The trio--Haney and Mike and the Chief--were just arriving by the piles
of charred but now uncovered wreckage. Sally flushed ever so slightly
when she saw the Chief eye Joe's ring on her finger.
"Rest of the day off, huh?" said the Chief. "Look! We found most of the
stuff we need. They're gonna give us a shop to work in. We'll move this
stuff there. We're gonna have to weld a false frame on the lathe we
picked, an' then cut out the bed plate to let the gyros fit in between
the chucks. Mount it so the spinning is in the right line."
That would be with the axis of the rotors parallel to the axis of the
earth. Joe nodded.
"We'll be able to get set up in the mornin'," added Haney, "and get
started. You got the parts list off to the plant for your folks to get
busy on?"
Sally said quickly: "He's sending that by facsimile now. Then----"
The Chief beamed in benign mockery. "What you goin' to do after that,
Joe? If we got the rest of the day off----?"
Sally said hurriedly: "We were--he was going off on a picnic with me. To
Red Canyon Lake. Do you really need to talk business--all afternoon?"
The Chief laughed. He'd known Sally, at least by sight, back at the
Kenmore plant.
"No, ma'am!" he told her. "Just askin'. I worked on that Red Canyon dam
job, years back. That dam that made the lake. It ought to be right
pretty around there now. Okay, Joe. See you as soon as work starts up.
In the mornin', most likely."
Joe started away with Sally. Mike the midget called hoarsely: "Joe! Just
a minute!"
Joe drew back. The midget's seamed face was very earnest. He said in his
odd voice: "Here's something to think about. Somebody worked mighty hard
to keep you from getting those gyros here. They might work hard to keep
them from getting repaired. That's why we asked for a special shop to
work in. It's occurred to me that a good way to stop these repairs would
be to stop us. Not everybody would've figured out how to rebalance this
thing. You get me?"
"Sure!" said Joe. "You three had better look out for yourselves."
Mike stared at him and grimaced.
"You don't get it," he said brittlely. "All right. I may be crazy, at
that."
Joe rejoined Sally. The idea of a picnic was brand new to him, but he
approved of it completely. They went to the small exit that led to the
security building. They were admitted. There was remarkable calm and
efficiency here, even though routine had been upset by the need to stop
all work. As they went toward Major Holt's office, Joe heard somebody
dictating in a matter-of-fact voice: "... this attempt at atomic
sabotage was defeated outside the Shed, but it never had a chance of
success. Geiger counters would have instantly shown any attempt to
smuggle radioactive material into the Shed...."
Joe glanced sidewise at Sally.
"That's for a publicity release?" he asked.
She nodded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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