"I've been wondering," Fry remarked, "why this manner of shipping it was selected."
Camhorn smiled briefly. "When was the last time an automatic transport was hijacked, Gus?"
"Fifty-seven years ago," Fry said. "And the method employed then wouldn't have worked on a modern transport, or under the present check system."
"Well, that's part of your answer. Automatic shipping risks have become negligible. The rest of the answer is that we've avoided too obviously elaborate safeguards for Ym-400. If we put it on a battleship each time it was moved, the technological espionage brethren would hear about it. Which means that everybody who might be interested would hear about it. And once the word got out, we'd start losing the stuff regardless of safeguards to people who'd be willing to work out for themselves just what made it so valuable to the Overgovernment. As it is, this is the first sample of Ym-400 to go astray in the thirty-two years we've had it."
"Two thirty-four kilogram cases," Fry said. "Is that a significant amount?"
"I'm afraid it's an extremely significant amount," Camhorn said wryly.
Fry hesitated, said, "There's something very odd about this, Howard...."
"What's that?"
"I had the definite impression a few hours ago that you were almost relieved to hear about the transport."