Direct Descent by Frank Herbert Read Free Book Online

“I asked for the actual material when it … I mean, I didn’t want this playing over any of our internal circuits.”
    “If it’s sensitive, I can understand the secrecy, sir. But that’s quite a package. All of that in one account?”
    “It’s a condensation, Sooma. A condensation.”
    “But why … I mean, if I’m to shepherd these accountants around and … Sir, I’ve never heard of this Dornbaker Account. I swear it. What is it?”
    Tchung nodded. “I suspected that. You understand that I do not mistrust your competency. But I was naturally worried about the activities of these … as you say, jackals. I thought I would look into the larger expenses, find what …”
    “That’s the very thing I’ve been doing, sir. I have my people poring over everything.”
    “Not quite everything. You see, I requested the records on all large expenses of long standing that have not been reviewed or readjusted for several centuries.”
    Tchung cleared his throat.
    “So?”
    “I … uh … turned over the preliminary examination to an assistant. He was distracted for a few days over the costs in the sub-micro refiling system. We all know that’s top priority if we ever hope to effect any big savings in … Oh, dear. I’m explaining this badly.”
    “What did your assistant find?”
    “The Dornbaker Account. For three days we have been receiving nothing but material on this Dornbaker Account.”
    “One account?”
    “That’s why I was so sure that my Chief Accountant would know what …”
    Sil-Chan pressed backward into his chair. “Impossible! There’s no account in our records that big.”
    “I’m afraid there’s at least one such account. Material on it is still pouring out. The last running tab showed eighteen billion stellars spent on the Dornbaker Account in the first seven months of this fiscal year.”
    Sil-Chan opened his mouth, closed it without a word. Then: “I shall resign immediately, of course. I cannot …”
    “Oh, don’t be a fool! Not a complete fool, at least.”
    “Sir, I don’t understand how you got these records and we in Accountancy have never heard of them.”
    “It was the way I phrased my request. How do you summon the records each year?”
    “Accounts for readjustment, of course.”
    “I asked for all large expenses.”
    Sil-Chan crimsoned.
    “Don’t blame yourself, my boy,” Tchung said. “I know the procedure. How could you suspect such a …”
    “Even so, our cross-checks and random accounting procedures … anything that big has to be justified in the budgets!”
    “It was marked DA. Does that suggest anything to you?”
    “Deteriorated Accumulation—the fuel budget! Deteriorated fuel. I see! It was …”
    “… Thrown in with fuel costs. They were large, but we expect them to be large and …”
    “Doesn’t the Central Computer explain this Dornbaker Account?”
    Tchung referred to the micro projection on his desk, flipped switches and read from the projection. “It refers to Dornbaker access, Dornbaker counterbalance—that’s one million six hundred and eight thousand stellars annually just for robot upkeep—and there’s Dornbaker re-routing and …” Tchung mopped his forehead. “It takes forty-two minutes just to list the subsections of this account. I won’t go on with it.”
    Sil-Chan swallowed in a dry throat. “Forty-two minutes just to … Did you say counterbalance?”
    “Yes.”
    “There’s obviously some stupid error here, sir. How could …”
    “No error. When I saw counterbalance, I began to suspect that … well … You must understand, Sooma, that some matters are reserved for the Director. There’s a question of legality here. It seems that we don’t have the legal right to readjust this account.”
    “But all that money, sir. How long since that account has even been studied for possible …”
    “Five thousand and two Standard Years Modern, six thousand and twenty-nine by the old