Part 6 (1/2)
”Ah. Conserve' is right. Pete has a very fine Italian hand indeed. I'm going to like this. Not money at all, but power.”
”Not exactly-or rather, we want power back of us. We want to explore subs.p.a.ce and deep s.p.a.ce in ways and to depths that have never even been thought of before. There must be thousands of things not only undiscovered, but not even imagined yet. Barbara and I want to go out after some of them; and, since n.o.body can have any idea whatever of what we may run into, it is clear that the highly special s.h.i.+p may turn out to be the smallest part of what we'll need. So we'll want the full backing of the biggest private organization it is possible to build. A firm big enough and strong enough to operate on a scale-now possible only to governments-one able and willing to handle anything we may stir up. Our present thought is that when MetEnge gets big enough we will offer it a fifty-fifty share of the expedition, build the s.h.i.+p, and take off. As I said, there's nothing clear about it.”
”It's clear enough for me to like it. You'd be surprised at the way the first part of the program ties in with stuff I've been working on for a long time. As for the other- untrammeled research into the completely unknown you realize, of course, that if MetEnge partic.i.p.ates fifty-fifty, DesDes will be on a non-retainer basis all the time you are out and will have to split fifty-fifty.”
”But there isn't going to be anything the least bit commercial about it!” Barbara protested.
”You're wrong there, young lady. Research always has paid off big, in hard dollars. So I'll buy the package.” Maynard got up and shook hands with them both. ”I'll take this stuff along. WarnOil's legal department is acting for you, I suppose?”
”Yes.”
”In the morning we'll send them a check for one dollar, with a firm binder, by special messenger and start things rolling.”
”Oh, you don't think it's silly, then?” Barbara asked. ”I was awfully afraid you'd think this last part of it was.” ”Far from it. I'm sure it will be immensely profitable.” ”In that case we have some more news for you.” Both Destons were smiling happily. ”We also found a deposit of native copper and copper ores big enough and solid enough for full automation.”
”Copper!” Maynard yelled, jumping out of his chair. ”Why the h.e.l.l didn't you bring that up first?”
”When would this other thing have been settled if we had?”
”You've got a point there. Where is it?” ”Belmark. Strulsa Three, you know.”
”Belmark! We prospected Belmark-it's colonized-fairly well along. We didn't find any more copper there than anywhere else.”
”It'd be impossible to find by any usual method, and it's over five hundred miles from the nearest town. Our finding it was a... not an accident, but a byproduct while we were training for uranium. If we'd known then what we know now I'd've found you a big one, but we weren't interested in copper.”
'How big is this one?”
”It'll smelt something over a hundred million tons of metal. It'll tide you over, but I don't know about amortizing the plant.”
”We can cut the price in half and still amortize in months... but amortization cuts no ice here... let's see, production of primary copper runs about six million tons... but if we cut the price to the bone, G.o.d knows what the sales potential is...”
Maynard immersed himself in thought, then went on, ”Definitely. That's the way to do it. Hit 'em hard. Really slug 'em... that is, if... how sure are you, Carl, that you can find us another big deposit? Within, say, a year?”
Deston's mind flashed back over the comparatively few copper surveys he had made. ”Copper isn't too scarce and it tends to aggregate. I'll guarantee to find you one at least three times that big within thirty days.”
”Good! Let's cut the chatter, then. I can use your com?” ”Of course,” Barbara said; but Maynard's question had been purely a matter of form. He was already punching his call.
”Miss Champion,” Maynard said, when his FirSec's face showed on the screen. ”I hope you don't have any engagements for tonight.”
”I have a date, but it's with Don, so he'll understand perfectly when I break it.” She did not ask any questions; she merely raised her perfectly-sculptured black eyebrows.
”I want him, too, so bring him downtown as soon as you can. And please get hold of Quisenberry and Felton and tell them to get to the office jet-propelled. That's all for now.”
”I'll get right at it, Mr. Maynard.”
Maynard punched off and turned to Deston. ”I almost forgot-what are you charging for this?”
”Nothing. Free gratis for nothing.” ”Huh?”
”We have no claim on it. n.o.body has. It's never even been surveyed; so call it DesDes's contribution toward knocking Burley Hoadman and his UCM off of the Christmas tree.”
”You've got the dope on it here in your office?”
”Yes.” Deston went to his desk and brought back a briefcase. ”Here's everything necessary.”
