With No Strings Attached | Page 2

club in Manhattan which reaches what is probably close to the
limit on that kind of exclusiveness: Members must be white,
Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans who can trace their ancestry as
white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant Americans back at least as far as the
American Revolution without exception, and who are worth at least ten
millions, and who can show that the fortune came into the family at
least four generations back. No others need apply. It is said that this
club is not a very congenial one because the two members hate each
other.
The club in which Lacey and Thorn ate their dinner is not of that sort. It
is composed of military and naval officers and certain civilian career
men in the United States Government. These men are professionals.
Not one of them would ever resign from government service. They are
dedicated, heart, body, and soul to the United States of America. The
life, public and private, of every man Jack of them is an open book to
every other member. Of the three living men who have held--and the
one who at present holds--the title of President of the United States,
only one was a member of the club before he held that high office.
As an exclusive club, they rank well above England's House of Peers
and just a shade below the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic
Church.
Captain Lacey was a member. Mr. Richard Thorn was not, but he was
among those few who qualify to be invited as guests. The carefully

guarded precincts of the club were among the very few in which these
two men could talk openly and at ease.
After the duck came the brandy, both men having declined dessert. And
over the brandy--that ultra-rare Five Star Hennessy which is procurable
only by certain people and is believed by many not to exist at
all--Captain Lacey finally asked the question that had been bothering
him for so long.
"Thorn," he said, "three months ago that battery didn't exist. I know it
and you know it. Who was the genius who invented it?"
Thorn smiled, and there was a subtle wryness in the smile. "Genius is
the word, I suppose. Now that the contracts with the Navy have been
signed, I can give you the straight story. But you're wrong in saying
that the thing didn't exist three months ago. It did. We just didn't know
about it, that's all."
Lacey raised his bushy, iron-gray eyebrows. "Oh? And how did it come
to the attention of North American Carbide & Metals?"
Thorn puffed out his cheeks and blew out his breath softly before he
began talking, as though he were composing his beginning sentences in
his mind. Then he said: "The first I heard about it was four months ago.
Considering what's happened since then, it seems a lot longer." He
inhaled deeply from his brandy snifter before continuing. "As head of
the development labs for NAC&M, I was asked to take part as a
witness to a demonstration that had been arranged through some of the
other officers of the company. It was to take place out on Salt Lake
Flats, where--"
* * * * * * * * * *
It was to take place out on Salt Lake Flats, where there was no chance
of hanky-panky. Richard Thorn--who held a Ph.D. from one of the
finest technological colleges in the East, but who preferred to be
addressed as "Mister"--was in a bad mood. He had flown all the way
out to Salt Lake City after being given only a few hours notice, and

then had been bundled into a jeep furnished by the local sales office of
NAC&M and scooted off to the blinding gray-white glare of the Salt
Flats. It was hot and it was much too sunshiny for Thorn. But he had
made the arrangements for the test himself, so he couldn't argue or
complain too loudly. He could only complain mildly to himself that the
business office of the company, which had made the final arrangements,
had, in his opinion, been a little too much in a hurry to get the thing
over with. Thorn himself felt that the test could have at least waited
until the weather cooled off. The only consolation he had was that, out
here, the humidity was so low that he could stay fairly comfortable in
spite of the heat as long as there was plenty of drinking water. He had
made sure to bring plenty.
The cavalcade of vehicles arrived at the appointed spot--umpteen miles
from nowhere--and pulled up in a circle.
Thorn climbed out wearily and saw the man who called himself
Sorensen climb out of the second jeep.
From the first time he had seen him, Thorn had tagged