It was impossible to keep his mind a perfect blank. What he had to do was keep his strongest surface thoughts entirely on innocuous things. The trouble with that was that it made it extremely difficult to think about some way to get out of the jam he was in. Thinking on two levels at once, while not impossible, required a nicety of control that made wire-walking over Niagara look easy.
The thing to do was to make the surface thoughts automatically repet.i.tive.
A song.
"_In a hall of strange description (Antiquarian Egyptian), Figuring his monthly balance sheet, a troubled monarch sat With a frown upon his forehead, hurling interjections horrid At the state of his finances, for his pocketbook was flat._"
Simultaneously, he kept a picture in his mind"s eye. It had to be something vivid that would be easy to concentrate on. The first thing that came to mind was the brilliant necktie that the President had used in his test several months before. He conjured it up in all its chartreuse glory, then he animated it. Mauve satyrs danced with rose-pink nymphs and chased them over the yellow-green landscape.
"_Not a solitary single copper cent had he to jingle In his pocket, and his architects had gone off on a strike, Leaving pyramids unfinished, for their wages had diminished, And their credit vanished likewise, in a way they didn"t like._"
Rafe could tell that Dr. Malekrinova"s mind was trying to reject the alien ideas that were coming into her mind. She wasn"t consciously trying to pick up Rafe"s thoughts. But the rejection was ineffective because of its fascination. The old business about the horse"s tail. If you see a white horse, you"ll soon get rich if you can keep from thinking about the horse"s tail until it"s out of sight. The first thought that comes to mind is: "I mustn"t think about the horse"s tail." A self-defeating proposition.
If Sonya Borisovna had been certain that she was receiving the thoughts telepathically, she might have been able to reject them. But her mind rejected the idea of telepathy instead, so she was susceptible to the thoughts because she thought they were her own.
The cavorting of the nymphs and satyrs became somewhat obscene, but Rafe didn"t bother to correct it. He had more to worry about than offending the rather prim mind of Dr. Malekrinova.
"_It was harder for His Royal Highness than for sons of toil, For the h.o.r.n.y-handed workmen only ate three figs per day, While the King liked sweet potatoes, puddings, pies, and canned tomatoes, Boneless ham, and Bluepoint oysters cooked some prehistoric way._"
What to do now? Should he try to get out of Russia? Was there any quick way out?
He had all the information he needed on the heat-beam projector that Dr.
Malekrinova was building. The theory behind it was perfectly clear; all it needed was further experimentation. If it worked out according to theory, it would be an almost perfect defense against even the fastest intercontinental ballistic missiles.
"_As he growled, the Royal grumbler spied a bit of broken tumbler In a long undusted corner just behind the chamber door.
When his hungry optics spied it, he stood silently and eyed it, Then he smote his thigh with ecstasy and danced about the floor._"
Maybe he should try to make a run for the American Emba.s.sy. No. No one there knew him, and they probably couldn"t get him out of the country, anyway. Besides, it would take him too long to explain the situation to them.
"_"By the wit Osiris gave me! This same bit of gla.s.s shall save me!
I shall sell it as a diamond at some stupendous price!
And whoe"er I ask to take it will find, for his own sweet sake, it Will be better not to wait until I have to ask him twice!"_"
The theory behind the heat projector was simply an extension of the laser theory, plus a few refinements. Inside a ring made of the proper material, the light, acted upon by exterior magnetic fields, tended to move in a circle, so that the photon cascade effect was all in one direction instead of bouncing back and forth between a pair of mirrors. That light could be bent around corners by making it travel through a gla.s.s rod was well known, and the Malekrinova Q-tube took advantage of that effect.
In a way, the principle was similar to that of the cyclotron, except that instead of spinning ions around in a circle to increase their velocity a beam of coherent light was circulated to increase its intensity.
Then, at the proper moment, a beam of intense coherent light shot out of the tangent that formed the tail of the Q-tube. If the material of the Q was properly constructed and contained atoms that fluoresced strongly in the infra red, you had a heat beam that delivered plenty of power. And, since the radiation was linear and "in step," the Q-tube didn"t heat up much at all. The cascade effect took most of the energy out as radiation.
