e
anything that needs all that apparatus. Look here--" He had pointed toward
the schematic. "Where do you think all that energy is going? All you're
going to get is a little light, a lot of heat, and a couple of burned out
coils. I could do the same job cheaper with a dozen 250 watt light bulbs."

To be perfectly honest with himself, Spaulding had to admit that he wasn't
absolutely positive that the device would do anything in particular,
either. His own knowledge of electronic circuitry was limited to ham radio
experience, and even that was many years out of date. He couldn't be
absolutely sure that the specifications for the gadget hadn't been garbled
in transmission.

The Q-shaped gizmo, for instance. It had taken the better part of a week
for Raphael Poe to transmit the information essential to the construction
of that enigmatic bit of glass.

Rafe had had to sit quietly in the privacy of his own room and print out
the specifications in Russian, then sit and look at the paper while Lenny
copied the "design." Then each paper had to be carefully destroyed, which
wasn't easy to do. You don't go around burning papers in a crowded
Russian tenement unless you want the people in the next room to wonder
what you're up to.

Then the drawings Lenny had made had had to be translated into English and
the piece carefully made to specifications.

Now here it was, all hooked up and, presumably, ready for action. Colonel
Spaulding fervently hoped there would _be_ some action; he didn't like the
smug look on Dr. Amadeus Davenport's face.

* * * * *

The device was hooked up on a testing-room circuit and controlled from
outside. The operation could be watched through a heavy pane of
bulletproof glass. "With all that power going into it," Davenport said, "I
don't want anyone to get hurt by spatters of molten metal when those field
coils blow."

They went outside to the control console, and Dr. Davenport flipped the
energizing switch. After the device had warmed up on low power, Davenport
began turning knobs slowly, increasing the power flow. In the testing
room, the device just sat there, doing nothing visible, but the meters on
the control console showed that something was going on. A greenish glow
came from the housing that surrounded the Q-shaped gadget.

"Where the Russians made their mistake in trying to fool anyone with that
thing was in their design of that laser component," said Dr. Dav