Damned If You Don't
Page 4
me. Not that it matters. Why did you ask?"
Bending stood up. "I'm going to show you something, Mr. Olcott," hesaid. "Would you care to come with me to the lab?"
Olcott was on his feet in a second. "I'd be glad to, Mr. Bending."
* * * * *
Bending led the man into the lab. "Over here," he said. At the far endof the laboratory was a thick-legged table cluttered with lengths ofwire, vacuum tubes, transistors, a soldering gun, a couple of meters,and the other various paraphernalia of an electronics workshop. In thecenter of the table, surrounded by the clutter, sat an oblong box. Itdidn't look like much; it was just an eighteen by twelve by ten box,made of black plastic, featureless, except for a couple of dials andknobs on the top of it, and a pair of copper studs sticking out of theend.
Still, Olcott didn't look skeptical. Nor surprised. Evidently, hisinformant had had plenty of information. Or else his poker face wasbetter than Bending had thought.
"This is your pilot model?" Olcott asked.
"One of them, yes. Want to watch it go through its paces?"
"Very much."
"O.K. First, though, just how good is your technical education? I mean,how basic do I have to get?" Sam Bending was not exactly a diplomat.
Olcott, however, didn't look offended. "Let's say that if you keep it onthe level of college freshman physics I'll get the general drift. Allright?"
"Sure. I don't intend to get any more technical than that, anyway. I'mgoing to tell you _what_ the Converter does--not _how_."
"Fair enough--for the moment. Go ahead."
"Right." Sam flipped a switch on the top of the box. "Takes a minute orso to warm up," he said.
When the "minute or so" had passed, Bending, who had been watching themeters on the top of the machine, said: "See this?" He pointed at a dialface. "That's the voltage. It's controlled by this vernier knob here."He turned the knob, and the needle on the voltmeter moved obliginglyupwards. "Anything from ten to a thousand volts," he said. "Easilyadjusted to suit your taste."
"I don't think I'd like the taste of a thousand volts," Olcott saidsolemnly. "Might affect the tongue adversely." Olcott didn't lookparticularly impressed. Why should he? Anyone can build a machine thatcan generate high voltage.
"Is that AC or DC?" he asked.
"DC," said Bending. "But it can easily be converted to AC. Depends onwhat you want to use it for."
Olcott nodded. "How much power does that thing deliver?"
Sam Bending had been waiting for that question. He delivered his answerwith all the nonchalance of a man dropping a burnt match in an ash tray.
"Five hundred horsepower."
Olcott's face simply couldn't hold its expressionless expression againstsomething like that. His lips twitched, and his eyes blinked. "Fivehundred _what_?"
"I will not make the obvious pun," said Bending. "I said 'five hundredhorsepower'--unquote. About three hundred and seventy-five kilowatts,maximum."
Olcott appeared to be unable to say anything. He simply stared at thesmall, innocuous-looking Converter. Bending was unable to decide whetherOlcott was overawed by the truth or simply stricken dumb by what mustsound like a monstrous lie.
Olcott licked his lips with the tip of his small, pink tongue. "Fivehundred horsepower. Hm-m-m." He took a deep breath. "No wonder thosecopper studs are so thick."
"Yeah," said Bending. "If I short 'em across at low voltage, they gethot."
"_Short them across?_" Olcott's voice sounded harsh.
Bending was in his seventh heaven, and he showed it. His grin wasrunning as high an energy output as that he claimed for the Converter."Sure. The amperage is self-limiting. You can only draw about fourhundred amps off the thing, no matter how low you put the voltage. WhenI said five hundred HP, I meant at a thousand volts. As a matter offact, the available power in horsepower is roughly half the voltage. Butthat only applies to this small model. A bigger one could supply more,of course."
"What does it weigh?" asked Olcott, in a hushed voice.
"Little over a hundred pounds," Bending said.
Olcott tore his eyes away from the fantastic little box and looked intoSam Bending's eyes. "May I ask where you're getting power like that?"
"Sure. Hydrogen fusion, same as the stellarator."
"It's powered by deuterium?"
Bending delivered his bombshell. "Nope. Water. Plain, ordinaryaitch-two-oh. See those little vents at the side? They exhaust oxygenand helium. It burns about four hundred milligrams of water per hour atmaximum capacity."
Olcott had either regained control of himself or had passed thesaturation point; Sam couldn't tell which. Olcott said: "Where do youput the water?"
"Why put water in it?" Sam asked coolly. "That small whirring sound youhear isn't the hydrogen-helium conversion; it's a fan blowing airthrough a cooling coil. Even in the Sahara Desert there's enoughmoisture in the air to run this baby."
"And the fan is powered--"
"... By the machine itself, naturally," said Bending. "It's aself-contained unit. Of course, with a really big unit, you might haveto hire someone to hang out their laundry somewhere in the neighborhood,but only in case of emergencies."
"May I sit down?" asked Olcott. And, without waiting for Sam Bending'spermission, he grabbed a nearby chair and sat. "Mr. Bending," he said,"what is the cost of one of those units?"
"Well, that one cost several hundred thousand dollars. But the thingcould be mass produced for ... oh, around fifteen hundred dollars. Maybeless."
Olcott absorbed that, blinked, and said: "Is it dangerous? I mean, couldit explode, or does it give out radiation?"
"Well, you have to treat it with respect, of course," Bending said. Herubbed his big hands together in an unconscious gesture of triumph."Just like any power source. But it won't explode; that I can guarantee.And there's no danger from radiation. All the power comes out aselectric current."
* * * * *
Sam Bending remained silent while Olcott stared at the little black box.Finally, Olcott put his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes, as thoughhe'd been too long without sleep. When he removed his hands, his eyeswere focused on Bending.
"You realize," he said, "that we can't give you any sort of contractuntil this has been thoroughly checked by our own engineers and researchmen?"
"Obviously," said Sam Bending. "But--"
"Do you have a patent?" Olcott interrupted.
"It's pending," said Bending. "My lawyer thinks it will go throughpretty quickly."
Olcott stood up abruptly. "Mr. Bending, if this machine is actually whatyou claim it to be--which, of course, we will have to determine forourselves--I think that we can make you a handsome--a _very_ handsomesettlement."
"How much?" Bending asked flatly.
"For full rights--millions," said Olcott without hesitation. "That wouldbe a ... shall we say, an advance ... an advance on the royalties."
"What, no bargaining?" Bending said, in a rather startled tone.
* * * * *
Olcott shook his head. "Mr. Bending, you know the value of such a deviceas well as I do. You're an intelligent man, and so am I. Haggling willget us nothing but wasted time. We want that machine--we _must_ havethat machine. And you know it. And I know you know it. Why should wequibble?
"I can't say: 'Name your price'; this thing is obviously worth a greatdeal more than even Power Utilities would be able to pay. Not even acorporation like ours can whip up a billion dollars without goingbankrupt. What we pay you will have to be amortized over a period ofyears. But we--"
"Just a minute, Mr. Olcott," Bending interrupted. "Exactly what do youintend to do with the Converter if I sell it to you?"
Olcott hesitated. "Why ... ah--" He paused. "Actually, I couldn't say,"he said at last. "A decision like that would have to be made by theBoard. Why?"
"How long do you think it would take you to get into production?"
"I ... ah ..
. frankly couldn't say," Olcott said cautiously. "Severalyears, I imagine..."
"Longer than that, I dare say," Bending said, with more than a touch ofsarcasm. "As a matter of fact, you'd pretty much have to suppress theConverter, wouldn't you?"
Olcott looked at Bending, his face expressionless. "Of course. For awhile. You know very well