Read Online Goodbye California by Alistair MacLean - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Alistair MacLean
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conduct out of America or I’ll blast your city out of existence, the blackmailer said. Next day came the same threat, this time accompanied by a diagram of a hydrogen bomb – a cylinder filled with lithium hydride wrapped in cobalt, with an implosion system at one end.’
‘That how they make a hydrogen bomb?’
‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘Isn’t that sad? And you a nuclear physicist. They nailed the blackmailer?’
‘Yes. A fourteen-year-old boy.’
‘It’s an advance on fireworks.’ For almost a minute Ryder gazed into the far distance, which appeared to be located in the region of his toe-caps, through a drifting cloud of blue-grey smoke, then said:
‘It’s a come-on. A con-job. A gambit. A phoney. Don’t you agree?’
Jablonsky was guarded. ‘I might. If, that is to say, I had the faintest idea what you were talking about.’
‘Will this theft of the uranium and plutonium be made public?’
Jablonsky gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘No, sir. Not if we can help it. Mustn’t give the shivers to the great American public’
‘Not if you can help it. I’ll take long odds that the bandits won’t be so bashful and that the story will have banner head-lines in every paper in the State tomorrow. Not to mention the rest of the country. It smells, Doc. The people responsible are obviously experts and must have known that the easiest way to get weapons-grade materia: is to hi-jack a shipment. With all that stuff already missing it’s long odds that they’ve got more than enough than they need already. And you know as well as I do that three nuclear physicists in the State have just vanished in the past couple of months. Would you care to guess who their captors were?’
‘I don’t think so – I mean, I don’t think I have to.’
‘I didn’t think so. You could have saved me all this thinking – I prefer to avoid it where possible. Let’s assume they already had the fuel. Let’s assume they already had the physicists to make the nuclear devices, quite possibly even hydrogen explosives. Let’s even assume that they have already got one of those devices – and why stop at one? – manufactured and tucked away at some safe place.’
Jablonsky looked unhappy. ‘It’s not an assumption I care to assume.’
‘I can understand that. But if something’s there wishing it wasn’t won’t make it go away. Some time back you described something as being eminently possible and more than probable. Would you describe this assumption in the same words?’
Jablonsky thought for some moments then said: ‘Yes.’
‘So. A smoke-screen. They didn’t really need the fuel or the physicists or the hostages. Why did they take something they didn’t need? Because they needed them.’
‘That makes a lot of sense.’
Ryder was patient. ‘They didn’t need them to make bombs. I would think they needed them for three other reasons. The first would be to obtain maximum publicity, to convince people that they had means to make bombs and meant business. The second is to lull us into the belief that we have time to deal with the threat. I mean, you can’t make a nuclear bomb in a day or a week, can you?’
‘No.’
‘So. We have breathing space. Only we haven’t.’
‘Getting the hang of your double-talk takes time. If our assumption is correct we haven’t.’
‘And the third thing is to create the proper climate of terror. People don’t behave rationally when they’re scared out of their wits, do they? Behaviour becomes no longer predictable. You don’t think, you just react.’
‘And where does all this lead us?’
‘That’s as far as my thinking goes. How the hell should I know?’
Jablonsky peered into his Scotch and found no inspiration there. He sighed again and said: ‘The only thing that makes sense out of all of this is that it accounts for your behaviour.’
‘Something odd about my behaviour?’
‘That’s the point. There should be. Or there should have been. Worried stiff
‘That how they make a hydrogen bomb?’
‘I wouldn’t know.’
‘Isn’t that sad? And you a nuclear physicist. They nailed the blackmailer?’
‘Yes. A fourteen-year-old boy.’
‘It’s an advance on fireworks.’ For almost a minute Ryder gazed into the far distance, which appeared to be located in the region of his toe-caps, through a drifting cloud of blue-grey smoke, then said:
‘It’s a come-on. A con-job. A gambit. A phoney. Don’t you agree?’
Jablonsky was guarded. ‘I might. If, that is to say, I had the faintest idea what you were talking about.’
‘Will this theft of the uranium and plutonium be made public?’
Jablonsky gave an exaggerated shrug. ‘No, sir. Not if we can help it. Mustn’t give the shivers to the great American public’
‘Not if you can help it. I’ll take long odds that the bandits won’t be so bashful and that the story will have banner head-lines in every paper in the State tomorrow. Not to mention the rest of the country. It smells, Doc. The people responsible are obviously experts and must have known that the easiest way to get weapons-grade materia: is to hi-jack a shipment. With all that stuff already missing it’s long odds that they’ve got more than enough than they need already. And you know as well as I do that three nuclear physicists in the State have just vanished in the past couple of months. Would you care to guess who their captors were?’
‘I don’t think so – I mean, I don’t think I have to.’
‘I didn’t think so. You could have saved me all this thinking – I prefer to avoid it where possible. Let’s assume they already had the fuel. Let’s assume they already had the physicists to make the nuclear devices, quite possibly even hydrogen explosives. Let’s even assume that they have already got one of those devices – and why stop at one? – manufactured and tucked away at some safe place.’
Jablonsky looked unhappy. ‘It’s not an assumption I care to assume.’
‘I can understand that. But if something’s there wishing it wasn’t won’t make it go away. Some time back you described something as being eminently possible and more than probable. Would you describe this assumption in the same words?’
Jablonsky thought for some moments then said: ‘Yes.’
‘So. A smoke-screen. They didn’t really need the fuel or the physicists or the hostages. Why did they take something they didn’t need? Because they needed them.’
‘That makes a lot of sense.’
Ryder was patient. ‘They didn’t need them to make bombs. I would think they needed them for three other reasons. The first would be to obtain maximum publicity, to convince people that they had means to make bombs and meant business. The second is to lull us into the belief that we have time to deal with the threat. I mean, you can’t make a nuclear bomb in a day or a week, can you?’
‘No.’
‘So. We have breathing space. Only we haven’t.’
‘Getting the hang of your double-talk takes time. If our assumption is correct we haven’t.’
‘And the third thing is to create the proper climate of terror. People don’t behave rationally when they’re scared out of their wits, do they? Behaviour becomes no longer predictable. You don’t think, you just react.’
‘And where does all this lead us?’
‘That’s as far as my thinking goes. How the hell should I know?’
Jablonsky peered into his Scotch and found no inspiration there. He sighed again and said: ‘The only thing that makes sense out of all of this is that it accounts for your behaviour.’
‘Something odd about my behaviour?’
‘That’s the point. There should be. Or there should have been. Worried stiff
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