Tin Man

by Dale Brown

  each time he hit it wouldn't shock him. He beat on

  the fabric repeatedly, and each impact was punctuated

  with that same hollow thud. Then he took

  the fabric off the frame, folded it, and stuck it in his

  shirt pocket.

  "That's . . . that's unbelievable!" someone in

  the audience gasped. "Amazing!"

  "The applications for BERP are unlimited," Masters

  said. "I thought about all the possible military

  uses of the process-protecting vehicles, making

  punctureproof tires, making bulletproof tents, even

  creating portable roads resistant to land mines. But

  there is one use for it that has always stuck in my

  head: enhancing flight safety for the general public

  by strengthening the cargo compartments of airliners

  to protect against terrorist bombs or any other

  catastrophic explosion destroying an aircraft, such

  as the fuel tank explosion that brought down TWA

  Flight 800 a while back. just a few hundred pounds

  of BERP and its control equipment per airplane-far

  less weight and cost than lining an airplane or cargo

  containers with Kevlar or other armor material

  can save hundreds of lives."

  "Now how is this possible, Dr. Masters?" Fenton

  asked incredulously. "That can't possibly be strong

  enough to protect against a bomb blast or a fuel

  tank explosion!"

  "Glad you said that, Ed," Masters said. "That's

  why I'm here talking to you on the satellite videoconference

  from the Aerojet rocket-testing site near

  Sacramento today-a satellite videoconference, by

  the way, provided by Sky Masters, Inc.'s NIRTSat

  small tactical communications and reconnaissance

  satellite technology specifically for this demonstration

  ." Jon was never above plugging his own products

  . "I'm in the first-class section of a surplus

  Boeing 727 airliner fuselage." The shot of Masters

  changed to an overhead shot of the Boeing 727, minus

  its wings and engines. "Located within this fuselage

  are three suitcases loaded with fifty pounds

  of TNT apiece. One is -inside the cockpit in a large

  Rollaboard suitcase, such as the flight crew might

  carry on board; another is located directly underneath

  the first-class compartment in the cargo hold;

  and the third is located underneath the coach-class

  compartment in the baggage space.

  "I've placed my BERP material in two places in

  the plane." The camera shot changed agami, revealing

  an interior view of the plane's forward cargo

  compartment. The only baggage in the compartment

  was a lone crate marked DANGER IRGH EXPLOswEs

  . In the background, illuminated by spotlights,

  the gray BERP fabric could be seen clearly. "First,

  I've lined the cargo compartment directly below the

  first-class section with exactly eighty-three pounds

  of BERP."

  The camera shot changed again, this time to the

  airliner's cockpit. Except for removed avionics and

  upholstery stripped off the seat frames, it looked

  like an average cockpit. A wheeled suitcase marked

  DANGER mGH ExiPLosrvEs sat between the pilot's and

  copilot's seats. "Second, I took off the headliners in

  the cockpit and lined the fuselage there with fortyone

  pounds of BERP, then replaced the headliners. I

  also put some BERP in the cockpit door leading out

  to the galley. In addition, I sandwiched some of the

  BERP fibers into the Lexan cockpit windows on the

  copilot's side of the cockpit, but not on the pilot's

  side. This darkens the windows slightly, equivalent

  to number one ultraviolet tinting. Tinting is not

  currently allowable on cockpit windscreens in the

  U.S., but maybe when you see this, the rules can be

  modified a little."

  The camera changed back to a shot of Masters,

  amazingly still sitting in his seat. "I also made a

  curtain of BERP material between the coach- and

  first-class sections of the plane. There is no BERP

  anywhere else on the plane. I'm leaving the coach

  section unprotected just to show the kind of damage

  we're talking about, and also just because I like to

  see things blow up." Masters paused, grinning like a

  kid at the zoo, then put on a set of headphones. "I

  will now detonate all three crates of explosives,

  starting with the cockpit. Here we go . . ."

  "What!" Fenton and several of the others

  shouted almost in unison. "Are you crazy, Masters?

  Do you actually plan on blowing up that plane with

  you inside it? Get the hell out of that plane, right

  now! . . . "

  But the screen had changed to four separate

  shots: The upper half of the screen showed the overhead

  satellite view of the airliner; on the lower half,

  one shot showed Masters in the first-class section;

  one showed the cargo compartment underneath the

  first-class section of the plane; and a third showed a

  shot of the cockpit from outside, right from the

  nose of the airliner looking through the copilot's

  windscreen. Masters waved once to the camera and

  held up a box with three large red switchguards on

  it.

  "Is he serious, Dr. Kaddiri?" Fenton asked. Kaddiri

  didn't know how to respond. They could very

  well be watching Jonathan Colin Masters's last day

  on earth, and she was powerless to stop him. "Is he

  going to

  As if in response, Masters lifted the first red

  switchguard, gave a last jovial "Fire in the hole,

  folks!" and pressed the button underneath. The entire

  audience leaped to its feet in shock as the images

  unfolded before them.

