Forward the Foundation

"Yes, I agree. Now what about the woman?"

"Well, there you are. We haven't taken her into consideration because she has been careful to remain in the background. But I strongly suspect now that it will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to remove Seldon quietly and without implicating the government, as long as the woman remains alive."

"Do you really believe that she will mangle you and me-if she thinks we have harmed her man?" said the General, his mouth twisting in contempt.

"I really think she will and that she will start a rebellion as well. It will he exactly as she promised."

"You are turning into a coward."

"General, please. I am trying to be sensible. I'm not backing off. We must take care of this Tiger Woman." He paused thoughtfully. "As a matter of fact, my sources have told me this and I admit to having paid far too little attention to the matter."

"And how do you think we can get rid of her?"

Linn said, "I don't know." Then, more slowly, "But someone else might."

18

Seldon had had a bad night also, nor was the new day promising to be much better. There weren't too many times when Hari felt annoyed with Dors. But this time, he was very annoyed.

He said, "What a foolish thing to do! Wasn't it enough that we were all staying at the Dome's Edge Hotel? That alone would have been sufficient to drive a paranoid ruler into thoughts of some sort of conspiracy."

"How? We were unarmed, Hari. It was a holiday affair, the final touch of your birthday celebration. We posed no threat."

"Yes, but then you carried out your invasion of the Palace grounds. It was unforgivable. You raced to the Palace to interfere with my session with the General, when I had specifically-and several times-made it plain that I didn't want you there. I had my own plans, you know."

Dors said, "Your desires and your orders and your plans all take second place to your safety. I was primarily concerned about that."

"I was in no danger."

"That is not something I can carelessly assume. There have been two attempts on your life. What makes you think there won't be a third?"

"The two attempts were made when I was First Minister. I was probably worth killing then. Who would want to kill an elderly mathematician?"

Dors said, "That's exactly what I want to find out and that's what I want to stop. I must begin by doing some questioning right here at the Project."

"No. You will simply be upsetting my people. Leave them alone."

"That's exactly what I can't do. Hari, my job is to protect you and for twenty-eight years I've been working at that. You cannot stop me now."

Something in the blaze of her eyes made it quite clear that, whatever Seldon's desires or orders might be, Dors intended to do as she pleased.

Seldon's safety came first.

19

"May I interrupt you, Yugo?"

"Of course, Dors," said Yugo Amaryl with a large smile. "You are never an interruption. What can I do for you?"

"I am trying to find out a few things, Yugo, and I wonder if you would humor me in this."

"If I can."

"You have something in the Project called the Prime Radiant. I hear it now and then. Hari speaks of it, so I imagine I know what it looks like when it is activated, but I have never actually seen it in operation. I would like to."

Amaryl looked uncomfortable. "Actually the Prime Radiant is just about the most closely guarded part of the Project and you aren't on the list of the members who have access."

"I know that, but we've known each other for twenty-eight years-"

"And you're Hari's wife. I suppose we can stretch a point. We only have two full Prime Radiants. There's one in Hari's office and one here. Right there, in fact."

Dors looked at the squat black cube on the central desk. It looked utterly undistinguished. "Is that it?"

"That's it. It stores the equations that describe the future."

"How do you get at those equations?"

Amaryl moved a contact and at once the room darkened and then came to life in a variegated glow. All around Dors were symbols, arrows, mathematical signs of one sort or another. They seemed to be moving, spiraling, but when she focused her eyes on any particular portion, it seemed to be standing still.

She said, "Is that the future, then?"

"It may be," said Amaryl, turning off the instrument. "I had it at full expansion so you could see the symbols. Without expansion, nothing is visible but patterns of light and dark."

"And by studying those equations, you are able to judge what the future holds in store for us?"

"In theory." The room was now back to its mundane appearance. "But there are two difficulties."

"Oh? What are they?"

"To begin with, no human mind has created those equations directly. We have merely spent decades programming more powerful computers and they have devised and stored the equations, but, of course, we don't know if they are valid and have meaning. It depends entirely on how valid and meaningful the programming is in the first place."

"They could be all wrong, then?"