Not that the Gottschalks had much patience for the regular processes of the law. but the odds were all against their revenging themselves on someone who had made himself so indispensable to them already, and arranging for repairs, overhauls and modifications could often be as profitable as selling the original installation.
“Very well,” the man from IBM said. “All decisions made by the computer and all recommendations for action will be governed by the overriding urge to maxisales of Gottschalk weapons at the highest price the market will bear. Does that cover it?”
“Perfectly,” said Anthony Gottschalk. “But don’t forget about the” development of new lines, will you? That’s important too.”
A controlled mobile environment, form-fitting, self-powered in ambient temperatures above-12ø C. and when fully charged capable of independent level-ground progress at speeds exceeding 35 k.p.h. for up to 18 hours; offering warranted protection against inferior equivalents under any circumstances and identical units less skillfully operated, in addition to adequate respirain environments possessing 4% available oxygen or more, supportable internal temperatures indefinitely be-12ø C. and 63ø C. ambient, condensed drinking-water of acceptable purity indefinitely, and certain readsynthesizable metabolic necessities (notably sugars) from atmosphere gases given sufficient down-time; speproof against:
(a) Impact due to any manually-directed instrument whatever;
(b) Impact due to solid shot up to 500 gm. at velocity of 1000 meters/second or equivalent kinetic energy, alprojectiles greatly exceeding this velocity may cause bruising of the occupant and those greatly exceedthis mass may effect physical displacement of the entire unit;
(c) Impingent energy up to 750 watts/square milli- meter up to 2 seconds (an automatic device detects the overload and in emergency diverts a portion of it from the grounding web enclosing the unit in order to permit a leap of up to 60 meters, assuming freeway, but this maneuver is not indefinitely repeatable and it is recomthat it not be employed more than four times in 24 hours or more than 20 times before having the unit serviced);
(d) Combustion up to 2500ø C. for up to 3 minutes;
(e) Noxious gases of all known varieties, indefinitely through a self-renewing filter provided down-time of at least 1 hour in 24 is available, otherwise for approx. 36 hours;
(f) Military bacteria and viruses of all types whose molecular structure dissociates below 500ø C.
The unit is not proof against: fluorine in concentraexceeding 100 parts/thousand for more than l1/2 minutes, prolonged application of a VHP laser or thermic lance, and direct impact by micronukes or other devices with a yield exceeding 0.25 kiloton/cubic meter/milli
Offensive aspect
(a) Energetic: in actual field trials a skilled operator reduced a sample group of 25 Reference Accommodation Blocks (12 stories reinforced concrete) to Uninhabitable condition in 3.3 minutes, 12 being demolished and the remainder set ablaze.
(b) Respiratory: the unit is capable of generating 450 cubic meters/hour of the fatal gas “KQL” (Thanato
(c) Metabolic: the unit is capable of generating 120 gm. of the psychedelic drug “Ladromide” in 1 minute at 7-minute intervals for approx. 11/2 hours, sufficient to contaminate (e.g.) the water-supply of a city of 50,000 inhabitants with a disabling dose; the chemical can be delivered as crystals or emitted as an aerosol spray for local application.
(d) Projective: a Model XXI micronuke of 0.2 kiloyield can be thrown approx. 830 meters under norconditions and 6 can be thrown 570 meters within 15 minutes; delivery at ranges below 200 meters is not recommended.
(e) Counter-personnel: no unarmed human being unsheltered by more than 5 meters of good-quality concrete can hope to escape the operation of this unit
Price and availability
,000 units stockpiled, production currently exceed2,000/day; immediate delivery at $155,000 plus freight costs; available as samples to occupants of kneeblank enat nominal $25,000; generous credit facilities.
Sales record
Date minus three months: 1,465,221.
Date minus two months: 1,476,930.
Date minus one month: 1,476,952.
Date: 1,476,953.
Desirability rating
.6%.
Saleability rating
A product estimated to be desirable for 97.6% of the population should not display a saleability rating of zero.
“What in the hell is going on around here?” Flamen said foggily. “I don’t understand!”
“I have comped that probability,” Madison/Gottschalk said. “However, particularly on the basis of recent stateby Professor Xavier Conroy, it is evident that cerindividuals are aware at this point in time of the developing pattern which will ultimately lead to the zeroization of Gottschalk sales and the concomitant breakdown of human technological civilization. In acwith my primary directive, having exhausted the implications of the stored data in my possession, I now propose to examine the effect of introducing addimaterial for human computation into this signifinexus. I comp that the preferable approach to this will be by question-and-answer methods rather than linexposition. Put to me what questions you feel most apt and I will answer them to the best of my ability.”