_Pst! This is top secret. Don't let it get around, but we've got the Russians right where we want them. They haven't got a secret left to their name. We know every detail. You see, the Russians were pretty sure their inner circle was leakproof, that no one could penetrate their vaults. But they reckoned without--_ THE MAN WHO KNEW EVERYTHING By RANDALL GARRETT [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Fantastic October 1956. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] [Illustration: He was sure of only one thing--he had a headache.] Dr. H. Wolstadt sat in a small, very secret laboratory in Arlington, Virginia, and twisted the dials on an oscilloscope. A pale green line wriggled up and down on the screen, and Dr. Wolstadt watched it with anticipation. "If this works," he muttered softly, more to himself than to his assistant, "we will have a communication beam that will be better than radio." The green line wriggled and changed form. Slowly, as the physicist manipulated the controls, the green line stopped moving. "There!" shouted Wolstadt, "that is the wave form we want!" He reached over toward a switch. "Check your meters, Magruder!" The assistant carefully adjusted the recording instruments of the huge machine that filled half the laboratory. "All right, Dr. Wolstadt, we're ready." "Good!" Wolstadt pressed the switch. The assistant watched the meters and automatic graphs. "I'm afraid it didn't work, sir," he said at last. "The instruments aren't reacting as you expected." Wolstadt shrugged resignedly. "Nevertheless, I think we are on the right track. Come, my boy, we will try again." He shut off the machine. The machine hadn't done what the scientists had expected of it, but it had another effect which was entirely unknown to them. During the few seconds of operation, an invisible ray had been beamed out of the machine. At the speed of light, the ray went through the wall of the lab and into Dr. Wolstadt's study. Like an X-ray, it went through the books and references on the physicist's desk. In a straight line, it shot out of the laboratory, silent and invisible. A mile or so farther on, it struck the Pentagon Building and went through. Among other things, it went through a complete copy of the _Encyclopedia Brittannica_, Roget's _Thesaurus_, the _Oxford Unabridged Dictionary_, a twenty volume set of _The History and Analysis of Military Tactics_, and a copy of _Amazing Stories_ that some general had left on his desk. Like a flashlight going through plateglass, the beam went through files, papers, memorandums, abstracts, reports, desks, chairs, brick, stone, and concrete. Through the Pentagon and across the Potomac it went, through building after building, unnoticed and invisible.