No Highway (31 page)

There was a tense pause. I said, “I should like to answer Mr. Prendergast’s question, if I may, sir. I have complete confidence in Mr. Honey. I think his work, in general, is very advanced and very competent. I think that in this matter he is very likely to be right.”

And I thought to myself as I said that, there goes your job.

Prendergast said slowly, “I am astonished.”

The Chairman said, “I think we should accept the opinion of Dr. Scott, Mr. Prendergast. Mr. Honey is a member of his staff, and he is better known to Dr. Scott than to anybody in this room.”

Sir David Moon said, “With every respect, Mr. Chairman, I should like to say a word about that. In C.A.T.O. we also know a good deal about Mr. Honey. We consider him to be a man with an obsession on this question of fatigue that impels him to the most extravagant acts. I do not think I need go into what happened at Gander; I imagine we are all aware that Mr. Honey has wrecked one of our aircraft in deference to his theory.”

“No,” I said. “In deference to me. I told Mr. Honey before he left England that no Reindeer was to fly more than seven hundred hours.”

Carnegie exclaimed, “You did?” He turned to the Chairman. “Really, sir, I think that was a little bit high-handed. This meeting has been called to consider that very point.”

I said, “In emergencies, somebody has to say something. At that time we had no idea that any Reindeer had flown more than four hundred hours. But Mr. Honey knew my views, and he acted on them to the best of his ability. I don’t
think he was backing up his theory by preventing that Reindeer from flying on. He was doing his best to ensure the safety of the travelling public.”

Sir David Moon said, “Nobody questions that Mr. Honey was doing his best, Dr. Scott. What we feel in C.A.T.O. is that it was the best of an unbalanced man. I do not know if you quite realise the seriousness of his acts. I have no exact figures yet of the cost of repair of the Reindeer which is now lying at Gander, nor of the loss to which my Organisation will be subjected due to that aircraft being out of service for a period of many weeks. It does not seem possible to me that the sum of those two figures will be less than eighty thousand pounds. I do not feel that my Organisation should be liable for that amount.”

The Chairman pursed his lips and wrote down the figure on his pad.

“We feel in C.A.T.O. that that large financial loss has been forced upon us lightly and unreasonably by an employee of the State who, let us say, thinks differently from ordinary people.” Sir David glanced at the chap from the Treasury, who made a note upon his pad in turn. The legal representative of the Rutland Aircraft Company was already scribbling busily; clearly there was going to be a fine dogfight over who was to pay for that aircraft. “Having had this experience of Mr. Honey and his obsessions we are quite unwilling to accept him as a passenger again in any of our aircraft. And, equally, we shall be most reluctant to accept any reduction of our services based upon the uncorroborated work of this man, in view of our experience with him.”

Prendergast said, “As one who has known Mr. Honey by repute for a great many years, may I say a word, sir?” The Chairman nodded.

The designer said, “I have worked in this industry for thirty-nine years. I came into it as a boy two months after Bleriot flew the English Channel, and I have been working in it ever since. At that time the R.A.E. was still known as the Balloon Factory. I have seen that establishment grow from practically nothing to its present size, and all that time I have been in close and intimate touch with it. I have seen scientists come and go at the R.A.E.; I know them, and I know their ways, and many of them have been most able and devoted men. But I can tell this meeting frankly I consider Mr. Honey to be exceptional. Scientists, like other men, are subject to mental disturbances, perhaps more so in view
of the continuous mental efforts that they are required to make. Some scientists grow senile at an early age, they develop kleptomania and steal small articles from little shops”—he was speaking very slowly—“or they behave indecently in the Park, or they engage in treasonable activities, or they slip into religious mania.”

The Director flushed. All these were true incidents that had bedevilled him within the last three years.

