Authors: William Hutchison
Pat grinned at the thought of the obese budgeteer and the lanky radical environmentalist bouncing bellies.
Col. Anderson, the Army representative sat next to Butterworth. He had his jowls set and was chewing rather than smoking a huge cigar while he busied himself working a New York Times crossword puzzle. It was obvious from his bloodshot eyes, a Sunday morning meeting didn't agree with him one bit.
The four Soviet diplomats, two of whom were really KGB and two military attaches, sat stolidly next to the Army Colonel, who, every now and then lifted his head from his puzzle and cast a furtive, suspicious glance their way.
Commander Packett, the former naval aviator like Pat now representing the Office of Naval Research, sat next to one of the Russians. As Pat got to him his previous smile changed to a deep set scowl as he recalled that it was Packett who had called SIGMA ONE a cockamamie scheme by him and the NSF to defraud the government. Radcliff, Walker and Pat rounded out the group.
When everyone was settle, the Senator got up and walked to the podium where he dimmed the lights using the footswitch at its base. As he did, the backlit screen came on and showed pictures of the two men they were there to discuss.
The committee members recognized the picture of Kamarov immediately having seen the same picture before at the last meeting, but they questioned who the other young man might be.
Radcliff explained. "There's no need for me to play coy with any of you. I can see by your faces you have many questions. You all received the special notice of this meeting by secure phone yesterday, and what I couldn't tell you over the phone, I'm prepared to discuss now."
The members stirred and looked at one another.
"The situation we have here is extremely serious," Radcliff began, but before he could go on Colonel Anderson jumped up.
"I'll say it's serious, Senator! What are those damn Soviets doing here at the NSF. You know that's against security!" He sounded more than a little hostile and to make his feelings known, he pounded on the table. Walker turned his head to the Senator and received the go ahead. He then got up quickly and moved around the table to Anderson where he reached out and put his hand on the colonel's shoulder, motioning for him to sit down. Anderson spun around and faced his assailant.
"Get your damn hands offa me, Walker! What the hell's goin' on here anyway?" He asked as he grabbed Walker's hand and threw it off his shoulder.
Radcliff scowled and looked directly at the belligerent colonel. "Sit down, Colonel Anderson and shut up!" Radcliff ordered pointing his finger. "This is my meeting and if I hear one more word out of you, I'll have Walker forcibly escort you out! Do you understand?"
Anderson stared back angrily at the Senator and offered a reply in defense of his outburst. "But---------security!"
"Don't 'but' me! Now sit down and shut up!" Radcliff ordered.
Slowly, but deliberately Anderson yanked his chair out from under the table as a show of defiance. Then he sat down, but not before curling his lip at Radcliff and then at the Soviets. He didn't like the idea they were there. It was wrong--flat wrong--in his eyes!
All the others in the room had remained quiet during the verbal exchange between Anderson and Huxley, but it was obvious by the way each fidgeted, that the incident had made each a little uneasy.
When Anderson finally settled down, Radcliff cleared his throat and began speaking again. His voice was still strained which only served to heighten the anxiety levels of those in the room. "Thank you all for giving up your weekend to attend this crucial meeting. What I have to tell you won't take long. I promise to be brief."
He turned and pointed to the slides and began to speak. "The pictures you see before you are those of Dr. Andre Kamarov and Mr. Burt Grayson. These two individuals pose a considerable threat not only to the United States, but also to the Soviet Union."
(The committee members knew Kamarov was threatening. They'd heard what he could do at the last meeting. But who was this Grayson?)
Radcliff continued and provided the explanation.
"As you committee members know, the NSF has been sponsoring experiments in thought programming for some time now and all your agencies have participated by providing needed financial support. At the last meeting we had a few short weeks ago we,----I mean, the NSF and Mr. Huxley here (he pointed to Pat) were given just ninety days to prove that a human could be taught to reprogram a computer using only the energy his mind could produce. That energy, when properly focused on the computer circuitry would alter the programs inside. We had intended to use this capability as the ultimate weapon against the Soviet Union."
Anderson started to jump up again, but held himself back.
"Well, ladies and gentlemen," Radcliff continued, "the man on the left, Mr. Burt Grayson, was recruited by the NSF, and as Pat will show you later, he has succeeded in demonstrating this capability--unequivocally demonstrating it, I might add."
"The other man shown, as all of you know, is the Soviet equivalent of Grayson. He too, has the ability to thought program, and although his powers are limited to line of sight with the computers, he is equally capable of doing great harm to our countries; which is why we're here."
Radcliff paused. The tension grew as everyone waited for his explanation of why they were so threatening.
"The two men shown here, Grayson and Kamarov, have recently joined forces. They are together. They know of each other’s abilities, and they have threatened to use those abilities against the United States and the Soviet Union, unless we agree to end our pursuit of them."
"What exactly they plan to do, we don't know. But because of what they know and what they can do with that knowledge, we must conclude they intend, and are quite capable of doing something drastic. I point this out because we have evidence that indicates these two individuals are not only powerful, but are equally unstable and unpredictable, this as a result of a chemical imbalance produced subsequent to linking with a computer!"
