How could it be such torture to simply lie still? A beating with a club would not have made his body ache more. He tried to cut his mind off from the sensations of pain and concentrate on the mechanical routine of his calling. He found that too easy to do. His mind wanted to slip completely into forgetfulness under the burden of pain, fatigue and monotony.
He dared not go to sleep. He fussed with the pressure and heat controls. Perhaps a little more cold would keep him awake -
George was not a very bright boy. He heard Kimberly's voice on three successive rounds before it made an impression. He didn't know much about the equipment he was supposed to watch. It didn't seem quite plausible that he should hear the top boss' voice in the silence of the assembly floor and he didn't know anything about the communication panel for the icebox. So he put the whole thing down as imagination.
Twice, anyway. The third time he gave in and called Kimberly's house.
It was long after midnight Saturday when they found him. The Kimberly Joints had given way hours before and he lay inert and unconscious. He had turned the heat much too low in an effort to keep awake and his body was chilled. But he was still very much alive. Revival was accomplished with little difficulty.
On Monday morning an uneasy dozen engineers sat in the small conference room off Bryan Kimberly's office. They had heard rumors, vague and terrifying rumors that the boss had got into some jam that was their fault. They had heard rumors of a rage that was unmatched since the days of Kimberly, Senior, who used to turn over his whole engineering department before lunch about once a week. They wondered where they would be working by the end of the week — if they were working at all.
They didn't look much at each other, and they didn't talk at all. There was Conners, the metallurgist; Jenkins, the plastics man; Randolph, the mechanical engineer; and Brown, who had been chiefly responsible for the final design of the new suit. Burton, the joint designer was also there as was Lane, head of Test Engineering.
They stared mutely at the gadget Kimberly had rigged up in the center of the conference table.
"Wonder what —" Lane finally began.
"New model of an improved guillotine," suggested Jenkins.