Rex looked at him blankly.

  Temple Norman brought the drinks and handed them around, and sank into a chair to one side.

  Westley said, very earnestly, "Each of the members of the Reunited Nations in any real crisis behaves as a sovereign national state, in accord with its conception of its own interests. Every debate, every speech, every vote, reflects this fact. Anyone who listened to the debates over the Asian War will testify that not a single state put the international order before its own national interests, nor was it capable of so doing. The state by its very nature of acting in its own national interests cannot perform otherwise. Unfortunate as it might be, there is no evidence that an enduring effective international order can be built on the political unit we know as the national state."

  Rex took a sip of his drink, found it superlative. He put his glass down on the small table to his right and said, "Forgive me, I seem to be missing something here. You spoke of world government."

  Westley nodded, sipped his own drink and likewise put it aside.

  He said, "The modern national state isn't as old an institution as many believe. Some authorities put its origin at the time of the Reformation, others as late as the French Revolution which was the final blow to European feudalism. The primary definition of the national state is that it can protect its citizens from external attack and maintain internal order. The emphasis upon protection from external aggression has most clearly set the tone and defined the character of the modern national state, Mr. Bader. Nationalism, and all that goes with it, requires the ability to keep the state absolutely sovereign. Fear of conquest governs the political attitude of all national states toward the rest of the world.

  "The many treaties, alliances, mutual defense pacts, disarmament conferences, peace congresses, understandings and international courts undertaken for security considerations have all come a cropper in time. The history of the sovereign national state is a bloody one and will continue to be if allowed to go on. A state absolutely sovereign as Thomas Hobbes saw it—accepted no infringe-ments on its rights, confined in a geographic boundary, beset by enemies equally sovereign, equally ambitious and presumably equally well or better armed could only be at war or preparing for war. The national state system is intrinsically unstable and the prospect of war is ever present. The present balance of terror, between those states which possess nuclear weapons and the means by which to deliver them, does not change this basic fact."

  Rex said carefully, "I am not completely unacquainted with the works of Frank Tannenbaum^ Mr. Westley."

  The other's eyebrows rose and he looked over at Temple Norman. "I think possibly we have found our man, my dear Temple."

  The younger man nodded. "You'll recall sir, that this dossier revealed him to be the son of Professor Bader, the political economist. We could have assumed that some of his father's learning would, ah, rub off on him."

  Westley looked back at the private investigator. "Very well, you recognize the source of much of the background material I am giving you. It will speed things up. Suffice to say that in the present situation in a world of nationalism where the national state, great or small, can no longer protect its own from annihilation, where all of the myths, boasts and cheering that go with the idea of political nationalism have lose their meaning, that we can no longer look to prevailing institutions to stave off eventual catastrophe. Even the great powers are hopeless in this regard though they believe they have the ability to inflict such retaliatory damage as to make an attack too expensive; a belief based upon a balance of terror and upon the assumption that men of reason are in control of the instruments that could speed the deadly bombs into space. As a basis for permanent international peace both of these assumptions reflect a naive optimism. The peace of the world must, in the end, rest on an institutional base that is indifferent to the idea of national security."

  Rex Bader took up his glass again and took an unhappy pull at it. He said, "Such a base as what? Frankly, you seem to be talking in circles."

  "Extra-national institutions, Mr. Bader."

  Rex Bader thought about it. "You mean such as the International Red Cross, religious bodies such as the Roman Catholic, Greek Catholic, the Jewish and Mohammedan Churches, the various scientific bodies?"

  But the older man was shaking his head. "Those are examples of extra-national institutions; I had in mind the cosmocorps."

  Rex Bader frowned puzzlement.

  "The extra-national corporate body, the multinational corporation. They are supra-national in their very existence, plan and purpose. Their governors, managers, authorities think in extra-national terms and their personnel is indifferent to the national state except as an impediment. Its ownership is irrelevant for the owners do not either manage or control it except in legal fiction and it can be owned by people all over the earth. Its management is drawn from wherever competence is found, its technical personnel and its labor force can be completely international. Its total commitment is extra-national. It has no concern with national interest, boundaries, local culture, or regional idiosyncrasies, except as to how they might interfere with the performance of its functions.

  "Take either an international communications company or an international airline. They are indifferent to national boundaries and unconcerned about national security. Their servants are only involved in fulfilling a function wherever it needs to be satisfied, be it Argentina, Australia, Alaska, or Andorra. The personnel come from all lands. The questions that bother the national state—security, national interest, tariffs, customs, fear of invasion, border violations—are to the communications company and the airlines matters of irritation or indifference. The same applies to the international bank, to many of the large commercial and distributing com-panies such as Shell, Standard Oil, Unilever, Philip's Lamp and many others."

  Temple Norman put in quietly, "Every year that goes by sees more of the large corporations becoming cosmo-corps. IBM, Ford, General Motors, Woolworth, the list goes on and on. They are no longer simply American corporations, they are truly international, in ownership as well as operation."

  "Correct," Westley nodded, without looking in the direction of his underling.

