Chapter 31

William again warned me about the general and so did many of the other researchers. There were dire warnings of what he was capable of doing. When Fitzsimmons came back he was hanging his head.

"You did it now, Alex. All you had to do was put up with a bit of his bullshit and we would have got through this. He wants nothing to do with your projects."

I said, "Don't feel bad for me. Will you get the patents filed as soon as possible?"

"This usually takes a while but I will see what I can do."

I continued to work at the lab. A delegation of phone company executives came to me, to see what I had made with their own eyes. They offered me a job at the lab and I did not even get angry. This was expected and I turned them down flat. I did go through some of my ideas of how I could assist their company tremendously. The maser was the main thing now but was of no use to them. It was intermittent in nature and I had not made a continuous beam that they required.

They asked me point blank what I had to do with the recent news of a polio vaccine.

"I made it with help from a lot of people."

One person said, "We put some people on reading the news articles. It seems the Connaught group only came when the testing was to be done."

"They also made the medium that was the key. I just put two and two together. They made a way to grow the virus without a living body, only living cells. Viruses have been killed the way I did for a long time."

"So you were the guiding hand that make the vaccine?"

"If I say yes, then everybody thinks that it is a class project and disregard it. If a scientist, with papers to prove it, claims responsibility for the discovery the world sits up and notices. The second method is the only way to save children's lives."

I left the subject and started on my computer ideas. The size and power were mentioned. Talk was cheap in this case and they would have to see some concrete results before they would spend lots of their money in developing this industry. The vacuum tube was something the Univac used and it broke down all the time. They brought me back to this point all the time, thinking the transistors would have similar problems.

They started to circle an idea and I asked, "Tell me what Bower was doing."

One man said, "He wanted us to get you out of here. I think he wants to deport you. His mutterings are that you have no legal guardian. I would not trust him in his present condition."

"I wouldn't trust him in his usual condition. I do have a way of getting him off your back and mine. I was told he is a pain in the neck even before I came."

"What do you want?"

"I want to talk to his boss for two or three minutes. Get President Truman to give me a call. I believe my discoveries are good enough for a few Nobel Prizes. Use that information quickly, or I will be forced to leave your country."

They all looked stunned at my request. I said, "It is not that hard. Just pick up the phone and talk to someone further up your chain of command. If necessary, get me an invitation to a party the President will be at. This is the start of a multibillion-dollar relationship. I have been carrying your company for a while. Now it is your turn to show some effort."

Two days later I got an invitation by a special courier at the security station because I was not using the hotel for many reasons. He was waiting for a reply as I read the message. Mr and Mrs Carlson would like me to come to a party. The card was gilt edged and I assumed the President would be there for it was just outside the capital.

It was short notice and in one day but I said, "I'll be there. Ask your employers to have some milk and cookies put out for me too."

He smiled at this and said, "Yes Sir, I most certainly will."

I had previously assumed that the meeting would use this avenue. It was more or less public and, because of my celebrity status among the people in the know, I would get to meet the people who could help me and vice versa. I went back upstairs and continued with my classes. The scientists had all gone back to school and there were a few stenographers in the back of the room making notes. The blackboard was photographed a few times when new data was put on it.

We were putting together a few books. Bell got their own data and agreed to coordinate the books getting published. This would be the first major way of educating people of what they would have to do to stay afloat in the coming years. With some serious arm-twisting I got some geared down as low as grade nine.

During a coffee break I phoned a good local tailor. A few days before he had to come to the Lab to measure me because I was not sure if I would not be snatched up off the streets. There was a strange car half a block away that might be the military, immigration, common spies, or possibly even a group of truant officers out for my destruction.

"It will be ready tomorrow afternoon, Mr Kramer."

"Thanks, Albert but the invitation is for tomorrow and just outside Washington. Your commander-in-chief will be talking to me. If I don't have a suit, I am sure President Truman will be interested in the reasons why. Have my suit ready and I will get you a note signed by him. If I twist his arm it may mention your name in his own handwriting."

"The suit will be ready in a few hours, Mr Kramer."

"Thanks, Albert. Do you have the luggage I asked for?"

"Everything will be ready."

I gave my regrets to my students here at the lab. They would have to carry on alone for a few days. They got a few projects like the ones the boys at the Works got. This should keep them busy and out of trouble.

Food came from the cafeteria on the main floor to sustain us and especially me. I had a cot set up and this was my new domicile. My clothes even had to go out to be cleaned. This time, when a delivery truck left, it had an extra occupant.

I was let off at the tailor's back door. Within moments I was in the new suit. This time the tailor was even pickier about what he did. He was already sweating and I didn't think all of it was from the weather.

He put a few more pins in the cuffs and said, "Are you going to really see President Truman?"

"He accepted the invitation to the party. I will have to talk to him, if I am going to get a recommendation from him. Sometimes, people want the go to a party but last minute problems keep them away. It has happened to me many times."

With a few more pins he said, "Let me sew them Mr Kramer."

In two hours I was sitting on a DC3 climbing to gain altitude for the flight to Washington.

