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hooded motors. It was.
SHE was on the other side of the cage, and I had five bankbooks and envelopes
filled with cash amounting to more than $15,000, but all I could think of was
that I was hungry and something had happened to the hamburger while I was
traveling through time. I must have fallen and dropped it, because
my hand was covered with dust or dirt. I brushed it off and quickly felt my
face and pulled up my sleeves to look at my arms.
"Very smart," I said, "but I'm nowhere near emaciation." "What made you think
you would be?" she asked.
"Because the others always were."
She cut the motors to idling speed and the vibrating mesh slowed down. I
glared at her through it.
God, she was lovely as lovely as an ice sculpture! The kind of face you'd love
to kiss and slap, kiss and slap . . .
"You came here with a preconceived notion, Mr. Weldon. I'm a businesswoman,
not a monster. I
like to think there's even a good deal of the altruist in me. I could hire
only young people, but the old ones have more trouble finding work. And you've
seen for yourself how I provide nest eggs for them they'd otherwise never
have."
"And take care of yourself at the same time."
"That's the businesswoman in me. I need money to operate."
"So do the old people. Only they die and you don't."
She opened the gate and invited me out. "I make mistakes occasionally. I
sometimes pick men and women who prove to be too old to stand the strain. I
try not to let it happen, but they need money and work so badly that they
don't always tell the truth about their age and state of health."
"You could take those who have social security cards and references."
"But those who don't have any are in worse need!" She paused. "You probably
think I want only the money you and they bring back, that it's merely some
sort of profit-making scheme. It isn't."
"You mean the idea is not just to build up a fortune for you with a cut for
whoever helps you do it?"
"I said I need money to operate, Mr. Weldon, and this method serves. But there
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
are other purposes, much more important. What you have gone through is basic
training, you might say. You know now that it's possible to travel through
time, and what it's like. The initial shock, in other words, is gone and
you're better equipped to do something for me in another era."
"Something else?" I stared at her puzzledly. "What else could you want?"
"Let's have dinner first. You must be hungry."
I WAS, and that reminded me:
"I bought a hamburger just before you brought me back. I don't know what
happened to it. My hand was dirty and the hamburger was gone, as if I'd fallen
somehow and dropped it and got dirt on my hand."
She looked worriedly at the hand, probably afraid I'd cut it and disqualified
myself. I could understand that; you never know what kind of diseases can be
picked up in different times, because I
remember reading somewhere that germs keep changing according to conditions.
Right now, for instance, strains of bacteria are becoming resistant to
antibiotics. I knew her concern wasn't really for me, but it was pleasant all
the same.
"That could be the explanation, I suppose," she said. "The truth is that I've
never taken a time voyage somebody has to operate the controls in the
present so I can't say it's possible or impossible to fall. It must be, since
you did. Perhaps the wrench back from the past was too violent and you slipped
just before you returned."
She led me down to an ornate dining room, where the table had been set for
two. The food was waiting on the table, steaming and smelling tasty. Nobody
was around to serve us. She pointed out a chair to me and we sat down and
began eating. I was a little nervous at first, afraid there might be something
in the food, but it tasted fine and nothing happened after I swallowed a
little and waited for some effect.
"You did try to escape the time tractor beam, didn't you, Mr. Weldon?" she
asked. I didn't have to answer; she knew. "That's a mistaken notion of how it
functions. The control beam doesn't cover area;
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