The Hammer of God

That sent a chill down Peter’s spine. It was an ominous opening for not only the book but for the next chapter of Peter’s life. He flipped through the pages and saw lots of mathematical formulas. There were charts, maps, and tables. Normally after a double shift Saturday night, Peter got off the train on Gunhill Road and went straight to the 9 a.m. Sunday mass at Immaculate Conception. On this day, he went right home and started reading. He read about the Bermuda Triangle, Easter Island, the Lines of Nasscar, Vortexes, and the Grid. The Grid was the principle argument in the book. Somehow, the Grid was inexorably linked to other physical phenomena of the Earth. The Grid’s effect on man was considerable but unknown to the world. In fact, except for the postulates presented in the book in his hand, the Grid didn’t exist. The geometry and power of the Grid was a discovery awaiting revelation, until this book put it together.

There was little in this book that Peter had ever heard before. Even the math was strange. It was centered on a number system based on 2.73 or Epsilon. Some of the equations were navigational; others dealt in something called harmonics that he hadn’t a clue about. At 2 p.m., his phone rang.

“Peter, it’s Kasiko. You didn’t leave the key under the phone.”

“Aw, shit! Damn it! I’m sorry. I did lock the drawers, right?”

“Yes, you did that.”

“Mr. K, I’m so sorry. Do you want me to run in there right now and bring you the key?”

“No Peter, I have another key. Bring your key by my house tonight. A few members from the committee are meeting around 7 p.m.”

Peter hung up the phone with relief. He’d screwed up, but now he got a second chance to meet with some of the men on the committee.

He put on the TV to see if there was a Giants game on. The black-and-white set was tuned to Channel 13 and a show called “The Open Mind” was on. He adjusted the rabbit ear antenna on the top of the Sears-Roebuck TV. Lewis Rukeyser was interviewing Dr. Ensiling and they were talking about whether or not nuclear power would ever be safe enough to deliver the promise it once held. Ensiling maintained that it was safe in the American design of double-walled reactors, but that the rest of the world didn’t have that technology and therefore as other countries became nuclear dependent the danger level would rise as less-safe reactors went into operation. He then almost casually threw in the point that, of course, the problem of nuclear waste is still to be adequately resolved, but in 10 years maybe they’ll have figured it out.

When the program was over, Peter was blown away. Wow. I know that guy. There was a Sinbad movie on Channel 2’s “Picture for a Sunday Afternoon.” He watched Sinbad in badly dubbed English fight a two-headed dragon and save a princess. He’d gotten dressed and, at the insistence of his father, he went to 4 o’clock mass. Then he took two trains and a bus to arrive at Kasiko’s house at seven sharp.

Peter handed the key to Kasiko as soon as he entered. As he said hello to everyone, he couldn’t get his eyes off Ensiling. It was sudden hero worship, as if Y.A. Tittle, the New York Giants quarterback, was in the room. Peter said nothing but listened intently to every word that flew around the table. They were speaking Hungarian politics and the politics of Europe as a whole. As dinner was served, one of the men asked Peter his thoughts on the SALT agreement. He felt a momentary wave of panic welling up inside him, and then he remembered that Ensiling had mentioned SALT in the show. He quickly rifled through the main points as he remembered them. “Well, I don’t know too much about it, but the problem is the two-headed serpent that nuclear power is. One head is the peaceful use, which is inherently dangerous, except for the United States reactors. But if we gave the world our design, then they’ll be that much closer to making high-quality atomic fuel for bombs.” And there in one succinct sentence was the summation of Peter’s day of watching TV. The only thing he’d left out was the Brylcreem commercial.

“My, what a colorful analogy,” another scientist named Brodenchy said. “A doubled-headed serpent; how insightful.”

“Peter, you are correct. But are you suggesting we limit the proliferation of nuclear energy?”

“Well… no. We could operate it for all the other countries then we can make sure it’s only used for peaceful means.”

“Peter, there are so many geo-political problems with that solution that I can’t even start.”

“Oh.” Peter was a little deflated.

Ensiling noticed his embarrassment. “Now you can’t blame Peter for his America-centric view of the world. He is, after all, the only American at this table.”

Peter smiled and felt that Prof. Ensiling was a nice guy because he was speaking up for him.

At one point, someone asked for mustard and Kasiko warned, “Only take a little; it’s very hot, you know.”

“Yeah, a little dab will do ya,” Peter said making it a clean sweep for Sunday afternoon TV.