”Thanks immensely. We'll own it shortly. As for your royalties, we've been accused of claim-stealing, but we usually pay discoverers' royalties and we'll be glad to on this one. Brother, will we be glad to! So Phelps will-no, he'd take it for nothing, the skinflint, and lick his chops. I'll have Don Smith take care of it tonight. And now that that's settled,” Maynard smiled as he had not smiled in weeks, ”about that trip of yours. I envy you. If we were twenty five years younger I'd talk my wife into going along with you. I'd better call her; and I'd like to have her meet both of you.”
”Why, we'd be delighted to meet her!” Barbara exclaimed.
Mrs. Maynard proved to be a willowy, strong-featured, gracious woman with whom the years had dealt very lightly. She was as glad to meet the Destons, about whom she had heard so much, as they were to meet her. And so on.
”I'm very sorry, Mrs. Maynard,” Barbara said, finally, ”that we had to keep your husband so...”
”Think nothing of it,” Maynard interrupted, briskly. ”Just one of those things. If you'd like to come downtown to the office, Floss, I'll take you out to dinner sometime during the evening.”
”I would like to, Upton, thanks. I'll be down in an hour or so.”
The Destons escorted Maynard up to the roof and to his waiting aircar; and after it had taken off: ”What do you suppose he meant by that just one of those things' crack?” Deston asked.
”Why, he was on a com, silly, so he was afraid to say anything! Even that he was going to work all night!” Barbara explained, excitedly. ”That's how big he knows it is!” and the two went enthusiastically into each other's arms.
Chapter 7 PROJECT ENGINEER BYRD.
Miss Champion was as efficient as she was ornamental, and all of GalMet's top people were on call every minute of every day on the calendar. Therefore she and Executive Vice-President Eldon Smith and Project Engineers Quisenberry and Felton got to GalMet's main office almost as soon as Maynard himself did. When the two engineers came in Maynard looked at them with the well-known expression of the canary-containing cat.
”Good evening, gentlemen,” he said, with a wide and cryptic grin. ”I trust that your hearts are in good shape? And your nerves? That you are both sufficiently well integrated to withstand the shock of your trouble-making young lives?”
”Try us,” Quisenberry said. He was a black-haired, black-eyed, deeply-tanned man, a little past thirty, who had worked himself up the hard way; clear up from the lowest low of a copper mine. He looked-if not exactly sullen, at least as though he was very sure that what he had been doing on his own was vastly more important than any piffling, niggling conference with THE BIG BOSS. ”I'll live through it, I'm sure.”
”Okay. Each of you take a table; you'll need lots of room. Quisenberry, here's everything you'll need on a deposit of copper. Felton, ditto, uranium. I want preliminary roughouts of those projects as fast as you can get them. Very rough: plus-or-minus twenty five percent will be close enough. Now, Don and Miss Champion, what well have to do tonight is rough out a -full operational on copper in the light of information that has just come to hand.”
After what may have been an hour Mrs. Maynard came in and Quisenberry came up for air. His table was littered with hand-books, machine-tapes of various kinds, graphs, charts, and wadded-up scratch-paper; much of which had overflowed onto the floor.
”But this is incredible, sir.” It was the first time either engineer had called Maynard ”sir” in over a year. ”Of course I can't say that it's absolutely impossible for any such deposit as this to occur, but...” Quisenberry paused.
Maynard grinned again, but pleasantly, this time. ”Do you think I'd have all that stuff faked up and then come down here and work all night myself just to put you two through the wringer?”
”Put that way, of course not... but...” Quisenberry paused again and Felton, who had stopped work and was listening with both ears, came in with: ”Quizz said it, Mr. Maynard, and mine's ten to the fourth as hard to swallow as his. I can't make myself believe that there's that much uranium in one place anywhere in the universe.”
”I know exactly how you feel,” Maynard a.s.sured them. ”I was flabbergasted myself. You may take it as a fact, however, that all that data is accurate to within the appropriate limits of error. I myself am so convinced of its reliability that I am going to give you two men all the authorization you'll need and full authority to build and to operate fully-automated plants. Satisfactory? That's what you've been getting ready for all this time, isn't it?” ”Yes, sir!” Quisenberry said, and: You said it, sir!” Felton agreed.
At seven fifty five Maynard asked the group at large, ”Everybody ready to eat? I'll call Beardsley's.”
Neither engineer would leave his job; so, after Miss Champion had ordered up two one-gallon hot-pots of coffee and a good spread of smorgasbord, the two couples went to Beardsley's for dinner-a dinner that lasted for an- hour and a half and cost Maynard exactly forty dollars (including tip). Then a GalMet aircar took Mrs.
Maynard home and another one took the other three back to the office.