Confidence Game Read online

young chemist, SidneyPerry.

  "Okay," Cutter said. "What are they doing over there?"

  "There's a fellow who's offered Adacam his project for testing. They'rehighly interested, but they're not going to handle it."

  "Why not?"

  Quay shrugged. "Too touchy. It's a device that's based on electronics--"

  "What the hell is touchy about electronics?"

  "This deals with the human personality," Quay said, as though that wereexplanation enough.

  Cutter understood. He snorted. "Christ, anything that deals with thehuman personality scares them over there, doesn't it?"

  Quay spread his hands.

  "All right," Cutter said. "What's this device supposed to do?"

  "The theory behind it is to produce energy units which reach a plane ofintensity great enough to affect the function of the human ego."

  "Will it?" Cutter never wasted time on surprise or curiosity or theory.His mind acted directly. Would it or wouldn't it? Performance versusnon-performance. Efficiency versus inefficiency. Would it improveproduction of Cutter Products, Inc., or would it not?

  "Sid swears they're convinced it will. The factors, on paper, check out.But there's been no experimentation, because it involves the humanpersonality. This thing, when used, is supposed to perform a definitepersonality change on the individual subjected."

  "How?"

  "You know the theory of psychiatric therapy--the theory of shocktreatment. The effect is some what similar, but a thousand times moreeffective."

  "What _is_ the effect?"

  "A gradual dissolving of inferiority influences, or inhibitions, fromthe personality. A clear mind resulting. A healthy ego."

  "And?"

  "Confidence."

  Cutter stared at Quay's eyes, assimilating the information. "That's allvery damned nice. Now where does it fit in with Cutter Products?"

  Quay drew a notebook from his coat pocket swiftly. "You remember thatefficiency check we had made two months ago--the rating of individualdepartments on comparable work produced?"

  Cutter nodded.

  Quay looked at his notebook. "All administrative personnel departmentsshowed an average of--"

  "Thirty-six point eight less efficiency than the skilled and unskilledlabor departments," Cutter finished.

  Quay smiled slightly. He snapped the notebook shut. "Right. So that'sour personnel efficiency bug."

  "Christ, I've known that for twenty years," Cutter snapped.

  "Okay," Quay said quickly, alerting himself back to the serious effort."Now then, you'll remember we submitted this efficiency report toBabcock and Steele for analysis, and their report offered no answer,because their experience showed that you _always_ get that kind ofratio, because of personality differences. The administrative personnelshow more inferiority influences per man, thus less confidence, thusless efficiency."

  "I remember all that," Cutter said.

  "Their report also pointed out that this inevitable loss of efficiencyis leveled out, by proportionately smaller wage compensation. Theadministrative personnel gets approximately twenty-five percent lesscompensation than the skilled labor personnel, and the remaining elevenpoint eight percent loss of efficiency is made up by the more highlyefficient unskilled labor receiving approximately the same compensationas the administrative personnel."

  "I remember all that nonsense, too," Cutter reddened faintly with asudden anger. He did not believe the statistics were nonsense, only thatyou should expect to write off a thirty-six point eight efficiency losson the basis of adjusted compensation. A thirty-six point eightefficiency loss was a comparable loss in profits. You never compensateda loss in profits, except by erasing that loss. "And so this is supposedto fix it?"

  Quay's head bobbed. "It's worth a try, it seems to me. I've talked toSid about it extensively, and he tells me that Bolen, who's developedthis thing, would be willing to install enough units to cover the entireadministrative force, from the department-head level down."

  "How?"

  Quay motioned a hand. "It's no larger than a slightly thick saucer. Itcould be put inside the chairs." Quay smiled faintly. "They sit on it,you see, and--"

  Cutter was not amused. "How much?"