I thought back to all the times in my sixty-six years when I had done similar things. The list seemed endless and the people mainly boring but I did get to meet some interesting people. Now, I guess, I would start a game with myself trying to see whom I knew from my previous life.

In two and a half hours later I was signing into another hotel in Bethesda. The concierge was hesitant about giving a room to a thirteen year old. At least, in two days on October tenth I would be fourteen. The manager, again, had to come out and I was given a room. I would have to find a way around this, one day. Perhaps keep an adult nearby to hold my hand or something. The thought was intriguing, because it could be Helen, Laura or Natalie.

The hotel room did offer me a chance to nap for an hour. I knew there was not much time I could spend at the Labs so I burnt the candle at both ends. I was not even ashamed of making others act in a similar fashion. At least I rotated them, so they could get some sleep and a bit of home life.

By seven, I was ready and called downstairs for a taxi. By the time I got to the address, the party had been going on for almost an hour. There were guards at the gate who checked the invitation and, I think, turned their noses up at arriving in less than a limo.

The house was a large stone building of two stories with a turret like structure at one end. It looked like it could support a small observatory. The lot was about three acres or so but it was hard to see in the dark.

A doorman let me in without checking the invitation. He must have assumed I was safe because the gate crew already passed me. I said, "Hello, I am Alex Kramer."

"Very good, sir."

The noise was coming from down the hall and in a large room directly ahead of me. A servant came out of the room and saw me, then retreated. In a moment a good looking matronly woman in a long gown and wearing a fortune in diamonds came out. Behind her came a distinguished gentleman of sixty with gray hair and a very straight posture. There seemed to be about ten years between them in age and I had to assume he married her for her beauty.

The woman said in a vibrant voice, "Hello, you must be the famous Alex Kramer. My name is Angela."

She moved aside for her husband and he stuck out his hand and he said, "Hello, my name is Michael."

I shook the man's hand and said, "I am glad to meet you." I turned to the side a bit and took the woman's hand and, in a bit of old world customs, bent over and kissed it. "I am very glad to meet you too." The woman's eyes widened. I was positive this was done to her before, for it was very common at the turn of the century, even to the end of world war one. Since then it was the German and the English who mainly kept the custom alive.

Angela said in a sweet voice, "You certainly are a polite gentleman, Mr Kramer."

"Thank you. Please call me Alex. Both sets of parents drummed the basics into me. I have learned that it is basically good to follow that set of protocols unless it looks counter productive."

I was led into the large room but didn't find it crowded. There were perhaps twenty people in all and none who looked like they belonged to the Secret Service. I was introduced to a group of four and they explained a bit of their backgrounds because they knew I knew none of them.

Michael asked to start me talking, "I hear you doing great things for us at Bell."

"I am trying, Michael. I am not doing this just for your benefit. I am only doing this in a partnership arrangement. There are many things that I have worked on that need some tweaking to make them work better. If everything works out the way I envision, Bell will be getting a lot of new business and take it to places it hasn't even imagined."

Angela waited a few seconds and then took the bait. "What way is that?"

"Bell uses thousands of tons of copper on wires for calls. I can make the capacity jump many times on the same wires. It is also susceptible to an attack with atomic weapons. I have not been involved with the weapons production or privy to its effects but I believe it must free a tremendous amount of electrons and make a gigantic magnetic field. This would fry metallic lines. I have a transmission method that can take that kind of abuse and still work."

Three people said, "How?"

"I have just started working on it in my own labs at the moment. I do not want to talk about it before I get a patent on it for protection. I also want to make small radios that will fit comfortably in a shirt pocket or a purse and interface with the telephone lines. You are then free to talk to anybody, no matter where you are, or where they are."

This proved very interesting to them and we talked about this for quite a while. Some figured that Bell could do this on their own if necessary. Large hand-held radios had been used in WW II. They had even experimented with radio telephones in one city.

"They certainly can but they need something I call a microprocessor to function properly. In one year I will have a computer many times more powerful than a Univac. In a few more, it will fit within a simple watch."

They could not understand this. The men started to scoff and one started to leave. Perhaps he was a bit disgusted at what he thought was bull shit.

Michael said quickly, "How can you do this?"

"The devices I just patented use light and microwaves in a special way. I can focus them down so small that I can make grooves only one twelve-thousandths the width of a human hair. Those same devices can be used to cut precision parts of metal with hardly any heat distortion. I will need this technology to get into space before the Russians beat us."

One man said, "The Russians can't do that. They have lots of missiles but they can't get into space."

"You are right they can't, yet. Soon they will, though. Your politicians and military want to make the Russians like supermen but they are working under much less favourable conditions than we are. They are a nation of farmers with a few intellectuals. They will, though, focus those people they do have into weapons production and a quest for space soon."

The man that I thought was going to leave asked in an angry voice, "Why?"

"So they can put bombs three hundred miles over out heads. If a war comes, a radio signal goes out and the bombs are driven the short distance to Earth. You can't shot them down very well. Another way is to just launch them into orbit so high that our missiles can't reach them. Radio activity would spread over the entire country, even if the blasts were very high."

