“I do. I know Sir Harry Copeland quite well. In fact, he asked me to marry him once.”

  “He did?” Miranda was constantly surprising him.

  “Yes—right before he married Sherri Sharmar, the TV sex bombshell. I turned him down, and I still haven’t forgiven him for showing such poor taste on the rebound.”

  “Dr. Vernon, you amaze me.”

  “Give me time, Dr. Rilke, and I may astonish you even more! But now, I suppose, I shall have to forgive Sir Harry and ask him to arrange for a meeting of the Board for us.”

  “I’m going to talk to Lance first though,” Lee insisted.

  “Fine, but it won’t do any harm to get in touch with Sir Harry. You’d better contact Dr. Jurgens and the others, too, and make sure they’re prepared to support us. And now that we’ve settled that, shall we concentrate on dancing?”

  “Why not? There isn’t much else we can do tonight.”

  “Well, thank you, Dr. Lee Rilke!” Miranda snapped, her eyes flashing fire. “If that’s the way you feel about it, you can take me back to my observatory. At least there I can look at Luna though my telescope. It may be lifeless and frozen but it can’t compare to you.”

  “Hey, wait a minute!” Lee said. “I didn’t mean it that way. Wow! I didn’t know you had a temper to match your red hair.”

  “Well, now you do. Is there a law against female scientists having tempers?”

  “Of course not. Please calm down. I didn’t mean that the way it sounded. I’m actually enjoying the evening. You’re good company, and under different circumstances I wouldn’t be thinking of anything but you.”

  “But circumstances are against us, aren’t they?” she said sadly.

  “Yes, I’m afraid so.”

  “And you want to get back to Little Falls as soon as possible, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Miranda.”

  “All right, Lee, but do something for me first—we may never have another chance, so hold me close and dance with me—dance with me as we might if there were no Rilke reactors and no Kristy Konrad.”

  Lee tightened his arms around her and felt her press close. They danced silently for a few minutes, hear head against his shoulder, his cheek against her hair.

  Chapter five

  “LEE, I told you before that you were acting like an old woman; now I’m telling you you’re behaving like a foolish old woman!” Lance Rilke’s handsome face was set in angry lines and his dark eyes were contemptuous.

  “You’re the one who’s being foolish,” Lee said. “What possible harm can a few months’ delay mean compared to what would happen if a reactor went wild?”

  “What harm? You know damn well what harm it would do. It would mean senseless delays on everything important to the world. It would mean power shortages in the underdeveloped countries; it would mean postponement of the United Nations plan to convert the Sahara into productive territory by cutting an artificial lake through from the Mediterranean; it would mean untold suffering and hardship for millions of people.”

  “A nuclear explosion of the magnitude I’m talking about would mean death for even more people,” Lee said, feeling the insincerity of Lance’s words.

  His brother’s lips curled. “Lee, you know as well as I do that there’s never been a nuclear explosion in any atomic power plant. All the accidents have been excursions with escaping radioactivity.”

  “And you know as well as I do that there have never been atomic power plants like Little Falls and Marsport.” Lee countered.

  Lance’s eyes glittered. “Of course not, and this is what really worries you. You and all the other doubters. How can so many people be incapable of recognizing the fact that progress must come? It shouldn’t really surprise me, since I know progress always comes thought the efforts of a few exceptional men in spite of the caterwauling and protests of the millions of hangers-on who make up the majority of the population.”

  Lee stared at his brother in dismay. “You don’t honestly believe that, do you? You can’t think I’m against progress or that I’m afraid of the reactors for any such ridiculous reason.”

  “I can and I do,” Lance said, striding across the office to stare out the huge window that filled the opposite wall. “Look down there, Lee.”

  Lee followed and stood beside him, looking down into the enormous natural cavern which they had enlarged and lined with heavy concrete and steel. In the middle of it stood the Rilke reactor, shielded by more heavy concrete and thick lead casing. Surrounding it were the generators and control blockhouses, and men scurried about servicing the automatic machinery that tended the reactor.