  "All right, O.K.," Rex Bader said quietly. "I'm with you, so far. Go on."

  Westley took a sip from his drink.

  "The cosmocorps is autonomous within the bounds of the states in which it operates, drawing its materials, capital, personnel, skills from wherever it can find them. It is at the service of the states in which it operates but is not of them. Its life will go on whatever the local governments might have happen to them, when the state has changed its nature through revolution, merger, annexation, defeat or whatever.

  "The International Communications Corporation for instance will continue no matter what the political map might look like twenty years from now, since its functional service is more durable. The cosmocorps, in its own way, is sovereign. And especially it can be seen among the smaller nations that the national states are becoming dependent upon it. Dependent upon international banking for industrial development, on international airlines for transport, on communications corporations, on profits from oil leases, mineral rights and so forth.

  "The world is shrinking with the present speed of communications, the increased mobility and proliferation of the sciences, with all but immediate transportation. We have today an industrialized world held together by the cosmocorps. We are rapidly coming to the point where the majority of persons employed work for one cosmocorps or the other and owe their functional loyalties to these supra-national corporate bodies, unrelated to the national states of which they are citizens."

  Rex Bader said, "O.K. But what has this got to do with world government?" although he could more or less feel what was coming.

  "What seems obvious is that we are building to a new supra-national order based not on the state with its obsession with national security but upon the extra-national bodies that are enveloping men and states over most of the world. In this new world, security can be bypassed and the national state can be left the police powers for internal civil needs, and to handle its other internal problems. The many cosmocorps are daily growing in strength, Mr. Bader, and they can no longer put up with war and the threat of war; they interfere with efficient functioning."

  Rex Bader finished his drink and put the glass down. He looked from one to the other of the two cosmocorps men. "O.K.," he said. "I suppose the time has come to ask the big question. Where do I come in?"

  Westley nodded. "Of course. The thing is, my dear Bader, that there are elements in the world today that wish to thwart this trend for whatever personal or selfish reasons. If the movement toward a world government based on the cosmocorps, a supra-national organization, is to continue and eventually triumph we must bring all international bodies together. All."

  Rex Bader looked at Temple Norman. "You asked me whether or not I could object to working in the Soviet Complex."

  Westley looked at his underling quizzically. Temple Norman flushed.

  Westley said, "Temple seems to have jumped the gun a bit. However, briefly, Mr. Bader, we want you to act as our liaison man with our equal numbers behind what was once called the Iron Curtain."

  II

  Rex Bader looked at him. "I assume the Soviet Complex government is one of the elements that is not particularly interested in seeing the development of this supra-national organization based on the international corporation."

  Westley said, "Undoubtedly there are elements in the government of the Soviet Complex who would be opposed to this trend. Would you like another drink, Mr. Bader?"

  "I'll bet there are," Rex said grimly. "No thanks. Tell me, are there elements in the American government against this trend?"

  "I'm sure there are."

  Rex said, "Look. Offhand, can you name any government of any national state that is in favor of this trend you claim?"

  "The knowledgeable citizens of national states of smaller size, those who would be pawns in the game if nuclear holocaust was precipitated are desperately in search of some means of getting out of the current international rat race."

  "I don't doubt it, but you didn't answer my question," Rex said. He came to his feet and took a deep breath. "No thanks. As a private operative, I'm willing to take reasonable risks. But bucking the Soviet government, plus the American government, plus every other government in the world, doesn't come under the head of making much sense to me."

  Westley said softly, "You didn't ask what the remuneration would be. I understand you subsist now on NIT, your Negative Income Tax."

  "I don't want to know what the remuneration might be," Rex said grimly. "It might make me silly enough to change my mind. Thanks for the drink. Could somebody tell me how to get out of here?"

  "Are you a coward?" Temple Norman blurted.

  Rex looked at him and snorted. "Why don't you take the job?" he asked.

  The impeccable Temple Norman was flustered. "I… I don't have the qualifications."

  "Neither do I," Rex snapped. "I don't know what qualifications you thought you found when you bribed somebody to release my National Data Banks dossier to you but participating in what amounts to overthrowing the governments of every nation in the world isn't among themr"

  Westley sighed in resignation and stood also. He said, still projecting an aura of friendliness, "Mr. Bader, please think it over. In view of your present feelings I will not disclose further details. However, we did not expect to send you in without proper cover and safeguard measures. Meanwhile, you will find what I am sure you will feel adequate remuneration for your time here this afternoon transferred to your credit account."

  "There is no bill," Rex said. "I haven't done anything. And I doubt that I'll be changing my mind."

  Temple Norman said, "I'll see that a vehicle is summoned so that you can return to your… quarters, Mr. Bader."

  Rex looked at him. "I'd sooner stick to my mini-apartment quarters than wind up in a ditch somewhere in the Ukraine," he growled.

  He mulled it over for a couple of days, unhappily. In truth, it was the first really sizable assignment he had been offered as a private investigator. And it was, undoubtedly, his big chance, his introduction into the ranks of the Meritcrats. Whatever the assignment amounted to, it would, undoubtedly, have led to still others equally remunerative. What had Temple Norman said? Pay beyond his dreams of avarice. Rex Bader had some far-reaching dreams of avarice.

