 Suspense and the producer of radio's outstanding theater of thrills the master of mystery and adventure William M. Robeson Talent is an elusive and mystifying phenomenon and one of the most curious things about it is that it manifests itself in the most unexpected places One of the most talented sound men in radio broadcasting is Tom Hanley We did not know until recently that he possesses another talent He is an extraordinarily fine writer. It is his radio play. You are about to hear Tom Hanley's terrifying story misfire and now misfire a tale well calculated to keep you in Suspense ground zero Somewhere on the desert We are inside the cab where the bomb this one called Jack Hammond Awaits the impulse from control points some 14 miles to the south Electronic gossips hum and throb their chatter about the health of the patient Suspended 500 feet above the desert floor But the unfeeling machines neglect to mention a human factor this morning an imprint of callousness a small metal wrench Jammed in the track of the electronically controlled door a Shift of sand occurs against one of the great steel legs gripping the desert and A brown-back desert tortoise trundles out for a look at his world the world of sage and sand and space Stretching endlessly off into the darkness No man is in sight That is good There have been days of hiding from men, but now they've gone and The tortoise tries his morning legs and Plans his new day H minus one place. I protectors in position and turned back to fireball 55 54 53 52 100 speakers miles removed from ground zero the tape recorded voice begins its countdown No margin for error now. No turning back Test shot jack hammer is underway On news knob 14 miles away a photographer from an eastern paper nervously adjusts his goggles and wonders What would it be without them? 14 miles cannot blind across 14 miles a Mile and a half from ground zero a 22-year-old marine corporal crouches and a trench on his knees his head rammed into his arms for instructions He and 1999 other Marines they had to prove that Man is not afraid Not really But what if something goes wrong? What if it's bigger than I think? 31 he hears the endless very of the taped voice 29 28 27 26 a little over a mile from ground zero in a concrete bunker with its air conditioning secured Sits a 37-year-old Englishman a civil defense man remembering Another time he huddled in a shelter Only then he was a soldier in London when the buzzbomb screamed over him His uniform now top-secret designed for the future and he sits on a padded floor with 12 other men They want to know what chance their cities will have against the day that must never come 17 16 At control point men sit silently watching instruments Designed to tell them how efficiently jackhammer does its job And the tortoise Lumbers across his front yard in such a breakfast three two one It's a misfire Attention all personnel Attention all personnel This is dr. Thurston Test shot jackhammer is incomplete due to undetermined failure Maintain positions till further notice You are still on detonation alert Dr. Thurston, what is it butler everything was normal on my face until h-minus 4 9 Grant that would coincide with your variance wouldn't it? Yeah, but Frank You shouldn't have had any reading at all at that time on the sub relay meter I didn't it showed normal and then there was a complete negative to zero response Then there it is dr. Thurston. It's an on-site rejection of voltage. Huh, in other words, the fault lies at ground zero According to these data. Yeah Well, can correction be made from here? We can't have anybody going out there. No after we check the monitor lists There's one consolation dr. Thurston. What's that? We put it together. We ought to be able to take it apart Yes Yes, we ought to but can we the second act of Suspense continues in one minute and now we continue with act two of misfire a tail well calculated to keep you in Suspense There's no walking away from an atom bomb No asking who left it there So it becomes a story of people that is arming Lee Thurston MIT graduate 1932 old enough to have been appalled at the thought of an atom bomb Scientific enough to accept it Human enough to demand influence and its use John Grant 36 a redheaded giant who daily deals and miracles Believes in them makes them work Frank Butler former child prodigy grown bald at 28 bachelor attended now at the bigamers wedding of electronics nuclear fission and Power politics An onsite test is the only way to check it out. No butler. That would mean two men at ground zero But there's no explanation for what we're finding here is right doctor if we accept our data We have a power failure originating at the Cabot cell with a risk of delayed detonation grant. You can't forget that I'm not their 2000 Marines and 12 CD men out there. How long can they wait? Yes, what isn't general madding on the phone, sir wants to know if he can evacuate yet No, not until we know more about the cause of the misfire. I'll let him know. Yes. Oh, uh Winship. Yes, tell the photo lab. I can't wait any longer for those final pictures of the patch bay under the bomb For now, we'll go over those monitor checklists again gentlemen. We mustn't have any errors news knob has a mathematics of its own The bomb plus the names of the men in the control point plus a little background data equals a story Mentioned that these men were in high school when the first atomic pile was activated Mentioned that it would have taken that first pile a hundred and fifty thousand years to make enough plutonium to satisfy the bomb Point out how the cold war overcame all that But tell mostly of the struggle to stop jackhammer this morning Hello, New York I get me Barney will you honey your college fears? Yeah, we'll then call him at home. It's important. Hey, where'd you get the coffee? I need some I'm freezing over here Hey, thanks a lot. Hello Barney. Listen, you better call that off and go on into the office This may develop into something out here the bomb didn't go off No, not a delay. It just didn't take Well a room away here is at the last boys to hook it up. We're gonna have to go out and coax it down How do I know who it'll be? Yeah, yeah, I know that's what I'm here for I know yeah and Barney don't call me I'll call you green lies flat now permission granted He hears wasted advice from his nearest neighbor on how to run an atom bomb test But he thinks about Vegas And he wonders whether he'll ever see her again that girl with the dark hair the dark eyes the wonderful smile And the Cadillac convertible In the civil defense shelter, it's hot No air conditioning for 40 minutes now these heavy clothes