Before anyone had a chance to ask any questions; questions such as what threats might have been made, by whom, and when, Radcliff flipped the foot switch and another slide replaced the first.
The screen was now filled with two photos. The picture on the left showed a block diagram of the experiment Burt had performed at Radcliff's request. While the senator was providing a top level explanation of the physics behind the experiment, a video monitor came on and showed detailed screen dumps from the computers that had been in the lab while Burt was dynamically reprogramming the guidance computer. The video offered further visual evidence that, indeed, the principles of SIGMA ONE had been successfully demonstrated.
Seeing the experiment he had planned and hearing the glowing words of praise spoken about him by Radcliff, Pat momentarily beamed with pride. Be had, after all, succeeded; and even though his success was short-lived, it still made him proud.
The other side of the screen needed no explanation: everyone in the room, including the Soviets, had seen photographic evidence of Kamarov's experiments and each remembered the molten mass of plastic and parts which resulted in the aftermath of his successful linking. Even though there was no video tape of this, Radcliff's words were still compelling. It was obvious to everyone both nations had accomplished the heretofore unthinkable or unbelievable.
As each person in the room tried to consider the disastrous consequences of such potentially lethal powers unfettered as a result of Kamarov's and Grayson's teaming, Anderson had other thoughts in mind.
He jumped up again. This time he was shouting. "Damn you Huxley! You can't show these red bastards those pictures. Have you gone nuts? Oh, man, you're gonna go to jail!"
Anderson made a move toward the podium. He was going to try to shut off the projection screen, but as he got just one step from his chair, Radcliff nodded his head at Walker. The agent instantly jumped in front of the charging would-be patriot, promptly intercepting him and, with his gun pointed squarely at Anderson's chest, forced him to stop.
Anderson felt the cold steel of the muzzle against his sternum and threw up his hands. As a soldier, he knew you never pointed a weapon at anyone unless you intended to use it.
Radcliff glared at him. "Under normal circumstances, Colonel Anderson, you'd be right and I would be breaching security by informing our Soviet guests here. But these aren't normal circumstances----not any longer. Additionally, I'm not showing or telling them anything they don't already know Anderson looked quizzically back.
"For you see Colonel, it was the Soviets who furnished these pictures to us, and we've furnished them all the details of SIGMA ONE as well.
"Likewise, I might add, discussions held yesterday between Moscow and Washington, or should I say, between the Premier and the President, have cleared the way for us to get down to work without worrying security matters. You see, we no longer have any secrets concerning our individual thought programming experiments and we know all about their work as well. We only have a job to do--and that job is to decide how to best proceed to defuse this situation such that we can proceed from here to neutralize the threat to both our countries."
"I'm sorry I couldn't divulge these facts to you earlier. Now please, Colonel Anderson, let's have no more outbursts or Walker will have to escort you from the room!"
Anderson raised his hand timidly, like an embarrassed schoolchild wanting to go to the restroom but not wanting to make a fuss about it. He didn't want Walker to misinterpret his move and get trigger happy."One question, Senator?" He asked.
"Go ahead," Radcliff responded.
"You said discussions are going on now between Moscow and Washington and we no longer have any secrets?"
"That's right."
"Then why are we here? I mean, why are all the committee members here?"
"Radcliff indulged him. "I'm glad you asked colonel. You all are here because you each, or should I say, each of your respective organizations has invested heavily in SIGMA ONE and each of you may or may not have reasons for wanting to see this thing through to the end because of that investment. Let's just say the President and I discussed this and thought it best you be informed of what our plans are. After all, when we're done here today and after we've eliminated Grayson and Kamarov, you'll be forced to implement those plans."
Pat, who had remained silent throughout, shuddered after hearing what Radcliff had just said. He had said nothing earlier about eliminating the two men when he informed him of his plans to involve the Soviets in their pursuit. He had, in fact, alluded to the possibility of taking them alive and isolating them in an electromagnetically impenetrable enclosure which Pat had thought he had convinced him he could build. The enclosure would be one way of keeping the two men alive for further study. He had wanted to believe the senator then, but now, Radcliff was finally showing his true colors, and although Pat knew there was probably no alternative but to eliminate the men, he still didn't like the fact he'd been lied to.
Anderson was still unsure why he was called to attend and asked for more detail. "Then we're here only to listen right?"
While Pat leered at him for the lie he had told earlier, Radcliff answered the colonel's question.
"Correct, Colonel. You're all here to listen. After I've given the briefing, each of you will have ten days to gather any and all information you have back at your agencies regarding SIGMA ONE---that includes anything: memo's, briefing material, files, budgets, etcetera."
"So what are we going to do with them?" he asked angrily.
"You're going to ship them here, back to the NSF."
"Why?"
"So they can be destroyed under U.S and Soviet scrutiny. That's why! I might also add that for the next seven years, as a minimum, each of your agencies and organizations will be required to have a resident Soviet observer stationed at them. We will do the same at the Soviet equivalent of the NSF in Moscow. Because of this Pandora's box we've opened, both countries have agreed to discontinue all research in thought programming and to guarantee it, we're jointly taking the steps I've outlined."