When a semblance of order had returned to the room, Foreshaw had a question. “Dr. Clifford, what you’ve just told us sounds incredible. You are certain that a device of this nature could become a reality?”
“Quite certain.”
“You can see no fundamental reason why it couldn’t be built?”
“None.” Clifford stood with his arms folded, composed and confident.
“What do you envisage it would take to do it?” Foreshaw asked.
“It would require a large power source to provide focusing energy—ideally a fusion reactor. There would be a matter-beam generating system feeding a black hole sustained in a more powerful and modified version of the Sudbury GRASER. For specific target location and fire control we’d need a detector arrangement bigger and better than the Mark II. I envisage that the Mark III detector system would require three BIACs running in parallel for adequate data processing and control.”
“How long?” Foreshaw inquired.
Clifford had evidently come prepared. Without any hesitation, he replied, “If nothing was spared in making the requisite resources available, I estimate that the system could be operational in one year.”
* * *
The four scientists from Sudbury stayed overnight in Washington and went back to the Pentagon next morning to answer further questions. Then they returned to Massachusetts while an advisory committee, specially convened by the President, examined the proposal and studied the report that Clifford had prepared. Ten days later they were summoned back to Washington to face the committee, restate the case, and answer more questions. In the afternoon they met the President.
* * *
Alexander George Sherman, President of the United States, rose from his chair at the table in the White House Cabinet Room and walked across to stand by the window. He stayed there for a long time, contemplating the scene outside, while he recapitulated again in his mind the things he had learned during the previous ten days. Behind him, still seated around the table, the four visitors from Sudbury, Vice President Donald Reyes, Defense Secretary William Foreshaw, and Secretary of State Melvin Chambers remained silent. At last the President pivoted on his heel and spoke to the room from where he was standing, addressing his words primarily to the four from ISF.
“Our latest intelligence reports and strategic forecasts do not paint a cheerful picture. The initiative is slowly but surely passing to the East, and once a critical point is reached, a major outbreak of hostilities will be inevitable. The only thing that would avert a full global war would be the granting of a long list of diplomatic, territorial, and political concessions by the West.”
“That would be just the beginning,” Chambers remarked. “Once you set any precedents like that, you simply get squeezed harder. The West would either be slowly reduced to complete impotence, or forced to fight it out later anyway, but on less favorable terms.”
“Hardly a long-term answer, then,” Peter Hughes commented.
“Precisely,” Chambers nodded. “Appeasement is out.”
“I must make a decision now,” Sherman said to them. “I have three choices open to me. First—strike now, strike first, and strike hard while the balance is more or less even. The consequences of that would be catastrophic for the world whatever the final outcome, and I’m sure I don’t have to spell them out. Second—I can do nothing. I can allow things to continue on their present course, in which case the end of free democracy as we understand it will be almost certain.” He moved a pace back toward the table. “The third thing I can do is stake everything on this new weapon that will require a year to become a reality. But the world will not stop turning for our convenience. If I stake my bet that way, I naturally wouldn’t want to run any risk of anything getting out of control during that year, before it was time to collect the winnings. In other words I’d be obliged to make whatever concessions the other side demanded. At the end of that year, if the bet didn’t pay and the weapon turned out to be a dud, I’d have allowed the whole world situation to tip against us, irreversibly, and I’d have nothing to show for it. If that happened, things could only snowball for the worse after that.” He walked back to his chair, sat down and regarded the others soberly.