Randall Garrett

“ It is said that this club is not a very congenial one because the two members hate each other.
The club in which Lacey and Thorn ate their dinner is not of that sort. It is composed of military and naval officers and certain civilian career men in the United States Government. These men are professionals. Not one of them would ever resign from government service. They are dedicated, heart, body, and soul to the United States of America. The life, public and private, of every man Jack of them is an open book to every other member. ”

“ Sorensen nodded. “Then you should know, Mr. Siegel, that battery-making is an art, not a science. You don’t just stick a couple of electrodes into a solution of electrolyte and consider that 122 your work is done. With the same two metals and the same electrolyte, you could make batteries that would run the gamut from terrible to excellent. Some of ’em, maybe, wouldn’t hold a charge more than an hour, while others would have a shelf-life, fully charged, of as much as a year. Batteries don’t work according to theory. ”

“ They have a longer life span than human beings.”
“North American Carbide & Metals,” said Thorn quietly, “is not a member of any patent pool, Mr. Sorensen.”
“I know,” Sorensen said agreeably. “Battery patents are trickier than automotive machinery patents. That’s why I’m doing this my way. I’m not selling the gadget as such. I’m selling results. For one million dollars, tax paid, I will agree to show your company how to build a device that will turn out electric power at such-and-such a rate and that will have so-and-so characteristics, just like it says in the contract you read. ”

“ A little less than an hour later, Captain Lacey and Mr. Thorn were in the dining room of one of the most exclusive clubs in New York. Most clubs in New York are labeled as “exclusive” because they exclude certain people who do not measure up to their standards of wealth. A man who makes less than, say, one hundred thousand dollars a year would not even qualify for scrutiny by the Executive Committee. ”

“ There is one club in Manhattan which reaches what is probably close to the limit on that kind of exclusiveness: Members must be white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans who can trace their ancestry as white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans back at least as far as the American Revolution without exception, and who are worth at least ten millions, and who can show that the fortune came into the family at least four generations back. No others need apply. ”

“ Sorensen put it on the lab table, but he didn’t open it right away. “Now I want you to understand, Mr. Thorn,” he began, “that I, myself, don’t exactly know how this thing works. That is, I don’t completely understand what’s going on inside there. I’ve built several of them, and I can show you how to build them, but that doesn’t mean I understand them completely.”
“That’s not unusual in battery work,” Thorn said. “We don’t completely understand what’s going on in a lot of cells. As long as the thing works according 128 to the specifications in the contract, we’ll be satisfied.” ”

“ Richard Thorn, the top research man with North American Carbide & Metals. Mr. Thorn, this is Colonel Edward Dower.” The men shook hands. A third brandy snifter was brought and a gentleman’s potation was poured for the colonel.
“Ed,” said Captain Lacey as soon as his fellow officer had inhaled a goodly lungful of the heady fumes, “do you remember you were telling me a couple of years ago about some test you were in on out in the Mojave Desert?”
Colonel Dower frowned. “Test? Something to do with cars?”
“No, not that one. Something to do with a power supply.”
“Power supply. Oh!” ”

“ There’s no competition, and if you refuse to sell it at all, they just wait a few years until the patent runs out and use it for free. That may take a little time, but a big industry has plenty of time. ”

“ From the top of the Black Suitcase projected two one-inch copper electrodes, fourteen inches apart. The North American Carbide & Metals technicians set up the circuits that were connected to the electrodes without any help from Sorensen.
But just before they started to work, Sorensen said: “There’s just one thing I think you ought to warn those men about, Mr. Thorn.” ”

“ And over the brandy—that ultra-rare Five Star Hennessy which is procurable only by certain people and is believed by many not to exist 118 at all—Captain Lacey finally asked the question that had been bothering him for so long.
“Thorn,” he said, “three months ago that battery didn’t exist. I know it and you know it. Who was the genius who invented it?”
Thorn smiled, and there was a subtle wryness in the smile. “Genius is the word, I suppose. ”

“ With No Strings Attached A man will always be willing to buy something he wants, and believes in, even if it is impossible, rather than something he believes is impossible.
So ... sell him what he thinks he wants! ”