Part 20 (2/2)

All the while he was playing for time, as he directed his attention from one hard case, one resistant mind, to another He soothed and he tickled and he played on personal foibles For the benefit of the tiain painted a picture of the suffering, death and destruction that ht result frohly questionable predictions of Destry'sdetail a picture of a world free froranted almost unlimited power, safe power from an invention which was theirs for this one small concession

It worked They did not reverse theate the feasibility of the proposed spaceshi+p power plant By sheer brass Lentz suggested names for the committee and Dixon confirmed his nominations, not because he wished to, particularly, but because he was caught off guard and could not think of a reason to refuse without affronting those colleagues

The i was not mentioned by either side

Privately, Lentz felt sure that it never would be mentioned

It worked, but there was left much to do For the first few days after the victory in co felt much elated by the prospect of an early release fro worry He was buoyed up by pleasant demands of manifold new administrative duties Harper and Erickson were detached to Goddard Field to collaborate with the rocket engineers there in design of firing cha and the like A schedule had to be worked out with the business office to permit asatoiant coned and ordered to replace the bo the interim between the time it was shut down on Earth and the later time when sufficient local, smaller plants could be built to carry the commercial load He was busy

When the first activity had died down and they were settled in a new routine, pending the shutting down of the bo suffered an e to do but wait, and tend the bos and produced a space-worthy rocketshi+p

They ran into difficulties, overcame them, and cah reaction velocities; it took ive reasonably high efficiency When that was solved, and success seeround test They were stalemated for weeks over that hitch

Back at the power plant Superintendent King could do nothing but chew his nails and wait He had not even the release of running over to Goddard Field to watch the progress of the research, for, urgently as he desired to, he felt an even stronger, an overpowering coly! - blow up at the lastaround the control room He had to stop that; his unease coineers; two of thele day - one of therave upswing in psychoneurosis a had commenced At first, they had tried to keep the essential facts of the plan a close secret, but it had leaked out, perhaps through so committee He admitted to himself now that it had been a ainst it, and the engineers not actually engaged in the change-over were bound to know that soineers into confidence at last, under oath of secrecy That had helped for a week or iven a spiritual lift by the knowledge, as he had been Then it had worn off, the reaction had set in, and the psychological observers had started disqualifying engineers for duty al each other as ht even be faced with a shortage of psychiatrists if that kept up, he thought to hiineers were already standing four hours in every sixteen If one more dropped out, he'd put himself on watch

That would be a relief, to tell himself the truth

Somehow, some of the civilians around about and the nontechnical eo on - if it spread any farther there ht be a nation-wide panic But how the hell could he stop it? He couldn't

He turned over in bed, rearranged his pillow, and tried once et to sleep No soap His head ached, his eyes were balls of pain, and his brain was a ceaseless grind of useless, repetitive activity, like a disk recording stuck in one groove

God! This was unbearable! He wondered if he were cracking up - if he already had cracked up This orse, many tied the danger and tried to forget it as much as much as possible Not that the bomb was any different - it was this five- for the curtain to go up, this race against ti to do to help

He sat up, switched on his bed laood He got up, went into his bathroolass of whiskey and water, half and half He gulped it down and went back to bed Presently he dozed off

He was running, fleeing down a long corridor At the end lay safety - he knew that, but he was so utterly exhausted that he doubted his ability to finish the race The thing pursuing hireater activity The thing behind him increased its pace, and actually touched hiain

He beca in mortal terror

But he had to reach the end of that corridor; more depended on it than just himself He had to He had to! He had to!

Then the sound hit him, and he realized that he had lost, realized it with utter despair and utter, bitter defeat He had failed, the bo off; it was seven o'clock His paja with sweat, and his heart still pounded Every ragged nerve throughout his body screamed for release It would take more than a cold shower to cure this case of the shakes

He got to the office before the janitor was out of it He sat there, doing nothing, until Lentz walked in on him, two hours later The psychiatrist ca two small tablets from a box in his desk

”Easyeasy, old man,” Lentz said in a slow voice ”What have you there?” He caently took possession of the box

”Just a sedative”

Lentz studied the inscription on the cover ”How many have you had today?”

”Just two, so far”