“For how long? Without being the least bit prescient I can state that at this very moment a Nagle Rocket is being dissected in Moscow. Within days, or weeks at most, they will have the principle. From there they will go on to the larger principles of spaceship construction.
“Why, that thought was even part of the speech Berkeley prepared for me to give you at that first meeting of Project Levitation. I said that since this fictitious Dunning had discovered antigravity from known scientific material one young Russian could do likewise!”
“Yes. And the key in your statement is the phrase ‘known scientific material.’ The Nagle Rocket is not based on what would be considered known scientific material. It is a second or even a third-order development. There is the crux of the matter. You might think upon that.”
“Think of it —!” Keyes rose and strode suddenly to the window, his back to Mart. “I’m sick of thinking of it! You’re not fools, you and Berkeley —” He turned abruptly and faced the physicist. “Berkeley... why didn’t I think of that before? It’s his doing! It’s another one like Project Levitation! Tell me: is it?”
He strode back to Mart, forcing the physicist to rise to meet that face in which fear, anger, bewilderment and disappointment mingled in turmoil. “Is it?” Keyes demanded again. “I’ve got a right to know. I’ve got to know!”
“There are a score of principles,” Mart said slowly, “perhaps even more, by which antigravity can be achieved, just as you can run an automobile by steam, electricity, or gas — or atomic power, if you choose.
“The very obvious conclusion that anyone is going to make is the one that you have made for yourself: that there is only one principle of antigravity. When the Russians begin dissecting, the Nagle Rocket, they will be searching for that one principle. They will scale up the little engine I have designed — and their laboratories will be demolished in the most curious kind of destruction. Implosion-explosion effects. Matter altered as to dimension and properties.
“And they will not find the principle because it is a higher than first-order development of any science they know anything about! Their search will take them farther and farther from the principles of Project Levitation. Rather than betray the Project, it will actively block revelation of its secrets. That, perhaps, you must take on trust for the moment. But it is true, I assure you.”
“I would be an absolute fool to believe a word of that,” said Keyes. He flung his hands aside in a gesture of loss. “But... almost... you leave me nothing else to do. If I accuse you openly of betraying us, the Russians will know for certain that we have a developed spaceship. If I believe you, I risk the entire future air and space development of the United States. I will believe you — if you will tell me one thing: Why?”
Mart shook his head slowly. “Not yet. I do not know if we shall succeed in this. If we fail, we shall try again. But if you knew our goal at this time I do not believe you would be willing to uphold us. That, we cannot risk. On the other hand, you cannot risk believing I have been disloyal, because you know within yourself that it is not true.”
II.
The split with Keyes was Mart’s major regret at the moment, but he knew that it was but the first of a long series of such incidents that would follow the promotion of the Nagle Rocket. Keyes, however, symbolized the whole class of unpleasant incidents and broken friendships that would occur. On Project Levitation, directed by Keyes at ONR the year before, Mart and Berk had worked to produce an antigravity device. And as a by-product they had developed an entirely new insight into the operation and workings of the human mind, and had produced fundamentally new methods of thinking. To exploit and explore what they found, they organized their own office of Basic Research Consultants.
As Mart left the ONR building, feeling the eyes of Keyes staring at him from the second-floor window, he was not at all sure of the wisdom of their present program. But it had all the qualities of a road full of burned bridges, and uncertainty was futile. Keyes at least would be quiescent for a time. As he had said, an open accusation now would tell the Russians that spaceships with antigravity propulsion were a fact, and Mart’s explanation had thrown him sufficiently off center so that it would take him time to plan any new and definite move. By then it wouldn’t matter —
The sale of the toy rocket was not delayed until Christmas. It was pushed hard as soon as Sam Marvenstein’s refitted plant was able to put it on store counters. At once it was seized upon by the country’s small fry citizens as the successor to all horse and pistol paraphernalia and the pseudo rocket equipment with which they had been kidding themselves. This was the real thing. Re-orders flowed into the plant almost on the heels of the shipments going out.
Within two weeks of initial manufacture Sam Marvenstein was hopelessly behind schedule. He called Mart on the phone. “The toy business is like flowers and fresh vegetables,” he said. “One minute you’re in and the next minute you’re out. One good item and a man can retire. A real blooper and you have to start all over again.”
“What’s the matter?” said Mart. “The rocket is selling, isn’t it?”
“That’s the trouble. It’s selling too well.”
“What are you talking about?”
“We need more factory space. We’re behind far enough on the orders we’ve got now to warrant doubling our floor space. But how long can we sell rockets without reaching the saturation point?
“It looks to me like Christmas would do it. If we turned them out, we could sell a rocket to every kid in the country above crawling age. So suppose we went ahead and increased our floor space with all the necessary jigs and dies — what happens afterwards? Can you give us a new item that will make the expansion worth while, or do you intend to be strictly a one-shot?”
“I won’t be a one-shot,” said Mart, “I’ve been thinking of the same problems. In the spring we'll have another little gadget to follow up the rocket. I think we should acquire the increased space on a rental basis. Tool up to produce all the rockets the trade can stand. We can afford the capital investment and any subsequent loss on it.”
“That’s all I wanted to know,” said Sam.
Although every news service in the country had given the Nagle Rocket a brief play, it was Joe Baird, the nightly TV columnist, who continued to pick at the bones of the story as if not satisfied that all the meat was out of it. Mart was never quite sure where Baird got his leads, but he was quite satisfied to see the columnist’s thin face and hear his somewhat squeaky voice announce with its full capacity for insinuation: “What former high-ranking Government scientist is now peddling toys for a living because Uncle’s pay check wasn’t big enough? This same scientist is scheduled shortly to be the subject of a series of investigations regarding his use of certain scientific principles for the production of toys instead of for the essential welfare of our nation. A big ripe, raspberry to the man who might be among the first to take his nation to the Moon — and is content merely to entertain the kids.”
Mart had no idea whether Baird had inside information or whether he was shooting in the dark. At any rate his agitation was encouraging. It promised results.
The office of Nagle and Berkeley, Basic Research Consultants, was not one to attract customers in large numbers, or particularly before hours. But on the morning following Baird’s denunciation Mart came down to open up and found a visitor waiting at the end of the long hall near the locked door of the office. The man was wearing a gray, slightly mashed felt hat and carried a brief case which he rested on the radiator as he looked out the window. Mart gave him a curious glance and fitted the key to the lock. Then he almost closed the door in the stranger’s face as the latter hurried towards the office.