Part 27 (1/2)
”You've hit it,” Scotty agreed
Rick explained to Bennett about the ghosts and the cart, and then added Belsely's reports on the tihosts had walked the fields without a cart ”Scotty and I saw three of the a survey round for radioactivity But why? That's what has us going around in ghastly, ghostly circles Why spread carnotite and then come back to measure it?”
Bennett smiled ”I think I know, but I'd like to see this ed?”
Scotty said swiftly, ”I'd better act as a lookout to intercept the Frostola o into thepace
Rick led the AEC ht with ht at the entrance, I'm sure”
They crawled in on hands and knees, the AECbefore him Inside, he looked around and selected several small pieces of rock
”We'll check the sanize this stuff It's carnotite You can see the yellow streaks clearly That's the uraniuray, so that's the color of the powdered ore”
”Then the erly
”Only as put here, I'm afraid”
With this cryptic comment Bennett opened his case and checked the samples Rick watched the ht, but of low ore level, not at all dangerous
”We'd better get out of here,” Bennett said ”I'd rather not be discovered at this point When your friend Scott comes back I'll tell you what has happened”
Scotty rejoined theain They walked with Bennett to his car, and listened to an explanation that ,” Bennett told theain Uraniua?” Scotty asked ”I've heard it in connection with gold mines, but I can't re evidence of high-grade ore in a likely place, but one which actually contains no real pay dirt For instance, in country where gold old nuggets into the ground with a shotgun, by replacing the buckshot with the nuggets Then, when the victiold for hi natural gold”
”And in this case, powdered carnotite was used in the fields, and chunks were put in the mine, to make victims think uranium was present,” Rick added He could see the picture pretty clearly now ”The carnotite was put in and then the field was planted with corn to make it look as innocent and natural as possible, I suppose”
”That's how I figure it There's no uraniue that one can often find associated with so a very cute confidence ga the them hear the clicks in the earphone of a counter, probably--and then selling them either shares in a host to scare the townspeople away so there would be no interference,” Rick finished ”But how can we prove all this?”
”You won't have to I brought a man with me, and dropped hient”
”The FBI?” Scotty looked puzzled ”But bunco gaames, whatever you call theet in on it?”
”Because the carnotite was federal property It was stolen fro platform at our Grand Junction facility We know this, because there is no record of any transaction, and we can identify the source by the chemical composition of the sample”
”But how could anyone steal stuff from AEC?” Rick asked
”Easily, in this case There is no purpose in protecting ore with the sareen salt, for exaood, because it takes ram of uranium Ore , from private companies who mine it No security is required, you see, because no one has the capability of getting out the metal even if they could steal thousands of tons of ore”
Rick understood this He had seen the plant at Oak Ridge where uraniuas diffusion overnment could afford such a facility