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.A hundred thingstook place in those physioweeks, and all confused itself inextricably inHarlan's memory, later, making the period seem to have lasted much longer thanit did.The one idyllic thing about it was, of course, the hours he couldspend with Noys, and that cast a glow over everything else.Item One: At the 482nd he slowly packed his personal effects; his clothing andfilms, most of all his beloved and tenderly handled newsmagazine volumes outof the Primitive.Anxiously he supervised their return to his permanentstation in the 575th.Finge was at his elbow as the last of it was lifted into the freight kettle byMaintenance men.Finge said, choosing his words with unerring triteness, "Leaving us, Isee." His smile was broad, but his lips were carefully held together so thatonly the barest trace of teeth showed.He kept his hands clasped behind hisback and his pudgy body teetered forward on the balls of his feet.Harlan did not look at his superior.He muttered a monotoned "Yes, sir."Finge said, "I will report to Senior Computer Twissell concerning the entirelysatisfactory manner in which you performed your Observational duties in the482nd."Harlan could not bring himself to utter even a sullen word of thanks.Heremained silent.Finge went on, in a suddenly much lower voice, "I will not report, for thepresent, your recent attempt at violence against me." And although his smileremained and his glance remained mild, there was a relish of cruelsatisfaction about him.Harlan looked up sharply and said, "As you wish, Computer."Item Two: He re-established himself at the 575th.He met Twissell almost at once.He found himself happy to see that littlebody, topped by that lined and gnomelike face.He was even happy to see thewhite cylinder nestling smokily between two stained fingers and being liftedrapidly toward Twissell's lips.Harlan said, "Computer."Twissell, emerging from his office, looked for a moment unseeingly andunrecognizingly at Harlan.His face was haggard and his eyes squinted withweariness.Page 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlHe said, "Ah, Technician Harlan.You are done with your work in the482nd?""Yes, sir."Twissell's comment was strange.He looked at his watch, which, like any watchin Eternity, was geared to physiotime, giving the day number as well as thetime of day, and said, "On the nose, my boy, on the nose.Wonderful.Wonderful."Harlan felt his heart give a small bound.When he had last seen Twissell hewould not have been able to make sense of that remark.Now he thought he did.Twissell was tired, or he would not have spoken so close to the core ofthings, perhaps.Or the Computer might have felt the remark to be so crypticas to feel safe despite its closeness to the core.Harlan said, speaking ascasually as he could to avoid letting it seem that hisremark had any connection at all with what Twissell had just said, "How's myCub?""Fine, fine," said Twissell, with only half his mind, apparently, on hiswords.He took a quick puff at the shortening tube of tobacco, indulged in aquick nod of dismissal, and hurried off.Item Three: the Cub.He seemed older.There seemed to be a greater feeling of maturity to him as heheld out his hand and said, "Glad to see you back, Harlan."Or was it merely that, where earlier Harlan had been conscious of Cooper onlyas a pupil, he now seemed more than a Cub.He now seemed a gigantic instrumentin the hands of the Eternals.Naturally he could not help but attain a newstature in Harlan's eyes.Harlan tried not to show that.They were in Harlan's own quarters, and theTechnician basked in the creamy porcelain surfaces about him, glad to be outof the ornate splash of the 482nd.Try as he might to associate the wildbaroque of the 482nd with Noys, he only succeeded in associating it withFinge.With Noys he associated a pink, satiny twilight and, strangely, thebare austerity of the Sections of the Hidden Centuries.He spoke hastily, almost as though he were anxious to hide his dangerousthoughts."Well, Cooper, what have they been doing with you while I was away?"Cooper laughed, brushed his drooping mustache self-consciously with one fingerand said, "More math.Always math.""Yes? Pretty advanced stuff by now, I guess.""Pretty advanced.""How's it coming?""So far it's bearable.It comes pretty easy, you know.I like it.But nowthey're really loading it on."Harlan nodded and felt a certain satisfaction.He said, "Temporal Fieldmatrices and all that?"But Cooper, his color a little high, turned toward the stacked volumes in thebookshelves, and said, "Let's get back to the Primitives.I've got somequestions.""About what?""City life in the 23rd.Los Angeles, especially.""Why Los Angeles?""It's an interesting city.Don't you think so?""It is, but let's hit it in the 21st, then.It was at its peak in the21st.""Oh, let's try the 23rd."Harlan said, "Well, why not?"His face was impassive, but if the impassiveness could have been peeled off,there would have been a grimness about him.His grand, intuitional guess wasmore than a guess.Everything was checking neatly.Item Four: research.Twofold research.For himself, first.Each day, with ferreting eyes, he went through the reportsPage 52ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlon Twissell's desk.The reports concerned the various Reality Changes beingscheduled or suggested.Copies went to Twissell routinely since he was amember of the Allwhen Council, and Harlan knew he would not miss one.Helooked first for the coming Change in the 482nd [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]