8:30
`` You want to get us all thrown into this filbert factory ? Do you know what the newspapers would do to us if they ever got wind of the fact , that for one , tiny fraction of a second , anyone of us here entertained the notion that a paranoidal idiot with the IQ of an ape could make an atomic bomb out of kid 's modeling clay ? `` They 'd crucify us , that 's what they 'd do ! '' At 8:30 that night , Thaddeus Funston , swathed in an Army officer 's greatcoat that concealed the strait jacket binding him and with an officer 's cap jammed far down over his face , was hustled out of a small side door of the hospital and into a waiting staff car . A few minutes later , the car pulled into the flying field at the nearby community and drove directly to the military transport plane that stood at the end of the runway with propellers turning . Two military policemen and a brace of staff psychiatrists sworn to secrecy under the National Atomic Secrets Act , bundled Thaddeus aboard the plane . They plopped him into a seat directly in front of Miss Abercrombie and with a roar , the plane raced down the runway and into the night skies .