Patriot games - Tom Clancy [195]
"I think we're ready to give it a try."
"Have they ironed the bugs out?"
"Pretty much, enough for a field test, I think."
"Okay." Griffin sat back in his chair. "Tell me about it."
"Mainly, sir. I'm worried about the old ones. The problem's only going to get worse as we start retiring the old units. We had that chemical spill last month-"
"Oh, yeah." Griffin rolled his eyes. Most of the units in use contained PBBs, polybrominated biphenyls, as a cooling element within the power transformer. These were dangerous to the linemen, who were supposed to wear protective clothing when working on them, but, despite company rules, often didn't bother. PBBs were a serious health hazard to the men. Even worse, the company had to dispose of the toxic liquid periodically. It was expensive and ran the risk of spills, the paperwork for which was rapidly becoming as time-consuming as that associated with the company's nuclear reactor plant. Westinghouse was experimenting with a transformer that used a completely inert chemical in place of the PBBs. Though expensive, it held great promise for long-term economies- and would help get the environmentalists off their backs, which was even more attractive than the monetary savings. "Alex, if you can get those babies up and working, I will personally get you a new company car!"
"Well, I want to try one out. Westinghouse will lend us one for free."
"This is really starting to sound good," Griffin noted. "But have they really ironed the bugs out yet?"
"They say so, except for some occasional voltage fluctuations. They're not sure what causes that, and they want to do some field tests."
"How bad are the fluctuations?"
"Marginal." Alex pulled out a pad and read off the numbers. "It seems to be an environmental problem. Looks like it only happens when the ambient air temperature changes rapidly. If that's the real cause, it shouldn't be too hard to beat."
Griffin considered that for a few seconds. "Okay, where do you want to set it up?"
"I have a spot picked out down in Anne Arundel County, south of Annapolis."
"That's a long ways away. Why there?"
"It's a dead-end line. If the transformer goes bad, it won't hurt many houses. The other thing is, one of my crews is only twenty miles away, and I've been training them on the new unit. We'll set up the test instrumentation, and I can have them check it every day for the first few months. If it works out, we can make our purchase order in the fall and start setting them up next spring."
"Okay. Where exactly is this?"
Dobbens unfolded his map on Griffin 's table. "Right here."
"Expensive neighborhood," the field superintendent said dubiously.
"Aw, come on, boss!" Alex snorted. "How would it look in the papers if we did all our experiments on poor folk? Besides"- he smiled-"all those environmental freaks are rich, aren't they?"
Dobbens had chosen his remark with care. One of Griffin 's personal, hobbyhorses was the "Park Avenue Environmentalist." The field superintendent owned a small farm, and didn't like having some condo-owning dilettante tell him about nature.
"Okay, you can run with it. How soon can you set it up?"
"Westinghouse can have the unit to us the end of next week. I can have it up and running three days after that. I want my crew to check the lines-in fact, I'll be going down myself to set it up if you don't mind."
Griffin nodded approval. "You're my kind of engineer, son. Most of the schoolboys we get now are afraid to get their hands dirty. You'll keep me posted?"
"Yes, sir."
"Keep up the good work, Alex. I've been telling management about you."
"I appreciate that, Mr. Griffin."
Dobbens left the building and drove home in his two-year-old company Plymouth. Most of the rush-hour traffic was heading in while he headed out. He was home in under an hour. Sean Miller was