It was two days after Amy had gone to bed with Jake. Two days in which their only contact had been a couple of very proper telephone conversations to set up this meeting with the head of the university’s MHD program. Two days in which Jake’s head spun with the memory of her blithely unrestrained acrobatics in bed. Despite his misery of guilt, his insides quivered at the thought of her, and now she was sitting primly beside him, as if nothing at all had happened, wearing a no-nonsense navy blue business suit.

Sinclair looked as fierce as a flowing-maned lion standing guard over his cubs.

“As I told you before, I will not have the MHD program turned into a political football,” he said, with a slight toss of his head. The gesture reminded Jake of films he had seen of President Roosevelt. Had Sinclair deliberately copied FDR’s imperious body language?

“I don’t think you understand,” Amy began.

“I understand perfectly well,” Sinclair said, almost truculently. “You want to use our work to get votes for Frank Tomlinson. You have no interest in MHD research itself.”

“If Mr. Tomlinson gets elected to the Senate he will push for federal funding for your program. That could mean millions of dollars, Professor Sinclair. Tens of millions.”

Sinclair’s fleshy face darkened. “And it would turn a well-organized, carefully paced research program into a government boondoggle. I won’t have it.”

Younger spoke up. “Prof, we could use the Washington money to fund the long-duration tests.”

“We can do long-duration tests on the Mark I, here on campus.”

“At low power levels,” said Younger.

“That’s perfectly all right. The plasma physics is the same.”

“But the engineering isn’t,” Younger insisted. “The electrode erosion isn’t. The channel integrity isn’t.”

Rogers jumped in. “Professor, the utility companies won’t be impressed by low-power runs. They’ll want to see five thousand hours at fifty megawatts, at least.”

Sinclair glared at him. For a long moment the big airy office fell coldly silent. Jake could hear the faint whisper of the air conditioner’s fan.

At last Sinclair said, “Government funding will bring government regulations. Washington red tape. News reporters hounding us. Is that what you want?”

Rogers began to shake his head, but Glynis said, “What is it that you want, Professor? Do you see the MHD program as a perpetual research operation, or do you want to see MHD making an impact on the real world? Do you want to produce electrical power, or research papers for the academic journals?”

Sinclair’s eyes flared. Younger looked surprised. Rogers bit his lip.

Amy said, “Professor, I’d like you to meet Mr. Tomlinson and discuss this directly with him. Perhaps he can convince you that he’s sincere about wanting to help you to make a success of MHD.”

“This is what we need!” Younger blurted out.