chief Executive walked into his cell, Phil beamed happily. "I'm pleased to meet you, Mr. President."

The President frowned. "I must admit, Mr. Merriwether, that it is a pleasure to meet you, too. I admire such abilities as yours, although I also wish you had never been born. It seems you know more about our national defense than I do."

"It's amazing," said the Secretary. "According to the FBI, this fiendishly clever man has been masquerading as an ordinary blockhead for more than thirty years. No one suspected his true genius. The only thing we can't figure out is _why_ he shot off his mouth over television."

Phil said: "Mr. Secretary, I didn't think about it. I didn't realize it was so secret. I'm sorry. But I think I can show you how I got all this information."

The President looked blank. "Show us? You mean you're willing to betray your espionage system?"

"I don't have any spy system," Phil said. "Will you give me a pencil and a piece of paper?"

The Secretary handed him a notebook and a ball-point pen, and Phil began to write. "According to File X-99761, in the War Department's Ultra Top Secret Section, a Dr. Heinrich Wolstadt is working on a secret communication device. I'm putting some formulas on this paper. Ask Dr. Wolstadt what effect this particular wave form would have on the human brain."

The Secretary of Defense and the President looked at each other.

"I guess we might as well," the President said.

* * * * *

It was several hours later that Dr. Wolstadt was rushed into Phil's cell. He was so excited that his German accent became much heavier than usual.

"Is this the chentleman? _Ach!_ It's amazing! How did it happen? You were standing right in the path of the ray, _nein_?"

"I think so, Dr. Wolstadt. Didn't you suspect what effect the beam might have had?"

"Never!" said the physicist. "Not until I saw your mathematics. It's unbelievable to think this could happen!"

"For Heaven's sake!" said the President. "What happened?"

Wolstadt turned around to face the Chief Executive.

"It's very simple. The derivation of the Q-beam that I have been working on got out of control for a second. It went through all my files, and all the files in the Pentagon, and Heaven only knows what else. It picked up all that information and put it in Mr. Merriwether's mind!"

"Amazing!" said the President.

"Fantastic!" said the Secretary of Defense.

"Will it work with anybody?" the President asked.

Dr. Wolstadt shook his head. "No. This is a most unusual case. Mr. Merriwether, according to the FBI reports, had a terrible memory before the accident happened. He is actually a very intelligent man, but he always forgot things, and that made him look stupid.

"But, fortunately, it meant that his memory was almost a total blank. Therefore, the ray could implant all this data on his memory.

"It's like recording something on an L-P disc. If it already has music on it, the recorder just ruins the disc. But if it's blank, the recorder puts music on it. You see?"

"Then if it had hit anyone but me--" Phil began.

"--it would probably have driven them insane," said Dr. Wolstadt.

"That still leaves us the problem of what to do with Mr. Merriwether," said the President.

"I think I have an idea," Phil said. "Want to hear it?"

* * * * *

Some months later, two men arrived by air in the city of Moscow. One of them went directly to the American Embassy. In his brief case was a small, very compact machine.

The Ambassador shook his hand warmly. "The President told me to give you the run of the place, Dr. Wolstadt. What are you going to do?"

"I'm sorry," said Wolstadt, "but I cannot tell even you. All I require is a room in the Embassy which faces the Kremlin."

"That can be arranged. But where is your companion? I understood there were to be two of you."

"He is, shall we say, taking a stroll around Moscow."

"But he can't do that!" the Ambassador said. "The President said he was the most valuable man on Earth! He might get arrested."

"That is the chance we have to take. Now if you'll show me to that room, I'll go about my business."

Some distance away, on the opposite side of the Kremlin from the American Embassy, Philip Merriwether, the most valuable spy that ever existed, waited patiently for the ray that would be generated inside the Embassy to strike his head. In a few seconds, he would know even more than he already did.

He smiled happily. This was the life!

THE END