He looked up from his viewscreen, folding the lid of his briefcase down. He had been speaking distractedly, as if one part of his mind were collating information while the other part related it to them.
"Human beings have four basic kinds of sensory receptors. Electromagnetic, mechanoreceptors, thermoreceptors, and chemoreceptors. The rods and cones of the eye are electromagnetic receptors. Mechanoreceptors respond to touch, pressure, et cetera. For instance, the eardrums are mechanoreceptors; they respond to the pressure of sound waves. Thermoreceptors are free nerve endings sensitive to heat and cold. We've done work in each of these areas, with the promise of more to come. We had trouble with chemoreceptors. Taste buds, the cells of the carotid and aortic bodies, the olfactory cells of the nose... we couldn't do much with those, so naturally that was where we concentrated our efforts."
Griffin drummed his fingers on the arms of his chair and cleared his throat. "I take it that whatever was stolen was a result of these efforts?"
O'Brien looked sheepish. "Am I going on too much? I thought some background would be useful."
"Go ahead, Skip, there might be something valuable in even the trivia."
"0-kay. Our problems were manyfold: accuracy of the effect, harmlessness of the chemical agent, undetectability, means of distribution, et cetera. We made an abortive effort to trigger the olfactory nerves with sound, but it just won't work. The receptors respond only to chemicals.
"The potential is tremendous, gentlemen. The olfactory nerves are the only ones that connect directly to the brain. The medial olfactory lobe seems to be involved with the limbic system in the expression of emotion. There is believed to be a ‘pleasure center' located there.
"As I said, the olfactory cells need a chemical to trigger them. What they are, actually, are bipolar nerve cells originating from the central nervous system itself. When one is triggered it becomes ‘depolarized,' which causes a battery effect, and a current flows. Voila, a nervous impulse. Present theory holds that the molecular shape, rather than the chemical properties of a substance, determines its smell. On the basis of this theory, seven different primary classes of odor have been established: camphoraceous, musky, floral, pepperminty, ethereal, pungent, and putrid. Of course these can be combined. What we theorized is that there are ‘neutral' scents, scents which trigger depolarization in the olfactory nerves without any conscious sensation of smell. If we could find the molecular shape which accomplishes this, we would be on our way."
"How many different kinds of response were you hoping to get?" Harmony asked from behind his peaked fingers, eyes still deceptively lidded.
"We weren't sure. Nausea, salivation, sexual behavior, and-"
"Sexual behavior?"
"Everybody triggers on that one. Yes, sexual behavior. As f at back as the 1960's two chemicals, copulin and androsterone, were found to be sexual signals in monkeys, and to some extent in human beings. Humans have a more complex set of factors h~volved in attraction than animals. Many of them are social in nature and no chemical yet discovered can really make up your mind for you." He grinned. "But we're trying."
O'Brien extracted a cigarette from his inside coat pocket and lit it with an unsteady hand. At a glance from Griffin Harmony unob
trusively turned on a tiny fan in the ceiling, and Skip's smoke vanished into it.
"What we did," he began again, "was to use an advanced version of a device called an electro-olfactograph, which registers electrical impulses in the olfactory nerves. We finally found a substance that causes depolarization without conscious recognition of scent at any concentration."
"What was the chemical?"
"I couldn't give you the formula, Alex. I don't know it myself. I can say that it was a highly volatile lipid-soluble chemical, with saline as the carrying agent. Once we had that, the work really began. It was really incredible. This was all about seven months ago. Since that time I've heard that Sacramento has variants that will induce tears, laughter, reflex vomiting, sleep, even something suspiciously like agape, brotherly love. God only knows what they'll come up with when they really know what they're doing. At any rate, they sent over a sample for us to test, that and accompanying data. I'm afraid that is most probably the target of our burglary."
Alex asked the question. "What does this batch do?"
Skip turned his palm briefly to the ceiling. "Not sure. That was why they sent us the sample. They felt that our proximity to Dream Park might give us some additional testing options. Preliminary testing indicates that it is a general emotion intensifier. If this is true, and it is a substance as totally harmless as all preliminary testing indicates, it is an incalculably valuable advantage over our competition. The theft of the sample, and of the printed matter, breaks us wide open." He folded his hands in his lap. "That's most of it."
Harmony sat up in his chair and turned to Griffin. "Well, Alex? What do you think?"
"I think I was right. Industrial espionage. How many people knew the stuff was here, Skip?"
"Maybe five, myself included. Perhaps twice that many in Sacramento."
"Thanks. You saved me my second question. There's a leak, that's for sure. Whether it's electronic or human I can't say now. With twice the people knowing it in Sacramento, it might be twice as likely for the leak to originate there. It would be a neat trick to wait until a sample is transferred here. Then again, it doesn't take a genius to see why I'd rather believe that theory." He sighed.
"Well It's happened. I don't believe the damage is irreversible." Harmony's ears perked up. "Why?"
"I don't think that the thief has left the scene yet."
O'Brien seemed troUbled. "The building was searched. If the thief didn't leave the building he must be one of us. The security men, the psychology staff, and whoever else was here."
"A small group from engineering was still on the fifth."
"Right. We were all routinely searched, so the stuff wasn't on any of us physically, but that doesn't help. It could be hidden in the building."
"Might be, and we're checking on that." Griffin nodded, arranging his thoughts. "I don't think that's it, though. I found some traces in the basement of R&D that suggest that the thief came into the building from Gaming Area A. That is the weakest link in our defenses. We have excellent protection on all outer perime- ters, but between Gaming A and the basement..." He shrugged. "The Garners are so out of touch with reality that they were never considered a serious threat. But the thief used surgical bandage. Garners carry medical kits... Skip, how long ago did the sample arrive?"
"Three weeks."
Griffin tsked discontentedly. "Maybe still. Better yet... Skip, how long before that was it known that a shipment was to be made?"
"At least another month."
"That's the margin for error we need. That gives plenty of time for the information to reach our competitors. Time for them to research our defenses. After they found our weak spot, they looked for a Game that was running at the right time. After that, find the aah... right, the Lore Master being challenged. Get the names of the people he's likely to choose, and make your approach from that list. Complicated, but with seven weeks lead time, not impossible."
"What exactly do you see as the sequence of events here, Alex?" There were oceans of tension crackling just beneath the superficial calm of Harmony's voice.
"At approximately nine o'clock last night, one of the Garners in Gaming A broke away from the others and headed toward the northwest corner of the Research and Development complex, staying clear of any workmen renovating the Gaming area. This person entered a service duct and gained access to the lower level