“Beware the Greeks bearing gif is,” Halwit quoted.
“Exactly,” Balfort agreed. “I say, wait it out. If our lab boys can’t lick it, no one can.”
As the days passed, the situation worsened. Communiques from the aliens revealed that their group of testers would arrive any day. The moment of decision was coming closer. The world had to choose between annihilation or slavery. The temper of the public was ugly. It had slowly switched from fear to anger. The populaces of the world were demanding co-operation on the part of their governments in order to reach some sort of common decision. The U.N., as usual, was deadlocked, since its two most important members refused to agree on a policy. The Russians screamed that the United States was ready to sacrifice the world because they refused to co-operate on the nullifier. The United States claimed that the Russians were only after more atomic information to further their own cause. It was Hartnell, the physicist, who finally broke the deadlock. He went to see the President.
The President was not happy. He frowned at his clasped hands and silently cursed the day he was nominated at the National Convention. Professor Hartnell sat facing the President’s desk.
“That is the story in brief, sir,” he said. “There is no sense in deluding ourselves about the future. We have reached an impasse. We’ve spent so much time increasing the destructivness of the bombs, we find it difficult to think in terms of nullifying them.”
“Be that as it may,” the President said, “but I still cannot see why you insist on Chilko. You must realize that reversing our policy like that will prove very embarrassing.”
Hartnell shrugged. “If we are to get anywhere at all on this thing, we need some fresh thinking. We must have every qualified nuclear fission man in the world on this project, and, government policy not withstanding, that means Chilko.” The professor examined his nails as he paused. “Of course, if the President prefers to prepare slave lists instead—”
The President winced involuntarily. “All right, professor, you win—but I wonder how kindly the history books will treat me for this one.”
The Hartnell-Chilko theory of antifission fields was born three weeks later. Scientists of a dozen different nationalities worked on it desperately, day and night, until the problem was finally cracked. But the aliens threw a monkey wrench into the works at the last moment.
Hartnell slammed his desk phone down viciously and leaped to his feet.