Dangerous Quarry

"Dangerous Quarry" by Jim Harmon is a science fiction story set in the early 1960s. It centers on Madison, an insurance adjuster, who is sent to the strange town of Granite City to examine a surge of unusual accident claims. Initially suspecting insurance fraud, Madison soon discovers that the town’s granite is affecting the residents. As Madison investigates, he uncovers the granite is causing people in Granite City to lose their psionic abilities, which results in a lack of basic foresight. With a captive professor’s help, Madison confronts the townspeople which leads to the granite’s impact being far greater than originally thought, and hints at a much broader crisis as the meaning of their psychic abilities disappearing begin to arise.