[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"So, Ian. It's all honest?" I asked.
"Well, yes, of course. At least I think so, I mean . . ."
"Hey, are we going to go to jail for it?"
"No. Or at least not until the deceased first owner gets jailed first."
"Well, good enough for a veteran. So we are decided?"
"One last thing," Hasenpfeffer shooed the waitress out. "Security. I know that
that's a bad word with some of us, but a certain degree of it is necessary. I am
not proposing armed guards and television cameras. At this stage they could do
nothing more than attract attention. I am merely suggesting that we keep silent
and tell no one, absolutely no one, about out plans, objectives, or intentions.
Are you with me?"
"Of course."
"Yeah, sure." I said, "What about the waitresses?"
"How could they know what we're talking about when we don't know ourselves?" Ian
asked.
"Good points, gentlemen. The fact is that I have already ascertained that they
are both local people with no outside affiliations. In the future we must be
more cautious. One last thought: we must agree that everything we learn or
accomplish must be kept within the group. Absolutely nothing may be released to
outsiders without our unanimous agreement. Are we together on this?"
"Certainly, Jim."
"Well, yeah, okay. Remember thatI'm the only one here with a top secret
clearance. But I've got a question or two of my own. Jim, you've been pulling
your little strings on us all evening long, but you haven't told us what you're
thinking."
"I have led the discussion in examining certain obvious questions, but I have
not concealed anything."
"The hell you say. You bought and sold a major piece of property with our money
without even asking us about it first, or telling us about it later, second.
Now, I've said how this thing could be a weapon and Ian's talked about using it
as a tool. What doyou think we have here?"
"I am not sure that my opinions are relevant. You two are the technical ones."
"Not a chance. Spill it," I said. Ian nodded his agreement.
"This is premature, but very well.If you technical gentlemen can perfect it, I
expect that we shall eventually have a time machine."
CHAPTER SEVEN
Girlfriends and Grandfathers
The place outside of Ann Arbor was everything that Hasenpfeffer said it would
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...rd%207%20-%20Conrad's%20Time%20Machine.txt (20 of 156) [12/28/2004 4:51:10 PM]
file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Leo%20Frankowski%20-%20Stargard%207%20-%20Conrad's%20Time%20Machine.txt
be. Everything was well built, clean and new. The house was a big brick ranch
style thing, and while I would have picked some other color than pink for the
bricks, even that sort of grew on you.
There was a big living room that we dubbed a "parlor" and filled with Ian's old
three quarter sized furniture, agreeing among ourselves that we wouldn't use it
except for entertaining people we didn't like. I mean, it had a white carpet and
white walls. Ian was a painfully neat person, but the best thing you could say
about Hasenpfeffer and me was that he was a filthy slob, and that I was a
filthier one. Obviously, the room wouldn't stay white if we were allowed to use
it. Anyway, you've got to have someplace to use if the girl's folks want to come
over, right?
There was a big family room with a fireplace and enough bookshelves to hold all
of Hasenpfeffer's books and Ian's as well. Ian put his little leather easy chair
in there, and Hasenpfeffer found out that therewere companies that made stuff
big enough to fit me, for a price. I got this glorious real leather recliner
that actually fit my back while Hasenpfeffer chose a leather and chrome Eames
swivel chair and hassock for himself.
Of course, Danish Modern, chrome and leather, and Lazy Boy don't match, but then
we didn't match, either.
The kitchen was full of gadgets that I wasn't used to, like a microwave oven, a
garbage disposal and a dishwasher, but modern man is pretty adaptable, and it's
remarkable how quickly these fabulous luxuries became absolute necessities.
I got a new set of bedroom furniture, and that was wonderful. For the first time
since I started to grow hair below my waist, I had a bed long enough to fit me!
I got the master bedroom, too, since I needed it to get my new bed and an
oversized desk into it. It had its own bathroom, but then so did the other two
bedrooms.
The door into my room was of only normal size, so I could still bump my head on
it. I was half tempted to cut the door frame out on top so I could walk through
standing straight up, but I decided against it. The guys had been pretty
reasonable about everything else, and I thought it wise not to push them too
far.
The place had a three-car garage, and that was filled up pretty quickly. We kept
Ian's Corvette as group property, since he owed more on it than it was worth,
and I think Hasenpfeffer liked it even more than Ian did.
Only, while the 'vette was a pretty little plastic toy, the damn thing was too
small for me to get into. I threw a temper tantrum about it, so we bought a
secondhand Chrysler as group property so I had something to drive in the winter,
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]