Isso é Terra, Ar, Fogo e Água , de Stephen Nemeth e William Walling. Foi feito como uma série de três partes nas edições de fevereiro, março e abril de 1974 do Analog.
Encontrei um link para as primeiras primeiras páginas digitalizadas e o personagem principal se chamava Volpone, do qual eu me lembrava.
Alex Volpone sighed. “Leonard, Leonard, there are no sure things in this’precarious world. It has to be an excellent bet, a clean, tremendously efficient innovation in mass transit, tucked neatly out of sight subsurface, providing aircraft speeds, near-foolproof safety, and gravity compensated acceleration-deceleration passenger comfort.
“You’ve watched the model work, listened to Dr. Seymour’s pitch on the compressor equipment
we’re to build. Can you ask more than CompAir’s chance to participate in such a gigantic enterprise?”
“If the horse is allowed to run,” maintained Colo doggedly. “And if young Seymour’s blue sky approach proves feasible in this, the real world.”