Damned If You Don't

On a cold February day in 1981, brilliant but politically inept engineer Sam Bending returns to his workshop and finds it wrecked, the power cut, the burglar alarm burned through, and his prized Converter stolen with surgical precision. The break-in feels less like theft than a warning from a monopoly that knows exactly how dangerous his invention is. When police and a technical squad arrive by helicopter, Bending realizes the sabotage has erased crucial evidence and that the petty cash box, safe, and hidden equipment have all been searched with professional care. Bending's troubles began when polished Power Utilities representative Richard Olcott came calling, probing rumors of a revolutionary new energy source. Bending answered with the truth: a compact black box that runs on plain water, weighs about a hundred pounds, and can deliver astonishing power without radiation or explosion. Self-contained and potentially cheap to mass-produce, the Converter could transform the energy industry—and destroy the utilities' control. Bending refuses to sell out, even as corporate pressure turns to theft, and he is left confronting a future where innovation, monopoly, and fear collide. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.