Page 109 - Psychoceramics and the Test of Fire
P. 109

Secrets of the Endosphere

        invalidated,  several  real  producers  bid  each  other  up  to  an  offer
        several times greater than mine. Technologists had their own grails,
        one  being  a  substance  with  a  crystalline  structure  rendering  it
        impervious  in  very  thin  layers  to  extreme  applications  of  heat  and
        electricity. Cade’s subterranean geologist, encountering a mineral with
        which  he  was  unfamiliar,  sent  a  sample  up  for  assay.  The  United
        States thus had a corner on the  world  market, with the  obnoxious
        Mr. Cade calling the shots. For months after the discovery he refused
        to allow any mining engineers access to the chamber in which the ore
        had been located, despite entreaties from officials in the military and
        corporate  upper  echelons.  He  had  a  point  to  prove,  and  he  didn’t
        want the scene destroyed for crass commercial gain. Not yet, at least.
          While the world waited, the experts he sent down to examine the
        place  where  the  vein  of  precious  mineral  abruptly  terminated
        carefully  went  over  the  shaft  and  all  its  galleries,  searching  for  the
        telltale  remnants  of  prior  mining.  Their  reports  were  inconclusive,
        thus  unsupportive  of  Cade’s  hypothesis.  Yes,  natural  forces  could
        have  hollowed  out  that  area;  no,  the  walls  did  not  exhibit  gouges
        typical of machinery now in use. The new owner of this vast treasure
        held  out,  grasping  at  straws,  sending  for  yet  more  experts  to
        contradict the first batch, all to no avail; he was, in effect, dependent
        upon the very people most hostile to his theory. And then his money
        ran out. Loans at extremely favorable rates were his for the asking—
        but his only collateral was antimorphium.
          Convinced he was right, Cade fired the scientists and went down
        into  the  depths  himself.  He  was  in  no  condition  for  the  rigors  of
        caving, but he dismissed all objections in his usual abrasive fashion.
        Weighed down with magnifying glasses, photographic equipment and
        surveying  gear,  he  descended  alone  one  day,  leaving  an  anxious
        ground crew behind. He died during the ascent: a massive coronary
        infarction.  In  the  notes  he’d  taken  was  the  cryptic  line,  “but  I
        couldn’t have found it if they hadn’t shown me where to look.”




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