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

"I have twelve more tests completed," she reported. "Only one washout."

Melroy laughed. "Doctor, they're all washed out," he told her. "It seems there was an additional test, and
they all flunked it. Evinced willingness to follow unwise leadership and allow themselves to be talked into
improper courses of action. You go on in to New York, and take all the test-material, including sound
records, with you. Stay at the hotelтАФyour pay will go onтАФtill I need you. There'll be a Federal
Mediation hearing in a day or so."

He had two more telephone calls. The first, at 1530, was from Leighton. Melroy suspected that the latter
had been medicating his morale with a couple of stiff drinks: his voice was almost jaunty.

"Well, the war's on," he announced. "The I.F.A.W.'s walking out on the whole plant, at oh-eight-hundred
tomorrow."

"In violation of the Federal Labor Act, Section Eight, paragraphs four and five," Melroy supplemented.
"Crandall really has stuck his neck in the guillotine. What's Washington doing?"

"President Hartley is ordering Navy personnel flown in from Kennebunkport Reaction Lab; they will be
here by about oh-three-hundred tomorrow. And a couple of Federal mediators are coming in to La
Guardia at seventeen hundred; they're going to hold preliminary hearings at the new Federal Building on
Washington Square beginning twenty hundred. A couple of I.F.A.W. negotiators are coming in from the
national union headquarters at Oak Ridge: they should be getting in about the same time. You'd better be
on hand, and have Dr. Rives there with you. There's a good chance this thing may get cleared up in a day
or so."

"I will undoubtedly be there, complete with Dr. Rives," Melroy replied. "It will be a pleasure!"




An hour later, Ben Puryear called from the reactor area, his voice strained with anger.

"Scott, do you know what thoseтАФ" He gargled obscenities for a moment. "You know what they've
done? They've re-packed the Number One Doernberg-Giardano; got a chain-reaction started again."

"Who?"

"Fred Hausinger's gang. Apparently at Harry Crandall's orders. The excuse was that it would be unsafe
to leave the reactor in its dismantled condition during a prolonged shutdownтАФthey were assuming, I
suppose, that the strike would be allowed to proceed unopposedтАФbut of course the real reason was
that they wanted to get a chain-reaction started to keep our people from working on the reactor."

"Well, didn't Hausinger try to stop them?"

"Not very hard. I asked him what he had that deputy marshal's badge on his shirt and that Luger on his
hip for, but he said he had orders not to use force, for fear of prejudicing the mediators."

Melroy swore disgustedly. "All right. Gather up all our private papers, and get Steve and Joe, and come
on out. We only work hereтАФwhen we're able."