Science fiction; Short stories; Time travel -- Fiction
Offers came in from other companies, but Benjamin had money enough for
a while and he began experimenting with some ideas. When his lawyer and
banker discovered he'd given away two new color TV circuits, however,
there was a blow-up and Benjamin found himself incorporated.
It made no difference. He could still experiment as he pleased. He had
his many friends and constantly made more. If enough money rolled in
to make him moderately wealthy, let the lawyer worry about it. After
he came up with the Ben Reeves capacitor in 1961, his wealth was more
than moderate. That thumb-sized gadget delivered the power of a hundred
storage batteries and was the answer to a thousand engineering problems.
All down the bad years, Benjamin had read the papers and wondered and
suffered through the tensions of the nerve war like the rest of us.
Perhaps it was a little worse for him, because he knew the classified
secrets, knew to the decimal point the percentage of missiles that
would get through our defenses. Steadily the urge grew stronger to get
out of this world gone suicidally awry.
He had the money and he had the time. An efficient business manager
took care of the new plant that produced the Ben Reeves capacitor.
He built his first machine in 1962, a month before Andover Hare took
his own near relatives back into time with him. But that wasn't enough
for Benjamin. He was a scientist where Andover was a student and Edgar
Evans an amateur experimenter. Benjamin couldn't forget the millions
who yearned with him.
For Benjamin, the mere machine wasn't an answer. He went back through
the years himself, several times, but always he returned and worked
harder. And there came the day, a year ago, when his work shifted
suddenly to maps and population indices.
If you live within 40 miles of the most populous cities, you should
know that somewhere in that city is a very plain suitcase which is at
once an answer to your prayers and to those strange nostalgic desires
you've felt. It may be in a rented room or a storage warehouse, or in
the attic of one of the many friends Benjamin Reeves has made.
Wherever it is, you're under its influence, thanks to Benjamin's work.
And every other day now, in a closed-off room at the Ben Reeves plant,
technicians finish assembling another group of strange circuits which
goes into another plain suitcase to be sent to yet another city, chosen
on the basis of population vs. importance as a target.
The technicians are learning speed. Be thankful for that, if you love
your fellow-man as Benjamin does. At first they turned out only one
machine a week; soon it will be one a day, then two, four.
Benjamin doesn't go out any more. He's always within hearing of the
receiver tuned to the warning networks, within reach of the red button
that will someday send out a coded signal.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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