New Lensman Part 3

'Kidnapping?' she shrugged. 'I doubt that my father has enough money to make it worth their while.'

'Who's your father? You didn't tell me your last name.'

'Johnstone,' she said. 'My father is Ted Johnstone, the Director of Copernicus Control.'

Larry made no comment but things fell together in his mind with almost audible click. Pamela Johnstone was being held for ransom all right, but it was very doubtful that the ransom price was money. More likely pressure was being secretly put on her father. The ransom price was probably 1314

access to, if not actual control of, the operations of Copernicus Control. Larry ventured to guess that they would never willingly release Pamela. If they did, they would lose their hold over the Director of Copernicus Control. They had to keep her alive but that didn't mean that they couldn't use her while she was being held. So they roughed her up, tore off part of her clothes and threw her in with another prisoner, from whom they wanted some information. They expected him to comfort, calm and get involved with her. Larry looked at Pamela. Yes, that would be real easy to do. And once he was caught in that trap, they would tell him that he had to spill everything he knew or they would skin her alive. If Johnstone didn't cooperate or if they were close to the actual attack, they would probably do just that to her, too. If he played it cool, but interested, they might have more time than if he either rejected her or was obviously enamored. He also had a good idea of what both their fates would be if they didn't escape.

'Let's see what they left us to eat,' he said, getting up and going over to the box of containers that Pamela and one of the guards had brought. He estimated that there was enough food for about five days. More if they rationed it out.

'Any idea what day it is?' Larry asked.

'No.'

'It looks like we're going to spend the next couple of days here, all alone, together, in our secret hideaway. Unless ... how is the door locked?' Larry asked.

'There's a bar across it.'

'Does the bar slide back?'

'Yes, I think so.'

'Close your eyes and try to visualize it. How big is it and where is it on the door?'

Pamela indicated the size of the bar and then, standing in front of him, showed Larry the location on the door.

Larry noticed a gentle lilac perfume about her hair and then brought himself up sternly.

'I'm hungry, how about you?' he said.

She nodded.

'Would you get us some food while I check to see if there might be some other sort of exit to this room?'

She smiled at him and Larry gave a quick smile back.

Larry started at one side of the door into the room and worked his way completely around it to the other side of the door, searching not for an exit but a bug or a 'snoop', as the miniature television cameras are called. He found two tiles which had apparently been removed and replaced.

The grout around them was of a slightly different shade than that of the rest of the wall. He examined the tiles closely before moving past them and found a little shiny spot on each. Larry suspected that behind each was a snoop and possibly a contact microphone. Up in a corner of the room was something that looked for all the world like a spider web, except what would a spider be doing down here? Larry went over the ceiling as best he could. He concluded that unless they had repainted or done a better job of color matching than on the tiles, nothing had been installed from his side.

'Is the Sanctuary a single level high or are there several levels to it?' he asked Pamela.

'I think it's about five or six levels high,' she said.

'Well, the only way out seems to be the door,' Larry said, and then sat down next to Pamela. From this point on his escaping depended upon whether she was really the person she said she was. It was going to be interesting finding out.

Things were moving fast out on the surface of the crater and in the Moorpark Research Center, Dr.

Kelvin had organized his Project Hard Hat team and the team had mobilized over half of the research center's personnel and facilities; which group was in turn getting ready to take over the rest of the research center, as well as part of Copernicus Control. The blaster batteries over the city had been dismantled and preparations were being made to install them at new sites farther around the rim. Until the sites were ready, the projectors were being put to other uses. Three had been mounted in a triangle aboard one of the center's four mobile laboratory s.p.a.ceships. They were being adjusted to produce a 100-foot * circle of intense heat to melt the crusty, gravel-like material of the surface of Copernicus into a smooth, gla.s.sy sheet that could be evenly plated with a continuous evaporative coating of copper. The second laboratory s.p.a.ceship was being outfitted to provide that coating, or rather it was being chopped up, since, outfitting consisted of cutting away considerable portions of the hull, installing bracing, a small blaster for heating and ion focusing fields to direct the flow of gaseous copper as it was evaporated from the surface of the yet to be delivered ingot Dr. Kelvin himself was sitting in his office in the research center looking at what appeared to be 1415

a model of an oil derrick loaded with equipment.

'OK, what have you got?' he asked of the two engineers who had brought the model into his office.

