"Youre hinting. What are you getting at?"
"Well..." He walked around the laboratory, spreading his hands, shrugging, shaking his head. "Well, if you do in touch with him, I will," he said finally.
She was silent. Then she said, "Oh, I see."
"Mary, Ive got to think of—"
"Of course you have."
"Its not that—"
"No, no."
"You dont uand—"
"Yes, I do. Its very simple. You promise to do as he says, you get the funding, I leave, you take over as Director. Its not hard to uand. Youd have a bigger budget. Lots of niew maes. Half a dozen more Ph.D.s under you. Good idea. You do it, Oliver. You go ahead. But thats it for me. Im off. It stinks."
"You havent..."
But her expression silenced him. She took off her white coat and hung it on the dathered a feers into a bag, a without a word. As soon as shed gone, he took Sir Charless card and picked up the phone.
Several hours later, just before midnight in fact, Dr. Malone parked her car outside the sce building a herself in at the side entrance. But just as she turo climb the stairs, a man came out of another corridor, startling her so much she nearly dropped her briefcase. He was
wearing a uniform.
"Where are you going?" he said.
He stood in the way, bulky, his eyes hardly visible uhe low brim of his cap.
"Im going to my laboratory. I work here. Who are you?" she said, a little angry, a little frightened.
"Security. Have you got some ID?"
"What security? I left this building at three oclock this afternoon and there was only a porter on duty, as usual. I should be asking you for identification. ointed you? And why?"
"Heres my ID," said the man, showing her a card, too quickly for her to read it. "Wheres yours?"
She noticed he had a mobile phone in a holster at his hip. Or was it a gun? No, surely, she was being paranoid. And he hadnt answered her questions. But if she persisted, shed make him suspicious, and the important thing now was to get into the lab. Soothe him like a dog, she thought. She fumbled through her bag and found her wallet.
"Will this do?" she said, showing him the card she used to operate the barrier in the car park.
He looked at it briefly.
"What are you doing here at this time of night?" he said.
"Ive got an experiment running. I have to check the puter periodically."
He seemed to be searg for a reason to forbid her, or perhaps he was just exerg his power.
Finally he nodded and stood aside. She went past, smiling at him, but his face remained blank.
When she reached the laboratory, she was still trembling. There had never been any more "security" in this building than a lo the door and an elderly porter, and she knew why the ge had e about. But it meant that she had very little time; shed have to get it right at once, because ohey realized what she was doing, she wouldnt be able to e back again.
She locked the door behind her and lowered the blinds. She switched oector and then took a floppy disk from her pocket and slipped it into the puter that trolled the Cave.
Within a minute she had begun to manipulate the numbers on the s, going half by logic, half by guesswork, and half by the program shed worked on all evening at home; and the plexity of her task was about as baffling as getting three halves to make one whole.
Finally she brushed the hair out of her eyes and put the electrodes on her head, and then fle