Chicago (Ill.) -- Fiction; Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
What if it was all on the level? Oswego City, New America. There wasn't
any such place. Not yet, there wasn't. But sometime in the future? And
what better way of merchandising than selling goods at different times
in history, goods that fit right in with the times? You wouldn't want
to flood the market, of course, but you could make a tidy profit. In
money? Hell no. Hadn't the building agent said Forsythe was an antique
dealer?
Stoves, refrigerators, sports cars. In some future age they would be
valuable as ... antiques. Forsythe said he had been a huckster all
his life. Where? And when? Maybe hucksters like Forsythe had peddled
stainless steel swords and shields to the Roman legions. And maybe
a huckster had stopped by to see Gutenberg about a small matter of
printing paper....
And in his own age, hidden among all the ads for quack remedies and
miraculous gadgets, there were a few ads that were genuine. Some
people probably had carburetors that ran on water and some office
workers pens that never wore out and maybe some high school girl used a
lipstick that was going to last her the rest of her life.
And a time machine would explain where Forsythe got the carburetors and
other goods without having them delivered through the streets, and it
explained how he got rid of the stoves and refrigerators and goods that
came into his office.
Manning suddenly wished that Forsythe hadn't taken off. The man had
something now that would be a sure fire sale. And people needed it
desperately, far more than they needed gadgets or carburetors or pens
or hairbrushes.
Wheeler's voice was buzzing on the phone.
"_What do we do with the case now, Fred?_"
Manning glanced out the window again. It was a beautiful day, the
clouds were black velvet and the rain drops were diamonds.
He looked down at the small vial in his hand. The label read:
_Forsythe's Cancer Cure_.
The real McCoy.
Manning lifted the phone and spoke into it.
"We don't have a case any more, Ray." He paused, then said: "I just
swallowed Exhibit A."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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