'This is a model of the "slot cutter",' one engineer explained. 'It represents a 60-foot tower of composition ceramosteel. It's faced with wall shields and three courses of polycyclic screens. The legs are anch.o.r.ed with tractors, one mounted on each leg pointing downward into the rock underneath the tower. In a line up the side of the tower facing the crater wall are seven blasters from the battery we just dismantled. At the bottom of the stack of blasters, and in the s.p.a.ce between each blaster, is mounted a tractor beam. The whole a.s.sembly of blasters and tractors can be rotated up and down by remote control. This makes it possible to cut a slot, instead of a series of holes, in the wall of the crater.

'The purpose of the tractors is to remove the material as fast as it is softened, rather than having to wait until it is vaporized. If the material could be removed from the direct beam fast enough, it would be possible to cut a six-foot hole in the rock at 100 feet per second with these projectors as deep as we wish. We think with proper timing of the movement of the array, we can approach that rate. The s.p.a.cing of the beams is three feet, with the beams themselves an oval of about six by eight feet. The molten rock will be pulled Out of the two slots at a rate of over 4500 cubic feet per second. At this rate it will take about 21 days to cut the larger of the two slots.

'Here is a computer simulation of the problem and our solution.' The engineer handed Dr. Kelvin a reel of tape.

Dr. Kelvin weighed the tape in his hand for a moment. Based on what he had already seen, he was contemplating whether to ask his questions and give his lecture now or to wait until after the reel of tape had been run on the computer. He decided to run the tape. He dropped it into the player and watched the drafting tank opposite his desk as a computer simulated model of the tower cut a slot in a computer model of the crater wall. Stresses, flow rates, safety margins and the like were shown. At the conclusion of the tape Dr. Kelvin leaned back in his chair a moment before saying anything.

'I do not like it!' he said slowly,. with careful emphasis. Both engineers visibly blanched. 'I don't like the philosophy behind the method and I don't like the method it produced.

'Less than four days from now the surface smoothing will be complete,' he continued. 'In another three and a half days from then the coating operation on that surface will be complete. At the end of that time I want to be ready to go right into plating the slots. That means that by the time you are started, there will be six to seven days left to complete cutting a slot about six feet wide and up to two miles deep around Copernicus.

'For obvious reasons ... ' Dr. Kelvin shrugged, and started again. 'Because no one has worked out a way to rapidly remove material from the slot on the far side, we're cutting a triangular area around Copernicus instead of a square area. The job is big. So big that five years ago it would have been beyond our capability. The amount of material to be removed is in excess of 15 billion cubic feet! That is now within our present capacity and we will do it rapidly!

'There are two ways to approach any new problem. The first, and unfortunately the most common way, is to use brute force. Brute force is always expensive. It eats up power and time. It wastes material and resources. It's only used because the problem is not properly defined, because of tradition, or. because someone has not taken the time to find a better solution.

'The second way of approaching a problem can be summarized in one word, "sneakiness". I like that word because it's descriptive of the main characteristics of this method. When someone else sees this type of solution to a problem for the first time, they think, "How neat! What a sneaky way to do it! Why didn't I think of that?' A sneaky method does things with a minimum of flare and noise and there is invariably a usable byproduct as a bonus.

'With this in mind, let's take a look at your solution,' Dr. Kelvin said. 'It's obviously a brute force solution. You're going to have a circus that can be seen with the naked eye all the way to Tellus. This whole sector of moonscape is going to be covered with blown out magma and ga.s.ses.

When the job is done half of the crater will be ankle deep in hot lava.

'Now I confess that I've been considering the problem I gave you ever since I gave it to you.

There is a better way.

'First let's redefine the basic problem in terms of the function involved. The problem is not to "cut a slot". The problem is to "remove material". To remove, for example, a slab of material 371/2 miles long, 2 miles high and 6 feet thick. The first step, I think, is for you gentlemen to determine how much of that slab you can handle at one time, and the method of handling it, and then to plan to cut it into sizes accordingly.'

Dr. Kelvin was pleased to notice that as he spoke a look of comprehension was beginning to appear in the engineers' faces. They were beginning to see a solution that had been staring them in the 1516

face.

'If you use a very thin, fan-shaped beam to cut the slabs, the lava and ga.s.ses can be used to act as a lubricant for sliding the slabs out. Since the slabs will be flat sided, you won't have the erosion problems inherent with the bulk removal of hot lava and ga.s.ses, which you didn't take into account in your calculations for your simulation. Finally, I have a use for the slabs. That needn't concern you now, however. I'll expect to see an a.n.a.lysis in detail of this method the first thing tomorrow. Thank you.'

Dr. Kelvin ushered the two engineers out of his office and spent a few minutes on a bit of a.n.a.lysis of the optimum angle to the perpendicular to make the slot, taking into account the coriolis force. A quick approximation showed it to be too small to be of significance.

