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Blowing the other bombs and the valley itself to Kingdom Come.
Also Joh
All this time he was doing what he had thought out, up to the step of actually setting off the bomb. Ready to go, the bomb seemed to threaten, as if crouching to spring. He stood up, sweating.
He wondered if he had the courage. He did not want to funk - and hoped that he would. He dug into his jacket and took out a picture of Edith and the baby. "Honeychild," he said, "if I get out of this, I'll never even try to beat a red light." He kissed the picture and put it back. There was nothing to do but wait.
What was keeping Towers? Joh
There was another way to rig it - a "dead man" control. Jigger up some way so that the last step, the one that set off the bomb, would not happen as long as he kept his hand on a switch or a lever or something. Then, if they blew open the door, or shot him, or anything - up goes the balloon!
Better still, if he could hold them off with the threat of it, sooner or later help would come - Joh
All the while, he was working. Electrical? No, too little time. Make it a simple mechanical linkage. He had it doped out but had hardly begun to build it when the loudspeaker called him. "Joh
"That you, Colonel?" His hands kept busy.
"Let me in."
"Well, now, Colonel, that wasn't in the agreement." Where in blue blazes was something to use as a long lever?
"I'll come in alone, Joh
His word! "We can talk over the speaker, Colonel." Hey, that was it-a yardstick, hanging on the tool rack.
"Joh
A wire-he needed a wire, fairly long and stiff. He tore the ante
"Vacuum won't hurt the bombs. Quit stalling."
"Better check with Major Morgan. Vacuum won't hurt them; explosive decompression would wreck every circuit." The Colonel was not a bomb specialist; he shut up for several minutes. Joh
"Dahlquist," Towers resumed, "that was a clumsy, lie. I checked with Morgan. You have sixty seconds to get into your suit, if you aren't already. I'm going to blast the door."
"No, you won't," said Joh
"Eh? What do you mean?"
"I've rigged number seventeen to set off by hand. But I put in a gimmick. It won't blow while I hang on to a strap I've got in my hand. But if anything happens to me - up she goes! You are about fifty feet from the blast center. Think it over."
There was a short silence. "I don't believe you."
"No? Ask Morgan. He'll believe me. He can inspect it, over the TV pickup." Joh
"You said the pick-up was out of order."
"So I lied. This time I'll prove it. Have Morgan call me."
Presently Major Morgan's face appeared. "Lieutenant Dahlquist?"
"Hi, Stinky. Wait a sec." With great care Dahlquist made one last co
"I can see you," Morgan answered stiffly. "What is this nonsense?"
"A little surprise I whipped up." He explained it-what circuits he had cut out, what ones had been shorted, just how the jury-rigged mechanical sequence fitted in.
Morgan nodded. "But you're bluffing, Dahlquist. I feel sure that you haven't disco
Joh
Towers came on over the speaker shortly. "Dahlquist?"
"I hear you."
"There's no need to throw away your life. Come out and you will be retired on full pay. You can go home to your family. That's a promise."
Joh
"Think of them, man."
"Shut up. Get back to your hole. I feel a need to scratch and this whole shebang might just explode in your lap."
2
JOHNNY SAT UP with a start. He had dozed, his hand hadn't let go the sling, but he had the shakes when he thought about it.
Maybe he should disarm the bomb and depend on their not daring to dig him out? But Towers' neck was already in hock for treason; Towers might risk it. If he did and the bomb were disarmed, Joh
He heard the Geiger counter clicking and remembered having used the suppressor circuit The radioactivity in the room must be increasing, perhaps from scattering the "brain" circuits-the circuits were sure to be infected; they had lived too long too close to plutonium. He dug out his film.
The dark area was spreading toward the red line.
He put it back and said, "Pal, better break this deadlock or you are going to shine like a watch dial." It was a figure of speech; infected animal tissue does not glow-it simply dies, slowly.
The TV screen lit up; Towers' face appeared. "Dahlquist? I want to talk to you."
"Go fly a kite."
"Let's admit you have us inconvenienced."
"Inconvenienced, hell-I've got you stopped."
"For the moment I'm arranging to get more bombs-"
"Liar."
"-but you are slowing us up. I have a proposition."
"Not interested."
"Wait. When this is over I will be chief of the world government. If you cooperate, even now, I will make you my administrative head."
Joh
Joh
Towers switched off.
Joh
His only chance was to wreck the bombs beyond repair, and get out-before that film got much darker.
He thought about ways, then got busy. He hung a weight on the sling, tied a line to it. If Towers blasted the door, he hoped to jerk the rig loose before he died.
There was a simple, though arduous, way to wreck the bombs beyond any capacity of Moon Base to repair them. The heart of each was two hemispheres of plutonium, their flat surfaces polished smooth to permit perfect contact when slapped together. Anything less would prevent the chain reaction on which atomic explosion depended.
Joh
He had to bash off four lugs, then break the glass envelope around the i