Phil Kaufman looked at him in astonishment and sat on a lab stool. "I don't understand. How can they possibly be interested in what I'm doing? It's purely theoretical research."
"Surely you don't deny that Lisa Meitner's researches began by being theoretical? And look what they led to. The point is, Kaufman, that I have been informed that we are about to receive a visit from a man from the A.E.C. He's arriving here sometime this afternoon."
"But that's absurd! I'm not doing anything to atoms. I'm merely examining them!"
Katherine frowned when he said this. Phil knew better. Worse yet, so did she.
"When the A.E.C. hears of somebody working in atomic research," Farley said, "they want to know what's cooking. I hate you to be subjected to this, but it won't do any harm to be polite to the fellow and let him, as it were, look over your shoulder."
"I'm damned if I see why I should!" Phil said. "What does he expect to do? Classify me?"
Farley laughed placatingly. "I know it seems high-handed, but I think we all ought to remember there is such a thing as Security."
"Security, my foot!" Phil said. "It was that kind of demented thinking that caused Germany to lose Lisa Meitner! And Einstein."
"What strikes me as rather odd," Katherine said, "is their sending someone here on a Sunday. When did you hear about it, Russ?"