could it grow?”
“What a program . . , what a program!” Rock-still, Maynard thought for minutes. “I’ve
always insisted on a fully-developed presentation, but this . . . the three biggest firms in
existence, all pulling together and with everything they need. . . .” He paused.
Lansing and DuPuy both said the trouble would be to keep it from growing too
fast-getting all porous and falling apart. But that you knew that as well as they did, and
wouldn’t expand any faster than you could get top-bracket people, and that such
executives are damned scarce.”
“They’re so right. However, I’m ready-I’ll go into that later. It won’t be as long as you
think. What’s WarnOil’s thought on organization?”
“To have some widely-known VIP as president, with actual management staying right
where it is now; with you running Metals and Lansing running Energy and both of you
playing footsie with Hatfield of InStell-with the figurehead president not necessarily
knowing quite everything that goes on.”
“That sounds good. Lansing’s an operator, and so is Hatfield.”
“Last, the stock classes will be such, and Deston and Deston’s payments will be such,
that voting control will be . . . oh, yes, `conserved’ was the word DuPuy used. That’s all,
sir.”
“Not by several stages that isn’t all. You’ve done altogether too much work on this to
have it stop at this point. Next stage, please.”
Deston looked baffledly at Barbara; who gave him an I-told-you-so smile and said, “You
knew darn well you’d have to tell him the whole wild thing, so go right ahead and do it.”
“You certainly will, son,” Maynard agreed. He had thought that Deston, like so many
other space officers, had used the glamor of his status to marry money. That idea was
out. He wasn’t the type. Neither was Barbara; glamor-boys by the score had been trying
to marry her ever since she was fifteen . . . and they could find metal . . . and this whole
deal showed honest-to-God brains. After a very brief pause he went on, “Neither of you
cares any more about money as money than I do. So it’s something else. I’m beginning
to think, Barbara, that you were right in ascribing most of this to Carl, here.”
“Of course I was.” Barbara grinned wickedly; she had known exactly what Maynard had
been thinking. “My mind doesn’t work that way at all. It really doesn’t.”
Okay, okay; don’t rub it in.” Maynard answered her grin; not her words. “I’m sure we’ll go
along, but after all this you’ll have to tell me what you’re really after.” “The trouble is, I
can’t, at all exactly.” Deston spread out both hands. “Too much extrapolation-altogether
too many unknowns-at this point the picture becomes ver-ee unclear.”
“Okay. Your thinking so far has been eminently precise; I’d like to hear your
extrapolations and speculations.”
“Okay. MetEnge, or whatever the new firm turns out to be, will employ DesDes as
consulting geologists; that is. we would work independently of, and eventually replace,
your geological staff and your prospectors and wildcatters and so on. If you should wish
to employ us on an exclusive basis . . . ?”
“That goes without saying.”
“We would require a very substantial annual fee, payable in MetEnge voting stock at the
market. All of our new discoveries, including the find not theretofore revealed, will be
leased, not sold, to MetEnge.”
“Ah. `Conserve’ is right. Pete has a very fine Italian hand indeed. I’m going to like this.
Not money at all, but power.”
“Not exactly-or rather, we want power back of us. We want to explore subspace and
deep space in ways and to depths that have never even been thought of before. There
must be thousands of things not only undiscovered, but not even imagined yet. Barbara
and I want to go out after some of them; and, since nobody can have any idea whatever
of what we may run into, it is clear that the highly special ship may turn out to be the
smallest part of what we’ll need. So we’ll want the full backing of the biggest private
organization it is possible to build. A firm big enough and strong enough to operate on a
scale-now possible only to governments-one able and willing to handle anything we may
stir up. Our present thought is that when MetEnge gets big enough we will offer it a
fifty-fifty share of the expedition, build the ship, and take off. As I said, there’s nothing
clear about it.”