Now the people looked stricken at the thought of this happening. Their own government had played up the Russians so much to get more tax dollars that the public believed most of the propaganda. Besides driving the population paranoid, it did make it easy to make money pandering to this belief. This is just what I was going to do.

When the gasps were heard, more people came over to hear what was being spoken "It is not that bad. I have my laser. It is not that strong but it may be able to shoot down a missile in orbit from the earth. It does travel at the speed of light and can cut things."

Michael said, "The military should have that, Alex. If it can do what you said. I heard from Mr Fitzsimmons that you burnt through a board at almost twelve miles with just light."

"That was only a toy that took an afternoon to build. We made it from spare parts lying around and lots of very good help. It was all the effort that Bell Labs gave me that made the test possible."

"That was a toy? It could burn through a board at twelve miles. And works at the speed of light?" One man said incredulously.

"Basically, it was a toy. It was just thrown together. If I had a good base like I have at my lab, it would be much more stable but that is hard to do. I need a place that does not shake. A person walking across the floor makes the beam waver at that distance. At three to five hundred miles it would be even more difficult."

One person in the back wiggled forward and asked, "Are you any relation to the person mentioned that just claims to have found a cure for polio?"

"That was me I am afraid, along with a lot of very talented people. I just took two different pieces of data and put them together."

I heard gasps around. Angela said, "Did you invent the cure?"

"I didn't, Angela. A Toronto lab invented a nutrient that allows the virus to grow. We have known for years how to kill a virus in a bottle. The dead virus makes the human body fight it as if it were alive. Our own antibodies then know how to fight the virus, if it comes for real. If somebody has the virus, it is of no use. If the person is paralysed, I cannot help them. It is just a way to prevent people from dying or becoming crippled."

"But you did it, Alex. Nobody else did."

"You are mistaken, Angela. First I had to have somebody who believed in me. In this case it was Joseph and Silva Cranz. I am fairly wealthy but I haven't got the money it takes for all the tests needed. How many people would think that a thirteen-year-old boy could do this? From what I have done, you should have come to the conclusion that I am fairly intelligent. One of the things I know is that if the medical profession or even lawmakers get their teeth into this, then the vaccine will never be accepted.

"People as individuals are intelligent. As a group, they are not very intelligent at all. All it takes is a single reporter to get his biassed information out. Somebody else will make the assumption that I have nothing worthwhile to offer and soon the rest will parrot that. The tests can come back great but the medical community will not accept them. We are going through an epidemic of polio now and untold numbers of children and young people will die or be forced to live in an iron lung for the rest of their lives because of one reporter's faulty reasoning."

Angela said, "That is not true. People are better than that?"

Michael held her arm and said, "He is right Angie. We work like a mob most of the time and this is one situation where, if it is not handled right, we will have untold suffering for the children."

A servant came over and whispered in Michael's ear. Michael looked up and said, "Our guest of honour is here."

The ring of people broke up and both Michael and Angela left to greet their newest guest. In a moment two very alert young men came into the room and looked it over. A subtle hand signal was given and then the President came in flanked by three other secret service types.

Nobody approached but our hosts brought the man around to each of the various groups. This time there was only one group and this one was still with me.

One man that was thinking about the bombs in orbit wanted to know more about huis country's state of readiness. I said, "Your countrymen are spending more time turning over rocks to find the very few people who embrace the Communist ideal. There are agents here but you are not looking for them, you are on a witch-hunt with political agendas. Doesn't it seem odd that the Democrats are being singled out in this purge? If you stand up for your country or asked others to do so, then you are branded a Communist sympathiser. If you do nothing and you are seen as a threat, you are still branded a Communist. Maybe you should stop acting like a flock of chickens headed for slaughter and do something about it."

"Like what?" the man asked. "Some of my friends were questioned and if you don't answer you are investigated yourself. You have to give names."

"The hypothetical reporter I mentioned earlier is not only the one who can damage me but has damaged your entire country. An old saying is that you get the government you deserve and it looks to me that you have no other leadership now but that of a mob."

The crowd parted behind me and I heard a voice say, "What is this about no leadership?"

I turned around and put out my hand. "Hello Mr President. I was just talking about American politics. It appears that it is running away like a wagon downhill without guidance. People on and off the wagon are getting run over and the wagon itself is in danger of crashing. It is too bad, in a way, that you are just an administrator of a very large bureaucracy that has simply dropped the steering mechanism."

"Are you saying I am not doing my job?"

"Your job, in my eyes, is to play the same role as the King of England. You do have some important duties but most of it is ceremonial in many ways. Your veto powers at least give you some teeth, no matter how short they are. Congress as a group is supposed to do the running of the country. They have let some irresponsible members take the bit into their teeth. They now run the country, not you. If you fight them, as others have done, then they simply say you are a Communist or sympathise with them. This sounds like mob thinking to me.

"You are now looking for a way of stopping this wagon, or at least steering it so it hurts the least amount of people but you have very little help doing anything. You are a victim of your own propaganda and this will not end until the Russians are defeated by your monetary policies. It is just too bad that at that time you will be running out of oil and have to take on the growing number of Arabic people who will use religion to fight you."