"Del.Rey,.Lester.-.Nerves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Del Rey Lester)
CHAPTER 2
Ferrel found Meyers on duty in the dispensary, handling the routine cases with her usual efficiency. He preferred the grim, hard-faced Dodd in the operating room, but here Meyers was best. She was hardly thirty and would have been pretty, except that her face lacked all color. Hair, skin and eyes were all so dull that no amount of make-up could quite bring them to life.
She was swabbing out the eye of a man as Ferrel came in, and she finished before turning to the doctor. УHe brushed a cigarette against his eye while putting on his goggles,Ф she reported. УNothing serious, though. ThatТs the eleventh report IТve filled out in the last half hour.Ф
Doc looked at the stack of cards, and his question was answered. Jenkins had been right; the accident rate was triple what it should have been. But so far none of the cases had been serious.
УNot many goldbricks today, though,Ф she said. There were usually a few who decided the best way to get a day off was to play sick. She giggled faintly. УDr. Jenkins got a run of them, but I guess they didnТt like his giving out laxatives. Even the telephone girl wasnТt in today.Ф
УShe only reports in sick when sheТs bored. Today sheТs probably expecting fireworks,Ф Ferrel observed. He had made it a habit for years to give the girl a day off about once every four months to encourage her imagination. She was the only one in the plant who managed to come up with interesting symptoms when she wanted a dayТs loafing.
УJenkins had her yesterday. He diagnosed it as galloping leprosy and gave her something that made her lips burn for hours,Ф Meyers said. She seemed to admire the boy. It was the first evidence Doc had that Jenkins possessed a sense of humor.
He went back into the main part of the building. They were equipped and staffed beyond any plant set-up heТd ever known, with almost an embarrassment of riches. Aside from Dodd and Meyers, there were three other nurses, two male attendants, two drivers for the little three-wheeled emergency litters, a receptionist, and a secretary for the doctors. The operating room had everything, and there were even little wards where they could keep patients, if the need should arise.
He went over to the hypothermy-cryotherapy outfit, looking down at it. Most of the things here were required by state law, but this was PalmerТs own idea. It was designed to lower the temperature of the bodyЧor any partЧto a level where there would be no response to pain. It was an old idea in medicine and had been tried for everything, including the attempt to cure cancer. But it had finally been perfected in form, and a technique had evolved that made it usable. In emergency operations it served far better than the usual anesthesia. There was even an attachment for the litter to start freezing tissue on the way in.
The inspection didnТt worry him too much. The state laws had been toughened up for atomic plants until they were far more severe than any requirements the AEC might suggest, and heТd passed that inspection less than a month before.
Blake came by, chuckling, and stopped as he spotted Ferrel. УThe inspection committee is here, Doc.Ф He was grinning from ear to ear. УBut not the reporters! Old PalmerТs a fox. He put Number One to work first thing this morning on something the army ordered. ItТs secret enough so that he could declare the plant restricted territoryЧbut not too restricted for congressmen. So the newspaper boys are running around trying to get themselves cleared. With luck, theyТll make it about the time the whole thingТs finished.Ф
Doc grinned, but he had his doubts. The men for the Guilden chain would write up what they wanted to, anyhow, and this would only antagonize the reporters who might have been friendly. It would also go rather badly with a couple of the congressmen who apparently were on the committee only for the publicity they could get. To the larger number of men, who were probably quite sincere, it would have a suspicious tinge of trying to cover up from the public.
Palmer usually had his reasons for what he did, but Doc could make little sense of this. It almost seemed that the manager had gone out of his way to make enemies and lose friends.
But at least it was a good story. Even Dodd was smiling when he saw her. On a sudden hunch Ferrel went outside and walked down to the cafeteria. There was only a small crowd there now, but he could catch bits of their conversation as he waited for his coffee. Most of the talk seemed to be about the fate of the reporters. And the general reaction was that Palmer had pulled his best trick in a long time.
Doc headed back, carrying an extra coffee for Meyers, who should need it. She was the only one whoТd really been busy so far. He found her alone. УBusiness slacking off?Ф he asked as he gave her the container.
УThanks, Dr. Ferrel. YouТre a life-saver!Ф She poured in enough sugar to make a concentrated syrup and sipped the hot stuff gratefully. УI guess IТm losing my popularity. NobodyТs been here for the last twenty minutes.Ф
Ferrel hung around a few minutes more, and then left, convinced that his hunch had been right. Palmer had been as aware as Jenkins that the men had spread the story of the inspection and that it was raising hob with morale. HeТd been prepared for it, and had made the only possible move to counteractЧgive the men something to laugh about instead of fretting. Whether it would work when the actual inspection began was another matter.
Dodd brought word of the inspection back. Apparently the group was larger than Doc had thought. There were half a dozen congressmen and a number of УexpertsФ with them. Outside, others were moving about with instruments, making spot checks to find whether the atmosphere and ground around was contaminated. That part of it, at least, was a sensible precaution, though it merely duplicated the checks that National ran periodically itself.
They had already gone through two of the converters with no trouble and not even a minor accident to mar the record. They showed no sign of heading for the Infirmary yet, though Doc had expected that to be one of the first places they would visit. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was already noon.
He went out to locate Dodd and ask for further details, but she could add little to her previous account. They were moving about at random now, apparently examining the shipping department.
He fumed for fifteen minutes more. It was his bitten cigar that finally made him realize his tension. He had mangled the end until it finally came to pieces in his mouth. He spat out the tobacco, muttering to himself.
