Page 49 - Three Adventures

Deflator Mouse

The visitors leaned forward in their chairs as the lights dimmed and
a drop-cloth was removed from the demonstration stage. Spotlights
revealed a bright blue plastic inflatable swimming pool about one
meter in height and three in diameter. Next to it a platform had been
erected whose surface was level with the top of the pool; a ramp
went from the edge of the platform down into the pool. The
audience could not see very far below water level, but their eyes were
riveted on the undulating reflections of the lights on the water. Oscar
took up the narration at what he judged was the psychological
moment between wonder and boredom.
“Imagine, if you will, the unthinkable: all efforts to prevent war
between the superpowers have failed, and the missiles have been
launched. Despite our enemy’s shield, his centers of command and
control have been destroyed. Our own capacity to conclude the war
in our favor has also been diminished to a great degree.
Communications and control are problematical. Has the price been
paid for nothing? Will the fruits of victory be denied us?”
“In the Second World War, the fall of Germany was followed by a
race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Columns of
motorized transport tortuously made their way along bombed-out
roads, across rivers whose bridges were no more, to claim the prize:
Berlin. I needn’t remind you that more than one flag was planted in
front of the Reichstag, nor of the difficult position a divided
Germany has placed our foreign policy-makers in the past
generation.”
“This need not happen again! But how are we to invade and hold a
territory glowing with radioactivity? No human landing force can
survive in a wasteland which will not be fit for habitation again
before a hundred years have passed, if at all. And where would such
an expeditionary force have been based? In a target zone, therefore
probably annihilated in the first few minutes of the war. The solution
to this puzzle was first given to us by Professor Bela Karloff, at Los
Alamos. Realizing his concept has been the task of the project team
here at Litmus Industries. Now, return with me to the scenario.”
Beveledge picked up a remote control device, adapted from model
airplane technology. He pushed a button on it marked START.
“Around the world, at strategic points, the United States has seeded
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