"_Then a Royal Proclamation was dispatched throughout the nation, Most imperatively calling to appear before the King.
Under penalties most cruel, every man who sold a jewel Or who bought and bartered precious stones, and all that sort of thing._"
But knowing all that didn"t help Raphael Poe or the United States of America one whit if the information couldn"t be gotten out of Russia and into Colonel Spaulding"s hands. Lenny had told him of the trouble the colonel was having with Dr. Davenport.
If he could only communicate with Lenny! But if he did, Dr. Malekrinova would pick up every bit of it, and that would be the end of that. No, he had to figure out some way to get himself and the information both out of the country.
Meanwhile, he had to keep thinking of an animated necktie. And he had to keep singing.
"_Thereupon, the jewelers" nether joints all quaked and knocked together, As they packed their Saratogas in lugubrious despair.
It was ever their misfortune to be pillaged by extortion, And they thought they smelled a rodent on the sultry desert air._"
Lenny Poe shoved open the door of Colonel Spaulding"s outer office with a violence that startled Sergeant Nugget.
"Is Spaulding in?" he barked.
"I think he"s expecting you," she said. There was no time to buzz the colonel; Poe was already opening the door.
"Rafe"s in trouble!" Lenny said hurriedly, slamming the door behind him.
"Where have you been?" snapped the colonel.
"Never mind that! Rafe"s in trouble, I said! We"ve gotta figure a way to get him out of it!"
Colonel Spaulding dropped all thought of bawling out Poe. "What"d he say?
What"s the trouble?"
"All he"s doing is broadcasting that necktie--like an animated cartoon in technicolor. And he"s singing."
"Singing? Singing what?"
"_As they faced the Great Propylon, with an apprehensive smile on, Sculptured there in heiroglyphics six feet wide and nine feet high Was the threat of King Rameses to chop every man to pieces Who, when shown the Royal diamond, would dare refuse to buy._"
Colonel Spaulding blinked. "That"s pretty. What does it mean?"
"Nothing; it"s a song, that"s all. That female Russian scientist can read Rafe"s mind, and he"s broadcasting this stuff to cover up!"
Quickly, he told Spaulding what the situation was as he had been able to piece it together from Rafe"s secondary thoughts.
"Ye G.o.ds!" Colonel Spaulding slapped at his brow. Then he grabbed for the telephone and started dialing.
Lenny dropped into one of the chairs, closed his eyes, and concentrated.
_Rafe! Rafe! Listen to me! Rafe!_
"_Then the richest dealer, Mulai Ha.s.san, eyed the gem and coolly Said, "The thing is but a common tumbler-bottom, nothing more!"
Whereupon, the King"s a.s.sa.s.sin drew his sword, and Mulai Ha.s.san Never peddled rings again upon the Nile"s primeval sh.o.r.e._"
But below the interference came Rafe"s thoughts. And the one thing of primary importance to him was to get the information on the heat-beam generator to the United States.
No bigotry, no matter how strong, is totally impregnable. Even the most narrow-minded racial bigot will make an exception if a person of the despised race risks his own life to save the life of the bigot or someone the bigot loves. The bigotry doesn"t collapse--not by a long shot. But an exception is made in that one case.
Lenny Poe made an exception. Any information that was worth his brother"s life was _Important_! Therefore, it was not, could not be, scientific gobbledegook, no matter how it sounded.
_Rafe, give it to me! Try me! I can copy it!_
"_Then Abdullah abd Almahdi faintly said the stone was shoddy, But he thought that, in a pinch, he might bid fifty cents himself.
There ensued a slight commotion where he could repent the notion, And Abdullah was promoted to the Oriental Shelf._"
_Rafe! Stop singing that stupid song and give me the stuff! She can"t learn anything if you just think about that theory stuff. She already knows that! Come on! Give!_