# Mr. Harse — Short Fiction character guide

> Mr. Harse in Short Fiction by Frederik Pohl.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Harse, Honest Harse, Splendidly trustable Harse

**First appearance:** 0000-asteroid-of-the-damned

## Snapshot

A jittery inventor hauling a booby-trapped silver case through a crowded hotel lobby, Harse is exactly the wrong man to bring to a secret rendezvous.

## Who they are

Harse carries confidential material in a dispatch case that shocks bellhops and sprays black fog when flashbulbs pop, drawing the whole lobby's attention to Mooney's carefully planned meeting. He is curious, literal-minded, and utterly incapable of taking a hint, wandering off to aim his strange device at conventioneers the moment Mooney looks away. His inability to be discreet threatens to expose everything before the rendezvous even begins.

## In the story

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/ii)

Harse, the time traveler, shows Mooney his wampum-like spheres, eats strange future food, and vaporizes the driver with a blue-light device.

### [III](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/iii)

The pale-eyed man from the future, carrying a survival kit. Shocks a bellboy, disrupts a hotel lobby with his viewer, and reveals he is a stranded time traveler awaiting rescue at the Nexus Point.

### [IV](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/iv)

Uses a flying metal kit to disintegrate a thief in the park and later deploys glowing spider-like entities to restrain Mooney.

### [V](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/v)

Grumbles about the primitive conditions and laws, follows Mooney reluctantly through the park.

### [VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/chapters/vi)

Disguised as a policeman, confronts Mooney but passes him to join the time travelers in the egg; later drops the survival kit to Mooney.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/characters/harse
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_18_se/characters