“And while I was finding out all that, I found out who you were too,” Aub concluded. “You didn’t seem to be in on the project, and the more I thought about it, the more that bugged me. I figured somebody ought to tell you, and so I called.” He shrugged. “I’ll probably get my ass kicked, but what the hell?”
Despite Aub’s casual manner, Clifford had grown increasingly aware that behind the outlandish exterior was a mind that could work at lightning-fast speed. The piece of detective work that Aub had dismissed in a few matter-of-fact sentences would have won a commendation for a whole squad of the FBI. There were probably only a few scientists in the country who could have appreciated fully, let alone grasped instantly, the implications buried in those pages of mathematics. Clifford thought he had a good idea just who it had been that had “remembered something we did about six months ago and spotted the connection.”
Clifford sat back and digested the information for a while. Aub watched in silence, having said all he had to say.
“It smells right enough, Aub,” Clifford agreed at length. “I haven’t a clue what’s going on behind all this, but I’m really glad you called. What’s the latest at Berkeley? Is that it?”
“That’s about it. We’re setting up some experiments specifically to look for more examples of sustained k-rotations. I’ll keep you posted, huh?”
“You do that. Keep in touch. I’ll see what I can find out at the ACRE end.”
“Best not to say too much about us talking direct either, okay?”
“Check.”
“Well, nice talking to you at last. What does everybody call you anyway?”
“Brad.”
“Brad. Okay, Brad, I’ll keep in touch. See you.”
“Thanks again, Aub.”
The screen blanked out. Clifford remained staring at it for a long time until a voice from the kitchen jolted him back to reality.
“How would you like fruit and white-stuff soup instead?”
“Uh. Why?”
“That’s what you’ve got.”
“That’s no good. I only eat that with gravy.”
“Not in my kitchen. Who’s Dr. Phillips?”
“It’s a long story . . . something funny going on. Put some coffee on and I’ll tell you about it.” He added absently, “He spells it with a z.”
“What?”
“Philipsz. P-H-I-L-I-P-S-Z.”
She looked at him curiously as he walked back in and sat down.
“How strange. I wonder why there’s a z at the end.”
Clifford pondered the question. “If it were at the front, nobody’d be able to pronounce it,” he said at last.
Chapter 6
In the days that followed Aub’s call, Clifford’s attempts at ACRE to evince an open acknowledgment of the things that had been happening met with no success at all. Restricted to cautious questioning and discreet probing since the risk of repercussions falling on Aub ruled out any form of direct confrontation, he met only with what appeared to be a conspiracy of silence. Nobody reacted; nobody knew what he was talking about; nobody volunteered any information at all on the matter. Only in one or two instances did he detect an attempt on somebody’s part to conceal embarrassment, or an abnormal haste to change the topic of conversation.
Then things took a strange and unexpected turn. Clifford received a call from Edwards’s secretary informing him that the professor would like Clifford and Massey to join him for lunch in the Executive Dining Suite on the following day. Edwards was a formalist with a strict regard for protocol so it was not in his nature to socialize with the lower echelons of ACRE’s political hierarchy. He dined fairly regularly with Massey, it was true, but that was to be expected since their day-to-day business relationship demanded a constant dialogue and they were both busy men. The occasions on which they invited individuals of Clifford’s grade to join them were few and far between, and inevitably, when they did, there was a special reason—usually when Edwards had something particularly delicate to sell.
Clifford, predisposed by long experience to regard credibility as inversely proportional to seniority, was suspicious. But although the message was couched in phrases appropriate to an invitation, the unspoken words behind it came through loud and clear: BE THERE.