Although how far you traveled would have no significance. An hour or a million years would be all the same; if you could span the hour, you could span the million years. And if you could go back the million years, it was within your power to go back to the first tick of eternity, the first stir of time across the face of emptiness and nothingness--back to that initial instant when nothing as yet had happened or been planned or thought, when all the vastness of the Universe was a new slate waiting the first chalk stroke of destiny. Another helicopter would cost thirty thousand dollars--and they didn't even have the money to buy the tractor that they needed to build the stockade. There was no way to borrow. You couldn't walk into a bank and say you wanted thirty thousand to take a trip back to the Old Stone Age. You still could go to some industry or some university or the government and if you could persuade them you had something on the ball--why, then, they might put up the cash after cutting themselves in on just about all of the profits. And, naturally, they'd run the show because it was their money and all you had done was the sweating and the bleeding. "There's one thing that still bothers me," said Cooper, breaking the silence. "We spent a lot of time picking our spot so we'd miss the barn and house and all the other buildings...." "Don't tell me the windmill!" Hudson cried. "No. I'm pretty sure we're clear of that. But the way I figure, we're right astraddle that barbed-wire fence at the south end of the orchard." "If you want, we could move the pyramid over twenty feet or so." Cooper groaned. "I'll take my chances with the fence." Adams got to his feet, the time unit tucked underneath his arm. "Come on, you guys. It's time to go." They climbed the pyramid gingerly and stood unsteadily at its top. Adams shifted the unit around, clasped it to his chest. "Stand around close," he said, "and bend your knees a little. It may be quite a drop." "Go ahead," said Cooper. "Press the button." Adams pressed the button. Nothing happened. The unit didn't work. IX The chief of Central Intelligence was white-lipped when he finished talking. "You're sure of your information?" asked the President. "Mr. President," said the CIA chief, "I've never been more sure of anything in my entire life." The President looked at the other two who were in the room, a question in his eyes. The JCS chairman said, "It checks, sir, with everything we know." "But it's incredible!" the President said. "They're afraid," said the CIA chief. "They lie awake nights. They've become convinced that we're on the verge of traveling in time. They've tried and failed, but they think we're near success. To their way of thinking, they've got to hit us now or never, because once we actually get time travel, they know their number's up."