Harper did, for I saw him do it — with Isotope V. I’m sorry.”
Understanding broke over Harper’s face, and he slapped the older man on the
shoulder. “Don’t be sorry,” he laughed; “you can come around to our lab and
help us make mistakes any time you feel in the mood. Can’t he, Gus? This is
the answer, Dr. Lentz; this is it!”
“But,” the psychiatrist pointed out, “you don’t know which isotope blew
up.”
“Nor care,” Harper supplemented. “Maybe it was both, taken together. But we
will know — this business is cracked now; we’ll soon have it open.” He
gazed happily around at the wreckage.
In spite of Superintendent King’s anxiety, Lentz refused to be hurried in
passing judgment on the situation. Consequently, when he did present
himself at King’s office, and announced that he was ready to report, King
was pleasantly surprised as well as relieved. “Well, I’m delighted,” he
said. “Sit down, Doctor, sit down. Have a cigar. What do we do about it?”
But Lentz stuck to his perennial cigarette and refused to be hurried. “I
must have some information first. How important,” he demanded, “is the
power from your plant?”
King understood the implication at once. If you are thinking about shutting
down the bomb for more than a limited period, it can’t be done.”
“Why not? If the figures supplied me are correct, your output is less than
thirteen percent of the total power used in the country.”
“Yes, that is true, but you haven’t considered the items that go into
making up the total. A lot of it is domestic power, which householders get
from sunscreens located on their own roofs. Another big slice is power for
the moving roadways — that’s sunpower again. The portion we provide here is
the main power source for most of the heavy industries — steel, plastics,
lithics, all kinds of manufacturing and processing. You might as well cut
the heart out of a man — ”
“But the food industry isn’t basically dependent on you?” Lentz persisted.
“No. Food isn’t basically a power industry — although we do supply a
certain percentage of the power used in processing. I see your point, and
will go on and concede that transportation — that is to say, distribution
of food — could get along without us. But, good heavens, Doctor, you can’t
stop atomic power without causing the biggest panic this country has ever
seen. It’s the keystone of our whole industrial system.”
“The country has lived through panics before, and we got past the oil
shortage safely.”
“Yes — because atomic power came along to take the place of oil. You don’t
realize what this would mean, Doctor. It would be worse than a war; in a
system like ours, one thing depends on another. If you cut off the heavy
industries all at once, everything else stops, too.”
“Nevertheless, you had better dump the bomb.” The uranium in the bomb was
molten, its temperature being greater than twenty-four hundred degrees
centigrade. The bomb could be dumped into a group of small containers, when
it was desired to shut it down. The mass in any one container was too small
to maintain progressive atomic disintegration.
King glanced involuntarily at the glass-inclosed relay mounted on his
office wall, by which he, as well as the engineer on duty, could dump the
bomb, if need be. “But I couldn’t do that — or rather, if I did, the plant
wouldn’t stay shut down. The Directors would simply replace me with someone
who would operate the bomb.”
“You’re right, of course.” Lentz silently considered the situation for some
time, then said, “Superintendent, will you order a car to fly me back to
Chicago?”
“You’re going, Doctor?”
“Yes.” He took the cigarette holder from his face, and, for once, the smile
of Olympian detachment was gone completely. His entire manner was sober,
even tragic. “Short of shutting down the bomb, there is no solution to your
problem-none whatsoever!
“I owe you a full explanation,” Lentz continued, at length. “You are
confronted here with recurring; instances of situational psychoneurosis.
Roughly, the symptoms manifest themselves as anxiety neurosis or some form
of hysteria. The partial amnesia of your secretary, Steinke, is a good