  The cockpit was the first to go. It erupted with a

  bright yellow fireball, but amazingly only the pilot's

  windows blew out, sending a shaft of fire and smoke

  sideways out of the plane-the copilot's windows

  crazed into white spiderwebs but did not break. In

  the first-class section, Masters jumped in surprise,

  but there was no other hint that fifty pounds of

  TNT, enough to bring down a small building, had

  just exploded less than thirty feet in front of him.

  "I'm fine! I'm fine!" he shouted gleefully. "Perfectly

  all right! That was a fifty-pound TNT explosion

  just a few feet away from me, and I'm fineV/

  The airline executives looked relieved and angry at

  the same time-relieved that he was all right, and

  angry that they had been forced to watch such a

  suicidal display.

  "Washington, Washington, this is Range Control

  ," an excited voice cut in on the closed secure

  link. "Helen, I'm picking up a power surge in the

  BERP circuits. I've set the explosives continuity circuits

  to safe. Jon, if you can hear me, you better get

  out of the plane now. That surge could cause the

  rest of the BERP to malfunction-it could even set

  off the other explosives."

  Jon touched his earset so he could hear better

  through t
he ringing aftermath of the explosion that

  had erupted right in front of him. "Negativi he

  shouted. "Don't safe those circuits! I'm all right!

  We can continue the

  A second later, seen from the overhead satellite

  view, the entire aft section of the airliner heaved

  and flopped awkwardly into the air, the cargo section

  completely blasting apart before it was obscured

  by smoke and debris. Masters never touched

  the detonate button-and if he had, it would have

  had no effect because the range safety officer had

  terminated the test and disconnected all detonation

  power from both the arming switch and the explosives

  . But the surge of energy in the BERP material

  had discharged through the cabin, grounding on the

  nearest available object-the fifty-pound case of

  TNT. The electrical discharge was enough to bypass

  the safety interlocks, set off the electrically actuated

  blasting caps, and detonate the TNT.

  Masters was thrown back into his seat as the entire

  interior of the aircraft rocked forward from the

  concussion, the deck jerked upward as it buckled,

  and a new gust of smoke forced its way into

  the first-class section-but again, Masters was unharmed

  . The entire aft two-thirds of the Boeing 727

  was either in pieces or lying crumpled and twisted

  on the ground, but the forward third was intact.

  More smoke rushed into the first-class cabin. Helen

  noticed with horror that the large ventilators designed

  to keep the air clear had malfunctioned. The

  surge of power caused by the BERP system had

  shorted out the ventilators.

  "Jon! Can you hear me!" Kaddiri shouted. The

  airline executives were watching in horror as smoke

  partially obscured their view of the interior of the

  first-class cabin inside the test article. "The ventilators

  have failed! Get out! Range Safety Control, get

  Masters out now!"

  Inside the test plane, Masters jumped again as a

  third explosion ripped into the plane. The camera

  shot of the cargo compartment under the first-class

  section disappeared in a blinding flash of yellow.

  This time Masters really seemed scared. They could

  see his eyes bugging out with the first hint of concern

  and worry about whether this stunt was really

  a good idea. The floorboards under his feet buckled,

  a few of the first-class seats broke free and flew

  through the air, they heard him scream . . . and

  then the camera went dark. The overhead shot revealed

  nothing-the first-class cabin appeared to be

  intact, but huge billows of smoke and occasional

  tongues of flame began pouring up from underneath

  the fuselage near the already ripped-up coach-class

  section.

  "Oh my God!" Kaddiri screamed. She picked up

  the direct-line telephone beside the lectern. lon,

  come in! Range Control, come in! Is someone there?

  Answer me, goddammit!

  "What happened?" Fenton shouted. "What happened

  ? Is Masters

  "I'm okay, I'm okay!" they heard a moment later.

  The first-class, section camera came on again, showing

  a disheveled but otherwise intact cabin, faintly

  obscured by a thin haze of smoke. Then Masters's

  face appeared behind a firefighter's positivebreathing

  face mask, almost touching the lens.

  There were some streaks of black under his nostrils

  from exhaling smoke, and his short-cropped hair appeared

  to be standing on end, but he looked unhurt.

  A range-safety fireman was trying to pull Masters to

  his feet. "The camera broke free of its moofinghold

  on a sec."

  "Is he insane?" Fenton shouted. "That plane is

  on fire!"

  "'Hold on a sec/ my ass!" Kaddiri shouted in the

  telephone. "Range Control, pull Masters out of that

  plane right now!"