  “Look, Lee, look!”

  “I am looking,” Lee said quietly.

  “Visualize the power flowing out of that room right now, Lee.” Lance paused dramatically, sweeping his hand in a grand encompassing gesture. “And visualize the even greater flow that will come from it in the near future.”

  Lee didn’t answer. He just continued to stare down at the scene below.

  “Lee …” Lance threw his arm around his brother’s shoulders. “This is what we—you and I—have given mankind. We dreamed this dream together and made it come true. Don’t let your vision fail you now.”

  “I’m not, but I see something else down there that you refuse to see. I see a reactor running wild and men dying. First the ones near it, and then the rest of us here in the installation, and finally, millions—millions of lives lost that can be saved!”

  Lance took his arm away abruptly. “What is wrong with you, Lee?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with me,” Lee said, moving away from the window. “But you’ve allowed your ambition to get out of hand, and it—and whatever else rules you these days—has ruined your scientific judgment. You’re willing to risk disaster to the whole world rather than admit we’ve made a miscalculation and should take a few months to correct it.”

  Anger darkened Lance’s face. “And you’re letting your jealousy and envy conjure up danger where there is none. You’re so blind with jealousy and envy that all you want to do is destroy what I’ve built.”

  Lee’s shoulders sagged. He wasn’t getting through. He wasn’t getting through at all.

  “It’s always the same,” Lance went on. “A man of strength and intellect comes along and attempts to reshape the course of human events, and immediately the pigmy creatures around him react with hate and distrust; immediately the inferior people who can never tolerate superior minds start contriving to block his way and prevent his carrying out his plans.”

  “I might remind you,” Lee said in a voice tight with anger, “that this particular pigmy did at least as much as you in designing and building—”

  “I’ve never said you didn’t have a part in the project, but I do say you’ve lost your faith in it. You’re letting imaginary fears and personal jealousy influence you in the wrong direction until all you want to do is wreck my work.”

  Lee shrugged in defeat. His brother wasn’t even trying to make sense. Colossal egos weren’t unknown among men of genius, but this seemed to go beyond ego. What had gotten into him? “You’re not going to listen to me, are you, Lee? You won’t shut down of your own free will?”

  “I’m not going to shut down under any circumstances!” Lance almost shouted. “We are at fifty percent capacity now and we go up to seventy-five percent today!”

  “What?” Lee demanded. “Have you taken leave of your senses completely?”

  “No. I’m going to prove to you once and for all that there’s nothing to your foolish fears. Don’t forget, I’m the one who gives the orders around here.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Lee said and headed for the door.

  “What do you mean by that?” Lance asked. “What do you think you can do?”

  Lee turned and faced his brother. “We’re going to the Board, Lance. We’re going to present the facts and ask them to overrule you.”

  Lance threw back his head and laughed. “You and your Lilliputians are going to—” He roared with laughter. “That’s funny! You really think you can stop me?”

  “You’re mighty damn sure of yourself.”

  “Of course I am,” Lance said. “Those men on the Board have foresight, and they’ll recognize you and your friends for what you are: a bunch of carping, senile old women who’d let a few obscure doubts block the greatest advance in human history.”

  “Or is it that you think you’ve charmed and bullied them until they wouldn’t dare not accept your word, even if some pretty sound scientific opinion goes against it?”

  “Whose opinion?” Lance sneered.

  “Mine, for one,” Lee said, “and Stan Freeman’s and Dr. Vernon’s and—”

  “I’ve already told you what I think of your so-called reasons. Stan Freeman is a misfit and a troublemaker. Dr. Vernon, in spite of her undoubted brain power, is nevertheless a woman and still young enough to be emotionally unstable.”

  “And Dr. Franz Jurgens?”

  A momentary shadow crossed Lance’s face. “So you think he’s on your side—well …”

  “He has come to conclusions that match mine,” Le said. “We’ve been working independently and still we’ve reached the same opinion.”

