FullReads

“May I sit down?” asked Olcott. And, without waiting for Sam Bending’s permission, he grabbed a nearby chair and sat. “Mr. Bending,” he said, “what is the cost of one of those units?”

“Well, that one cost several hundred thousand dollars. But the thing could be mass produced for … oh, around fifteen hundred dollars. Maybe less.”

Olcott absorbed that, blinked, and said: “Is it dangerous? I mean, could it explode, or does it give out radiation?”

“Well, you have to treat it with respect, of course,” Bending said. He rubbed his big hands together in an unconscious gesture of triumph. “Just like any power source. But it won’t explode; that I can guarantee. And there’s no danger from radiation. All the power comes out as electric current.”

* * * * *

Sam Bending remained silent while Olcott stared at the little black box. Finally, Olcott put his hands to his face and rubbed his eyes, as though he’d been too long without sleep. When he removed his hands, his eyes were focused on Bending.

“You realize,” he said, “that we can’t give you any sort of contract until this has been thoroughly checked by our own engineers and research men?”

“Obviously,” said Sam Bending. “But–“

“Do you have a patent?” Olcott interrupted.

“It’s pending,” said Bending. “My lawyer thinks it will go through pretty quickly.”

Olcott stood up abruptly. “Mr. Bending, if this machine is actually what you claim it to be–which, of course, we will have to determine for ourselves–I think that we can make you a handsome–a very handsome settlement.”

“How much?” Bending asked flatly.

“For full rights–millions,” said Olcott without hesitation. “That would be a … shall we say, an advance … an advance on the royalties.”

“What, no bargaining?” Bending said, in a rather startled tone.

* * * * *

Olcott shook his head. “Mr. Bending, you know the value of such a device as well as I do. You’re an intelligent man, and so am I. Haggling will get us nothing but wasted time. We want that machine–we must have that machine. And you know it. And I know you know it. Why should we quibble?

“I can’t say: ‘Name your price’; this thing is obviously worth a great deal more than even Power Utilities would be able to pay. Not even a corporation like ours can whip up a billion dollars without going bankrupt. What we pay you will have to be amortized over a period of years. But we–“

“Just a minute, Mr. Olcott,” Bending interrupted. “Exactly what do you intend to do with the Converter if I sell it to you?”

Olcott hesitated. “Why … ah–” He paused. “Actually, I couldn’t say,” he said at last. “A decision like that would have to be made by the Board. Why?”

“How long do you think it would take you to get into production?”

“I … ah … frankly couldn’t say,” Olcott said cautiously. “Several years, I imagine…”

“Longer than that, I dare say,” Bending said, with more than a touch of sarcasm. “As a matter of fact, you’d pretty much have to suppress the Converter, wouldn’t you?”

Olcott looked at Bending, his face expressionless. “Of course. For a while. You know very well that this could ruin us.”

“The automobile ruined the buggy-whip makers and threw thousands of blacksmiths out of work,” Bending pointed out. “Such things are inevitable. Every new invention is likely to have an effect like that if it replaces something older. What do you think atomic energy would have done to coal mining if it weren’t for the fact that coal is needed in the manufacture of steel? You can’t let considerations like that stand in the way of technological progress, Mr. Olcott.”