“It’s clear enough for me to like it. You’d be surprised at the way the first part of the
program ties in with stuff I’ve been working on for a long time. As for the other-
untrammeled research into the completely unknown you realize, of course, that if
MetEnge participates fifty-fifty, DesDes will be on a non-retainer basis all the time you
are out and will have to split fifty-fifty.”
“But there isn’t going to be anything the least bit commercial about it!” Barbara protested.
“You’re wrong there, young lady. Research always has paid off big, in hard dollars. So I’ll
buy the package.” Maynard got up and shook hands with them both. “I’ll take this stuff
along. WarnOil’s legal department is acting for you, I suppose?”
“Yes.”
“In the morning we’ll send them a check for one dollar, with a firm binder, by special
messenger and start things rolling.”
“Oh, you don’t think it’s silly, then?” Barbara asked. “I was awfully afraid you’d think this
last part of it was.” “Far from it. I’m sure it will be immensely profitable.” “In that case we
have some more news for you.” Both Destons were smiling happily. “We also found a
deposit of native copper and copper ores big enough and solid enough for full
automation.”
“Copper!” Maynard yelled, jumping out of his chair. “Why the hell didn’t you bring that up
first?”
“When would this other thing have been settled if we had?”
“You’ve got a point there. Where is it?” “Belmark. Strulsa Three, you know.”
“Belmark! We prospected Belmark-it’s colonized-fairly well along. We didn’t find any
more copper there than anywhere else.”
“It’d be impossible to find by any usual method, and it’s over five hundred miles from the
nearest town. Our finding it was a … not an accident, but a byproduct while we were
training for uranium. If we’d known then what we know now I’d’ve found you a big one,
but we weren’t interested in copper.”
‘How big is this one?”
“It’ll smelt something over a hundred million tons of metal. It’ll tide you over, but I don’t
know about amortizing the plant.”
“We can cut the price in half and still amortize in months … but amortization cuts no ice
here … let’s see, production of primary copper runs about six million tons … but if we cut
the price to the bone, God knows what the sales potential is. . . .”
Maynard immersed himself in thought, then went on, “Definitely. That’s the way to do it.
Hit ’em hard. Really slug ’em . . . that is, if … how sure are you, Carl, that you can find us
another big deposit? Within, say, a year?”
Deston’s mind flashed back over the comparatively few copper surveys he had made.
“Copper isn’t too scarce and it tends to aggregate. I’ll guarantee to find you one at least
three times that big within thirty days.”
“Good! Let’s cut the chatter, then. I can use your com?” “Of course,” Barbara said; but
Maynard’s question had been purely a matter of form. He was already punching his call.
“Miss Champion,” Maynard said, when his FirSec’s face showed on the screen. “I hope
you don’t have any engagements for tonight.”
“I have a date, but it’s with Don, so he’ll understand perfectly when I break it.” She did
not ask any questions; she merely raised her perfectly-sculptured black eyebrows.
“I want him, too, so bring him downtown as soon as you can. And please get hold of
Quisenberry and Felton and tell them to get to the office jet-propelled. That’s all for now.”
“I’ll get right at it, Mr. Maynard.”
Maynard punched off and turned to Deston. “I almost forgot-what are you charging for
this?”
“Nothing. Free gratis for nothing.” “Huh?”
“We have no claim on it. Nobody has. It’s never even been surveyed; so call it DesDes’s
contribution toward knocking Burley Hoadman and his UCM off of the Christmas tree.”
“You’ve got the dope on it here in your office?”
“Yes.” Deston went to his desk and brought back a briefcase. “Here’s everything
necessary.”
“Thanks immensely. We’ll own it shortly. As for your royalties, we’ve been accused of
claim-stealing, but we usually pay discoverers’ royalties and we’ll be glad to on this one.
Brother, will we be glad to! So Phelps will-no, he’d take it for nothing, the skinflint, and
lick his chops. I’ll have Don Smith take care of it tonight. And now that that’s settled,”