His position was reversed. He was no longer an agent of Dodge to find a legitimate excuse to close up the Institute. He was an Institute agent who had to find means of persuading Dodge that something of value existed here.
He didn’t know how this was going to be done. Perhaps he ought to go to Nagle and Berkeley and confess why he had come. But it wasn’t as easy as all that. He was still under orders from Colonel Dodge.
Soren Gunderson was in a foul mood when Montgomery found him the next morning. He was sitting on the lawn near one side of the court, talking with a younger man. His face was dark and unpleasant in a way that Montgomery had never seen before in all the years of their association. Gunderson was ordinarily placid and easygoing.
He motioned to a seat. “This is another of the new supermen. Major Eugene Montgomery of the United States Air Force; Mr. Mahlon Rockwood recently of Acme Refrigerators, Incorporated.”
The two men shook hands, smiling at each other a trifle uneasily in Gunderson’s dour presence.
“Mr. Rockwood has some interesting observations on this matter we’re all interested in,” said Gunderson. “He thinks our friend Nagle is pretty much off the beam in laying so much blame on the schools for the widespread technological stupidity.”
Montgomery grinned sympathetically. It was obvious that Gunderson was trying to unload something extremely potent, and hadn’t succeeded yet. He turned inquiringly to the younger engineer.
“I was just saying that most new engineering graduates can’t take the risk,” said Rockwood. “As in my case, most of the fellows are working at a place where sales are doing nicely on the old lines. They’re buying a twenty thousand dollar home in somebody’s development — which will have cost them twice that before it’s paid for in thirty or forty years. They’re expecting to send their own kids to college — they’ve got one or two now and expect more. They can’t risk badgering the chief engineer or the factory manager or the sales chief to come out with something new that might upset the whole refrigeration business, for example.
“So for the new model they decide to hang a butter softener in the door. Or maybe put the coils in the walls — and take them out next year. Then if they feel real daring they’ll do something drastic like revolving shelves — produce a real contribution to the science of food preservation!”
Montgomery laughed. “Almost as good as the calico doors we had a year or two back.”