Free The Fellowship of the Hand by Edward D. Hoch Page B

back to earth to their own computers. A random signal managed to reach the FRIDAY system, though, and it was discovered before it could be erased. That’s how we found out about it.”
    President McCurdy scratched his nose. It was obvious he still didn’t believe a word of it. “Who were the candidates in this so-called election?”
    “Jason Blunt, the millionaire oilman, and Stanley Ambrose, former director of the Venus Colony.”
    “Ambrose! I wouldn’t put anything past Jason Blunt—but Ambrose! Does he admit his part in this?”
    “We haven’t been able to locate him, sir. He seems to have disappeared since returning from Venus last year.”
    “Disappeared?” The President pondered that. “And what about Jason Blunt?”
    “He admits the existence of this group, but claims there is no intention to overthrow the government. He took me on a tour of an underground computer complex in Utah.” Crader described the place in detail.
    “I’ll find out who sold that site to them, you can be damn sure!”
    “I understand it was disposed of as surplus government property, purchased by one of Blunt’s firms for the underground storage of natural gas.”
    “We’ll see about that.” McCurdy puzzled over it a moment and then asked, “If their computer complex is as big as you say, why did they need to tie into the FRIDAY system for their secret election?”
    “Perhaps only to show us the extent of their power,” Crader surmised, but he wasn’t fully satisfied with that explanation.
    “Anything else?”
    “Blunt sent you a message. He said the future belongs to those with the largest computers.”
    “Sounds like a threat to me,” McCurdy said after a moment’s thought.
    “Perhaps,” Crader conceded.
    “I know Blunt. He backed my opponent four years ago.”
    “Is he backing Thomas Wallace this time?”
    “Not that I know of. Until your news I thought he was sitting this election out.”
    “His computers predict a narrow victory for you next month.”
    “That’s generous of him!” President McCurdy snorted. Then, perhaps remembering that Friday was present, he shifted to a more statesmanlike attitude. “But tell me, Professor Friday, is there any possibility that this tampering with your election computer could affect the results of next month’s contest?”
    It was the question Crader had known would be asked, and the professor was ready. “There’s nothing to worry about, sir. As with any type of computer, the magnetic tapes and memory cells can be cleared through a simple operation. It won’t interfere with the election in any way.”
    But the President was far from satisfied. “Nevertheless, doesn’t the very ease with which these interlopers gained access to the FRIDAY-404 system cast a cloud over it? Suppose I should win the election next month by a few million votes, and suppose my opponent then suggests that the computer system was tampered with, through the unauthorized insertion of fraudulent votes? He could point to this happening to bolster his case.”
    Lawrence Friday shook his head. “The two events are entirely different. In this case last week, the unguarded voting machines and computer circuits were used to relay results of a private election to a central office in Chicago. Next month’s voting will be entirely different. There’ll be the usual poll watchers, plus continuous monitoring of the skysphere satellite and a constant check of the readouts. The votes are cast at a predictable rate, depending upon the hour of the day and the number of states having open polls. If, say, there was a sudden surge of three million votes within a minute around two o’clock, we’d know something was wrong because not that many people vote at midday. Likewise, if any fraudulent votes were fed into the system a few at a time we’d discover it too, because the running totals for the candidates are constantly checked against the votes cast all around the country. Your votes plus Thomas