‘Hrrmph- Well, all I’ve got to say is that that might be better than the slow poisoning that is going on now.
Stevens brushed it away impatiently. ‘Look, Doc, nurse a bee in your bonnet if you like, but don’t ask me to figure it into my calculations. Nobody else sees any danger in radiant power.
Grimes answered mildly. ‘Point is, son, they aren’t looking in the right place. Do you know what the high-jump record was last year?
‘I never listen to the sports news.
‘Might try it sometime. The record levelled off at seven foot two, ‘bout twenty years back. Been dropping ever since. You might try graphing athletic records against radiation in the air – artificial radiation. Might find some results that would surprise you.
‘Shucks, everybody knows there has been a swing away from heavy sports. The sweat-and-muscles fad died out, that’s all. We’ve simply advanced into a more intellectual culture.
‘Intellectual, hogwash! People quit playing tennis and such because they are tired all the time. Look at you. You’re a mess.
‘Don’t needle me, Doc.
‘Sorry. But there has been a clear deterioration in the performance of the human animal. If we had decent records on such things I could prove it, but any physician who’s worth his salt can see it, if he’s got eyes in him and isn’t wedded to a lot of fancy instruments. I can’t prove what causes it, not yet, but I’ve a damned good hunch that it’s caused by the stuff you peddle.
‘Impossible. There isn’t a radiation put on the air that hasn’t been tested very carefully in the bio labs. We’re neither fools nor knaves
‘Maybe you don’t test ‘em long enough. I’m not talking about a few hours, or a few weeks; I’m talking about the cumulative effects of years of radiant frequencies pouring through the tissues. What does that do?
‘Why, nothing-I believe.
‘You believe, but you don’t know. Nobody has ever tried to find out. F’rinstance – what effect does sunlight have on silicate glass? Ordinarily you would say “none”, but you’ve seen desert glass?
‘That bluish-lavender stuff? Of course.
‘Yes. A bottle turns coloured in a few months in the Mojave Desert. But have you ever seen the windowpanes in the old houses on Beacon Hill?
‘I’ve never been on Beacon Hill.
‘OK, then I’ll tell you. Same phenomena, only it takes a century more, in Boston. Now tell me, you savvy physics – could you measure the change taking place in those Beacon Hill windows?
‘Mm-rn-in – probably not.
‘But it’s going on just the same. Has anyone ever tried to measure the changes produced in human tissue by thirty years of exposure to ultra short -wave radiation?
‘No, but-
‘No “buts”. I see an effect. I’ve made a wild guess at a cause. Maybe I’m wrong. But I’ve felt a lot more spry since I’ve taken to invariably wearing my lead overcoat whenever I go out.
Stevens surrendered the argument. ‘Maybe you’re right, Doc. I won’t fuss with you. How about Waldo? Will you take me to him and help me handle him?
‘When do you want to go?
‘The sooner the better.
‘Now?
‘Suits.
‘Call your office.
‘Are you ready to leave right now? It would suit me. As far as the front office is concerned, I’m on vacation; nevertheless, I’ve got this on my mind. I want to get at it.
‘Quit talking and git.
They went topside to where their cars were parked. Grimes headed towards his, a big-bodied, old-fashioned Boeing family landau. Stevens checked him. ‘You aren’t planning to go in that? It ‘u’d take us the rest of the day.
“Why not? She’s got an auxiliary space drive, and she’s tight. You could fly from here to the Moon and back.
‘Yes, but she’s so infernal slow. We’ll use my “broomstick”
Grimes let his eyes run over his friend’s fusiformed little speedster. Its body was as nearly invisible as the plastic industry could achieve. A surface layer, two molecules thick, gave it a refractive index sensibly identical with that of air. When perfectly clean it was very difficult to see. At the moment it had picked up enough casual dust and water vapour to be faintly seen – a ghost of a soap bubble of a ship