There was no applause. It was not that sort of an idea; their minds were still struggling with the complex implications.
“But Chief,” Harper finally managed, “how about your retirement? We’re still not going to stand for it.”
“Don’t worry,” King assured him. “It’s all in there, implicit in those equations, you two, me, Lentz, the Board of Directors and just what we all have to do about it to accomplish it.”
“All except the matter of time,” Lentz cautioned.
“You’ll note that elapsed time appears in your answer as an undetermined unknown.”
“Yes.. . yes, of course. That’s the chance we have to take. Let’s get busy!”
Chairman Dixon called the Board of Directors to order. “This being a special meeting we’ll dispense with minutes and reports,” he announced. “As set forth in the call we have agreed to give the retiring superintendent two hours of our time.”
“Mr. Chairman-”
“Yes, Mr. Strong?”
“I thought we had settled that matter.”
“We have, Mr. Strong, but in view of Superintendent King’s long and distinguished service, if he asks for a hearing, we are honor bound to grant it. You have the floor, Doctor King.”
King got up, and stated briefly, “Doctor Lentz will speak for me.” He sat down.
Lentz had to wait for coughing, throat-clearing, and scraping of chairs to subside. It was evident that the Board resented the outsider.
Lentz ran quickly over the main points in the argument which contended that the bomb presented an intolerable danger anywhere on the face of the earth. He moved on at once to the alternative proposal that the bomb should be located in a rocket ship, an artificial moonlet flying in a free orbit around the earth at a convenient distance- say fifteen thousand miles-while secondary power stations on earth burned a safe fuel manufactured by the bomb.
He announced the discovery the Harper-Erickson technique and dwelt on what it meant to them commercially. Each point was presented as persuasively as possible, with the full power of his engaging personality. Then he paused and waited for them to blow off steam.
They did. “Visionary-” “Unproved-” “No essential change in the situation-” The substance of it was that they were very happy to hear of the new fuel, but not particularly impressed by it. Perhaps in another twenty years, after it had been thoroughly tested and proved commercially, they might consider setting up another breeder pile outside the atmosphere. In the meantime there was no hurry. Only one director supported the scheme and he was quite evidently unpopular.
Lentz patiently and politely dealt with their objections. He emphasized the increasing incidence of occupational psychoneurosis among the engineers and the grave danger to everyone near the bomb even under the orthodox theory. He reminded them of their insurance and indemnity bond costs, and of the “squeeze” they paid state politicians. Then he changed his tone and let them have it directly and brutally. “Gentlemen,” he said, “we believe that we are fighting for our lives … our own lives, our families, and every life on the globe, if you refuse this compromise, we will fight as fiercely and with as little regard for fair play as any cornered animal.” With that he made. His first move in attack. It was quite simple. He offered for their inspection the outline of a propaganda campaign on a national scale, such as any major advertising firm could carry out as a matter of routine. It was complete to the last detail, television broadcasts, spot plugs, newspaper and magazine coverage with planted editorials, dummy “citizens’ committees,” and-most important-a supporting whispering campaign and a letters-to-Congress organization. Every businessman there knew from experience how such things worked.
But its object was to stir up fear of the Arizona pile and to direct that fear, not into panic, but into rage against the Board of Directors personally, and into a demand that the Atomic Energy Commission take action to have the Big Bomb removed to outer space.
“This is blackmail! We’ll stop you!”
“I think not,” Lentz replied gently. “You may be able to keep us out of some of the newspapers, but-you can’t stop the rest of it. You can’t even keep us off the air-ask the Federal Communications Commission.” It was true. Harrington had handled the political end and had performed his assignment well; the President was convinced.