Paycheck. Part 9

'It's a matter I discussed with you several months ago. You recall, I think.'

Timmer's expression changed. 'Your son?'

'I've decided. I can't wait any longer. He's getting worse, and we'll be leaving soon on the time trip. I want it performed before I leave.'

'All right.' Timmer made a note. 'We'll make immediate arrangements here. And we'll send a s.h.i.+p over to pick him up at once.'

Ryan hesitated. 'You'll do a good job?'

'Of course. We'll have James Pryor perform the actual operation.' Timmer reached up to cut the vidscreen circuit. 'Don't worry, Caleb. He'll do a good job. Pryor is the best lobotomist the center has.'

Ryan laid out the map, stretching the corners flat against the table. 'This is a time map, drawn up in the form of a s.p.a.ce projection. So we can see where we're going.'

Kastner peered over his shoulder. 'Will we be confined to the one Project - getting Schonerman's papers? Or can we move around?'

'Only the one Project is contemplated. But to be certain of success we should make several stops on this side of Schonerman's continuum. Our time map may be inaccurate, or the drive itself may act with some bias.'

The work was finished. All the final sections were put in place.

In a corner of the room Jon sat watching, his face expressionless. Ryan glanced toward him. 'How does it look to you?'

'Fine.'

The time s.h.i.+p was like some stubby insect, overgrown with warts and k.n.o.bs. A square box with windows and endless turrets. Not really a s.h.i.+p at all.

'I guess you wish you could come,' Kastner said to Jon. 'Right?'

Jon nodded faintly.

'How are you feeling?' Ryan asked him.

'Fine.'

Ryan studied his son. The boy's color had come back. He had regained most of his original vitality. The visions, of course, no longer existed.

'Maybe you can come next time,' Kastner said.

Ryan returned to the map. 'Schonerman did most of his work between 2030 and 2037. The results were not put to any use until several years later. The decision to use his work in the war was reached only after long consideration. The Governments seemed to have been aware of the dangers.'

'But not sufficiently so.'

'No.' Ryan hesitated. 'And we may be getting ourselves into the same situation.'

'How do you mean?'

'Schonerman's discovery of the artificial brain was lost when the last claw was destroyed. None of us have been able to duplicate his work. If we bring his papers we may put society back in jeopardy. We may bring back the claws.'

Kastner shook his head. 'No. Schonerman's work was not implicitly related to the claws. The development of an artificial brain does not imply lethal usage. Any scientific discovery can be used for destruction. Even the wheel was used in the a.s.syrian war chariots.'

'I suppose so.' Ryan glanced up at Kastner. 'Are you certain USIC doesn't intend to use Schonerman's work along military lines?'

'USIC is an industrial combine. Not a government.'

'It would ensure its advantage for a long time.'

'USIC is strong enough as it is.'

'Let it go.' Ryan rolled up the map. 'We can start any minute. I'm anxious to get going. We've worked a long time on this.'

'I agree.'

Ryan crossed the room to his soon. 'We're leaving, Jon. We should be back fairly soon. Wish us luck.'

Jon nodded. 'I wish you luck.'

'You're feeling all right?'

'Yes.'

'Jon - you feel better now, don't you? Better than before?'

'Yes.'

'Aren't you glad they're gone? All the troubles you were having?'

'Yes.'

Ryan put his hand awkwardly on the boy's shoulder. 'We'll see you later.'

Ryan and Kastner made their way up the ramp to the hatch of the time s.h.i.+p. From the corner, Jon watched them silently. A few League Guards lounged at the entrances to the work lab, watching with idle interest.

Ryan paused at the hatch. He called one of the guards over. 'Tell Timmer I want him.'

The guard went off, pus.h.i.+ng through the exit.

'What is it?' Kastner said.

'I have some final instructions to give him.'

Kastner shot him a sharp glance. 'Final? What's the matter? You think something's going to happen to us?'

'No. Just a precaution.'

Timmer came striding in. 'You're leaving, Ryan?'

'Everything's ready. There's no reason to hold back any longer.'

Timmer came up the ramp. 'What did you want me for?'

'This may be unnecessary. But there's always the possibility something might go wrong. In case the s.h.i.+p doesn't reappear according to schedule I've filed with the League members-'

'You want me to name a protector for Jon.'

'That's right.'

'There's nothing to worry about.'

'I know. But I'd feel better. Someone should watch out for him.'

They both glanced at the silent, expressionless boy sitting in the corner of the room. Jon stared straight ahead. His face was blank. His eyes were dull, listless. There was nothing there.

'Good luck,' Timmer said. He and Ryan shook hands. 'I hope everything works out.'

Kastner climbed inside the s.h.i.+p, setting down his briefcase. Ryan followed him, lowering the hatch into place and bolting it into position. He sealed the inner lock. A bank of automatic lighting came on. Controlled atmosphere began to hiss into the cabin of the s.h.i.+p.

'Air, light, heat,' Kastner said. He peered out the port at the League Guards outside. 'It's hard to believe. In a few minutes all this will disappear. This building. These guards. Everything.'

