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You haven t tried it?
Morrows laughed nervously, as if some embarrassing secret had come to light.
Tried it myself? Take a chance on a miscalculation that might open a gateway
to, say, the heart of a star? Don t be asinine. Oh, once I ve collated all my
data, and perhaps expanded Van Duyn s findings a bit, and made some
preparations and so forth, then I ll use the contiguity. His eyes roamed the
shabby little home. Anger etched his voice.
Do you think I like this? Living on assistantship pay without recognition or
a future? It s just that before I jump off into another cosmos, I want to be
sure, that s all. Simply a matter of a little more hard information, some more
tests.
Then Gil understood. Morrows would never use the contiguity. He d dither
uncertainly, delay one more day or one more week, and in the end he wouldn t
go. Gil wondered what it would be like to see the apparatus every day, know
you could leave anytime you chose, agonize over dangers and doubts and
postpone, forever postpone.
A living hell, he thought.
If you help me, Morrows, I ll add considerably to your information, maybe
clarify some of those variables you ve got, nail down some unknowns for you.
He knew he could con this man.
Morrows leaned forward in his chair, suspicion and condescension forgotten.
* * * *
The next day was Sunday. Though he didn t usually work that day, Morrows went
to the Grossen Institute. Proceeding according to the researcher s
instructions, Gil found an overgrown dirt side road leading to an unused gate
in the fence surrounding the Institute grounds. The road had been used to
bring in heavy equipment to build a power plant, then ignored and the gate
locked. Tall weeds and young saplings had come in since then, effectively
hiding Gil s car from the main road. He was thankful for the Chevy s high
clearance in negotiating passage.
The fence was unimpressive rusting chain link, more to keep out children and
the idly curious than to repel serious invaders. This sleepy town knew little
trouble and conditions required only nonchalant watchfulness against nuisances
and vandals, not alert defense against determined, forceful intrusion, there
being small profit for thieves in the equipment and information available at
the Institute. The Grossen dealt exclusively in the abstract.
Gil waited a few minutes at the fence, assuring himself that no one was near,
and swarmed over it.
Though the directors of the Grossen Institute were curious about Van Duyn s
abandoned apparatus, Morrows investigations clearly didn t have much
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priority. He d been relocated in a converted storage building near the power
plant. It had garage-type doors for deliveries, doors that would fit in with
Gil s plan.
Morrows was waiting for him and showed him the contiguity apparatus, a square
frame of metal perhaps seven feet on a side, held upright by supports. There
was surprisingly little ancillary equipment: a monitoring console and the
tuning bank. Morrows warmed the device, studying various indicators with a
critical eye. Gil watched and tried to memorize the sequence exactly.
At last the other mated two cables and threw a switch. The framework
instantly contained a bright scene, a green field with a warm sun overhead and
a tree line in the distance. Gil knew he was looking at Coramonde again.
Morrows threw the switch back and the view faded. He was sweating and his
hands were trembling badly.
Okay, said Gil, here s the scam.
* * * *
That evening he returned home, supposedly from visiting Jack McKinny, a
former squadmate in the LURPs. The next day he cashed in his U.S. Savings
Bonds, closed out his bank account and began a painstaking buying spree,
starting with the bookstores. Deciding and redeciding what to take, he
concentrated largely on law, political science, philosophy and selections in
mathematics, psychology and education. He took everything he could lay his
hands on about guerrilla warfare; he added them to his own collection, manuals
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