Calvin turned to his daughter. "We've got to hurry," he said; "we've
got to meet Lester Ackerman and Tansie Lee, take Ackerman to the edge
of time to see the destruction of our world."
"Then it is to be destroyed?" said Laurie fearfully.
"It is only an excellent probability," said her father. "That may--it
please God--be averted. Come."
8
Ackerman ran to the laboratory and climbed into another 'time-vehicle'.
He drove it through "time" and "space" as fast as he could, returning
to the forest area where he had sent the group back. Once there, he
pursued a blind train forward in "time", hurrying to catch them.
Swiftly he moved, but as fast as he was, they were always lost ahead of
him. In effect, their return was instantaneous, but so was his flight
across the years. It was only to Ackerman that "time" seemed to hang
heavily as he drove futureward, stopping at regular intervals to see
through the gray haze that covered up the outside when the vehicle was
in motion.
At long last he saw them, but only for an instant and then through a
fading fog.
Again he saw them, hurried ahead of them and waited. They re-appeared
in the same postures of their leaving, were present for a bare instant,
and then were gone again.
There were houses there the next "time", houses and people that got in
his way; the next "time" again, there was a village, and then a small
city was there.
But the returning group were slowing, and Ackerman saw that they were
changing their posture a bit. The looks of anger and fear were dying;
tenseness was leaving their bodies; they were turning to face one
another.
It was upon the next "time" that Ackerman snapped his projector at
them. He might as well have snapped his fingers; nothing happened.
He wondered, then smiled in frustration. How could he bring an object
in from the other world that was not there? He could not; he could but
wait until they returned and then grab them quick, again, before they
had a chance to do any damage.
He raced forward quite a distance and looked them over. They were
moving now; walking and talking to one another. Ackerman could not hear
them for he was in his "time-ship" with the "lid" down for instant
flight. He cursed the haze; it made a careful estimate of the instant
of their arrival almost impossible. Especially now when they were
beginning to blend in with the people of the "real world."
He saw it, then. They were idly walking, coming on the "time-strata"
of solidity a full yard above the ground. Descending; walking through
a "Real World" building toward a "Real World" sidewalk. They would
meet--their "Real World" identities who were coming along the street in
the same formation, talking in the same fashion.
Converging, wraith and ghost came together, passed through one another,
approached a perfect register. Then as they blended into one being
each, Ackerman gave a sharp cry and slammed down on his switch.
* * * * *
He saw it again. They parted, wraiths from ghosts, and continued on
their respective paths. The group in the "Real World" continued along
the street, talking animatedly. The others--solid to Ackerman and
themselves, stopped in baffled amazement.
They saw his car, and him. "What is this?" demanded Barry Ford. "Where
did you come from? And how in the name of the Seven Deadly Sins do we
seem to be walking--wading, so help me--ankle deep in the ground?"
Ackerman sat down in utter weariness. He had done it, all right. He had
brought them! He had split the instant on the instant, and with this
result.
In the world of "Reality", Barry and Louis Ford, and Joan and Tod
Laplane were free to go and tell all. In his world of "time-space",
Les Ackerman had four completely baffled people who would never have
known of "time-space" and the split worlds if he, Ackerman, had not
interfered.
He had wondered about the destruction of Calvin Blaine's world, had
sent Blaine off to find his--Ackerman's--own previous "time-self"
because it had been Ackerman's opinion that the destruction of Calvin
Blaine's world only obtained in a situation where the Laplane-Ford
group had been returned. That, he believed, was a transitory situation
that would be averted as soon as he caught up with them.
Then came the next blaze of mental lightning. Calvin Blaine was no
man's fool: knowing that Ackerman must release the other group after
meeting Calvin for the first time, Blaine would also know that when he
interrupted the love-scene, it would be Ackerman's first knowledge of
Calvin Blaine.
Then. Right then. If Calvin and Laurie Blaine permitted themselves
to be caught up with the so-called "edge of time-space" with Lester
Ackerman, the latter would never meet the Laplane-Ford group.
There would be no telling no information, and hence no strife. That
of itself would be fine. But the twin worlds would eventually come
together, both in "space" and in "time", and trouble would ensue from
that alone. He, Ackerman, was the only man who could do something about
that.
Quickly, he brought the group before him up to date. He told them as
much as he could, told them to go and meet the Blaines, who were trying
to get lost through the edge of the "time-split". It took some telling,
some explanation, and quite a bit of convincing.
Eventually, they agreed. "But how will we go?" asked Barry Ford.
Ackerman wondered, and then grinned. "Simple; I'll not wait long. For I
shall send the next person I meet in 'time' to this instant to meet me.
In fact," he said with genuine amusement, "I may send myself. And here
I come now--see?"
The other car was sliding down, solidifying rapidly as it came into the
"time-space" instant of Ackerman's Unreal "present".
"We--"
"Get going," said Les; "I want to talk to myself in peace and quiet."
They left, and Ackerman went to the other car, which had landed.
* * * * *
The driver was a stranger. He was about Ackerman's size and build;
perhaps a little less gaunt and strained. He had a certain grim humor;
sardonic, but still compassionate.
He stepped from the car and faced Ackerman. "So," he said with a
sarcastic leer, "You are Lester Ackerman. The Great Physicist!"
"Now listen," snarled Ackerman angrily. "I don't--"
"Well, well!" laughed the other. "Look, Ackerman; for a Great
Physicist, you are certainly making a sheer mess out of this."
"It's pretty much of a mess as it is!"
"Only what you've made it. You know, I should really let you stew in
your own juice; it'll make a better man of you. It's only that I want
to see you come through this at all that I interfere. Chum, you've
boiled up a real tangle."
"_I_ have?"
"This mess is of your making," insisted the stranger. "Shall I recount?"
"Please do," snapped Ackerman superciliously. "But after you tell me
who you are."
"I happen to be Tansie Lee's husband."
"You--" stammered Ackerman. That, possibly, was the one thing that
could--and did--fluster him completely. Not only that, but he showed it
in every line of his body, every gesture, every stammering syllable.
The other got a laugh out of Ackerman's complete loss of personal
control.
"Don't apologize," he said. "I sent Tansie Lee; I hoped that you would
be smart enough to figure it out with her help. You aren't."
"Did you instruct Tansie Lee to make love to me?"
"Tansie did nothing wrong," said the man. "What was wrong--completely,
and totally--was your attitude."
Then he held up a hand as Ackerman was about to continue. "Not now," he
said. "You've got to untangle this mess first."
"Go ahead," said Les. "Untangle."
"You," said Tansie Lee's husband, "were met by my wife in a state of
ignorance concerning this fine mixup. You were intercepted by the
Blaines, whom you, yourself, sent recently to do the intercepting.
You even gave them the information that would best cause the breakup
of intelligent understanding between Tansie and yourself. The Blaines
reached you and intercepted. That fouled up my initial plans. Then
you and the Blaines were intercepted again by the Laplane-Ford
outfit--which you again sent to do the intercepting. Interestingly
snarled, Ackerman; but when Barry Ford told you with such certainty
that the Blaines were leading you to the instant of entrapped no-return
at the so-called 'edge of time-space', Barry Ford was merely echoing
your own fears. Fears which were installed in you, by the way, by
Barry, who was recounting your own--oh Hell and Damnation!"
"Mind telling me where the Blaines come in?"
"Certainly. But I won't. You brought them."
"I'll be damned if I bring them."