Damned If You Don't Read online

open-minded man, Mr. Bending?"

  Sam Bending followed the Secretary's lead, and kept his voice low. "Ilike to think so, Mr. Secretary." He recognized that Condley waspreparing him for something, and he recognized that the preliminarystatements were calculated to soften him. And he recognized the factthat they _did_ soften him. All right--what was the argument?

  "You're an engineer, Mr. Bending," Condley said, in the same low voice."You have been trained to evaluate facts. All I ask is that you use thattraining. Now, let's get in there before _Tovarishch_ Artomonov beginsto think we might be stalling him."

  Condley strode toward the door and grasped the knob with a firm hand.Sam Bending followed, wondering. Artomonov? Who was Artomonov? TheSecretary of Economics had indicated, by his precise enunciation of_tovarishch_, that the man was a Russian--or at least a citizen of oneof the Soviet satellites. Sam Bending took a deep breath and decidedthat he was prepared for almost anything.

  There were four men seated around the conference table in the back room,and the most surprising thing, as far as Sam was concerned, was that herecognized only one of them. From the big buildup, he had had half anotion that the President himself might be there.

  "Mr. Samson Bending, gentlemen," said Secretary Condley to the group.They all rose and made half-hearted attempts to smile, but Sam could seethat they were watching him as though he had a live grenade in hispocket.

  "Mr. Bending, I believe you know Mr. Richard Olcott," the Secretarysaid.

  Bending gave the Power Utilities executive a sardonic smile, which wasreturned by a solemn nod of the head.

  _Sure I know you, you crook_, Bending thought.

  "And, around the table," Condley continued, "are Dr. Edward Larchmont,the research departmental head of Power Utilities--Dr. Stefan Vanderlin,of the United States Bureau of Standards--and Dr. Alexis AndreevichArtomonov, of the Soviet Socialist Republics' representative office atthe United Nations."

  Sam Bending managed not to blink in astonishment as the last man wasintroduced--a feat which took every milligram of his self-possession. Herecognized the name; A. A. Artomonov, head of the United Nation'sInternational Trade Bureau. What was _he_ doing here?

  "If you'll sit down, Mr. Bending," Condley was saying, "we can get tobusiness."

  Bending sat down, and the others sat with him. "May I say somethingbefore we go any further?" Sam Bending asked. "May I say that I thinkthis is a rather irregular method of doing things and that I think Iought to see my lawyer."

  Secretary Condley's eyes narrowed just the slightest. He was a heavy,jowl-faced, graying man who was known for his firmness in his officialcapacity. "At this stage of the game, Mr. Bending, there is no need fora lawyer. We merely want to explain something to you--we want you to getall the data. If, afterwards, you still want your lawyer, you'll beperfectly free to call him. Right now, we want you to listen with anopen mind."

  Bending thought it over. "All right. Go ahead."

  * * * * *

  "Very well. First, I'll agree that all this may seem a bit high-handed.But time was--and is--getting short." He glanced at Olcott, and theglance was not all friendliness. "The Government was notified about thisalmost too late; we have had to act fast. Almost _too_ fast."

  "I notified the Government as soon as I was sure of my facts," Olcottsaid, completely unflustered.

  "That's as may be," Condley said. "The point is that we now have theproblem on our hands, and we must find an equitable solution." He took agold fountain pen from his pocket, and his strong, thick fingers begantoying with it while his eyes remained on Sam Bending. "The fact thatyou have applied for a patent makes it imperative that we get thesituation under control immediately."

  Before Sam could answer, there was a knock on the outer door that cameclearly into the rear room. Secretary Condley rose without saying a wordand went out.

  Dr. Larchmont, the Power Utilities physicist, decided to make small talkto bridge the hiatus. "That's a really beautiful piece of machineryyou've built, Mr. Bending. Really remarkable." He was a small,flat-faced man with a fringe of dark hair around his otherwise nakedscalp.

  Sam looked a little startled. "You mean you opened a Converter up?"