“All my life I have watched these men in their careers,” Prendergast continued. “I fancy that I know the initial symptoms of a scientific mental decline by this time, and I could make a tolerably good guess of what the future holds for Mr. Honey.” The Chairman stirred restively, but Prendergast was Prendergast, senior in age and in experience to the lot of us. “We have here a man,” he continued, “who takes a deep interest in psychic phenomena—that is, gentlemen, in ghosts. Mr. Honey believes in ghosts; he has been chairman of a body dealing with psychic research. Apart from that, Mr. Honey will forecast the date of the coming dissolution of the world to anyone who cares to listen to him, based, I believe, on the structure of the Great Pyramid. If you take fright at that, and wish to escape from a planet which is doomed to destruction”—there was infinite sarcasm in his tone—“Mr. Honey is your man again, because he has been concerned with the Interplanetary Society and at one time produced designs for a rocket-propelled Space Ship, I think he called it, for a projected journey to the moon.”

There were smiles around the table. I spoke up in a cold fury. “I don’t know much about the ghosts or the end of the world,” I said. “I have looked over his work on interplanetary rockets, which was carried out in his own time in the years 1935 and 1936. So far as I can see, modern developments in guided missiles are following exactly on the lines that he forecast.”

Prendergast glared at me. “I wish I could believe that certain other forecasts made by Mr. Honey would come equally true,” he said harshly. “As it is, they appear to me to be a particularly offensive form of blasphemy. Axe you aware that Mr. Honey expects Our Lord to descend to Earth in this country in the year 1994? Are you aware of that, Dr. Scott?”

I said angrily, “Are you aware that He won’t?”

The Chairman said, “Gentlemen, I don’t think any of this is really relevant to our consideration of what action we should take, if any, in regard to the Reindeer.”

Prendergast said, “Our action depends upon our confidence in Mr. Honey’s work, sir. For my part, I have no confidence at all. The eccentricities that I have mentioned are plain indications of mental decline. Unless fresh evidence, as from the Reindeer crash in Labrador, should be produced, I don’t think we should take any action at all, though I would agree to Mr. Carnegie’s proposal to limit the flying time to two-thirds of the time done by the test.”

The Chairman said, “Well, Mr. Prendergast, as I understand the matter no question of grounding any aircraft upon Mr. Honey’s estimate alone is likely to arise. It has already been decided to send a representative of the R.A.E., Dr. Scott, to make a fresh investigation of the wreckage in Labrador, in conjunction with the Accidents Department. How long do you suppose that that will take?” He turned to the Director.

“It should not take longer than a fortnight,” the Director said. “That is, assuming that there is no further obstruction in regard to the air transport of my staff.” He said that very quietly.

Sir David Moon said, “Sir, any action that we may have taken has been for the protection of the travelling public. If we consider any passenger,
any
passenger, to be mentally unstable, we refuse to carry him. We do not wish to obstruct the R.A.E. in any way.”

The Director said gently, “I should like to say a word upon this question of mental instability, if I may. A wiser man than I once said that an unusual man is apt to look unusual, gentlemen. I will admit that Mr. Honey sometimes presents an unusual, an untidy appearance in his manner and his clothes. I do not condone that, but I should be sorry to see the R.A.E. staffed entirely by correct young men in neat, conventional, civil service clothes, with neat, conventional, civil service minds.” A smile ran around the table. “In my department,” he went on, “we seek for original thinkers, for the untiring brain that pursues its object by day and by night. If the untiring brain refuses to leave its quest to attend to such matters as the neat arrangement of collar and tie or to removing food stains from its waistcoat, I do not greatly complain.”

He paused. “As regards Mr. Honey’s other interests, I would say this. You cannot limit a keen intellect or try to fetter its activity. At times, perhaps, I have no job on hand for a few weeks that will wholly occupy the energies of some
member of my staff, but I cannot put the untiring brain into cold storage or prevent the thinker from thinking. If there is a hiatus in the flow of work my research workers will start researching on their own, into the problems of thought transference, or ghosts, or the Lost Tribes of Israel, or the Great Pyramid and the coming dissolution of the world. That, gentlemen, does not mean that they are going mad. It means that I have picked my men well, because the true research worker cannot rest from research.”

Prendergast said acidly, “May I ask if other members of your staff destroy aircraft when they are not fully occupied?”

The Chairman said hastily, “I think, Mr. Prendergast, we can pass on.”

Prendergast interrupted hotly, “With every respect, I think we should hear more about the circumstances in which Mr. Honey wrecked the Gander aircraft. We have the captain of the aircraft here, Captain Samuelson. May we not hear what he has to say about Mr. Honey, sir?”

