American Conspiracy by M.J. Polelle

Author:M.J. Polelle [Polelle, M.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lido Press
Published: 2021-07-26T22:00:00+00:00

Later that day, a bald-headed man in polyester red pants and orange polo shirt burst through the swinging doors into the reception room of Vulcan Metallurgy. “Hi, I’m Ollie, the chemist. This way, Detective Murphy.”

As they walked into the laboratory, Ollie waved him over to the optical spectroscope that analyzed and measured the percentage of chemical elements in steel samples. He explained how the spectrometer recorded the percentages of twenty-three different elements found in steel samples. And then he reexplained it.

The chemist reminded Detective Murphy of his old high school chemistry teacher. He had the same habit of repeating himself as though he were teaching a class of dense adolescents.

“Any questions?”

“No.”

“Take a look,” Ollie said.

He gave up pretending to understand the chemical symbols running across the screen in various percentages. The high point of his chemistry class had been learning on his own how to make a stink bomb from match heads and ammonia. The prank had earned him a week of detention at Saint Ignatius High School. “What am I looking at?”

Ollie rolled his eyes. “Let me explain. But, please, Detective Murphy, ask a question if you don’t understand. There’s no such thing as a bad question, only bad answers.”

The chemist held forth on how Ambrose Storage Tank Company had asked his employer to do some purity tests on samples of steel it had purchased from Kinzie Steel. Ambrose complained the steel had recently grown harder and more brittle. Kinzie Steel said no problem existed.

“Who was right?”

“Ambrose Storage Tank Company.” Ollie bent over to look at the results flickering on the monitor. “Carbon is the most important element in steel production.” He scrolled the monitor with his finger to check out the phosphorus percentage. “The levels of carbon and phosphorous are especially elevated when compared to earlier samples.” He added, “Got that?”

“Yeah, I got it.” He bent down to look at the symbols in a knowing manner. “Any other impurities?”

“Sulfur content is too high.” Ollie scratched his bald head. “We ran a different test to confirm these results. Came up the same.”

“How’s the steel harmed?”

“Sulfur made the steel harder but with a loss of ductility.” Falsely assuming he didn’t know the meaning of ductility, the chemist continued, “That means the steel got too brittle. It couldn’t be stretched like before. Got it?”

“Let’s move on, Ollie.”

The chemist walked over to a machine clamping the ends of a steel bar. “Watch.” He activated the machine, which tested tensile strength up to sixty thousand pounds of pull at each end. “Want me to explain tensile strength?”

“I get it. You should know I did pass chemistry.” He failed to add: just barely.

The machine whirred and the bar broke in two. Ollie examined the halves. “Much too brittle compared to earlier samples. Too dangerous for Ambrose to use.”

“Anything else?”

“Only that the nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen levels were also elevated. The excess nitrogen aggravated the brittleness problem.”

“Is that all?”

“Why yes? You can draw your own conclusions.”

“Just tell me why you thought I should waste time coming here.

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