  "Nothing," Quay said quickly. "Absolutely nothing. Bolen wants actualtests badly, and the Institute wouldn't do it. Snap your fingers, andgive him a hundred and fifty people to work on, and it's yours to usefor nothing. He'll do the installing, and he _wants_ to keep it secret.It's essential, he says, to get an accurate reaction from the subjectsaffected. For him it's perfect, because we're running a continuousefficiency check, and if this thing does the job like it's supposed todo it, we'll have gained the entire benefits for nothing. How can welose?"

  Cutter stared at Quay for a moment, his mind working swiftly. "CallHorner in on this, but nobody else. Absolutely nobody else. Tell Hornerto write up a contract for this fellow to sign. Get a clause in there tothe effect that this fellow, Bolen, assumes all responsibility for anyeffects not designated in the defining part of the contract. Fix it upso that he's entirely liable, then get it signed, and let's see whathappens."

  Quay smiled fully and stood up. "Right, sir." He had done a good job, heknew. This was the sort of thing that would keep him solidly entrenchedin Cutter's favor. "Right, George," he said, remembering that he didn'tneed to call Cutter sir anymore, but he knew he wouldn't hear any morefrom Cutter, because Cutter was already looking over a blueprint, eyesthin and careful, mind completely adjusted to a new problem.

  * * * * *

  Edward Bolen called the saucer-sized disk, the Confidet. He was a thin,short, smiling man with fine brown hair which looked as though it hadjust been ruffled by a high wind, and he moved, Cutter noticed, withquick, but certain motions. The installing was done two nights afterCutter's lawyer, Horner, had written up the contract and gotten itsigned by Bolen. Only Quay, Bolen, and Cutter were present.

  Bolen fitted the disks into the base of the plastic chair cushions, andhe explained, as he inserted one, then another:

  "The energy is inside each one, you see. The life of it is indefinite,and the amount of energy used is proportionate to the demand created."

  "What the hell do you mean by energy?" Cutter demanded, watching thesmall man work.

  Bolen laughed contentedly, and Quay flushed with embarrassment overanyone laughing at a question out of Cutter's lips. But Cutter did notreact, only looked at Bolen, as though he could see somehow, beneaththat smallness and quietness, a certain strength. Quay had seen thatlook on Cutter's face before, and it meant simply that Cutter wouldwait, analyzing expertly in the meantime, until he found his advantage.Quay wondered, if this gadget worked, how long Bolen would own therights to it.

  Cutter drove the Cadillac into Hallery Boulevard, as though theautomobile were an English Austin, and just beyond the boundaries of thecity, cut off into the hills, sliding into the night and the relativedarkness of the exclusive, sparsely populated Green Oaks section.

  Ten minutes later, his house, a massive stone structure which looked asthough it had been shifted intact from the center of some medieval moat,loomed up, gray and stony, and Capra, his handyman, took over the carand drove it into the garage, while Cutter strode up the wide steps tothe door.

  Niels took his hat, and Mary was waiting for him in the library.

  She was a rather large woman, although not fat, and when she wore highheels--which she was not prone to do, because although Cutter would nothave cared, she kept trying to project into other people's minds andtrying, as she said, "Not to do anything to them, that I wouldn't wantthem to do to me."--she rose a good inch above Cutter. She was pleasanthumored, and cooperative, and the one great irritant about her thatannoyed Cutter, was the fact that she was not capable of meeting lifewholeheartedly and with strength.

  She steadily worried about other people's feelings and thoughts, so thatCutter wondered if she were capable of the slightest personalconviction. Yet that weakness was an
advantage at the same time, to him,because she worked constantly toward making him happy. The house was runto his minutest liking, and the servants liked her, so that while shedid not use a strong enough hand, they somehow got things done for her,and Cutter had no real complaint. Someday, he knew, he would be able todevelop her into the full potential he knew she was capable ofachieving, and then there wouldn't be even that one annoyance about her.

  He sat down in the large, worn, leather chair, and she handed him aScotch and water, and kissed his cheek, and then sat down opposite himin a smaller striped-satin