"A drop or so of the aerosol on the skin is enough, I understand."
"That's right. Now, how can such a minute amount of poison damage a
human being?"
Bending began to get a glimmer of what the man was driving at. "Well, I
know that some of them suppress the enzymic action with acetylcholine,
which means that the nerves simply act as though their synapses had been
shorted through. It only takes a small percentage of that kind of damage
to the nerve fibers to ruin the whole nervous system. The signals get
jammed up and confused, and the whole mechanism ceases to function. The
victim dies."
Larchmont nodded. "Now, as I understand it, our banking system is the
vital nerve network of our economy. And our system is built on
credit--faith, if you will. Destroy that faith--even a small percentage
of it--and you destroy the system.
"If your machine were to go on the market, there would be no more faith
in the present utilities system. Their stocks would be worthless long
before your machine actually put them out of business. And that would
hit our banking system the same way a nerve gas hits the nervous system.
And the victim--the American economy--would die. And the nation, as a
nation, would die with it."
"I see," said Bending slowly. He didn't like the picture at all; it was
more frightening than he cared to admit, even to himself. He looked at
his business manager. "What do you think, Jim?" he asked softly. He knew
he could depend on Luckman.
Jim Luckman looked worried. "They're right, Sam. Clean, dead right. I
know the investment pattern in this country, and I have an idea of what
it must be abroad. This country would be in the middle of the worst
depression in its history. At least we had Federal help during the
Thirties--but there won't even be a United States Government if this
hits. Nor, I think, will there be a Soviet government, in spite of what
Dr. Artomonov's personal beliefs may be."
Significantly, the Russian economist said nothing.
Sam Bending closed his eyes. "I've worked on this thing for years," he
said tensely. "It was ... it _means_ something to me. I invented it. I
perfected it." His voice began to quaver just a little. "But if it's
going to do ... to do all that--" He paused and took a deep breath. "All
right. I'll smash my apparatus and destroy my plans and forget about
it."
Jim Luckman looked at Secretary Condley. "I don't think that would be
fair. Sam's worked hard on this thing. He deserves recognition. And the
people of Earth deserve to get this machine somehow. Can't something be
worked out?"
"Certainly," said Condley. "In some countries, and in some eras,
dangerous inventions were suppressed by the simplest method. If it was
discovered in time, the inventor was executed summarily, along with
anyone else who knew the secret, and the invention was destroyed. The
United States isn't that kind of country." He looked down at his hands
and the gold pen again before he went on.
"Please don't misunderstand, Mr. Bending; we are not trying to keep the
Converter under wraps forever. In the first place, I don't think it
would be possible. What do you think, Dr. Vanderlin?"
The Bureau of Standards man said: "I doubt it. Granted, the Converter is
not something one would accidentally stumble across, nor automatically
deduce from the 'previous state of the art'. I'll admit frankly that I
doubt if I would ever have thought of it. But I doubt gravely that it is
so unique that it will never be rediscovered independently."
"So," said Condley, "we have no intent to hold it back on that score.
And, in the second place, such an invention is too valuable to allow it
to be lost.
"So here is our proposition. You will sell your rights to the Converter
to Power Utilities. It won't even be patented in the usual sense; we
can't allow the Converter to become public property at this time. We
can't make it possible for just anyone to send in a quarter to the
Patent Office to find out how it works. That's why we stopped the patent
application.
"But the Government will see that a contract is written up which admits
that you are the inventor of the Converter, and which will give you
royalties on every unit built. High royalties.
"Under strict Government supervision, Power Utilities will proceed to
liquidate their holdings--slowly, so that there will be no repercussions
on an economic level. The danger lies, not in the Converter's replacing
existing power equipment, but in the danger of its replacing them too
quickly. But with care and control, the adjustment can be made slowly.
The process will take about ten years, but you will receive a lump sum,
plus a monthly payment, as an advance against future royalties."
"I see," said Bending slowly. "That sounds all right to me. What about
you, Jim? What do you think?"
Jim Luckman was smiling again. "Sounds fine to me, Sam. We'll have to
work out the terms of the contract, of course, but I think Mr. Olcott
and I can see eye to eye."
Olcott seemed to wince a little. He knew he was over a barrel.
"I suppose I'll have to be sworn to secrecy, eh?" Bending asked. He was
beginning to recover his poise.
Condley nodded. "You will." He made his characteristic pause, looking
down at the gold pen and back up. "Mr. Bending, don't think that this is
the first time this has happened. Yours is not the first dangerous
invention that has come up. It just so happens that it's the most
dangerous so far. We don't like to have to work this way, but we must.
There was simply nothing else to do."
Sam Bending leaned back in his chair. "That's all right. To be perfectly
honest, there are a lot of details that I still don't understand. But I
recognize the fact that I'm simply not an economist; I can see the broad
outlines plainly enough."
Dr. Artomonov smiled widely. "I do not understand the details of your
machine, either, Mr. Bending, but I understand the broad outlines of its
operations well enough to be frightened when I think of what it could do
to world economy if it were to be dumped on the market at this time. I
am happy to see that America, as well as Mother Russia, can produce
patriots of a high order."
Sam gave him a smile. "Thanks." He didn't know quite what else to say to
a statement like that. "But Jim, here, is going to spend the next
several days trotting out facts and figures for me. I want to see just
what would take place, if I can wrestle with that kind of data."
"Oh, brother!" said Jim Luckman softly. "Well, I'll try."
"I'll have the reports from the computers sent to you," Condley offered.
"They show the whole collapse, step by step."
Artomonov cast a speculative glance in Condley's direction, but he said
nothing.
"There's one other thing," Sam said flatly. "The Converter is my baby,
and I want to go on working on it. I think Power Utilities might put me
on as a permanent consultant, so that I could earn some of the money
that's coming in over the next ten years. That way, my royalties won't
suffer so much from the advance payments."
Jim Luckman grinned, and Richard Olcott said: "I thought you said you
were no businessman, Mr. Bending."
"I may be ignorant," said Sam, "but I'm not stupid. What about it?"
Olcott glanced at Dr. Larchmont. The little scientist was beaming.
"Definitely," he said. "I want Mr. Bending to show me how he managed to
dope that thing out. And, to be perfectly frank, there are a couple of
things in there that I don't get at all."
"That's understandable," said Dr. Vanderlin. "We only had a few hours to
look at the thing. Still, I must admit it's a lulu."
"That's not what I meant," Larchmont said. "There are some things in
there that would take a long time to figure out without an explanation.
I'll admit that--"
"Wait a minute," Bending interrupted. "You said 'a few hours', Dr.
Vanderlin. You mean only since this morning?" He grinned. "What happened
to the one you got Friday night? Did my fusing device work the first
time?"
Vanderlin looked puzzledly at Larchmont. Larchmont said wonderingly:
"Friday? You mean you had _two_ pilot models?"
Olcott said: "Where was the other? We checked your power drain and saw
you weren't using any at your house, so--"
"I had three models," Bending said. "I've got one left in my car; you
took one from my house, and the third was taken from my lab sometime
Friday night. Somebody has it ..."