“Butbut why did she do it, Robin?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out right now. So we wouldn’t get the Dirac modification by ourselves, ehl Well, there are other ways of getting answers besides particle physics. Margaret, do you have a pick-up order out for that girl?”
“No,” the receptionist said. “This is one chestnut I wanted to see you pull out for yourself. You give me the authority, and I send the ordernot before.”
“Spiteful child. Send it, then, and glory in my gritted teeth. Come on, Thorlet’s put the nutcracker on this chestnut.”
As they were leaving the computer floor, Weinbaum stopped suddenly in his tracks and began to mutter in an almost inaudible voice.
Wald said, “What’s the matter, Robin?”
“Nothing. I keep being brought up short by those predictions. What’s the date?”
“M’m … June 9. Why?”
“It’s the exact date that ‘Stevens’ predicted we’d meet again, damn it! Something tells me that this isn’t going to be as simple as it looks.”
If Dana L)‘e had any idea of what she was in forand considering the fact that she was ‘J. Shelby Stevens’ it had to be assumed that she didthe knowledge seemed not to make her at all fearful. She sat as composedly as ever before Weinbaum’s desk, smoking her eternal cigarette, and waited, one dimpled knee pointed directly at the bridge of the officer’s nose.
“Dana,” Weinbaum said, “this time we’re going to get all the answers, and we’re not going to be gentle about it. Just iii case you’re not aware of the fact, there are certain laws relating to giving false information to a security officer, under which we could heave you in prison for a minimum of fifteen years. By application of the statutes on using communications to defraud, plus various local laws against transvestism, pseudonymity and so on, we could probably pile up enough additional short sentences to keep you in Yaphank until you really do grow a beard. So I’d advise you to open up.”