Part 20 (1/2)

”Yes, Mr Thornton?”

”I thought we had settled that matter”

”We have, Mr Thornton, but in view of Superintendent King's long and distinguished service, if he asks a hearing, we are honor bound to grant it You have the floor, Dr King”

King got up and stated briefly, ”Dr Lentz will speak for , throat clearing and scraping of chairs subsided It was evident that the board resented the outsider

Lentz ran quickly over the ument which contended that the boer anywhere on the face of the Earth

He moved on at once to the alternative proposal that the bomb should be located in a rocketshi+p, an artificialin 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 of 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 coh uraniuht consider setting up another power station outside the atmosphere In the meantime there was no hurry

Lentz patiently and politely dealt with their objections He e incidence of occupational psychoneurosis aer 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

”Gentle for our lives - our own lives, our falobe If you refuse this coard for fair play as any cornered animal” With that he made his first move in attack

It was quite sianda ca firm could carry out as matter of routine It was cos, newspaper andwhispering caanization Every businesss worked

But its object was to stir up fear of the boainst the Board of Directors personally, and into a deovernment take action to have the bomb removed to outer space

”This is blackently ”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 Coton had handled the political end and had perfornment well; the President was convinced

Te on all sides; Dixon had to pound for order ”Dr

Lentz,” he said, his own temper under taut control, ”you plan to make every one of us appear a black-hearted scoundrel with no other thought than personal profit, even at the expense of the lives of others You know that is not true; this is a simple difference of opinion as to what is wise”

”I did not say it was true,” Lentz admitted blandly, ”but you will admit that I can convince the public that you are deliberate villains As to it being a difference of opinion - you are none of you atomic physicists; you are not entitled to hold opinions in this matter

”As a matter of fact,” he went on callously, ”the only doubt in ed public will destroy your precious power plant before Congress has time to exercise eminent domain and take it away frou hination had cooled and set as stubborn resistance, he offered his gan - an entirely different sort

This time the Board of Directors was to be built up, not torn down All of the same techniques were to be used; behind-the-scenes feature articles with plenty of human interest would describe the functions of the coreat public trust, administered by patriotic, unselfish statesn, the Harper-Erickson fuel would be announced not as a semiaccidental result of the initiative of two e-expected end product of years of syste naturally out of their humane determination to remove forever the menace of explosion from even the sparsely settled Arizona desert

No er of co catastrophe

Lentz discussed it He dwelt on the appreciation that would be due therateful world He invited them to make a noble sacrifice and, with subtle misdirection, tempted them to think of themselves as heroes He deliberately played on one of the most deep-rooted of simian instincts, the desire for approval from one's kind, deserved or not