irect contact. There
was the young doctor on the third floor who was becoming addicted to
his own morphine supply. The campaign against Mrs. Jamison's frigidity
which would be getting results in a few weeks. And the theft of
company funds which the middle-aged clerk in B-18 was contemplating.

Yes, it was always the priorees who suffered on an incomplete
assignment. Not to speak of the Destinyworker involved. All the months
of careful work building up, an event here, a circumstance there,
only to let the delicate fabric slip back again into the impersonal
Historic Continuum. It wasn't fair, thought Mrs. Mimms. You were
suddenly transferred to another Time Zone and there was no one to
carry on. The answer from Central was always the same: NO AVAILABLE
PERSONNEL. Not even a trainee. Not even--

Then Mrs. Mimms remembered the young salesman. It had been a
particularly hectic day at Central. Mrs. Mimms and the Briefing
Officer were conferring in the Chief's Office when the Chief finally
pressed a buzzer in irritation and said, "He's still there? All right,
I'll see him if he can state his case in five minutes." There were
firm, tired lines around the Chief's full-lipped mouth. All day long
the Translation Rooms had smelled of over-ionized electrodes as
Destinyworkers arrived by the dozens from various Time Zones. Two
thirds of the entire Past Division was being recalled and reassigned
to a Condition 14 in the Twenty-Third--elimination of a teenage fad
which was getting out of hand in North America. The Chief had smiled
wanly as the young salesman shook hands and plunged into his sales
talk.

"I know how busy you are, sir; thank you for seeing me. My firm,
Duplicanicals Unlimited, believes it has the answer to your employment
problem. Frankly, it's so simple that I'm amazed you haven't called on
us to serve you before. Briefly, our plan is this. Your Operators go
into the various Time Zones as usual and lay the preliminary
groundwork (of course Duplicanicals _realizes_ there's no _real_
substitute for humanoid tactics at the outset of any case). Then,"
said the young man, bringing home his point triumphantly, "when the
human Operator is needed elsewhere, a new model, low-cost Duplicanical
takes over and carries on the work. Yes, every Duplicanical purchased
from our firm can release a Destinyworker for an assignment in another
Time Zone. A few basic specifications is all that our plant needs to
duplicate any Destinyworke