The Project Gutenberg EBook of Occasion for Disaster, by
Gordon Randall Garrett and Laurence Mark Janifer

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Title: Occasion for Disaster

Author: Gordon Randall Garrett
Laurence Mark Janifer

Illustrator: van Dongen

Release Date: November 9, 2009 [EBook #30434]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OCCASION FOR DISASTER ***

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Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction November 1960,
December 1960, January 1961, February 1961. Extensive research did not
uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was
renewed.

OCCASION ... for DISASTER

By MARK PHILLIPS

Illustrated by van Dongen

_A very small slip, at just the wrong place, can devastate
any enterprise. One tiny transistor can go wrong ... and
ruin a multi-million dollar missile. Which would be one way
to stop the missiles...._

"_We must remember not to judge any public servant by any
one act, and especially should we beware of attacking the
men who are merely the occasions and not the causes of
disaster._"

Theodore Roosevelt

* * * * *

In 1914, it was enemy aliens.

In 1930, it was Wobblies.

In 1957, it was fellow-travelers.

In 1971, it was insane telepaths.

And, in 1973:

"We don't know _what_ it is," said Andrew J. Burris, Director of the
FBI. He threw his hands in the air and looked baffled and confused.

Kenneth J. Malone tried to appear sympathetic. "What what is?"

Burris frowned and drummed his fingers on his big desk. "Malone," he
said, "make sense. And don't stutter."

"Stutter?" Malone said. "You said you didn't know what it was. And I
wanted to know what it was."

"That's just it," Burris said. "I don't know."

Malone sighed and repressed an impulse to scream. "Now, wait a minu