It wasnТt the men who were being inspected who would give trouble, nor those whoТd already passed, he realized. It was the group who would have to go on waiting, not knowing when their turn would come. He himself had nothing to fear, and yet it was beginning to get him. . . .
УHi, Ferrel, the little man cried.
УBusoni! What are you doing here?Ф But Doc could guess the answer to that.
It was what he expected. УServing as expert. IТm your inspector. IТve been looking forward to a crack at you too, ever since I knew you were on the list. HowТs blood-washing?Ф
УBeats general practiceЧor it did until you came in, bone-breaker.Ф Busoni had been in FerrelТs class at medical school, specializing in work on fractures. HeТd made something of a reputation from his work in rebreaking and correcting old, badly knit fractures. Then heТd built a second reputation from his work in finding ways to wash the radioactive ions out of the calcium of the bones without hurting the calcium deposits themselves. Doc had sent him a patient once after the usual routine with blood-exchange and treatment with the versene group of chemicals had failed.
He held the door while the other walked in. Busoni moved about, taking in the equipment, studying the layout, and moving toward the nursesТ toilet. He made a thorough inspection there, nodded, and began marking his sheets. УYou pass, Ferrel. Any man who can keep a ladiesТ room clean has a good mark in my book.Ф
He smiled as he said it, but Doc wasnТt sure but what he meant it. At that, the man had managed to cover the key points. Then he snapped his book shut and relaxed. УI got you off lightly, Roger. I told them I knew you, and they figured youТd spill more dirt to me than anyone else. I know better, but why disillusion them? But IТm afraid this plant is in for pretty rough treatment. The committeeТs mostly pretty honest, but theyТve been filled with a lot of dirty rumors about Palmer. How about itЧdoes he stink, or does he deserve a break?Ф
УIТm still here,Ф Ferrel told him. УIn fact, IТm here when I could have had the day off.Ф
Busoni grinned. УIТll take that answer. But I donТt think I can sell it to anyone else. He made a bad mistake in getting the reporters kicked out. Oh, I can guess why. But a couple of the men feel spiteful, andЧФ
From outside came the rising wail of an electric siren, reaching a shrill scream that cut through the walls and pierced the ears. Emergency! And from the warbling that was beginning, it meant an emergency with hot stuff floating free!
УDr. Ferrel!Ф the paging speaker shouted. УPhone!Ф
He snatched up the receiver. УFerrel!Ф
УPoint Twenty!Ф Palmer snapped the words out, and then hung up. But it was information enough. УPoint TwentyФЧthe pile that gave them their powerЧand of all the places for an accident Doc liked that least.
He grabbed his emergency bag from the wall and headed for the rear. Dodd was with him, holding out his surgeonТs smock. He shook his head, but she clutched it grimly as she ran. In the back receiving room, Beel already had the little litter equipped with twin stretchers, and the motor turning over. He waited until Ferrel and Dodd had grabbed the handrails; then he gunned away, while the second driver was still waiting for Blake and his nurse. Doc ran his eye over the equipment that had been made ready, and nodded. Jones had proved his worth as a male attendant long before, and he was still doing the right thing instantly.
Then for the first time he became aware of the fact that Busoni was riding the litter with him. УHot stuff!Ф Doc shouted warningly over the wail of the litter siren. But he was glad to have another doctor at his side.
Crowds were heading for the converter heedless of the risk, driven by the compulsion to witness disaster. Their presence would make rescue operations more difficult, but the guards were on duty, chasing them back. A vehicle that looked like a firemanТs hook-and-ladder engine gunned past at top speed. Its complicated superstructure was like a three-dimensional JacobТs ladder, and a man in heavy shielding rode at each end to steer it.
The emergency truck stopped at the side entrance of the huge building that housed the pile. At one time this pile had been the largest commercial atomic reactor in existence, and it still ranked high. It broke U-235 down, using part of the broken cores of atoms to turn the more common U-238 into plutonium, from which the pile derived most of its power. Unlike some of the early plants, the pile was not only a power source, but a breeder pile as well, and that made it useful for the production of tiny amounts of other normal radioactive elements.
The heat generated in the process was piped out, first by liquid sodium, then by exchange to steam, and finally into the huge turbines that generated all the thousands of kilowatts needed to keep the plant going, maintain Kimberly, and even serve as an- auxiliary power source for other sections.
But now the red flag was up, which meant that all the damper rods would be in, cutting its power, and letting the men escape through the entrances.
There was one entrance, however, that seemed to have given trouble. The complicated grapple was being backed in as the litter came to a stop. It had to go in, carrying shielding for the men as well as their own shields, and then to adapt to the angles of the passage. As in all the piles, the escape halls were built with a number of right-angle turns, on the theory that loose radiation travels in straight lines, and that little of it would bounceЧwhile a man could move in zigzag fashion, reaching safer and safer territory.
Abruptly, the grapple began moving out, as rapidly as the men riding the sections could guide it through the passage. Other guards in shields were clearing the area, and now one came up to Doc, holding out a huge, heavy suit. Doc grimaced, but began working his way into it. УWhat happened?Ф
УI only got part of it,Ф the guard reported. УSeems they were pulling a thimble of hot stuff out for the Kimberly hospital. One of the men dropped the tongs. The stuff ran all over the floor, or something. One guy didnТt get out.Ф
Doc saw that the others were in suits by now, and snapped the helmet shut. The grapple came free, holding a limp figure at the end of padded tongs. It swung around, putting the figure into a shielded and padded box.
Busoni was beside Doc as he moved forward. Beel, now also in a suit, was backing the litter, and equipment was being pulled off before Doc could reach the casualty.
УHow long?Ф he asked.
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