Zicek looked around the confines of the small room, eyeing his colleagues.
“Are you inviting us to conclude,” asked Fletcher in a voice of deliberate calm, “that, while we cannot now do such a thing, perhaps a society only somewhat advanced from ours could?”
“Never mind a very advanced society,” put in Noldt more excitedly.
“Oh, hold on,” said Leems disgustedly. “Granted, Vlad, we’re inventing a cornucopia of implosion machinery. There is still an immense jump to making black holes. Just because we’ve launched a space probe out of the solar system doesn’t mean that intergalactic space travel will be possible for us or for any advanced civilizations that might be out there. Sometimes practical limits can erect just as solid a barrier as physical impossibility. You damn well can’t strike a match on a wet cake of soap. I still find the whole black hole business preposterous.”
“Perhaps you’re right, Harvey,” admitted Zicek, “but I feel we should not jump to a conclusion either way. No one has really thought seriously about how hard or how easy making a black hole might be if one really tried. I’m just saying such a thing may be possible. Our knowledge of the behavior of matter at only slightly greater than nuclear density is very sparse.”
“Well, what we don’t know, we can’t use to reach any conclusions,” said Leems, still sounding disgusted.
“Of course, of course,” placated Zicek. He addressed himself to Phillips again. “My thoughts in this direction lead me to one concrete suggestion you may want to consider.”
“Yes, what is that?” inquired Phillips.
“We have discussed bringing in other experts to help us deal with the particulars of this problem. Carl suggested Humphreys,” he waved toward Fletcher. “I think we should consider more carefully this question of how such a thing might be made. One person comes to mind who would be uniquely qualified in terms of both experience and creative insight.”
“I’ll bet you’re thinking of Paul Krone,” said Runyan.
“Yes, in fact, I was,” replied Zicek.
Isaacs looked up sharply at this reference. He had heard of Paul Krone, and he was not the kind of man Isaacs would be keen to bring into this effort. Not exactly stable.
Leems made clear where he stood.
“That horse’s ass? Surely you don’t want to set that bull loose in this china shop?”
“You’re being unfair,” Zicek replied tensely. “I know there are people jealous of Paul’s successes because they don’t understand his methods, but he has great insight that could serve us well and he’s currently deeply involved in these questions.”
“Jealous?” Leems waved a hand in dismissal. “He can’t even keep a job. Half his ideas are fantasy—sheer gibberish. And who knows what other troubles he would bring.”
Isaacs thought Leems probably was jealous. Krone had worked his way through a couple of universities, private industry and various government labs, a maverick always on the move, but he had a midas touch. A dozen times during his career he had started a little company on the side, working on some development or other. If the idea worked, Krone would keep a controlling interest, but turn the company over to professional managers and never look back. The scientists he worked with were always suspicious because he made so much money. Businessmen couldn’t understand how he could throw it all over and go back to tinkering in some laboratory or doodling equations.
Krone was a man of great appetites as well as great talent. There had been some trouble getting him a security clearance for one government consulting job, and the case had come to Isaacs’ attention informally through an acquaintance with the FBI. There had been questions of drugs and women, a year or two ago he had taken up with an expatriate Russian of all things, and legal entanglements concerning the proprietary rights to some of his developments. In looking over the file, Isaacs had been amazed to see the number of well- known companies, three of them on the Fortune 500, that Krone controlled, directly or indirectly.
Runyan laughed to take the sting out of Leems’ words.
“C’mon, Harvey. It’s true Paul can be hard to take when he starts ranting. There’s no question he’s a raving egomaniac with a penchant for hiding his ideas until he can spring them on the world. And maybe half his ideas are nonsense, but half of them have some real insight, and half of a lot is a lot.”
He addressed himself to Phillips.
“It strikes me someone like Krone who’s familiar with both theoretical physics and engineering developments might be useful to us.”
Runyan turned to Zicek.
“What’s he doing now? Didn’t I hear he was consulting at Los Alamos?”
“That’s right. He started another company and has a consulting contract with the Lab to explore just these developments I was describing—laser implosion, relativistic beams— both experimentally and theoretically. That’s why I thought he would have a general grasp of the situation that would be useful to us.”
Isaacs saw there might be some merit to the arguments Zicek and Runyan made, but his sympathies were more with Leems. He spoke up. “I wonder whether the questions Dr. Zicek raises, and perhaps Dr. Krone’s involvement, might be of secondary importance just now. It seems that our critical task is to confirm or deny Dr. Runyan’s suggestion. I would like to ask Dr. Gantt whether he has considered the requirements of the proposed experiment. I’m sure your seismology lab at Caltech is well equipped, but I wonder whether you will need any help that my agency or some other government agency can provide?”
“I’ve not had time to plan any details,” replied Gantt. “We’ll want to go someplace that is seismically inactive—away from the California fault system, perhaps Arizona. I might use some help with transportation and some support equipment. I’d like to use an on-site minicomputer for analysis. I have one, but it’s cumbersome to move.”
Isaacs nodded. “We can help with that.”
Gantt continued, “We must, of course, know where to look. From Dr. Danielson’s present data it appears that the activity comes near the surface at about twelve-hundred-mile intervals. The trick is to be in the right place at the right time. You’ve said you can predict the surface location at any particular instant to within a kilometer or so.” He looked toward Danielson for confirmation, and the young woman nodded.
“With updated sonar data, we should be able to do better than that,” she said.
Gantt turned to Runyan. “What gravitational perturbation did you estimate for a distance of a kilometer, Alex?”
“That should give you a fluctuation of a part in a million,” replied Runyan.
“We can do that,” asserted Gantt.
“I’m going to be busy with things in Washington,” Isaacs said, “but I’d like to have someone on the site with you. Would you mind if Dr. Danielson joined you?”
“Not at all,” Gantt replied. “I think her knowledge of the background to this situation could prove most useful.” He smiled at the young woman and got a brief appreciative one in return.
“You wouldn’t mind joining Professor Gantt, would you, Pat?” Isaacs asked.
She thought of her urge to go to Dallas to be where the action was. Nothing would keep her from being on top of it the next time.
“I would like to very much.”
Oho, Runyan thought to himself, now there’s a trip I’d like to make, too. He looked at Isaacs’ stern visage and decided now was not the ideal time to press his petition.
“Excellent,” said Phillips, with an air of summary. “Perhaps we should leave it at that, then. I know Mr. Isaacs has a plane to catch, and I don’t believe further discussion would enhance the situation at this point. I suggest we adjourn.”
He rose to emphasize his decision and watched as the others stood and filed out. He joined Isaacs in the hall and they waited a moment for Danielson and Runyan, who were the last ones out.
Isaacs and Danielson gathered their things from their rooms while Phillips called for a car. They caught a noon flight back to Washington.
They spoke little until the plane was in the air. When the no smoking sign was turned off and the attendants began to move around the cabin, they turned as if at a signal, and looked at one another. Each read in the other’s eyes the special camaraderie of a shared, shocking experience. Impulsively, Danielson leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Surprised and pleased, he patted her hand on the armrest, in what he hoped was a
