The Andromeda Strain Page #2

Your orders are to break scrub.

Orders? I've got a patient all ready.

Kelly will take over for you.

It's all arranged.

You're expected in the

surgeon's room in 30 seconds.

Are you sure the satellite

isn't radioactive?

No. Manchek showed me

the telemetry reports.

Presumably, it could be

some form of space germ.

Presumably this stuff is nonporous.

Why did you pick me?

You're an M.D., a talented surgeon

who knows blood chemistries

and you're single...

the "Odd Man Hypothesis. "

What the hell is that?

Didn't you read the Wildfire material

I've been sending you?

Very little.

I never went in much

for science fiction.

Nor do I!

It seems to me, General,

Dr. Stone put one over on you.

In fact, he made us all think

his Wildfire Lab could handle

contamination from outer space.

I disagree with the senator from Vermont.

Dr. Stone, a Nobel Prize winner,

twice president of the

National Academy of Sciences,

is well known here in Washington.

Is the implication that Dr. Stone

deliberately misled us?

Perhaps not deliberately, Senator.

I'm reasonably certain

that before the night

the Wildfire Team was mobilized,

Dr. Stone didn't know Scoop existed.

I'm astounded.

Reasons of national security.

Very smart.

We've had experiences

with scientists before.

Now, let's talk about

this famous letter

Dr. Stone sent to the president

some two years ago.

From what you're saying,

it was just a shot in the dark?

Perhaps that's a little unfair, Senator.

Dr. Stone and I were

consultants with NASA

on the Lunar Receiving Lab.

He wasn't completely satisfied.

He felt a more advanced

lab was required.

You mean more expensive, don't you?

I call that Dr. Stone's $90 million

mash note to Uncle Sam.

"In a true biological crisis

which our exploration of

space could bring about,

the present Lunar Receiving Laboratory

might prove inadequate.

I therefore urge

the establishment of a facility

to deal specifically

with an extraterrestrial form of life.

The purpose of this facility

would be to limit the dissemination

of such an unknown organism

from outer space

and to provide laboratories

for its analysis.

I recommend that this facility be located

in an uninhabited region

of the United States,

that it utilize all known

isolation techniques,

and that it be equipped

with a nuclear device

for self-destruction in the event

of an emergency.

Yours very truly, Jeremy Stone. "

Don't encourage the president

to think scientists are wizards.

If things get out of control,

and they might,

even you can't work miracles.

I'd expect to have

your help, Charlie.

Piedmont approaching, gentlemen.

Go over and give us a look first, Dempsey.

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