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mother, the Greek movie actress who bad supplied him with a steady income

for twenty years, had apparently hit hard times herself; she wasn't

getting film parts any more because not even makeup could conceal the

fact she was fifty, her young goddess looks gone forever. That part

Georgos was delighted about and hoped things would get progressively

worse for her. If she were starving, he told himself, he wouldn't give

her a stale biscuit. just the same, a notification from the Athens

lawyers-impersonal as usual-that no more payments would be made into his

Chicago bank account had co- me- ata fi-awk w-a-rd-tirrie.-

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Georgos' cash needs involved current costs and future plans. One project

was to build a small nuclear bomb and explode it in or near the

headquarters of Golden State Power & Light. Such a bomb, Georgos reasoned,

would destroy the building, the exploiters and lackeys in it, and also much

else around-a salutary lesson to the capitalist oppressors of the people.

At the same time, Friends of Freedom would become an even more formidable

force than now, to be treated with awe and respect.

The idea of creating an atomic bomb was ambitious and perhaps

unrealistic-though not entirely. After all, a twenty-one-year-old Princeton

student named John Phillips had already demonstrated in a muchpublicized

term paper that the "how to" details were available in library reference

materials to anyone having the patience to assemble them. Georgos Winslow

Archambault, steeped in physics and cbemistry, had obtained all the

information he could about Phillips' research and bad built up a file of

his own, also using library data. One nonlibrary item in the file was a

ten-page handbook put out by California's Office of Emergency Services and

directed to police agencies; it outlined ways of dealing with atomic bomb

threats and that, too, had provided useful information. Georgos was now

close, he believed, to creating a detailed working drawing. However, actual

construction of a bomb would require fissionable material, which would have

to be stolen, and that would take money-a lot, plus organization and luck.

But it just might be done; stranger things had happened.

He told Birdsong, "Since you've brought up time and money, we need some

long green now."

"You'll get it." Birdsong permitted himself a wide smile, the first since

coming in. "And plenty. I found another money tree."

3

Nim was shaving. It was shortly after 7 A.M. on a Thursday in late August.

Ruth bad gone downstairs ten minutes earlier to prepare breakfast. Leah and

Benjy were still sleeping. Now Ruth returned, appearing at the bathroom

door with a copy of the Chronicle-West.

"I hate to start your day off badly," she said, "but I know you'll want to

see this."

"T'hanks." He put down his razor and took the newspaper with wet

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hands, scanning the front page. Below the fold was a single-column item:

GSP & L

Rate Hike

Disallowed

Electricity and gas rates are not going up.

This was revealed yesterday afternoon by the California Public

Utilities Commission in announcing its turndown of an application by

Golden State Power & Light for a 13 percent increase in gas and

electric rates which would bring the giant utility another $58o million

annual revenue.

"We do not see the need for an increase at this time," the PUC stated

in a decision arrived at by a 3-2 vote of the commissioners.

At public bearings GSP & L had argued that it needs more money to

offset rising costs due to inflation and to raise capital for its

construction program.

High officials of GSP & L were not available for comment, though a

spokesman expressed regret and concern for the future energy situation

in California. However, Davey Birdsong, leader of a consumers

group-power & light for peoplehailed the decision as . . .

Nim put the newspaper on the toilet tank beside him while he finished

shaving; he had learned of the decision late yesterday so the report was

confirmation. When he went downstairs Ruth had his breakfast ready-lamb

kidneys with scrambled eggs-and she sat opposite him with a cup of coffee

while he ate.

She asked, "What does that commission decision really mean?"

He grimaced. "It means that three people, who got jobs because of

politics, have the right to tell big corporations like GSP & L and the

phone company how to manage their aff airs-and do."

"Will it affect you?"

"Damn right it will! I'll have to revamp the construction program; we'll

cancel or slow down some projects and that will lead to layoffs. Even

then there'll be a cash bind. Long faces this morning, especillly

Eric's." Nim cut and speared a kidney. "These are great. You do them

better than anybody."

Ruth hesitated, then said, "Could you get your own breakfast for a while,

do you think?"

Nim was startled. "Sure, but why?"

"I may be going away." In her quiet voice Ruth corrected herself. "I am

going away. For a week, perhaps longer."

He put down his knife and fork, staring across the table. "Why? Where?"

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"Mother will have Leah and Benjy while I'm gone, and Mrs. Blair will come

in as usual to clean. So it will just mean your having dinner out, and

I'm sure you can arrange that."

Nim ignored the barb. He insisted, his voice rising, "You didn't answer

my question. Where are you going, and why?"

