"It would be Seldon who would have to make them and he is not a friend of the regime. It is important, General, that we differentiate between the Project that is working at Streeling University to perfect psychohistory and Hari Seldon. Psychohistory can be extremely useful to us, but it will be so only if someone other than Seldon were in charge."
"Are there others who could be?"
"Oh yes. It is only necessary to get rid of Seldon."
"What is so difficult with that? An order of execution-and it is done."
"It would be better, General, if the government was not seen to be directly involved in such a thing."
"I have arranged to have him meet with you, so that you can use your skill to probe his personality. You would then be able to judge whether certain suggestions I have in mind are worthwhile or not."
"When is the meeting to take place?"
"It was to take place very soon, but his representatives at the Project asked for a few days leeway, because they were in the process of celebrating his birthday-his sixtieth, apparently. It seemed wise to allow that and to permit a week's delay."
"Why?" demanded Tennar. "I dislike any display of weakness."
"Quite right, General. Quite right. Your instincts are, as always, correct. However, it seemed to me that the needs of the state might require us to know what and how the birthday celebration-which is taking place right now-might involve."
"Why?"
"All knowledge is useful. Would you care to see some of the festivities?"
General Tennar's face remained dark. "Is that necessary?"
"I think you will find it interesting, General."
The reproduction-sight and sound-was excellent and for quite a while the hilarity of the birthday celebration filled the rather stark room in which the General sat.
Linn's low voice served as commentary. "Most of this, General, is taking place in the Project complex, but the rest of the University is involved. We will have an air view in a few moments and you will see that the celebration covers a wide area. In fact, though I don't have the evidence available right now, there are corners of the planet here and there, in various University and sectoral settings mostly, where what we might call 'sympathy celebrations' of one sort or another are taking place. The celebrations are still continuing and will endure for another day at least."
"Are you telling me that this is a Trantor-wide celebration?"
"In a specialized way. It affects mostly the intellectual classes, but it is surprisingly widespread. It may even be that there is some shouting on worlds other than Trantor."
"Where did you get this reproduction?"
Linn smiled. "Our facilities in the Project are quite good. We have reliable sources of information, so that little can happen that doesn't come our way at once."
"Well then, Linn, what are all your conclusions about this?"
"It seems to me, General, and I'm sure that it seems so to you, that Hari Seldon is the focus of a personality cult. He has so identified himself with psychohistory that if we were to get rid of him in too open a manner, we would entirely destroy the credibility of the science. It would be useless to us.
"On the other hand, General, Seldon is growing old and it is not difficult to imagine him being replaced by another man: someone we could choose and who would be friendly to our great aims and hopes for the Empire. If Seldon could be removed in such a way that it is made to seem natural, then that is all we need."
The General said, "And you think I ought to see him?"
"Yes, in order to weigh his quality and decide what we ought to do. But we must be cautious, for he is a popular man."
"I have dealt with popular people before," said Tennar darkly.
13
"Yes," said Hari Seldon wearily, "it was a great triumph. I had a wonderful time. I can hardly wait until I'm seventy so I can repeat it. But the fact is, I'm exhausted."
"So get yourself a good night's sleep, Dad," said Raych, smiling. "That's an easy cure."
"I don't know how well I can relax when I have to see our great leader in a few days."
"Not alone, you won't see him," said Dors Venabili grimly.
Seldon frowned. "Don't say that again, Dors. It is important for me to see him alone."
"It won't be safe with you alone. Do you remember what happened ten years ago when you refused to let me come with you to greet the gardeners?"
"There is no danger of my forgetting when you remind me of it twice a week, Dors. In this case, though, I intend to go alone. What can he want to do to me if I come in as an old man, utterly harmless, to find out what he wants?"
"What do you imagine he wants?" said Raych, biting at his knuckle.
"I suppose he wants what Cleon always wanted. It will turn out that he has found out that psychohistory can, in some way, predict the future and he will want to use it for his own purposes. I told Cleon the science wasn't up to it nearly thirty years ago and I kept telling him that all through my tenure as First Minister-and now I'll have to tell General Tennar the same thing."
"How do you know he'll believe you?" said Raych.
"I'll think of some way of being convincing."
Dors said, "I do not wish you to go alone."
"Your wishing, Dors, makes no difference."
At this point, Tamwile Elar interrupted. He said, "I'm the only nonfamily person here. I don't know if a comment from me would be welcome."
"Go ahead," said Seldon. "Come one, come all."