  He was mildly surprised that the others hadn't contacted him again. However, he would still have rejected the offer. He could just see himself playing cat and mouse with the Soviet espionage-counter-espionage organization. Hell, he didn't even speak Russian. Why had they pulled his name out of the box?

  He wasn't able to concentrate on his Spanish or other lessons, pills or no pills.

  In disgust, on the second day he went on up to the street level and out into the extensive parks, which surrounded the high-rise apartment building in which he lived, for a walk. Why couldn't he get some nice simple job such as finding a wayward teen-age girl who had run away from the home of doting parents?

  Why? he growled inwardly. Because in this day of the universal identity and credit card built into your pocket TV phone, there was no such thing as a runaway teenager. The police, through the computers, could get an immediate fix on any pocket phone and locate the person with that identity number to within a few square yards. And it wasn't a matter of throwing away your pocketpone, either. You couldn't exist in the modern world without your combination pocket TV phone, credit card, identity number. You couldn't so much as buy a bar of candy or ride an underground, not to speak of purchasing a meal in an auto-cafeteria or renting a hotel room.

  He strode through the park, which was comparatively empty this time of day, though in the playground areas there were quite a few yelling children. He avoided the playgrounds, wondering grumpily why the kids weren't in their homes, going to school, or at their TV screens.

  Two strangers fell into step with him, one on each side. He hadn't noticed from whence they had materialized.

  They were as expensively dressed as had been Temple Norman the other day, but not quite so impeccably, perhaps. They were an efficient looking pair but not of the same type of efficiency as the cosmocorpsman. In fact, there was a certain heavy air about them, as though they lacked that elusive something once called breeding. They were, possibly, in their late twenties and built al-most identically, both being about ten kilos more than Rex Bader.

  The one on the right said conversationally, "Hello, Rex."

  Rex Bader looked from one of the two to the other and back. He said, "O.K.Now we've established that you know my name. Let's go on."

  The one on the left said, his voice flat, "You can call me Harry, and that's Luis."

  "O.K. What's up Harry and Luis?"

  Luis said, "Let's sit down on this bench."

  There was a metal park bench set back from the road.

  Rex Bader said, "Why?"

  Luis said, "Do we look like a couple of clowns? Because it seems like a good idea, that's why."

  Rex Bader said, "O.K." He sat down on the bench and crossed his legs. "It's your rubber band, start stretching it."

  The one called Harry brought his TV phone from an inner jacket pocket, flicked the cover back and said something into the screen that Rex didn't get. He closed the phone, which resembled a leather covered cigarette case and returned it to his pocket.

  Rex said, "What's it all about, gentlemen?"

  "Search me," Luis said, pleasantly enough. "We have a little wait."

  "Wait for what?"

  "You'll see."

  Rex began to come to his feet.

  Harry said, his voice even. "No."

  Rex began to say dangerously, "Look here…"

  But at that moment an electro-steamer limousine smoothed up to a stop before them. For the second time that week, Rex Bader witnessed a privately' owned, chauffeur-driven vehicle, illegally being driven in a pseudo-city.

  Luis came to his feet, went over and opened the rear door. Rex and Harry also stood, Rex blinking.

  The girl—well, woman—who emerged was possibly the most handsome he had ever seen save the current sex-symbols on Tri-Di television. And he wouldn't have laid any bets that she might not have won hands down over most of them, given a beauty contest.

  He stood there rooted and she came forward, a slightly wry expression on her face. She held out a gloved hand, man fashion, to be shaken and said, "Please excuse this cavalier manner of contacting you, Mr. Bader."

  She was slightly tall as his tastes in women went, slightly dark of complexion as though, possibly, of French or Spanish descent. Her hair was so jet black as to be suspect but she used cosmetics, if at all, in unfashionable minimum. Her simple dress was obviously an original and undoubtedly from one of the ultra-swank shops of Rome, Copenhagen or perhaps Budapest. Her jewelry consisted solely of a somewhat elaborate Egyptian necklace such as once graced the neck of Nefertiti of the Eighteenth Dynasty. It came to Rex Bader that it was probably an original, too.

  Rex took a breath and said, "You mean Luis and Harry? They've been most charming." The limousine flowed off.

  The newcomer looked at Harry and Luis and Harry said, "Yes, Miss Anastasis," and the two moved away, down to the next bench where they were out of earshot but still very much in evidence.

  Rex Bader had taken the expensively gloved hand for the proffered shake and still had it. She said, "My name is Sophia Anastasis."

  "You evidently know mine," he said, releasing the hand reluctantly.

  "Please sit down, Mr. Bader."

  They sat and she spent a full minute looking him over. "You don't look exactly like the cloak-and-dagger type," she said. "Not sinister enough."

  "One of my strong points as an investigator," he said. "I suck them in with my air of boyish charm." It had already come to him that this was a job. A rather queer approach to one, but a job. He could use a job. Particu-larly from someone who was as obviously loaded as Miss Anastasis.

 

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