ATOMIC BONANZA
By George O. Smith
A device which could decontaminate any bit of
radioactive matter would be invaluable—only
it was impossible. But Doctor Velikof was
ready to demonstrate just such a machine!
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Science Fiction Quarterly May 1951.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
The visitor arriving at General Atomic Research climbed a broad flightof stairs and then encountered a sort of plaza presided over by a rarecombination of brains and beauty. Here the visitor inspected the beautywhile the brains inspected the visitor's credentials. After whichmutual inspection the visitor stepped into the exact center of a longcorridor and turned either to the right or to the left, depending uponwhich of the two main offices he was to visit.
At one end was the office of Doctor Howard Mangler, Director ofResearch; at the other end of the corridor was the office of PhillipNewton, Director of Operations. Between the two was the corridor called"The Battlefield" by the clerks, stenographers, and office boys.
Up and down the silent battle raged, its casualties mutely entombed inthe filing cabinets, swathed in directives (with carbon copies) andcounter-directives (with carbon copies).
It was not a bloody battle. It was fought with words and words andwords of argument, counter-thrust, statement, rebuttal and rejoinder;espionage and security. The objective was Control.
For Howard Mangler objected most violently to having a "mere businessman" running the delicate field of Operations, while Phillip Newtonfelt that physicists should stay in their white ivory tower and letbusiness men run the details of business. Open battle did not joinevery day, sometimes it smouldered for weeks before breaking out in awelter of directives, memorandums, and hot words. But any long periodof quiet brought a foreboding of imminent war to the office force; andwhen the first thrust was sent home, the force cleared its desk so thatthe passage of memorandums could flow untrammeled by the processes ofwork.
The rumor of war preceded the opening of hostilities by long enough forpreparation so that—
"Lillian, you'd better polish off that batch of invoices, quick-like."
"In a hurry?"
"We will be. Grant has just invaded Richmond."
"Oh."
Sometimes it was Shiloh, but when Grant invaded Richmond, it meant thatHoward Mangler had stamped down the long corridor to blast his waythrough the defences of the outer office of Phillip Newton and into theinner sanctum itself—and was now firing his big guns in the enemy'sface.
"This has got to go through!" roared Mangler.
"It is unnecessary."
"How would you know?" demanded Mangler.
"The inventory says we have twelve Tectroscopes now; what do we needwith four more?"
"Because we have more men."
Newton snorted. "Does each man need a complete set of laboratoryequipment?"
"Not a complete set. But a thing like this—"
"I've been through there recently and found no less than eight of themnot even turned on, let alone being used."
Mangler grunted. "It's not the constant use that demands extraequipment. It's the fact that it takes time for a man to run down whathe needs, borrow it, set it up, and then return it."
"You'll have to continue that way for a bit; we're over our budget now."
"By forty thousand?"