"T'here's no need for either of us to shout." Beneath Ruth's composure

he sensed an uncharacteristic hardness. "I beard your question, but the

way things are between us, I don't believe I should have to answer. Do

you?"

Nim was silent, knowing precisely what Ruth meant: Why should there be

a double standard? If Nim chose to break the rules of marriage, have a

succession of affairs, and stay out many evenings for 'his own

diversions, why shouldn't Ruth exercise similar freedom, also without

explanations?

On that basis, her declaration of equality-which it clearly wasseemed

reasonable. just the same, Nim felt a stab of jealousy because he now was

sure Ruth was involved with another man. Originally be hadn't thought so;

now he was convinced, and while he knew that giveand-take arrangements

existed in some marriages, he found it hard to accept them in his own.

"We both know," Ruth said, interrupting his thoughts, "that for a long

time you and I have only been going through the motions of being married.

We haven't talked about it. But I think we should." This time, despite

an attempt at firmness, there was a tremor in her voice.

He asked, "Do you want to talk now?"

Ruth shook her head. "Perhaps when I come back." She added ' "As soon as

I work some things out, I'll let you know when I'm leaving.

Nim said dully, "All right."

"You haven't finished your breakfast."

He pushed the plate away. "I don't feel like eating any more."

Tbough the exchange with Ruth-jolting in its suddenness-preoccupied Nim

during his drive downtown, activity at GSP & L headquarters quickly

eclipsed personal thoughts.

The ruling of the Public Utilities Commission took priority over all

other business.

All morning a procession of executives from the utility's financial and

legal departments, their expressions serious, hastened in and out of the

chairman's office. Their comings and goings marked a succession of con-

ferences, each concerned with the essential question: Without any in-

crease whatever in the rates it could charge customers, how could GSP &

L carry out its needed construction plans and stay solvent? Tle

consensus: Without some drastic and immediate cutback in expenses, it

simply wasn't possible.

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At one point J. Eric Humphrey paced the rug behind his desk and demanded

rhetorically, "Why is it that when the price of bread goes up because of

inflation, or meat prices soar, or it costs more to get into a ball game

or a movie-no one is ever surprised and it's all accepted? But when we

point out, truthfully, that we can't produce electricity at our old rates

because our costs have gone up too, nobody believes us."

Oscar O'Brien, the general counsel, answered while he lit one of his

inevitable cigars. "They don't believe us because they've been condi-

tioned not to-mostly by politicians trying to suck up to voters and

looking for an easy target. Public utilities have always been one."

The chairman snorted. "Politicians! They disgust me! They invented

inflation, created it, worsened it, keep it going as they build public

debt -all so they can buy votes and bang onto their jobs. Yet those

charlatans, those obscurers of the truth, blame inflation on everybody

elseunions, business-anyone, anything, except themselves. If it weren't

for politicians, we wouldn't be asking for a rate increase because we

wouldn't need to."

Sharlett Underhill, executive vice president of finance and the fourth

person in the chairman's office, murmured, "Amen!" Mrs. Underhill, a tall

brunette in her forties, capable, normally unruffled, today appeared

harried. Which was understandable, Nim thought. Whatever financial

decisions were made as a result of the PUC turndown, they would

inevitably be harsh and Sharlett Underhill would have to implement them.

Eric Humphrey, who bad stopped his pacing, asked, "Does anyone have a

theory about why everything we sought was rejected? Did we misludge the

profiles? Where was our strategy wrong?"

"I'm not sure our strategy was wrong," O'Brien said. "And we sure as hell

studied the profiles, and acted on them."

Behind the question and answer was a common practice of utility

companies-but also a closely guarded secret.

Whenever a Public Utility Commissioner was appointed, companies which

would be affected by the new commissioner's decisions began a detailed

undercover study of the individual, including a psychiatric profile. The

resultant material was pored over by experts in psychology who searched

for prejudices to be guarded against or weaknesses to be exploited.

Later an executive of the utility would attempt to strike up a friendship

in the course of which the commissioner would be entertained at the

executive's home, invited to play golf, share bard-to-get seats at sports

events, or taken trout fishing at a Sierra hideaway. The entertainment

was always pleasant, private, and discreet, but never lavish. During

casual conversations some discussion might occur about the utility's

affairs, but no direct favors were asked; the influence was more subtle.

Often the tactic worked in a utility's favor. Occasionally it didn't.

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"We knew two of the commissioners would vote against us anyway," the

lawyer said, "and we knew for sure that two of the other three were in

our corner. So that left Cy Reid's as the swing vote. We'd worked on

Reid, we thought he'd see things our way, but we were wrong."

Nim knew about Commissioner Cyril Reid. He was a Ph.D. economist and