  Lance’s composure returned quickly. “Perhaps. But you must remember Jurgens is an old man. He could be mistaken.”

  “Naturally you prefer to think that,” Lee said. “But perhaps it’s you who have forgotten everything you once knew about nuclear physics.” He turned toward the door again.

  “Don’t slam the door on your way out,” Lance called mockingly. “I’ve got important work to do.”

  Lee kicked the door shut behind him and strode angrily down the corridor.

  Chapter six

  THE PHONE WAS RINGING when Lee entered his quarters.

  “Dr. Rilke? Dr. Lee Rilke?”

  “Speaking.”

  “Dr. Rilke, this is Bill Mason.”

  “Yes, Bill, what is it?” Lee tried to keep the alarm out of his voice.”

  “I’m engineer of the watch down here in the magnetic field generator room and something’s wrong. I’m worried—damn worried!”

  “Yes, yes, but what about?” Lee said impatiently.

  “The generators. They’re being strained to the utmost. I don’t think they can maintain the field much longer.”

  “Are you sure, Bill?”

  “As sure as I’ve ever been of anything.”

  If the generators went out, the magnetic field would go. If the magnetic field went out, the atomic fluid in its plasmic, gaseous state would suddenly come in contact with the pipes through which it flowed. The pipes would disappear in the flash of a second and then everything would go. “How long do you think they can last?”

  “I don’t know,” Bill said. “If I knew that, I’d probably be running already.”

  “That wouldn’t do any good,” Lee said. “You couldn’t run fast enough or far enough.”

  “I know, I know, for God’s sake! I’m staying and I’m keeping my whole crew here. We’re nursing those generators like babies, but I don’t know how long we can keep them going—and when they go, The Monster will eat us all!”

  “Look, Bill. Do what you can and hang on. A few of us have arranged to meet with the Board and we’re going to try to convince them to shut down for a few months until we can double the generator capacity.”

  “We’ll need at least that. Do they know the heat of the plasma is greater than the heat inside a star?”

  “If they don’t we’re going to tell them.”

  “Tell them good, Doc,” Mason said grimly. “I’ve got hold of the tail of a big piece of hell down here and it’s wriggling like mad!”

  “I’ll do my best,” Lee said and hung up.

  He dialed Miranda’s number and she answered at once.

  “This is Lee,” he said. “How soon can Sir Harry convene a meeting of the Board?”

  “You had no luck with Lance?”

  “No, and something else has happened. Bull Mason just called me from the magnetic field generator room. He says there’s trouble with the generators. They’re overloaded and could go out.”

  He heard her suck in her breath sharply and then she said, “I talked to Sir Harry an hour ago. Five members of the Board are presently here at Little Falls and that constitutes a quorum. They can meet on a few-minutes’ notice.”

  “Then have him get them together, please. I’ll get hold of Dr. Jurgens and the others and meet you in the board room.”

  “Right,” Miranda said crisply. “See you there.”

  Quickly Lee contacted Stan Freeman, Dr. Jurgens, and two other men he thought he might be able to convince of the danger. If they all worked together, they might be able to impress the Board and at least win a little more time.

  They were all waiting in the hall outside the board room when Lee arrived. Miranda and Stan were tense and nervous, but appeared to be trying to explain things to Thor Nordstrom and Dr. Tomaso Gomez. Dr. Jurgens, stoop-shouldered and white-haired, stood nearby, peering at them through his thick lenses and clasping an unclasping his large hands.

  “What’s this all about, Lee?” Nordstrom asked in his Minnesota accent. “Dr. Vernon says there’s been some trouble with the generators.”

  He was a big, bluff man with short-cropped blondish hair and eyes as blue as the many lakes in his home state. He was chief engineer for Power Unlimited, a sound although unimaginative scientist with a background of extensive work on atomic reactors. He was also a warm personal friend of Lance’s and a great admirer of his work.

