The Gravity of Anti-Gravity (10 page)

“Have you found you yet?” asked Jerry with a sly grin.

“Not yet, but I think it’s imminent. The person I work with is Dr. Stella Morton. She’s already asked me some weird questions that sounds like she knows I’m the culprit. Even if she doesn’t know for sure, she’s hot on my trail. She told our group today that she’ll know the exact origin of the time pulse by next Monday. And she will. I work with her and I know she will.”

“Pops, we’ve got to protect Jerry,” I went on. “Jerry, when do you go back to the Army?”

“I leave at 6 AM, a week from Monday.”

“Perfect, we’ll say Jerry was never here and that you know nothing about the time shift. Pops, we can say that you just made parts according to my design and I never told you a thing about what you were making or why,” I said.

“We’ll make me the bad guy, I’ll take the rap.” I added.

“Bill, you’ve been watching too many gangster movies” said Pops who continued on the same train of thought. “So if you’re going to ‘spill the beans,’ when will that happen?”

“I’d like to wait until the end of the week. If Stella is going to figure the whole thing out, I’ll know by then. If she knows, I’ll tell her everything. I’ll have her take it to my project head, Dr. Brooks so at least she will get credit for solving our little mystery. That’s the least I can do for her.”

“Why do you want to do anything for her?” asked Jerry. “And why do you refer to a doctor in physics as Stella?”

“Since I am probably going to jail anyway, let me tell you two about last night.” I answered.

Just as I finished the story there was a crash from the corner of the barn. We all looked toward the noise and out walked Joanna.

“How long were you listening?” I asked Joanna.

“I heard everything.” she said. “Now you are going to have to fill me in completely. And Jerry, what did you have to do with it. I was just starting to really like you and now it sounds like you are a party to a crime.”

We brought Joanna over, sat her down and filled in the information she didn’t already know. Jerry sat next to her with his arm around her shoulders. She leaned away from Jerry at first but then moved a little closer to him and relaxed a little more as the story unfolded. When we were finished, Joanna had a look that I’d never seen before. Her eyes got wide and a smile came over her face.

“We’re going to be rich. Bill, people will pay zillions for something like that.”

“First of all Joanna, we are not absolutely certain we can duplicate the original experiment.” I said trying to downplay the seriousness of the situation. “And secondly, before you go out and buy a new wardrobe and car to match, remember, I cost the world a bundle too. Not deliberately, but the zillions I’d get paid might all go to pay back the zillions I cost the world.”

Jerry piped in. “Hey, a zillion here, a zillion there, what’s a few zillion among friends?”

Next Grandma walked into the barn smiling.

“Grandma, how much did you hear?” I asked.

“Don’t worry Bill.” Grandma said. “There’s not much that gets by me around here. I’ve known about your invention almost as long as you have.”

“Good god,” said Pops, “so much for deniability.”

Pops reminded all of us of the requirement not to talk to anyone about what we knew. “If anyone tells someone, and the word gets out all of us could be in serious danger. So we all understand and agree?” he asked as he looked us directly in the eye one by one.

We all agreed.

After a short pause, Jerry looked at Joanna and said, “How would you like to go get some ice cream, young lady?”

“The young lady formally accepts, young man,” Joanna replied.

Grandma looked at Pops and said, “How would you like some ice cream old man? I’ve got a half gallon of chocolate on ice.”

“Thank you madam, I’d love some.” Pops said as both couples walked out hand in hand.

-15-

Stella and I agreed to meet at 7 AM on Tuesday and Wednesday. The data was continuing to come in from stations all over the world. We kept busy plugging the information into the computer and then we’d run the algorithm again with the new data included. Every time we recalculated, the target zone got smaller. By late Tuesday the computer had identified an area of about ten square miles. It went from
Arcadia on the east to Burbank on the west with Pasadena on the south. The northern border went into the San Gabriel Mountains but we both agreed to eliminate that area for now.

“Bill, do you want to come over for dinner tonight? Rolf is away on business. Since you know the way, you could pick up some Chinese take-out.”

“That works for me,” I replied, “when do you want knock off today?”

“I think we’ve included all the data that came in today.”
Stella said. “We’ll leave about six. I’ll go home and change and you get the food. I’ll leave the door unlocked so just come right in.”

As we were walking out, Stella again made a probing comment. “Now Bill, I know there’s something you need to tell me and tonight would be a good time.”

“Stella, I’m, not sure what you mean but a little wine and sweet female companionship might loosen my lips a little. In fact it could be like reverse torture. You pleasure me into telling you anything you want to hear.”

“This is important Bill. I’ll see what I can do.”

When I got to the apartment, Stella had changed into a shift-style dress, pulled her hair back a little and looked unbelievably cute and sexy. I opened up the small flimsy boxes and served the food.

After Stella and I finished our meal we sat down on her couch and she took my hand and said.

“Bill, there’s something I haven’t told you. When you were out of the office the other day, I installed a different version of our algorithm. It allows me to eliminate the data that looks out of place. That information is probably from poorly calibrated reporting stations. After I did that, I was able to pinpoint the location of the source of the time wave. The computer even generated an address. That address is
1577 Shady Oak Drive, Altadena, California. Bill, that’s your address isn’t it?”

With that I didn’t know what to say. I had trouble speaking. She had me. My words came out in half-syllables and grunts while my mind tried to figure out a strategic response.

Stella put her index finger up to her lips and said, “Shhh. We’ll deal with that later.”

She had me stand up and again led me into the bedroom. I’m not sure how she accomplished it but this sex was better than the first night. Not quite as gentle with just a little more fire. She did new things, wonderful new things. At the end we were both exhausted and fully satisfied.

