The First Theodore R. Cogswell Megapack by Theodore R. Cogswell

Author:Theodore R. Cogswell
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: pulp, Science Fiction, short stories, sci-fi, classic
ISBN: 9781479403257
Publisher: Wildside Press LLC
Published: 2014-07-16T14:00:00+00:00

MACHINE RECORD

“Good Heavens” said the disreputable political affairs researcher, “you must be a madman!”

“Exactly,” said the mad scientist, his eyes glittering with insane cunning.

“But…but what does this manifestly evil machine do?”

“Isn’t it evident?” The scientist cackled gaily. “It’s designed to conquer the world for me. What else?”

“Of course. What else?”

“It is made of indestructible materials, has wheels, jointed legs, tractor treads, and seven death rays of different frequencies. It draws its energy from a little atomic engine, the size of your thumb nail, which produces about the same potential as Grand Coulee Dam.”

“Remarkable,” said the researcher, looking at his thumb nail.

The machine was, indeed, a sight to inspire dread. Pear-shaped, its gleaming body was topped with bristling, odd-angled radar-like antenna. A few feet above its complex underpinnings was a double row of formidable looking muzzles, pointing in all directions. On one side was a small, push-button switch of insidious portent. Here, in this high vaulted dungeon of an ancient, blood-stained castle, high on a storm-beset mountain, in a small European principality, the effect was incredibly sinister.

The political affairs researcher, unscrupulous as he was, gasped with ill-concealed alarm.

“And what, sir,” he said, “have I to do with all this?”

The scientist’s eyes glittered. “You,” he said, “are to help me organize my conquests into an empire.”

“Good heavens,” the other man said again. “And you have brought me here to this dank dungeon to ask my assistance in a fiendish plot to conquer the world?” His imagination had not as yet assimilated the grandeur of the scheme.

“It’s not dank,” the scientist said, waving his hand impatiently. “This dungeon is quite properly air-conditioned.” And so it was. The mad savant had, in a moment of rare lucidity, equipped his castle cellar with a remarkably efficient air conditioning machine, together with do-it-yourself asphalt tiling, and a portable bar that played “The Last Rose of Summer” when you pressed the hidden button that brought it swinging out from its artful concealment behind a bookcase.

“That’s beside the point,” said the other. “I’m not altogether certain that I approve of your plot. Anyway,” he added primly, “I’m making forty a week where I’m working now.”

The scientist snapped his fingers, with a carefree, yet macabre laugh. “I’ll double it,” he said. “What’s more, I have a beautiful daughter.”

The researcher peeped at the machine out of the corner of his eye. “When do we turn it on?”

“As soon as you work out a campaign for me,” said the other. “I want to assume complete political control with a minimum of fuss and bother. A few days perhaps?”

The researcher stared at him blankly. “Where,” he said, “have you been for the past ten years?”

“Here,” said the scientist, rubbing his hands together, “perfecting my designs. Is something wrong?”

“Well…I rather thought you planned to just kill everybody.”

“Everybody?” A new glint flickered momentarily in the madman’s eye and he licked a speculative tongue over his lower lip. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

“It would be so much simpler.” The other’s tone was ingratiating.

The scientist thought for a moment, grinning evilly.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.