  “Bill Mason called me,” Lee told him, “and said the generators powering the magnetic fields in the reactor are overburdened and may go out.”

  “That would be disastrous—completely disastrous,” the small, dark Gomez said. He was a mathematician but knew something of reactor design. “Five seconds after the magnetic field fails, the plasma will vaporize the piping and containers that hold it, and a few minutes after that we’ll reach critical.”

  “But the magnetic fields can’t fail,” Nordstrom said. “We’ve tested them up to three-fourths capacity and we’ve got built in fail-safe margins of—”

  “And I tell you the generators are straining right now,” Lee interrupted. “Mason is a crack engineer and he knows what he’s talking about.”

  “Has anyone told Lance?” Nordstrom asked.

  “I talked to him less than an hour ago, but I haven’t called him since the trouble started.”

  “Don’t you think you should?”

  “I suppose so, but it won’t do any good.”

  The big Swede looked at Lee with hostile eyes. “I know you two been having trouble, but you’re taking too much into your hands by going over his head to the Board of Directors. I won’t support you.”

  “There’s hardly time to see the Board, much less worry about going through channels,” Miranda said. “This is an emergency!”

  “That is true,” Dr. Gomez said, “but Lance knows this project better than any of us and—”

  “Here come the Board members right now,” Stan Freeman said, nodding toward a small group of people getting off a gravity lift. With the five men was one woman, Kristy Konrad.

  Lee’s heart beat faster at sight of her. She always had this effect on him, but this time more was involved than just his personal feelings. Striding along beside her was her uncle, Franklyn Munson, one of the most influential members of the Board. He adored Kristy and would do anything she suggested.

  “I’ve got to talk to Kristy,” Lee whispered to Miranda. “She can help us.”

  “Maybe so, but does she want to?”

  “I don’t know, but it won’t hurt to try,” Lee said. “You go on in with the others and I’ll talk to her.”

  Miranda nodded and Lee walked forward to meet Kristy.

  “May I speak to you a moment?” he asked.

  “Yes, what is it?” Kristy asked, her eyes and voice as cold as arctic skies.

  “Kristy, something has come up that the Board of Directors must know and—”

  “And you’re going to them without Lance’s permission?”

  “Look, Kristy—Lance and I are in disagreement about this and I was wondering if you would talk to your uncle.”

  “I certainly will,” Kristy said. “In fact, I already have. Both Lance and I have spoken to Uncle Franklyn about the way you’ve been trying to undermine him with a lot of wild speculations and false rumors.”

  Lee could hardly believe his ears. “Kristy, I haven’t been trying to undermine Lance. This is a matter of scientific fact and he is opposing me on it.”

  “And you dare to place your judgment against his?”

  “Of course I do. Lance is no superman, Kristy.”

  “Isn’t he?”

  “No, he isn’t. He can be wrong the same as anyone else, and this time he is terribly, perhaps tragically, wrong.”

  “You’re the the one who’s wrong, Lee. You don’t understand about Lance. I don’t think you’re capable of it.”

  “Thanks,” Lee said drily.

  “Don’t be offended. Very few people are.”

  “But you are, I gather. You really understand?”

  “Yes, I truly do. I’ve been searching for Lance all my life.”

  “Look, Kristy, it’s one thing to be in love with a man, but quite another to believe he’s infallible.”

  “To me it isn’t. I’ve looked so long and been so disappointed time after time when I thought I had found the right man. I’m not without some talent and brains myself, you know.”

  “I can’t think of a woman who has more,” Lee said.

  The compliment didn’t brink even a flicker of warmth or interest to Kristy’s eyes. “And most of the men I’ve met can’t come up to my standards. The ones who are intelligent have no strength, and the strong ones have no brains. I’ve got to have both and I won’t settle for less. In Lance, I’ve found a man I can look up to instead of down on.”

  “Well, I guess that puts me in my place,” Lee said.

 

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