Dixon made up his mind. "I've decided to come in with you, D.D.," he announced. "As an act of faith I went to the trouble of getting this." He took a formal-looking instrument from his pocket and displayed it. It was a sale of lunar rights, from Phineas Morgan to Dixon, phrased in exactly the same fashion as that which Jones had granted to Harriman.
Entenza looked startled, then dipped into his own inner coat pocket. Out came three more sales contracts of the same sort, each from a director of the power syndicate. Harriman cocked an eyebrow at them. "Jack sees you and raises you two, Dan. You want to call?"
Dixon smiled ruefully. "I can just see him." He added two more to the pile, grinned and offered his hand to Entenza.
"Looks like a stand off." Harriman decided to say nothing just yet about seven telestated contracts now locked in his desk-after going to bed the night before he had been quite busy on the phone almost till midnight. "Jack, how much did you pay for those things?"
"Standish held out for a thousand; the others were cheap."
"Damn it, I warned you not to run the price up. Standish will gossip. How about you, Dan?"
"I got them at satisfactory prices."
"So you won't talk, eh? Never mind-gentlemen, how serious are you about this? How much money did you bring with you?"
Entenza looked to Dixon, who answered, "How much does it take?"
"How much can you raise?" demanded Harriman.
Dixon shrugged. "We're getting no place. Let's use figures. A hundred thousand."
Harriman sniffed. "I take it what you really want is to reserve a seat on the first regularly scheduled Moon ship. I'll sell it to you at that price."
"Let's quit sparring, Delos. How much?"
Harriman's face remained calm but he thought furiously. He was caught short, with too little information-he had not even talked figures with his chief engineer as yet. Confound it! Why had he left that phone hooked in? "Dan, as I warned you, it will cost you at least a million just to sit down in this game."
"So I thought. How much will it take to stay in the game?"
"All you've got."
"Don't be silly, Delos. I've got more than you have."
Harriman lit a cigar, his only sign of agitation. "Suppose you match us, dollar for dollar."
"For which I get two shares?"
"Okay, okay, you chuck in a buck whenever each of us does-share and share alike. But I run things."
"You run the operations," agreed Dixon. "Very well, I'll put up a million now and match you as necessary. You have no objection to me having my own auditor, of course."
"When have I ever cheated you, Dan?"
"Never and there is no need to start."
"Have it your own way-but be damned sure you send a man who can keep his mouth shut."
"He'll keep quiet. I keep his heart in a jar in my safe."
Harriman was thinking about the extent of Dixon's assets. "We just might let you buy in with a second share later, Dan. This operation will be expensive."
Dixon fitted his finger tips carefully together. "We'll meet that question when we come to it. I don't believe in letting an enterprise fold up for lack of capital."
"Good." Harriman turned to Entenza. "You heard what Dan had to say, Jack. Do you like the terms?"
Entenza's forehead was covered with sweat. "I can't raise a million that fast."
"That's all right, Jack. We don't need it this morning. Your note is good; you can take your time liquidating."
"But you said a million is just the beginning. I can't match you indefinitely; you've got to place a limit on it. I've got my family to consider."
"No annuities, Jack? No monies transferred in an irrevocable trust?"
"That's not the point. You'll be able to squeeze me-freeze me out."
Harriman waited for Dixon to say something. Dixon finally said, "We wouldn't squeeze you, Jack-as long as you could prove you had converted every asset you hold. We would let you stay in on a pro rata basis."
Harriman nodded. "That's right, Jack." He was thinking that any shrinkage in Entenza's share would give himself and Strong a clear voting majority.
Strong had been thinking of something of the same nature, for he spoke up suddenly, "I don't like this. Four equal partners-we can be deadlocked too easily."
Dixon shrugged. "I refuse to worry about it. I am in this because I am betting that Delos can manage to make it profitable."
"We'll get to the Moon, Dan!"
"I didn't say that. I am betting that you will show a profit whether we get to the Moon or not. Yesterday evening I spent looking over the public records of several of your companies; they were very interesting. I suggest we resolve any possible deadlock by giving the Director-that's you, Delos- the power to settle ties. Satisfactory, Entenza?"
"Oh, sure!"
Harriman was worried but tried not to show it. He did not trust Dixon, even bearing gifts. He stood up suddenly. "I've got to run, gentlemen. I leave you to Mr. Strong and Mr. Kamens. Come along, Monty." Kamens, he was sure, would not spill anything prematurely, even to nominal full partners. As for Strong-George, he knew, had not even let his left hand know how many fingers there were on his right.
He dismissed Montgomery outside the door of the partners' personal office and went across the hall. Andrew Ferguson, chief engineer of Harriman Enterprises, looked up as he came in. "Howdy, Boss. Say, Mr. Strong gave me an interesting idea for a light switch this morning. It did not seem practical at first but-"
"Skip it. Let one of the boys have it and forget it. You know the line we are on now."
"There have been rumors," Ferguson answered cautiously.
"Fire the man that brought you the rumor. No-send him on a special mission to Tibet and keep him there until we are through. Well, let's get on with it. I want you to build a Moon ship as quickly as possible."
Ferguson threw one leg over the arm of his chair, took out a pen knife and began grooming his nails. "You say that like it was an order to build a privy."
"Why not? There have been theoretically adequate fuels since way back in '49. You get together the team to design it and the gang to build it; you build it-I pay the bills. What could be simpler?"
Ferguson stared at the ceiling. "'Adequate fuels-'" he repeated dreamily.
"So I said. The figures show that hydrogen and oxygen are enough to get a step rocket to the Moon and back-it's just a matter of proper design."
"'Proper design,' he says," Ferguson went on ifl the same gentle voice, then suddenly swung around, jabbed the knife into the scarred desk top and bellowed, "What do you know about proper design? Where do I get the steels? What do I use for a throat liner? How in the hell do I burn enough tons of your crazy mix per second to keep from wasting all my power breaking loose? How can I get a decent mass-ratio with a step rocket? Why in the hell didn't you let me build a proper ship when we had the fuel?"
Harriman waited for him to quiet down, then said, "What do we do about it, Andy?"
"Hmmm... . I was thinking about it as I lay abed last night-and my old lady is sore as hell at you; I had to finish the night on the couch. In the first place, Mr. Harriman, the proper way to tackle this is to get a research appropriation from the Department of National Defense. Then you-"
"Damn it, Andy, you stick to engineering and let me handle the political and financial end of it. I don't want your advice."
"Damn it, Delos, don't go off half-cocked. This is engineering I'm talking about. The government owns a whole mass of former art about rocketry-all classified. Without a government contract you can't even get a peek at it."
"It can't amount to very much. What can a government rocket do that a Skyways rocket can't do? You told me yourself that Federal rocketry no longer amounted to anything."
Ferguson looked supercilious. "I am afraid I can't explain it in lay terms. You will have to take it for granted that we need those government research reports. There's no sense in spending thousands of dollars in doing work that has already been done."