*
By 0930 the next morning, Keating's forebodings began to be realized.The first intimation came with a phone call to Melroy from Crandall, whoaccused him of having used the psychological tests as a fraudulentpretext for discharging Koffler and Burris for union activities. WhenMelroy rejected his demand that the two men be reinstated, Crandalldemanded to see the records of the tests.
"They're here at my office," Melroy told him. "You're welcome to look atthem, and hear recordings of the oral portions of the tests. But I'dadvise you to bring a professional psychologist along, because unlessyou're a trained psychologist yourself, they're not likely to mean muchto you."
"Oh, sure!" Crandall retorted. "They'd have to be unintelligible toordinary people, or you couldn't get away with this frame-up! Well,don't worry, I'll be along to see them."
Within ten minutes, the phone rang again. This time it was Leighton, theAtomic Power Authority man.
"We're much disturbed about this dispute between your company and theI.F.A.W.," he began.
"Well, frankly, so am I," Melroy admitted. "I'm here to do a job, notplay Hatfields and McCoys with this union. I've had union troublebefore, and it isn't fun. You're the gentleman who called me lastevening, aren't you? Then you understand my position in the matter."
"Certainly, Mr. Melroy. I was talking to Colonel Bradshaw, the securityofficer, last evening. He agrees that a stupid or careless workman is,under some circumstances, a more serious threat to security than anysaboteur. And we realize fully how dangerous those Doernberg-Giardanosare, and how much more dangerous they'd be if these cybernetic controlswere improperly assembled. But this man Crandall is talking aboutcalling a strike."
"Well, let him. In the first place, it'd be against me, not against theAtomic Power Authority. And, in the second place, if he does and it goesto Federal mediation, his demand for the reinstatement of those men willbe thrown out, and his own organization will have to disavow his action,because he'll be calling the strike against his own contract."
"Well, I hope so." Leighton's tone indicated that the hope was ratherdim. "I wish you luck; you're going to need it."
* * * * *
Within the hour, Crandall arrived at Melroy's office. He was a youngman; he gave Melroy the impression of having recently seen militaryservice; probably in the Indonesian campaign of '62 and '63; he alsoseemed a little cocky and over-sure of himself.
"Mr. Melroy, we're not going to stand for this," he began, as soon as hecame into the room. "You're using these so-called tests as a pretext forgetting rid of Mr. Koffler and Mr. Burris because of their legitimateunion activities."
"Who gave you that idea?" Melroy wanted to know. "Koffler and Burris?"
"That's the complaint they made to me, and it's borne out by the facts,"Crandall replied. "We have on record at least half a dozen complaintsthat Mr. Koffler has made to us about different unfair work-assignments,improper working conditions, inequities in allotting overtime work, andother infractions of union-shop conditions, on behalf of Mr. Burris. Soyou decided to get rid of both of them, and you think you can use thisclause in our contract with your company about persons of deficientintelligence. The fact is, you're known to have threatened on severaloccasions to get rid of both of them."
"I am?" Melroy looked at Crandall curiously, wondering if the latterwere serious, and deciding that he was. "You must believe _anything_those people tell you. Well, they lied to you if they told you that."
"Naturally that's what you'd say," Crandall replied. "But how do youaccount for the fact that those two men, and only those two men, weredismissed for alleged deficient intelligence?"
"The tests aren't all made," Melroy replied. "Until they are, you can'tsay that they are the only ones disqualified. And if you look over therecords of the tests, you'll see where Koffler and Burris failed and theothers passed. Here." He laid the pile of written-test forms and thesummary and evaluation sheets on the desk. "Here's Koffler's, and here'sBurris'; these are the ones of the men who passed the test. Look themover if you want to."
Crandall examined the forms and summaries for the two men who had beendischarged, and compared them with several random samples from thesatisfactory pile.
"Why, this stuff's a lot of gibberish!" he exclaimed indignantly. "Thisthing, here: ... five Limerick oysters, six pairs of Don Alfonsotweezers, seven hundred Macedonian warriors in full battle array, eightgolden crowns from the ancient, secret crypts of Egypt, nine lymphatic,sympathetic, peripatetic old men on crutches, and ten revolvingheliotropes from the Ipsy-Wipsy Institute!' Great Lord, do you actuallymean that you're using this stuff as an excuse for depriving men oftheir jobs?"
"I warned you that you should have brought a professional psychologistalong," Melroy reminded him. "And maybe you ought to get Koffler andBurris to repeat their complaints on a lie-detector, while you're at it.They took the same tests, in the same manner, as any of the others. Theyjust didn't have the mental equipment to cope with them and the othersdid. And for that reason, I won't run the risk of having them working onthis job."
"That's just your word against theirs," Crandall insisted obstinately."Their complaint is that you framed this whole thing up to get rid ofthem."
"Why, I didn't even know who either of them were, until yesterdaymorning."
"That's not the way they tell it," Crandall retorted. "They say you andKeating have been out to get them ever since they were hired. You andyour supervisors have been persecuting both of those men systematically.The fact that Burris has had grounds for all these previous complaintsproves that."
"It proves that Burris has a persecution complex, and that Koffler'scredulous enough to believe him," Melroy replied. "And that tends toconfirm the results of the tests they failed to pass."
"Oh, so that's the line you're taking. You persecute a man, and then sayhe has a persecution complex if he recognizes the fact. Well, you're notgoing to get away with it, that's all I have to say to you." Crandallflung the test-sheet he had been holding on to the desk. "That stuff'snot worth the paper it's scribbled on!" He turned on his heel in anautomatically correct about-face and strode out of the office.
* * * * *
Melroy straightened out the papers and put them away, then sat down athis desk, filling and lighting his pipe. He was still working at 1215when Ben Puryear called him.
"They walked out on us," he reported. "Harry Crandall was out heretalking to them, and at noon the whole gang handed in theirwrist-Geigers and dosimeters and cleared out their lockers. They saythey aren't coming back till Burris and Koffler come back to work withthem."
"Then they aren't coming back, period," Melroy replied. "Crandall was tosee me, a couple of hours ago. He tells me that Burris and Koffler toldhim that we've been persecuting Burris; discriminating against him. Youknow of anything that really happened that might make them thinkanything like that?"
"No. Burris is always yelling about not getting enough overtime work,but you know how it is: he's just a roustabout, a common laborer. Anyovertime work that has to be done is usually skilled labor on this job.We generally have a few roustabouts to help out, but he's been allowedto make overtime as much as any of the others."
"Will the time-records show that?"
"They ought to. I don't know what he and Koffler told Crandall, butwhatever it was, I'll bet they were lying."
"That's all right, then. How's the reactor, now?"
"Hausinger says the count's down to safe limits, and the temperature'sdown to inactive normal. He and his gang found a big chunk of plutonium,about one-quarter CM, inside. He got it out."
"All right. Tell Dr. Rives to gather up all her completed or partiallycompleted test records and come out to the office. You and the othersstay on the job; we may have some men for you by this afternoon;tomorrow morning certainly."
He hung up, then picked up the communicator phone and called hissecretary.
"Joan, is Sid Keating out there? Send him in, will you?"
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Keating, when he entered, was wearing the lugubriously gratifiedexpression appropriate to the successful prophet of disaster.
"All right, Cassandra," Melroy greeted him. "I'm not going to say youdidn't warn me. Look. This strike is illegal. It's a violation of theFederal Labor Act of 1958, being called without due notice of intention,without preliminary