  Larchmont nodded. "I presume you are referring to the fusing device. WeX-rayed the thing thoroughly before we opened it. These days, manydevices are rigged to be self-destroying, but that, in itself is aspecialized field. Most of them are traps that are rather easy to getaround if one is expecting them and knows how to handle them. But theConverter itself, if I may say so, is one of the most original andelegant devices I have seen in many a day."

  "Thanks," said Bending, with a touch of bitterness in his voice. "I--"

  The door opened at that moment, and Secretary Condley came in followedby a tall, round-faced man with dark wavy hair and clear brown eyes.

  "Jim!" Sam said in surprise.

  The man was James Luckman, Sam Bending's business manager. "Hello, Sam.What's this all about? The FBI men who picked me up said I wasn't underarrest, but I had a hunch it was about as close as you can come withoutactual arrest."

  Sam nodded. "Funny--I had that impression, too." He looked at Condley."What's the idea, Condley? Jim doesn't know anything about this."

  The Secretary managed to look unoffended at Bending's tone. "Possiblynot. We can't be sure, of course, but--frankly, I'd be willing to acceptyour word." He paused. "But--you're not a businessman, Mr. Bending?" Hemade it only half a question.

  "No. I leave that sort of thing up to Jim. Oh, I don't say I'mcompletely ignorant of the field; it's just that I'm not particularlyinterested, that's all. Why should I be?" He went on, halfbelligerently. "I've known and trusted Jim for years. He knows hisbusiness; I know my science. I know enough to be able to check theaccount books, and he knows enough to be able to understand a technicalreport. Right, Jim?"

  Luckman looked bewildered. "Sure, Sam. But what's all this leading upto? I don't get it." He frowned suddenly. "Has someone accused me ofcheating you?"

  "No, no, no," Condley said rapidly. "Of course not. Nothing like that."He looked sharply at Luckman. "Do you know anything about theConverter?"

  Jim Luckman glanced at Bending before replying. Bending's face remainedexpressionless. "Go ahead, Jim," he said, "square with him."

  Luckman spread his hands. "I know that Sam was working on something hecalled a Converter. I don't know anything more about it than that. Samkeeps his ideas secret until he gets them to a marketable stage, whichis all right with me. I have enough work to do, handling the stuff he'salready patented, without worrying about anything that isn't salableyet. So?"

  Condley nodded, then gestured toward a chair. "Sit down, Mr. Luckman. Doyou know these other gentlemen?" he asked rhetorically. He proceeded tointroduce the others. Sam Bending noted with satisfaction that Luckmanlooked rather puzzled when the Russian was introduced.

  Condley himself sat down again, and said: "Well, we're all here. We'renot going to make this formal, gentlemen, but I hope it won't developinto a heated argument, either. Let's try to keep our tempers."

  * * * * *

  "First, as to the Converter itself. We all know, with the possibleexception of Mr. Luckman, what it does, but for his benefit, we'll goover that. The Converter, by means of what Dr. Larchmont has been wontto call 'a very elegant method', produces electrical power directly fromthe fusion of hydrogen into helium. A pilot model, with a total volumeof a little more than one and one-quarter cubic feet, is capable ofturning out up to five hundred horsepower, either DC or AC in a widerange of frequencies. The voltage can be regulated from zero to onethousand volts by simply setting a dial.

  "The device is powered by using ordinary water as fuel. At fullcapacity, the Converter consumes approximately four hundred milligramsof water per hour, which can easily be drawn from the moisture of theair. The machine is thus self-fueling.

  "Since the nuclear energy released is converted almost one hundred percent into elec
trical current, there is no danger from radiation; sincethe process is, by its very nature, self-limiting, there is no danger ofexplosion. The worst that can happen is for the machine to burn out,and, I understand, it won't do that unless it is purposely tamperedwith to make it do so.

  "Finally, the device is so inexpensive to produce that it could be soldfor about one-quarter of the price of an ordinary automobile." Hestopped, cleared his throat, and glanced at Larchmont and Vanderlin. "AmI essentially correct, gentlemen?"

  Larchmont