Powder Town

Young J. Quincy Pennant is a brilliant but absent minded scientist who has come up with an amazing theory. Unlike skip bombing, Pennant is experimenting with detonating explosives where the shock wave can be sent like a stone skipping over distances without hitting immediate targets, but able to destroy targets at a further distance away, even if they are behind walls. He is sent to a "powder town", a rapidly growing city being built around an arsenal and munitions factory where wartime population growth has brought in criminals, enemy spies and saboteurs.