Science fiction; Spy stories; Telepathy -- Fiction; United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation -- Fiction
As Malone knew perfectly well, the main portion of the entire Yucca
Flats area was devoted solely to research on the new space drive which
was expected to make the rocket as obsolete as the blunderbuss--at least
as far as space travel was concerned. Not, Malone thought uneasily, that
the blunderbuss had ever been used for space travel, but--
He got off the subject hurriedly. The jeep whizzed by buildings, most of
them devoted to aspects of the non-rocket drive. The other projects
based at Yucca Flats had to share what space was left--and that
included, of course, the Westinghouse research project.
It turned out to be a single, rather small white building with a fence
around it. The fence bothered Malone a little, but there was no need to
worry; this time he was introduced at once into Dr. O'Connor's office.
It was paneled in wallpaper manufactured to look like pine, and the
telepathy expert sat behind a large black desk bigger than any Malone
had ever seen in the FBI offices. There wasn't a scrap of paper on the
desk; its surface was smooth and shiny, and behind it the nearly
transparent Dr. Thomas O'Connor was close to invisible.
He looked, in person, just about the same as he'd looked on the FBI
tapes. Malone closed the door of the office behind him, looked for a
chair and didn't find one. In Dr. O'Connor's office, it was perfectly
obvious, Dr. O'Connor sat down. You stood, and were uncomfortable.
* * * * *
Malone took off his hat. He reached across the desk to shake hands with
the telepathy expert, and Dr. O'Connor gave him a limp and fragile paw.
"Thanks for giving me a little time," Malone said. "I really appreciate
it." He smiled across the desk. His feet were already beginning to hurt.
"Not at all," Dr. O'Connor said, returning the smile with one of his own
special quick-frozen brand. "I realize how important FBI work is to all
of us, Mr. Malone. What can I do to help you?"
Malone shifted his feet. "I'm afraid I wasn't very specific on the phone
last night," he said. "It wasn't anything I wanted to discuss over a
line that might have been tapped. You see, I'm on the telepathy case."
Dr. O'Connor's eyes widened the merest trifle. "I see," he said. "Well,
I'll certainly do everything I can to help you."
"Fine," Malone said. "Let's get right down to business, then. The first
thing I want to ask you about is this detector of yours. I understand
it's too big to carry around--but how about making a smaller model?"
"Smaller?" Dr. O'Connor permitted himself a ghostly chuckle. "I'm afraid
that isn't possible, Mr. Malone. I would be happy to let you have a
small model of the machine if we had one available--more than happy. I
would like to see such a machine myself, as a matter of fact.
Unfortunately, Mr. Malone--"
"There just isn't one, right?" Malone said.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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