Free Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov Page A

are going to follow Trevize, Councilman. Where he goes, you will follow, and you will report back to me. You will leave soon after Trevize does, and he will be leaving in a few hours. If you refuse the task, Councilman, you will be imprisoned for treason. If you take the ship that we will provide for you, and if you fail to follow, you need not bother coming back. You will be shot out of space if you try.”
    Compor rose sharply- to his feet. “! have a life to live. I have work to do. I have a wife. I cannot leave it all.”
    “You will have to. Those of us who choose to serve the Foundation must be prepared at ail times to serve it in a prolonged and uncomfortable fashion, if that should become necessary.”
    “My wife must go with me, of course.”
    “Do you take me for an idiot? She stays here, of course.”
    “As a hostage?”
    “If you like the word. I prefer to say that you will be taking yourself into danger and my kind heart wants her to stay here where she will not be in danger. -There is no room for discussion. You are as much under arrest as Trevize is, and I am sure you understand I must act quickly - before the euphoria enveloping Terminus wears off. I fear my star will soon be in the descendant.”
    Kodell said, “You were not easy on him, Madam Mayor.”
    The Mayor said with a sniff, “Why should I have been? He betrayed a friend.”
    “That was useful to us.”
    “Yes, as it happened. His next betrayal, however, might not be.”
    “Why should there be another?”
    “Come, Liono,” said Branno impatiently, “don’t play games with me. Anyone who displays a capacity for double-dealing must forever be suspected of being capable of displaying it again.”
    “He may use the capability to combine with Trevize once again. Together, they may-“
    “You don’t believe that. With all his folly and naivete, Trevize goes straight for his goal. He does not understand betrayal and he will never, under any circumstances, trust Compor a second time.”
    Kodell said, “Pardon me, Mayor, but let me make sure I follow your thinking. How far, then, can you trust Compor? How do you know he will follow Trevize and report honestly? Do you count on his fears for the welfare of his wife as a restraint? His longing to return to her?”
    “Both are factors, but I don’t entirely rely on that. On Compor’s ship there will be a hyper-relay. Trevize would suspect pursuit and would search for one. However Compor - being the pursuer-will, I assume, not suspect pursuit and will not search for one. -Of course, if he does, and if he finds it, then we must depend on the attractions of his wife.”
    Kodell laughed. “To think I once had to give you lessons. And the purpose of the pursuit?”
    “A double layer of protection. If Trevize is caught, it may be that
    Compor will carry on and give us the information that Trevize will not be able to.”
    “One more question. What if, by some chance, Trevize finds the Second Foundation, and we learn of it through him, or through Compor, or if we gain reason to suspect its existence-despite the deaths of both?”
    “I’m hoping the Second Foundation does exist, Liono,” she said. “In any case, the Seldon Plan is not going to serve us much longer. The great Hari Seldon devised it in the dying days of the Empire, when technological advance had virtually stopped. Seldon was a product of his times, too, and however brilliant this semimythical science of psychohistory must have been, it could not rise out of its roots. It surely would not allow for raid technological advance. The Foundation has been achieving that, especially in this last century. We have mass-detection devices of a kind undreamed of earlier, computers that can respond to thought, and-most of all-mental shielding. The Second Foundation cannot control us for much longer, if they can do so now. I want, in my final years in power, to be the one to start Terminus on a new path.”
    “And if there is, in fact, no