“I hope the reverse torture worked Bill, because we need to talk. Let’s get dressed and go into the other room.” Stella said.

“I agree Stella. If I had to discuss anything with you when you were naked, I’m sure I couldn’t put two intelligent sentences together. So, clothes would be good.”

“So Bill, I know it was you who created the time wave. I suspected it from the beginning. Soon the world will come to the same conclusion that I did. Other teams in the world are getting the same data that we are and they are anything but stupid.”

“OK, I’ll tell you everything. I said”

I spent the next hour telling Stella the whole story from my early curiosity to the final experiment. I even told her about Brenda. Stella was aware I went out with her but knew few other details. After I finished my story, the only thing that surprised me a little was that Stella had little reaction to my Brenda story. There was no concern or jealousy that I could see at all and that disappointed me a little.

“OK, Bill, we’ve got to create a strategy. There is real danger in your invention. I hope you’ve considered that.”

“My grandfather went on and on about the same thing. He trusts no one, least of all our government.”

“Smart man, but unfortunately we’ll have to tell the government,” Stella said. “They are paying us to find the answer to the time shift mystery. If we don’t tell them, someone else will. I’ve developed a plan which I believe will be the least dangerous and give us the best outcome. It does include me being part of the team that will help you develop your machine. Is that alright with you, Bill?”

“Stella, you’ve been the best thing that’s come out of this whole mess. It’s been less than a week and I already trust you completely. And it’s hard for me to consider going through this without you.” I said with a passion that even surprised me.

“Now Bill, don’t you go falling in love. That would only complicate the tough obstacles we’ve got ahead of us,” Stella commented.

For the next hour, Stella explained the rudiments of her strategy to me. We discussed plans and alternative plans and ‘what if’ scenarios.

“OK, Dr. Morton, I think I’ve got it!” I said. “But you know, I’m trying to figure out how you entered my world at this time of my life. You’re just what the doctor ordered, Doctor.”

“Sometimes it happens that way in life, Bill,” She said sweetly and kissed me gently on the cheek.

The next morning Stella and I requested a private meeting with Dr. Brooks. His assistant said he would be out of the office until after lunch.

“That’s fine” said Stella. “It will give us a little more time to fine tune our plan of attack.”

“Or a better way to play defense,” I added.

About 2 PM, Dr. Brooks entered our office. I stood up and closed the door behind him.

“This must be serious,” Dr. Brooks said. “Tell me you’ve figured out the time shift mystery.”

“Dr. Brooks, not only do we know where the wave started, exactly, we know the perpetrator and what device was used to generate the wave.”

“My god, Dr. Morton, you’re as good as they say you are. Hopefully Mr. Burton was some help to you.”

“I couldn’t have done it without him,” Stella said and added. “The wave originated in the town of Altadena.”

“Bill, isn’t that the town you live in? Sorry for the interruption Dr. Morton, please go on.”

“The exact address is 1577 Shady Oak Drive.”

Dr. Brooks looked puzzled and then the light went on. “Bill it was you? You were the one? My god, what did you do? How did you do it?”

“One question at a time, Dr. Brooks,” said Stella, “I just heard the whole story last night, even though I’ve had some suspicions longer than that. Before I have Bill tell you everything, I want you to know that he was testing an anti-gravity device. And it actually worked according to him. The time wave was just an unfortunate bi-product of that test. If we can prove that the time shift wave was never planned or contemplated, we need to know that you’ll go to bat for Bill. You will need to tell the authorities that the whole mess was just an unfortunate accident, which it was.”

“Before I can agree to anything, I must hear the details from beginning to end,” said Dr. Brooks.

I proceeded to explain to Dr. Brooks the history of the experiment including my theories, how I conceived and designed the machine and how I built the device with my grandfather’s help. It was nice to talk to people who understood and enjoyed the concepts I was communicating. No one dozed off and the questions that were asked were thought provoking and to the point.

When I was finished, Dr. Brooks jumped up and said to Stella, “I told you this kid thinks outside the box, didn’t I? However, I may have underestimated the size of the box!”

“Under the circumstances as I understand them,” Dr. Brooks continued. “I agree that the time shift was an unfortunate side effect of Bill’s anti-gravity experiment and I will tell that to the government.”

“There is one more stipulation and it is by far the most important,” Stella said to Dr. Brooks. “We need to convince the authorities to keep the research on Bill’s device in-house here; that we are the best equipped to complete the design, testing and refinement process. I want to be part of that team. I’m afraid the egos in
Washington will want to take over the project and assign it to their cronies. With the tremendous profit potential here, we must be very careful who we trust.”

“But this is Bill’s machine, isn’t it up to him?”

“Dr. Brooks,” Stella elaborated. “This is the government we’re talking about. All they have to do is threaten Bill with consequences for the time wave he caused. I’m talking jail time! They are not above spinning the facts to make it look like Bill is some kind of terrorist and he needs to be confined. With that power, Bill will become their prisoner and we will forever lose his creative mind. They will simply bottle him up and suffocate him.”

“Bill, what do you think?” asked Dr. Brooks.

“What Stella just said. In fact if I didn’t know better, I’d think she graduated from my grandfather’s school of politics. They both see danger here. Greed is everywhere and I’m starting to see the world the way they do.” I answered.

“And Dr. Brooks,” Stella added, “If the government agrees to conduct the research here, we will need to beef up security. I am not talking rent-a-cops either. We’ll need well trained and well armed guards. I suggest a mix of uniformed and covert security should do the job.”