ledge of the intricate technology of modern nuclear weapons. There
were plenty of good nuclear-power engineers on Gongonk Island, but how
long would it take them to design and build a plutonium bomb?

"... also has a good understanding of Lingua Terra," Paula was saying.
"He and Dr. Murillo conversed bilingually, just as I've heard General
von Schlichten and King Kankad talking to one another. I haven't any
idea whether or not Gorkrink could read Lingua Terra, or, if so, what
papers or plans he might have seen."

"Just a minute, Paula," he said. "Colonel Grinell, what does your
branch have on this Gorkrink?"

"He's the son of King Orgzild, and the daughter of Prince Jurnkonk,"
Grinell said. "We knew he'd signed on for Nif, two years ago, but the
story we got was that he'd fallen out of favor at court and had been
exiled. I can see, now, that that was planted to mislead us. As to
whether or not he can read Lingua Terra, my belief is that he can. We
know that he can understand it when spoken. He could have learned to
read at one of those schools Mohammed Ferriera set up, ten or fifteen
years ago."

"And Dr. Gomes and Dr. Murillo and Dr. Livesey left papers and plans
lying around all over the place," Paula added. "If he went to Niflheim
as a spy, he could have copied almost anything."

"Well, there you have it," von Schlichten said. "When Gorkrink found
out that plutonium can be used for bombs, he began gathering all the
information he could. And as soon as he got home, he turned it all
over to Pappy Orgzild."

"That still doesn't mean that the Kee-geeks were able to do anything
with it," Air-Commodore Hargreaves argued.

"I think it does," von Schlichten differed. "As soon as Orgzild would
hear about the possibility of making a plutonium bomb, he'd set up an
A-bomb project, and don't think of it in terms of the old First
Century Manhattan Project. There would be no problem of producing
fissionables--we've been scattering refined plutonium over this planet
like confetti."

"Well, an A-bomb's a pretty complicated piece of mechanism, even if
you have the plans for it," Kent Pickering said. "As I recall, there
have to be several subcritical masses of plutonium, or U-235, or
whatever, blown together by shaped charges of explosive, all of which
have to be fired simultaneously. That would mean a lot of electrical
fittings that I can't see these geeks making by hand."

"I can," Paula said. "Have you ever seen the work