"Ava, from what I gather, Redmond is about to get into the production
of a negative-gravitic field, which will generate negative space, which
will destroy this space. Doubtless that shaft of energy, so called, was
nothing but a shaft of negative space that met with and cancelled real
space with the resulting outburst of energy."
"But--"
"We need Maculay," said Hanson solemnly. "No one will believe me, for
I obviously know far too little of the facts. I admit that I am just
guessing, but I have the feeling that the error in Cliff's Equations
was no error at all. What drove Maculay into a mental whirly-gig was
the fact that he had discovered at the end of his fingertips the
ability to destroy the solar system--or destroy something equally as
big. His was the shock of the child who has been playing with matches
in a powder-house and discovers long afterwards just what fate he had
escaped by sheer luck."
"But what are we going to do?"
Hanson smiled confidently. "We're going to get Maculay back here long
enough to tell us the truth."
"But you don't know where he's gone."
"Since Cliff now has all of the instincts of a tomcat," chuckled
Hanson, "all we need do is to imagine where a tomcat would go--and go
there. Ava, if you were a brazen hussy, where would you go to huss?"