The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Unnecessary Man, by Gordon Randall Garrett

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Unnecessary Man

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett

Illustrator: Martinez

Release Date: February 6, 2008 [EBook #24529]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE UNNECESSARY MAN ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

THE
UNNECESSARY
MAN

BY RANDALL GARRETT

_Sometimes an organizational setup
grows, sets its ways, and becomes
so traditional that once-necessary
jobs become unnecessary. But it is
sometimes quite hard to spot just
which man is the unnecessary one. In
this case ... not the one you think!_

Illustrated by Martinez

_"I recall," said the Businessman, "that William Wrigley, Junior,
once said:_ 'When two men in a business always agree, one of them is
unnecessary.' _How true that is."_

_The Philosopher cast his eyes toward Heaven. "O God! The Mercantile
Mind!" He looked back at the Businessman. "When two men in a
business always agree, one of them will come in handy as a
scapegoat."_

_THE IDLE WORSHIPERS_
by R. Phillip Dachboden

[Illustration]

Lord Barrick Sorban, Colonel, H.I.M.O.G., Ret., sipped gently at his
drink and looked mildly at the sheaf of newsfacsimile that he'd just
bought fresh from the reproducer in the lobby of the Royal Hotel. Sorban
did not look like a man of action; he certainly did not look like a
retired colonel of His Imperial Majesty's Own Guard. The most likely
reason for this was that he was neither.

Not that he was incapable of action on a physical level if it became
necessary; he was past forty, but his tough, hard body was in as fine a
shape as it had been fifteen years before, and his reflexes had slowed
only slightly. The only major change that had occurred in his body
during that time had been the replacement of an irreparably damaged left
hand by a prosthetic.

But Lord Barrick Sorban preferred to use his mind, to initiat