In the next two days considerable progress was made. The laboratory s.p.a.ceship that had been reworked into a 'smoother' had processed over half of the surface covering Copernicus. Work on the s.p.a.ceship to do the coating had stopped because of a higher priority on the conversion of the remaining two laboratory s.p.a.ceships into slot cutters.

The 'oil derrick' idea was abandoned. Instead, tractor beams capable of anchoring the s.p.a.ceships while sliding out slabs 500 feet on a side were being mounted. Blasters, capable of producing incredibly powerful, inch-thick, fan-shaped beams were being mounted outside the tractors, to cut the slabs. Bracing for the whole ship was being added with a lavish hand and so thickly it was almost impossible to get to the equipment afterwards. One humorist in the crew commented that the greatest danger in manning a tractor ship was trying to get out after you had eaten your lunch, to which another commented that one more 'I' beam and even death would not release you. It was a tight fit.

The first slot cutter was tested by cutting a series of holes two miles deep every 500 feet along the path of the longest slot Then, after a short period of experimentation with technique, and modification with cutters and torch, the slabs were sliding out and down the crater wall like logs down a sluice-way. At the bottom of the wall they were allowed to fall flat and slide out onto the crater floor in long, orderly rows.

The second slot cutter would be complete and working by midnight. Dr. Kelvin's original schedule couldn't be met. The blocks couldn't be cut and slid out that fast without breaking or jamming in the slot, but they could do better than the original estimate of 21 days. Much better!

In the eastern corner of the triangle covering the city of Copernicus the first of three new areas were being cut into the rock with mining machines. These were to house the field generators when they arrived.

This was another matter.

'Where in h.e.l.l are my field generators?' Dr. Kelvin snarled at the man on the plate.

George Smith, a top official of Tellus Electric, looked blankly back at Dr. Kelvin. 'I don't know,' he said tiredly. 'Where about in h.e.l.l did you leave them?'

Dr. Kelvin glared at the man, then realized what he had said and struggled to keep a straight face. He chuckled. The man on the plate just looked tired.

'All right, I'm looking for the Rodebush-Bergenholm field generators your company was contractually committed to deliver to the New York s.p.a.ceport eight hours ago.'

'I have sixteen generators sitting on the floor now. They are coming off my production line at a rate of one every two hours. They're costing me 100 credits an hour each for each hour they stand there. Not one is working.'

Dr. Kelvin hesitated for a moment, then said, 'All right, I would like to help you. out. If you'll turn on your recorder, I'll make you a proposal.'

'It's on.'

'I propose that you crate up the next three generators that come off your production line and send them to me, along with six full sets of prints and an engineer familiar with the generator. When you get the first few working, you'll be able to tell your engineer what mistakes were made in the production line and he can fix them here. If parts are needed and we don't have them in stock, we have the facilities to fabricate them just as fast as you could. If additional troubleshooting is needed, we'll let your man supervise and charge you for the people and material used at our going rate plus 300 per cent overhead. This saves you the cost of transportation time after the generators are working and gets the generator to us faster. Our acceptance of the generator is then dependent on when it's working properly, not on when it arrives. That's the end of my proposal.'

'That sounds good, except your overhead rate is too high.'

'You can send all your own people,' Dr. Kelvin answered. '300 per cent wouldn't even touch their transportation costs, but ... '

1617

'What troubleshooting manpower do you have available? How many and what kind of people do you have?'

'I can guarantee you up to ten technicians and two engineers within 20 minutes of your requirements,' he said, thinking of two particular engineers he'd a.s.sign.

Agreement was reached. The tapes were witnessed and sealed.

A few minutes later Dr. Kelvin was again on the visiphone. This time to an Earthside transportation company.

'Where in h.e.l.l is my copper?' he snarled at the man on the plate.

Hanovich had organized his teams too late to catch the kidnapping of either Lt. McQueen or Pamela Johnstone. At the moment the team watching the suspects saw only people going about their normal affairs, minding their own business and in general being model citizens. The two teams checking personal records had come a long way without success. There had been no indication that any suspect had purchased extra food or even any unusual items. The customs records indicated that nothing out of the ordinary had been brought in. A survey of the suspects' present personal effects had been made with one team entering a suspects' empty apartment and temporarily turning off spy-ray blocks, while the other sat at a spy-ray installation in Security and photographed the contents of drawers, closets, cabinets, etc., which had been covered by the blocks. Nothing even mildly interesting was found. A professional rarely makes this kind of mistake. It was noted that the apartments were spartan in the lack of knick-knacks and souvenirs that everyone seems to acc.u.mulate.