and sealed up this way Somebody better call control. They bloody well forgotten us But they haven't more important things Like the photo lab with the final pictures of the victim jackhammer pictures of the bomb With its viscera displayed a to B and yellow to ground The proper circuit for agony Well, this one's okay This one's all right The pictures show the patch cords are all okay, dr. Thurston. Oh wait a minute just a minute now We've always assumed that if we got power to the site proper that it would go on to the bomb Of course the door to the cab completes the circuit voltage to the door Voltage to the bomb all right then what if the voltage didn't get beyond the door? Oh, that's impossible our monitors show the door completely closed But what if it didn't for some reason what reason what to go wrong that wouldn't show on the monitors I don't know but it's got to be out there Let me go check it. I can't order anybody out there. I'm asking to go I'll go with you Frank. No if anybody goes it should be to you need a phone line during the climb in case we found anything here You'd need test equipment tools for opening the door manually Radiation test gear and a wrench that disconnect would have to be made immediately Frank What's the matter? You look ill. No, nothing sir. I've had no sleep. I guess 500 feet and no power for the elevator Frank. I'll go with you all right But I ought to go alone Act three of Suspense follows in one minute and now we continue with act three of Misfire a tail well calculated to keep you in Suspense The afterbirth of darkness is light That insipid gray light of a desert dawn the night animals scurry homeward and the day things began their minor motions and Slowly it begins the gradual creep of light and warmth across the land Till its source explodes in the vastness of the desert and Here it becomes the sudden kiss of heat heat that warms heat that kills And the in-between heat the heat that expands Man's product that awkward wrench Lies in its cramped position on the tower having severed the connection to the bomb it tries to make amends by Stretching ever so slightly expanding Expanding in courage for the Sun The electronic condenses on the door awake their cue metal on metal And that blinding concussion that has no beginning nor any end and the tortoise unaware Accepts his gift from the land and goes in search of his image I better go up first John no you've got a man the phone I'll start first open the door manually and check for radiation then you shoot in and disconnect the thing all right Hey, John. Yeah, you think we'll ever get off the tower. We may never get on it if we sit here and talk. Let's go Hello, Barney. Now listen, they've started claiming the tower. That's right 500 feet. I Don't know how many stories that is the Washington Monument is 550 I think but I'll get this Barney play this one straight will you know heroics this one will stand on its own Sure, we're in a detonation alert Well, who knows what's gonna happen Fear of falling It never goes away It only becomes conditioned to the environment and 500 feet straight up has no relation to man To look down or not to look down this becomes the problem Then what do you look at the eyes of the man below you know? They reflect the fear of two men The expanse of dry lake. Do you look at that? No, it shimmers in the coming heat and brings on the dizziness. What do you look inside? The fear of God might look there and might help but for the most part you're climb You lift each aching limb after the other the next platform is the last The Irish do it in their land The traveler never has more than a mile to go never just beyond that rise, sir And then it becomes easier The next platform And then the next and the next Rest a second Frank How you doing? Okay How much further one more platform Frank is one more? It's murder There's one consolation. Oh what? Going down We'll have power to the elevator afterwards and we'll ride down maybe If there is an afterwards Tell dr. Thurston we're here Okay, dr. Thurston Dr. Thurston. Yes, we're at the top good. Have you found anything? Grand is at the door now We'll make a manual entry as soon as we can good Frank Tell them to read the voltage sheet on this door. I don't think it's completely closed Check the voltage sheet on the door doctor. Hey Frank come here. What is it? Yes? Hello? Were you talking to me? Oh the doctor. Can you see it there? Look from here. There's a small wrench. Oh, no, it's wedged in the door there. You see it John It's mine. That's my wrench. I must have dropped it when we were up here arming the bomb it can happen Look through the glass it it severed the detonation circuit. That's what happened But it completed the door contact. Sure. That's why the monitors didn't show it Good Lord Frank. Look how close it is to making contact John. That's gonna go any second take it easy now Move and shade that thing heat expansion will set it off. How's this give me the phone Dr. Thurston dr. Thurston. Can you hear me? Grant is that you now? Listen carefully. We found the problem a small hand wrench has been accidentally dropped into the door track Oh, apparently it severed the detonation circuit But it's so close to making the contact now that we've got to have power to the door Not while you're there come off the tower will open it now You don't understand the door condensers are already loaded with enough power to detonate the bomb Well is the wrench above the contact? Yes Then opening the door will drop the wrench and set it off. Look you got to give me power just enough to make the door jump I'm putting a pair of pliers on the wrench. I'll yank it out as soon as you're losing the door What if you miss I'll never know about it Johnny. I'll do something fast The Sun is open you've got to you can't leave us like I can't risk it try to get by chance now If you can only see it ground zero power on my count just just do it. I can explain now Brad yeah, are you ready? Yes, I'll give you a 10 second count make it five. All right five. I Get a good hole on that wrench five four Three nice going John. We're out of it. There's We're out now the bomb can't go off the desert Sun works its subtle magic on the wrench expanding ineffectually on the platform floor The Marine stands up in the trench The CD man sheds his top secret uniform Strips to the cuff unashamed The newsmen converge on ground zero The redhead and the young bald man a hop from the welcome elevator To see The tortoise scurrying ponderously toward his burrow and they pick him up But he pretends not to be there at all. He is And they know it so they take him back to control point to live