Ryan seated himself at the control board of the s.h.i.+p, spreading out the time map. He fastened the map into position, crossing the surface with the cable leads from the board before him. 'It's my plan to make several observation stops along the way, so we can view some of the past events relevant to our work.'

'The war?'

'Mainly. I'm interested in seeing the claws in actual operation. At one time they were in complete control of Terra, according to the War Office records.'

'Let's not get too close, Ryan.'

Ryan laughed. 'We won't land. We'll make our observations from the air. The only actual contact we'll make will be with Schonerman.'

Ryan closed the power circuit. Energy flowed through the s.h.i.+p around them, flooding into the meters and indicators on the control board. Needles jumped, registering the load.

'The main thing we have to watch is our energy peak,' Ryan explained. 'If we build up too much of a load of time ergs the s.h.i.+p won't be able to come out of the time stream. We'll keep moving back into the past, building up a greater and greater charge.'

'An enormous bomb.'

'That's right.' Ryan adjusted the switches before him. The meter readings changed. 'Here we go. Better hang on.'

He released the controls. The s.h.i.+p shuddered as it polarized into position, easing into the time flow. The vanes and k.n.o.bs changed their settings, adjusting themselves to the stress. Relays closed, braking the s.h.i.+p against the current sweeping around them.

'Like the ocean,' Ryan murmured. 'The most potent energy in the universe. The great dynamic behind all motion. The Prime Mover.'

'Maybe this is what they used to mean by G.o.d.'

Ryan nodded. The s.h.i.+p was vibrating around them. They were in the grip of a giant hand, an immense fist closing silently. They were in motion. Through the port the men and walls had begun to waver, fading out of existence as the s.h.i.+p slipped out of phase with the present, drifting farther and farther into the flow of the time stream.

'It won't be long,' Ryan murmured.

All at once the scene beyond the port winked out. There was nothing there. Nothing beyond them.

'We've not phased with any s.p.a.ce-time objects,' Ryan explained. 'We're out of focus with the universe itself. At this moment we exist in non-time. There's no continuum in which we're operating.'

'I hope we can get back again.' Kastner sat down nervously, his eyes on the blank port. 'I feel like the first man who went down in a submarine.'

'That was during the American Revolution. The submarine was propelled by a crank which the pilot turned. The other end of the crank was a propeller.'

'How could he go very far?'

'He didn't. He cranked his s.h.i.+p under a British frigate and then bored a hole in the frigate's hull.'

Kastner glanced up at the hull of the time s.h.i.+p, vibrating and rattling from stress. 'What would happen if this s.h.i.+p should break open?'

'We'd be atomized. Dissolved into the stream around us.' Ryan lit a cigarette. 'We'd become a part of the time flow. We'd move back and forth endlessly, from one end of the universe to the other.'

'End?'

'The time ends. Time flows both ways. Right now we're moving back. But energy must move both ways to keep a balance. Otherwise time ergs in vast amounts would collect at one particular continuum and the result would be catastrophic.'

'Do you suppose there's some purpose behind all of this? I wonder how the time flow ever got started.'

'Your question is meaningless. Questions of purpose have no objective validity. They can't be subjected to any form of empirical investigation.'

Kastner lapsed into silence. He picked at his sleeve nervously, watching the port.

Across the time map the cable arms moved, tracing a line from the present back into the past. Ryan studied the motion of the arms. 'We're reaching the latter part of the war. The final stages. I'm going to rephase the s.h.i.+p and bring it out of the time flow.'

'Then we'll be back in the universe again?'

'Among objects. In a specific continuum.'

Ryan gripped the power switch. He took a deep breath. The first great test of the s.h.i.+p had pa.s.sed. They had entered the time stream without accident. Could they leave it as easily? He opened the switch.

The s.h.i.+p leaped. Kastner staggered, catching hold of the wall support. Outside the port a gray sky twisted and wavered. Adjustments fell into place, leveling the s.h.i.+p in the air. Down below them Terra circled and tilted as the s.h.i.+p gained equilibrium.

Kastner hurried to the port to peer out. They were a few hundred feet above the surface, rus.h.i.+ng parallel to the ground. Gray ash stretched out in all directions, broken by the occasional mounds of rubbish. Ruins of towns, buildings, walls. Wrecks of military equipment. Clouds of ash blew across the sky, darkening the sun.

'Is the war still on?' Kastner asked.

'The claws still possess Terra. We should be able to see them.'

Ryan raised the time s.h.i.+p, increasing the scope of their view. Kastner scanned the ground. 'What if they fire at us?'

'We can always escape into time.'

'They might capture the s.h.i.+p and use it to come to the present.'

'I doubt it. At this stage in the war the claws were busy fighting among themselves.'

To their right ran a winding road, disappearing into the ash and reappearing again later on. Bomb craters gaped here and there, breaking the road up. Something was coming slowly along it.

'There,' Kastner said. 'On the road. A column of some sort.'