Kennedy nodded. "I have connections with the Soviets; their agents think I'm on their side. But it isn't treason, though I may help them out from time to time.
"That's why I have to do these services for my important clients, such as getting them the women they want--or, what I actually do more often, influencing their competitors and associates. You see, the subconscious mind knows I am all-powerful, but the conscious mind doesn't. It has to be satisfied by occasional proofs that I _am_ invaluable; otherwise conflicts would set in, my men would become unstable and eventually psychotic, and be of no further use to me.
"Of course," he added, almost pedantically, "my men don't know how I persuade these other people--they only know that I do, somehow, and their regard for their own egos, as well as for me, sets up a bloc which prevents them from reasoning out the fact that they themselves are dominated. They're quite content to accept the results of my help, without inquiring further into the means than the easy rationalization that I have a 'persuasive personality.'
"I don't like what I'm doing, Fraser. But it's got to be done."
"You still haven't said _what's_ got to be done," answered the engineer coldly.
"I've been given something unbelievable," said Kennedy. His voice was very soft now. "If I'd made it public, can you imagine what would have happened? Psychiatrists would use it, yes; but so would criminals, dictators, power-hungry men of all kinds. Even in this country, I don't think libertarian principles could long survive. It would be too simple--
"And yet it would have been cowardly to break the machine and burn Gavotti's notes. Chance has given me the power to be more than a chip in the river--a river that's rapidly approaching a waterfall, war, destruction, tyranny, no matter who the Pyrrhic victor may be. I'm in a position to do something for the causes in which I believe."
Kennedy gestured at the pictures on the mantel. "Both my sons were killed in the last war. My wife died of cancer--a disease which would be licked now if a fraction of the money spent on armaments had been diverted to research. That brought it home to me; but there are hundreds of millions of people in worse cases. And war isn't the only evil--there is poverty, oppression, inequality, want and suffering. It could be changed.