"H. Beam Piper - Day of the Moron" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

a workman who makes stupid or careless or impulsive mistakes is just as dangerous to the plant as any
saboteur? If somebody shoots you through the head, it doesn't matter whether he planned to murder you
for a year or just didn't know the gun was loaded; you're as dead one way as the other. I should think
you'd thank me for trying to eliminate a serious source of danger."

"Now, don't misunderstand my position, Mr. Melroy," the other man hastened to say. "I sympathize with
your attitude, entirely. But these people are going to make trouble."

"If they do, it'll be my trouble. I'm under contract to install this cybernetic system for you; you aren't
responsible for my labor policy," Melroy replied. "Oh, have you had much to do with this man Crandall,
yourself?"

"Have I hadтАФ!" Leighton sputtered for a moment. "I'm in charge of personnel, here; that makes me his
top-priority target, all the time."

"Well, what sort of a character is he, anyhow? When I contracted with the I.F.A.W., my lawyer and their
lawyer handled everything; I never even met him."

"WellтАФHe has his job to do, the same as I have," Leighton said. "He does it conscientiously. But it's like
thisтАФanything a workman tells him is the truth, and anything an employer tells him is a dirty lie. Until
proven differently, of course, but that takes a lot of doing. And he goes off half-cocked a lot of times. He
doesn't stop to analyze situations very closely."
"That's what I was afraid of. Well, you tell him you don't have any control over my labor relations. Tell
him to bring his gripes to me."




At sixteen-thirty, Doris Rives came in, finding him still at his desk.

"I have the written tests all finished, and I have about twenty of the tests and interviews completed," she
said. "I'll have to evaluate the results, though. I wonder if there's a vacant desk around here, anywhere,
and a record player."

"Yes, sure. Ask Joan to fix you up; she'll find a place for you to work. And if you're going to be working
late, I'll order some dinner for you from the cafeteria. I'm going to be here all evening, myself."

Sid Keating came in, a short while later, peeling out of his overcoat, jacket and shoulder holster.

"I don't think they got everything out of that reactor," he said. "Radioactivity's still almost
active-normalтАФabout eight hundred REM'sтАФand the temperature's away up, too. That isn't lingering
radiation; that's prompt radiation."

"Radioactivity hasn't dropped since morning; I'd think so, too," Melroy said. "What are they getting on
the breakdown counter?"
"Mostly neutrons and alpha-particles. I talked to Fred Hausinger, the maintenance boss; he doesn't like
it, either."

"Well, I'm no nuclear physicist," Melroy disclaimed, "but all that alpha stuff looks like a big chunk of
Pu-239 left inside. What's Fred doing about it?"