The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Brain, by Alexander Blade

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Title: The Brain

Author: Alexander Blade

Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32498]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE BRAIN

By Alexander Blade

[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Amazing Stories October
1948. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed.]

[Illustration: Repairs had to be made in great haste, at night, while
The Brain's machines slept]

[Sidenote: America's greatest weapon, greater than the Atom Bomb, was
its new, gigantic mechanical brain. It filled a whole mountain--and then
it came to life...!]

CHAPTER I

Cautiously the young flight engineer stretched his cramped legs across
some gadgets in his crowded little compartment. Leaning back in his
swivel chair he folded a pair of freckled hands behind his neck and
smiled at Lee.

"This is it doctor; we're almost there."

The tall and lanky man at the frame of the door didn't seem to
understand. Bending forward he peered through the little window near the
engineer's desk, into the blue haze of the jets and down to the earth
below, a vast bowl of desert land gleaming like silver in the glow of
the sunrise.

"But this couldn't possibly be Washington," he finally said in a puzzled
tone. "Why, we crossed the California coast only half an hour ago. Even
at 1200 miles an hour we couldn't be almost there."

The engineer's smile broadened into a friendly grin: "No, we're not
anywhere near Washington. But in a couple of minutes you'll see Cephalon
and that's as far as we go. One professor and 15 tons of termites to be
flown from Wallabawalla Mission station, Northern Territory, Australia,
to Cephalon, Arizona, U.S.A., one way direct. Those are our
instructions. Say, this is the queerest cargo I've ever flown, doctor,
if you don't mind my saying so."

Lee blinked. Removing his glasses which