ion because it is beyond their mental reach. You know
all this, of course, Lee. I made it clear that not even the collective
brains of a general staff could be relied upon for normal functioning;
that no matter how carefully protected physically, they remained exposed
to psychic shock with its resultant errors of judgment. How much less
then could production and transportation workers be expected to function
effectively in the apocalyptic horrors they would have to face...."

* * * * *

Lee's eyes had narrowed in the concentration of listening; his head
nodded approval. He wasn't conscious of it, but Scriven took note of it
by a quick glance. His voice quickened:

"That was the first part of my letter, Lee. I then came out squarely
with the project which has since become the work of my life. I told the
President that under these circumstances the most needed thing for our
country's national security would be the creation of a _mechanical_
brain, some central ganglion bigger and better than its human
counterpart, immune to shock of any kind. This ganglion to be
established in the innermost fortress of America as an auxiliary
augmenting and controlling the work of a general staff. I gave him a
fairly detailed outline of just how the thing could be done. There was
really nothing basically new involved. Personally I have held for a long
time that Man never "invents", that in fact it is constitutionally
impossible for him to do so. Being a part of nature Man merely
_discovers_ what nature has "invented" in some form of its own a long
time ago. Mechanical brains. Lord, we have had them in their rudiments
for the past hundred thousand years, at a minimum. The calendar is one;
every printed book is one; the simplest of machines incorporates one.
And ever since the first mechanical clock started its ticking we have
developed them by leaps and bounds!"

"And did the President react positively to this project?" Lee asked.

Scriven shook his head. "He did not."

Then he paused. Little beads of perspiration had appeared on his
forehead; he wiped them away with a handkerchief:

"That year, Lee," he began again, "when the decision was pending and I
could do nothing but wait, knowing that there was no other defense
against the Atom Bomb, knowing that our country's fate was at stake--it
made me grey, it came pretty close to shattering my nerve.... But
_then_...." His body tightened, the small fist p