  Masters aligned the camera in its original place,

  straightened his seat, sat back down, took a deep

  breath from the oxygen mask, then handed it back

  tothe fireman. He looked a bit shaky, his eyes darting

  around the cabin, his breathing a little rapid, but

  he was unhurt. "I'm all right, guys. The explosion

  ripped the seat rails off the deck, and all the seats

  went flying. Here." Masters grabbed the camera and

  swung it around the cabin, focusing on the floor.

  "But see? The deck is still intact. It ballooned UP

  about a half-foot but didn't rupture." He swung the

  camera aft toward the coach-class cabin. Smoke was

  beginning to pour through the curtain, but he lifted

  it so he could point the camera at the devastation

  beyond. The cabin was completely destroyed, mangled

  and blackened. Fire-fighting foam extinguishers

  had already discharged to cut off the fire. "All I

  had was a BERP curtain between me and all. that.

  Awesome."

  "He's crazy, Dr. Kaddiri, crazy!" Fenton shouted.

  As if the explosions had been set off in the conference

  room in Washington rather than a rocket-test

  site in California, the airline and government execs

  were scrambling for the door in shock and disgust.

  "This is either some kind of trick, a publicity stunt,

  or the work of a seriously deranged mind. in any

  case, I'm not going to allow myself or the U.S. government

  to be manipulated by such antics!"

  "What are you saying, Secretary Fenton?" Kaddiri

  asked in amazement.

  "The department will not consider Masters's development

  request and will block any efforts to utilize

  that ... that BERP technology until we can

  get someone in your organization to present a rational

  , scientific demonstration and validation program

  ," Fenton said angrily. "And if he tries to sell

  that technology overseas, you'll be sanctioned here

  in the U.S., and any foreign aircraft using that technology

  will be barred from entering U.S. airspace."

  "But-but we proved the technology works!"

  Kaddiri argued. "I'll admit, Secretary Fenton, that

  Jon's methods were a little extreme . . . "

  "Extreme! We could have watched Masters blow

  himself to bits!" Fenton shouted. "He couldn't

  place a robot or a dummy in that seat instead of

  himself?" Fenton massaged his temples, in visible

  discomfort. "I still can't get that picture out of my

  head, Dr. Kaddiri-it's like watching images from

  Vietnam, of Viet Cong prisoners being executed in

  the streets or Buddhist monks immolating themselves

  on TV

  "Listen, Ed . . . I mean, Secretary Fenton," Masters

  said through the satellite videolink, deciding far

  too late that he had better be more diplomatic-and

  fast. By this time, more rescue workers in breathing

  apparatus had arrived and were hauling him to his

  feet, trying to hustle him out of the stricken fuselage

  . He looked like a hunted animal. "This technology

  is too, important to ignore," he shouted.

  "Forget this dem
o. No one got hurt. I'll turn over all

  my test data to you. it's for real, believe me

  But the fear and panic over the demonstration overrode

  his protests. It was too late. Fenton and the

  others were gone.

  Helen Kaddiri plopped down on a nearby-chair in

  the empty conference room, deflated. Years of research

  , months of preparation-wasted. It would be

  at least another year, maybe longer, before they'd be

  allowed to present any information on BERP again.

  Damn Jon, darrm his screwy project names, damn

  his complete disregard for prudence! It could take a

  complete change in administrations at the Department

  of Transportation, even the White House, before

  they got to present any more projects to the

  government, to anyone!

  The range-control phone rang, and Helen picked

  it up. "Kaddiri."

  "Helen, it was so cool!" Masters shouted gleefully

  into the range-control officer's speakerphone.

  "I mean, it was scary-man, when I saw that deck

  buckle, I thought I was a goner-but it held! It

  works!"

  "Jon, everyone here is gone

  "Hey, don't worry about the FAA or the airline

  guys," Masters said. "They'll calm down, and when

  they realize how important this technology is, we'll

  have another dern-val program set up very soon.

  We'll-"

  "Not 'we/ Jon, " Helen Kaddiri said bitterly. i'I've

  had enough of you and your complete disregard for

  anyone else's feelings or thoughts or opinions. You

  seem to think this is all a big game, and you don't

  seem to give a damn how it affects our business."

  Jon looked for the switch to turn off the

  speakerphone and flipped it but instead turned on

  the area-wide loudspeakers. Their conversation was

  broadcast all around the testing area, making it easy

  for the three dozen range personnel to hear Kaddiri

  go on: "I tried to have you removed as president,

  and I failed, so I'm not going to try it again. I'm

  resigning as chairman of the board of directors, and

  I'm leaving. I'm not going to work for a nutcase. If

  you want to kill yourself, go ahead, but I'm not gomg

  to stand by and watch you take the company

  down from underneath us."

  "Helen, wait a sec. Everything is cool! We'll be

  fine ...

  "You are not fine, Jon. You're obsessed. You're