watch. I'll do it again.' Again he clickedand again there was a soft popping sound.
'David, it's coming from the center of the field!'
They tried the test several times more, always with the same result. Both of them were too caught up in their thoughts to say much. Finally Vickie said, 'Stop for a minute; I want to try something.' She went over to the workbench and picked up a piece of heavy, white-jacketed electrician's wire. She bent a hook on one end and draped this over an upper coil, so that the wire hung approximately through the center of the field. 'Now! Try that,' she said. 'I want to see what happens when a solid object is in the field.'
David nodded and activated the field sequence. Again there was the popping sound, and the lower portion of the wire fell to the floor, leaving the hooked wire, now much shorter, dangling from the upper coil. 'Jesus!' said David.
Vickie retrieved the wire stubs and examined their ends. 'Smooth and shiny, just like those pieces from the chamber,' she said. She held them out to David, then returned to the workbench for two more pieces of heavy wire. These she balanced on the side coils so that they formed a white horizontal
X
across the central region of the field coils. 'OK . . . again,' she said.
David activated the sequence. The now-familiar
pop
echoed through the room, and an instant later four stubby wire ends fell to the floor. He laughed, with just an edge of hysteria in his voice. 'Holy shit! Vickie, do you realize what we've discovered?'
'What?' said Vickie, looking over at him.
'What we've got here,' he announced with a crooked grin, 'what we've discovered,' almost breaking up completely, 'is a unique and com-plete-ly new and un-precedented way . . . ' he could hardly talk now for laughing, ' . . . of cutting wire!'
On the large bed of his suite at the St Francis, Allan Saxon lay on his stomach. 'Al-lan,' Darlene said, as she massaged his bare back, 'how do you manage to be such a fa-mous pro-fes-sor and still run an important business at the same time?'
Saxon rolled over and looked up at her, savoring the view. I wonder what she's up to, he thought. His finger traced the crinkled aureole around her erect nipple. He was getting his third wind, he decided. 'It isn't too difficult,' he said. 'The basic research work that we do at the university leads to applications that feed into my business. And the techniques that we develop at my business lab are often useful for our basic research at the university.' At least, that was how it was supposed to work, he thought. 'Does Martin ever say anything about our work?' he asked. Might as well see what he could find out.
' Mr Pierce never discusses things with me like this, Allan. I love to watch you talk,' she added. 'Your eyebrows are so expressive. What are you doing now at the university? You seemed so excited when you came back from your telephone call this morning.'
Saxon explained to her in some detail about their holospin wave experiments, and her gaze never left his face. She was a remarkable girl, he decided. Talented in many ways, and interested in physics, too.
7
Friday Morning, October 8
Martin Pierce turned from Darlene's neatly typed report, which had been waiting on his desk when he arrived at his office this morning. She was good, he thought. In more ways than one. He lifted an oiled rosewood panel, unfolding the built-in computer terminal that opened from his desktop. He adjusted the angle of the high-resolution color display plate, switched on the terminal unit and logged in, then called up the special program that the Megalith Communications Group had prepared for him. It was time for another bit of spook work.
Industrial espionage was a primary tool of Martin Pierce's operation at Megalith. The company survived by spotting new technologies and sewing up patent rights and exclusive license agreements before their value became apparent to the bigger, slower-moving corporations competing for the same
'David, it's coming from the center of the field!'
They tried the test several times more, always with the same result. Both of them were too caught up in their thoughts to say much. Finally Vickie said, 'Stop for a minute; I want to try something.' She went over to the workbench and picked up a piece of heavy, white-jacketed electrician's wire. She bent a hook on one end and draped this over an upper coil, so that the wire hung approximately through the center of the field. 'Now! Try that,' she said. 'I want to see what happens when a solid object is in the field.'
David nodded and activated the field sequence. Again there was the popping sound, and the lower portion of the wire fell to the floor, leaving the hooked wire, now much shorter, dangling from the upper coil. 'Jesus!' said David.
Vickie retrieved the wire stubs and examined their ends. 'Smooth and shiny, just like those pieces from the chamber,' she said. She held them out to David, then returned to the workbench for two more pieces of heavy wire. These she balanced on the side coils so that they formed a white horizontal
X
across the central region of the field coils. 'OK . . . again,' she said.
David activated the sequence. The now-familiar
pop
echoed through the room, and an instant later four stubby wire ends fell to the floor. He laughed, with just an edge of hysteria in his voice. 'Holy shit! Vickie, do you realize what we've discovered?'
'What?' said Vickie, looking over at him.
'What we've got here,' he announced with a crooked grin, 'what we've discovered,' almost breaking up completely, 'is a unique and com-plete-ly new and un-precedented way . . . ' he could hardly talk now for laughing, ' . . . of cutting wire!'
On the large bed of his suite at the St Francis, Allan Saxon lay on his stomach. 'Al-lan,' Darlene said, as she massaged his bare back, 'how do you manage to be such a fa-mous pro-fes-sor and still run an important business at the same time?'
Saxon rolled over and looked up at her, savoring the view. I wonder what she's up to, he thought. His finger traced the crinkled aureole around her erect nipple. He was getting his third wind, he decided. 'It isn't too difficult,' he said. 'The basic research work that we do at the university leads to applications that feed into my business. And the techniques that we develop at my business lab are often useful for our basic research at the university.' At least, that was how it was supposed to work, he thought. 'Does Martin ever say anything about our work?' he asked. Might as well see what he could find out.
' Mr Pierce never discusses things with me like this, Allan. I love to watch you talk,' she added. 'Your eyebrows are so expressive. What are you doing now at the university? You seemed so excited when you came back from your telephone call this morning.'
Saxon explained to her in some detail about their holospin wave experiments, and her gaze never left his face. She was a remarkable girl, he decided. Talented in many ways, and interested in physics, too.
7
Friday Morning, October 8
Martin Pierce turned from Darlene's neatly typed report, which had been waiting on his desk when he arrived at his office this morning. She was good, he thought. In more ways than one. He lifted an oiled rosewood panel, unfolding the built-in computer terminal that opened from his desktop. He adjusted the angle of the high-resolution color display plate, switched on the terminal unit and logged in, then called up the special program that the Megalith Communications Group had prepared for him. It was time for another bit of spook work.
Industrial espionage was a primary tool of Martin Pierce's operation at Megalith. The company survived by spotting new technologies and sewing up patent rights and exclusive license agreements before their value became apparent to the bigger, slower-moving corporations competing for the same
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