“That is just why-”
“We try to conduct the affairs of the Company with reasonable wisdom, and in the public interest. But we have other responsibilities, too. There are hundreds of thousands of little stockholders who expect us to show a reasonable return on their investment. You must not expect us to jettison a billion-dollar corporation just because you’ve taken up astrology. Moon theory!” He sniffed.
“Very well, Mister Chairman.” King’s tone was stiff.
“Don’t, take it that way, Mr. King. I’m glad you called, the Board has just adjourned a special meeting. They have decided to accept you for retirement-with full pay, of course.”
“I did not apply for retirement!”
“I know, Mr. King, but the Board feels that-”
“I understand. Goodbye!”
“Mr. King-”
“Goodbye!” He switched him off, and turned to Lentz. “‘-with full pay,'” he quoted, “which I can enjoy in any way that I like for the rest of my life just as happy as a man in the death house!”
“Exactly,” Lentz agreed. “Well, we’ve tried our way. I suppose we should call up Harrington now and let him try the political and publicity method.”
“I suppose so,” King seconded absent-mindedly. “Will you be leaving for Chicago now?”
“No . . .” said Lentz. “No…. I think I will catch the shuttle for Los Angeles and take the evening rocket for the Antipodes.”
King looked surprised, but said nothing. Lentz answered the unspoken comment. “Perhaps some of us on the other side of the earth will survive. I’ve done all that I can here. I would rather be a live sheepherder in Australia than a dead psychiatrist in Chicago.”
King nodded vigorously. “That shows horse sense. For two cents, I’d dump the pile now, and go with you.”
“Not horse sense, my friend-a horse will run back into a burning barn, which is exactly what I plan not to do. Why don’t you do it and come along. If you did, it would help Harrington to scare ’em to death.”
“I believe I will!”
Steinke’s face appeared again on the screen. “Harper and Erickson are here, Chief.”
“I’m busy.”
“They are pretty urgent about seeing you.”
“Oh-all right,” King said in a tired voice, “show them in. It doesn’t matter.”
They breezed in, Harper in the van. He commenced talking at once, oblivious to the superintendent’s morose preoccupation. “We’ve got it, Chief, we’ve got it! And it all checks out to the umpteenth decimal!”
“You’ve got what? Speak English.”
Harper grinned. He was enjoying his moment of triumph, and was stretching it out to savor it. “Chief, do you remember a few weeks back when I asked for an additional allotment-a special one without specifying how I was going to spend it?”
“Yes. Come on-get to the point.”
“You kicked at first, but finally granted it. Remember?
Well, we’ve got something to show for it, all tied up in pink ribbon. It’s the greatest advance in radioactivity since Hahn split the nucleus. Atomic fuel, Chief, atomic fuel, safe, concentrated, and controllable. Suitable for rockets, for power plants, for any damn thing you care to use it for.”
King showed alert interest for the first time. “You mean a power source that doesn’t require a pile?”
“Oh, no, I didn’t say that. You use the breeder pile to make the fuel, then you use the fuel anywhere and anyhow you like, with something like ninety-two percent recovery of energy. But you could junk the power sequence, if you wanted to.”
King’s first wild hope of a way out of his dilemma was dashed; he subsided. “Go ahead. Tell me about it.”
“Well-it’s a matter of artificial radioactives. Just before I asked for that special research allotment, Erickson and I-Doctor Lentz had a finger in it too,” he acknowledged with an appreciative nod to the psychiatrist, “-found two isotopes that seemed to be mutually antagonistic. That is, when we goosed ’em in the presence of each other they gave up their latent energy all at once- blew all to hell. The important point is we were using just a gnat’s whisker of mass of each-the reaction didn’t require a big mass to maintain it.”
“I don’t see,” objected King, “how that could-“