"Been by your desk yet?"
"No."
"I'm not kidding. Ten per cent for those making above eight hundred."
"Nobody's going to put up with that," Ray said. "We're in an engineering shortage. We've got ICBMs rusting in their silos all over the country because we can't afford the engineering maintenance—that's how bad it is. Everybody'll quit."
"I don't think they'll make it stick. Ramon Lopez, one of the truck crew, was killed today hosing down a high-voltage pothead."
"No kidding?"
Eddie told him about the accident.
"That was a rough one to lose, wasn't it?"
The phone rang.
Ray said, "I'll get it."