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Henceforward, no wheeled vehicles whatsoever will be alloithin the precincts of the City, from sunrise until the hour before duskThose which shall have entered during the night, and are still within the City at dawn, must halt and stand empty until the appointed hour
Senatus consulturn of Julius Caesar, 44 BC
It is absolutely impossible to sleep anywhere in the City The perpetual traffic of wagons in the narroinding streetsis sufficient to wake the dead
The Satires of Juvenal, AD 117
All characters in this book are fictitious, and rese or dead, is coincidental
Chapter 1
The president of General Motors was in a foul huht because his electric blanket had worked only inter cold Now, after padding around his home in paja-size bed where his wife still slept, and was taking the control mechanism apart Almost at once he observed a badly joined connection, cause of the night's on-again off-again perfor sourly about poor quality control of blanket manufacturers, the GM president took the unit to his basement workshop to repair
His wife, Coralie, stirred In a few et up sleepily to make breakfast for them both
Outside, in suburban Bloomfield Hills, a dozen miles north of Detroit, it was still dark
The GM president - a spare, fast-, normally even-tempered man - had another cause for ill temper besides the electric blanket It was Eh the radio turned on softly beside his bed, the GM chief had heard a news broadcast which included the hated, astringent, familiar voice of the auto industry's arch critic,
Yesterday, at a Washington press conference, Eets - General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler The press wire services, probably due to a lack of hard news froiven Vale's attack the full treatment
The big three of the auto industry, Ereed, cri abuse of public trust" The conspiracy was their continuing failure to develop alternatives to gasoline-powered automobiles - namely electric and steam vehicles - which, Vale asserted, "are available now"
The accusation was not neever, Vale - a skilled hand at public relations and with the press - had injected enough recent material to make his statement neorthy
The president of the world's largest corporation, who had a PhD in engineering, fixed the blanket control, in the sa other jobs around the house when time permitted Then he showered, shaved, dressed for the office, and joined Coralie at breakfast
A copy of the Detroit Free Press was on the dining-room table As he saw Ee, he swept the newspaper angrily to the floor
"Well," Coralie said "I hope that made you feel better" She put a cholesterol-watcher's breakfast in front of hi on dry toast, with sliced toe cheese, The GM president's wife always made breakfast herself and had it with hi herself opposite, she retrieved the Free Press and opened it
Presently she announced, "Emerson Vale says if we have the technical competence to land men on the moon and Mars, the auto industry should be able to produce a totally safe, defect-free car that doesn't pollute its environment"
Her husband laid down his knife and fork "Must you spoil my breakfast, little as it is?"
Coralie s else had done that already" She continued, unperturbed, "Mr Vale quotes the Bible about air pollution"
"For Christ's sake! Where does the Bible say anything about that?"
"Not Christ's sake, dear It's in the Old Testament"
His curiosity aroused, be growled, "Go ahead, read it You intended to, anyway"
"Froht you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled e an abomination" She poured more coffee for them both "I do think that rather clever of him"
"No one's ever suggested the bastard isn't clever"
Coralie went back to reading aloud "The auto and oil industries, Vale said, have together delayed technical progress which could have led, long before now, to an effective electric or stea is simple Such a car would nullify their enor internal coine"
She put the paper down "Is any of that true?"