The teams finally started through the records of the agencies in which the suspects worked. The purpose was to see if, and how, the agencies had been used. Indeed, they had! A large amount of equipment had been requisitioned out of the Facilities Stores. It was then apparent, in retrospect, why nothing had been brought in or purchased. A statistical check was made on the food consumed by the hospital, where three suspects worked, against the number of staff members and patients. A high probability was established that this was the source of food for the missing suspects.

Judge Fox had issued search warrants on his request but unless he came up with something solid soon to justify the Judge's trust, things were going to get sticky.

CHAPTER FIVE.

LAST CHANCE.

Another day pa.s.sed. On the surface the copper and the generators arrived. In the Sanctuary, Larry and Pamela had pa.s.sed the time by talking. Talking about their past, their experiences, their purpose in life. Larry had drawn Pam out considerably. He knew that she was 19 years old, had no 'steady' at the moment and was becoming fascinated with him. He also knew that she was attractive, intelligent, quite sensitive and probably the person she said she was. He was getting the uncomfortable feeling that unless he got them both out within the next very few days, she might drag him off into a corner and do something very un-ladylike. Under other circ.u.mstances he might have considered cooperating, or even speeding the situation up a little, but now it wasn't advisable. Last 'night' after they had turned out the lights he had put a piece of tape used to bind him over the snoops, so they would seem defective. That could mean one of several things, the most probable of which was that no one was watching.

Larry planned to escape the next morning, if it was morning. He also planned to take Pamela with him. The problem was how to tell her while others were listening, or possibly even watching from another snoop that he hadn't found. Larry thought about the matter for several hours and had elected the direct approach.

He started talking aimlessly about one thing and another to Pamela. He picked up a food container and a spoon and announced, 'When I was in grade school I always wanted to play a rhythm instrument like a drum.' He started to beat out a random rhythm on the container with the spoon to cover the sound of his voice. He motioned Pamela close to him and said as quietly as he could without moving his lips, 'They're watching and listening. I found two snoops in the wall.'

'I guessed that from the way you've been acting,' she replied with her lips next to his ear and then kissed him there.

Larry jumped, and dropped the container. 'Hey! Watch it!' he said, putting his hand to his ear.

'I'm having enough trouble keeping my hands off you as it is without ,you undermining me.'

'Hmm,' she said. 'That sounds like fun.'

He considered turning her over his knee, then decided that wouldn't help at all. He frowned, picked up the container and started pounding out noise again. Midst a miscellany of other chatter he announced that they were leaving soon. Then, standing up, he threw the container at the web in 1718

the corner of the room. It hit squarely and bounced off. Larry looked at the undamaged web for a moment, then commented, 'They make some mighty hefty spiders around here!'

Alan Lewis, a graveyard shift Copernicus Control operator, woke up with a feeling that something was wrong. He didn't know what, or where, or why, but something was wrong. The lives of the inhabitants of Copernicus hung on something that tenuous.

He shoved it into the back of his mind as he got up, dressed, and ate breakfast: He forgot about it as he took the shafts and travel tunnels to work. But as he walked into Copernicus Control, it came back. Something was wrong. He watched the operator on duty for the required 10 minutes, then relieved him. Something was wrong. It annoyed him all through the shift. He was a little more alert than normal because of the feeling, a little more efficient, but the cause eluded him. It was an uneasy feeling. Something he should see or do? What?

When he was relieved at the end of his shift, he stayed for a few moments. Still nothing. He mentioned it to the operator who relieved him, shrugged and then left. Some thing was wrong, very wrong, and time was running out!

Larry got up and turned on the lights, only to find out that Pamela was also awake. He motioned for her to be silent. He took two metal b.u.t.tons off his uniform pockets. The first unscrewed to reveal inside a black tarry substance and a fuse that could be pulled through a slot in the side.

Larry pressed it against the spot on the door he had selected. It stuck there. He stripped the end of the fuse and rubbed it against a little piece of paper from inside the other half of the b.u.t.ton. The fuse caught. While waiting for the fuse to burn down, Larry unscrewed the other b.u.t.ton revealing a long, tightly wound coil of wire with hooks on each end. He had just time to connect the hooks onto little loops on the bottom halves of the b.u.t.tons, when the b.u.t.ton on the door exploded. It punched a two-inch hole through the door. Larry twisted the loop of wire, shoved it through the hole, twisted, caught the handle of the bar on the door and pulled. The door was open.