The Expendables

A scientist creates a matter-disintegration device for industrial waste disposal. The military sees bigger potential: what if you could make problems, including people, simply cease to exist? The bodies are never found because there are no bodies to find. Harmon builds tension through rationalization, each character convincing themselves that the next step is still acceptable. The real horror isn't the technology, it's how quickly moral boundaries dissolve when the act becomes so easy. This is 1960s speculative fiction at its sharpest: a premise that's part noir thriller, part ethical inquiry into what we do when we have the power to make things disappear.