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 Okay, then, let s see this great Samson act, Kevin said.
Sir Real picked up the free end of the line and took in the slack through the
pulley. Then it turned to face the pulley, the line running through one hand
and around its back to the other. It drew the line taut and leaned against it
experimentally.
 I need something to push back against, Taki said.
 There s the edge of the carpet just a short way back.
Sir Real looked back over a shoulder; then, paying out line as it went, moved
backward until it could brace a foot. The mec crouched, took the strain, and
then slowly straightened, using its legs and back. Above Kevin, the immense
face of painted metal crept outward.
 You ve cracked it! It s moving! Kevin exclaimed. Taki paused to take in
slack and then repeated the maneuver, pulling the drawer out another half
inch.
Kevin wondered how much more they might have been able to achieve if they d
had more than a day to prepare. People were always making a fuss over there
never being enough time to do things. Kevin had his own theory about that.
Being
God, knowing everything and existing forever, had to be a pretty boring way to
exist, it seemed to him. It would be like reading a book that you already knew
every word of. What made books fun was the uncertainty wanting to know what
happens in the part that you haven t got to yet. God must have gotten pretty
tired of being God, Kevin thought. And so He had invented time to make the
Universe more interesting.
Back in Kevin s own house, Eric sat down in the dining room with the plate of
roast that Harriet had left for him, and read over his notes for the
presentation he would be giving tomorrow. He had been through the routine many
times before, and had no delusions that anything much was likely to change as
a result of it. The minds of the orthodoxy were closed on the subject. Nobody
questioned basics these days. What passed for science had degenerated into a
competition of devising pretexts to attract funding from political
bureaucracies. Who cared if an experiment performed a century ago had been
accorded the wrong interpretation particularly if it meant that a huge part of
the theoretical work going on today, apart from creating platoons of jobs and
helping to keep the paper mills busy, was largely a waste of time?
Eric was one of the few who cared. He cared because in his view, most of what
was going on wasn t science at all. Science meant having an open attitude to
what might or might not be, a simple, sincere desire to know what was.
When no further examination was permitted of what had been decided was true,
and inconvenient facts became non-subjects, then science had given way to
fundamentalism. The spectacles featured in the news documentaries and
magazines bigger accelerators, faster computers, fancier satellites were
orgies of technology: maybe more refined and polished than what had gone
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before, but still essentially more of the same. Nothing was being discovered
that was radically new. And whenever official eminences proclaimed this to be
because there was little new left to be discovered, as happened periodically
through the centuries and had once again become fashionable, it was invariably
a sign of science in trouble and due for an overhaul.
 Ah, yes it is. I thought you were back. Vanessa came through the doorway
from the kitchen.  You found your dinner?
 Mm. Harriet left it in the microwave.
 Is it okay?
 Just fine.
 I thought you d be back earlier.
 So did I. We ran into a bit of a snag with feedback resonances. Eric
indicated the rest of the house with a vague motion of his head.  Is Kevin
around, or did he go over to Taki s?
 He must have gone to Taki s, Vanessa said.  I m pretty sure he s not here.
How about you? Have you decided whether you ll be staying till tomorrow, or
will you be traveling tonight?
 Oh, it s getting late now. I ll leave it until morning. Do you still want me
to use the Jag?
Vanessa nodded.  I would. There are a couple of boxes of things down by the
back seat brushes, paints, and craft things.
Do you mind if I leave them there? Thelma left them when she was here the
other day. I ll be seeing her again next week.
Eric shook his head as he ate.  No problem. I ll only be taking one bag. You
sure you ll be okay with the Jeep?
 I ll use the van if I need to go anywhere far.
 Um. I think Doug s borrowed it again doing more work on his house over the
weekend, or something.
 Oh, if I get stuck I can always call Harriet. I ll manage somehow. Vanessa
looked around, remaining in the doorway.
 Well, there s something I need to finish in the den. I ll leave you to your
dinner.
Eric nodded as Vanessa turned away. Her footsteps receded across the kitchen
and out the far side. Eric carried on eating in silence. Just for once, it [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]