"Maybe. That's what we want to find out. Could you, Peter, if you were
in my place, or you in your own place, get a good night's sleep
tonight or any other night knowing that problem might have an answer
without doing anything about it? Or are you one of these people who
believe that there is no problem, that all things will solve
themselves? Do you believe that, Stein? Do you think that Peter
Ambrose Miller thinks that way?"
No, Stein didn't think that way, and Miller didn't think that way. We
all knew that.
"All right," and he rubbed the back of his neck with a tired hand. "We
have that weapon now. We, meaning the United States, and the whole
wide world, from Andorra to Zanzibar. Now means today, in my lexicon.
Tomorrow, and I mean tomorrow, or tomorrow of next year or the year
after that, who will be the one to use that weapon? Do you know,
Peter? Do you know?"
There was no need for an answer to that.
"And neither does anyone else. Peter, you're insurance. You're the
cheapest and best insurance I know of. If! There's that big if. I
hate that word. I always have, and I'm going to eliminate 'if,' as far
as Peter Ambrose Miller is concerned. Right?"
Of course he was right. Hiroshima could just as well have been Memphis
or Moscow or Middletown. And I always had wanted to be rich enough to
carry my own insurance....
Before Smith left he told me it might be a month or two before he
would see me again.
"These things aren't arranged overnight, you know."