“If you wish,” the Chairman said reluctantly. “Captain Samuelson?”

The pilot hesitated. “Well, sir, I don’t know what to say. At the time I thought he was off his head, but having heard all this it seems there’s something on the other side as well. I think it’s a matter for the doctors,” he concluded weakly.

“Exactly,” said the Chairman. “Well now, gentlemen—”

Samuelson spoke again. “Excuse me, sir,” he said. “May I add just one more thing?”

“Certainly.”

“Well, I’ve heard a great deal this morning that I don’t really understand,” the pilot said. “I mean, I’m just the b.f. who knows how to fly the thing. But one thing I’m quite certain of, and that’s that that first accident report is wrong.” He pointed to the folder lying on the table before me. “That thing says that Bill Ward came down through the overcast to check his position, and flew into a hill at about fifteen hundred feet. I never heard such bloody nonsense in all my life. I’ve known Bill Ward for twenty years. He was as senior as I am in the Organisation. It’s just bloody nonsense to suggest that he’d have done a thing like that.”

Group-Captain Fisher, red as a turkey cock, said, “The whole weight of the evidence supports that explanation of the accident.”

The pilot said, “I don’t give a mugger about that, sir. It’s plain bloody nonsense. Senior pilots in the Organisation just
don’t do that sort of thing. Whatever happened to that Reindeer, it wasn’t that.”

Sir David Moon stared down the table at his pilot thoughtfully. “I think that we should give that view a great deal of consideration,” he said.

The Chairman said, “I think we should. Well, gentlemen, I think we have heard all that can be said upon the matter at this stage. The R.A.E. will recover the relevant parts of the wreckage of the first machine and will report to me, if possible within a fortnight.” He glanced at the calendar. “That is, by the 25th. We cannot settle anything this morning, or, indeed, until we have that report upon the first machine. In the meantime, I will see Sir Phillip Dolbear and see if any interim investigation is possible, on high priority. If any action then seems necessary, we must have another meeting.”

Prendergast said sullenly, “Very good, sir. If any action on our part is required, no doubt somebody will consent to let us know, sometime.”

The chap from the Air Registration Board said, “It looks as if a little preliminary investigation for the modifications that may be required would be justified.”

Prendergast said sourly, “It’s rather difficult to do that when there is no fault apparent in the present structure. Certainly, I can invent a weakness and get out a modification to put it right, if that is what you wish.”

On that the meeting broke up; the various members stood about in little groups. Sir David Moon went down to the end of the room and stood in close conversation with his pilot, Samuelson; in a lull in the conversation I heard the little sandy-haired man expostulating, “I tell you, it’s all a lot of bloody nonsense, sir.” Group-Captain Fisher was complaining to the Chairman, who was trying to brush him off; he did so just as I was leaving the room with the Director, and bustled over to us.

“You’re crossing over to Ottawa tonight, then, Scott?” he said.

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

“Fine,” he said. “Do your best to get this settled quickly, one way or the other. It’s very disturbing to everybody when these things drag on in uncertainty.”

I left then, and went to the Royal Aero Club for lunch. The Director had to go back to the R.A.E., so I lunched alone in the snack-bar and sat for half an hour smoking in the
lounge over a cup of coffee. I was very tired. The last few days had been a bit of a strain and the tensions in the meeting that morning had left me feeling slack and ill. Hanging over my head was the lecture in the evening; it should have been the great day of my life, but now it was just another hour of tension to be battled through. I sat trying to rest and read an illustrated magazine till it was time to go back to the Ministry to see about my journey to Canada.

I went to see Ferguson first of all. “I thought old Prendergast was going to break a blood-vessel this morning,” he said cheerfully. “Specially when you picked him up on Jesus Christ. I must say, we do have fun at our meetings. That chap from the Treasury said he’d never been at one quite like it.”

I went with him to the Secretariat and spent an hour in various departments getting my passport and my tickets and my money. We got back to his office at about a quarter to four, and his secretary was waiting for me with a message from the Director of Research and Development, our chairman this morning. “Dr. Scott, Mr. Morgan wants to see you …”