"Davis, Jerry - Elko the Potter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davis Jerry)

Professor Raymond Burns submitted it to Technica along with a copy
of the recordings from the temporal viewer. It chronologged his
search for the first wheeled cart, tracing it back to one Sumerian
potter, then detailed the potter's life from birth to death.
Raymond had been waiting for the call. He'd been sitting in
his condo all morning wearing a suit and a tie, ready for the
occasion. He couldn't see anything other than complete acceptance,
as his thousand-to-one shot project had been a total success.
Raymond found Elko at the very last moment. He had to quick-talk
his way into another several hours with the temporal viewer so
that he could lock it on Elko and scan the man's entire existence.
The call came, and Raymond answered it with a quick, nervous
jab at the button. It was Barbara Lemmas, a professor of the
Seventh Level, one of Technica's local bigwigs. "Raymond, we've
reviewed your project," she said.
"Yes."
"This appears to be a major find. We have to talk about your
follow-up research."
"Yes."
"Meet us at Fine Hall, third floor."
"I'm on my way."
Lemmas nodded once and broke the connection. Fine Hall!
Raymond thought. Third floor! It was the domain of the gods.
Technica was to science what the Catholic Church was to
religion. There were branches of it everywhere, influencing
everything, owning vast fortunes in knowledge and patent rights.
And here, in the Livermore Valley of California, was Technica's
"Vatican," The Institute of Human Endeavor. Here and only here
could one find humanity's only time machines --- three of them, to
be exact --- and the only Great Hall of Learning.
The board of directors, all professors of the sixth level and
above, sat at a large horseshoe-shaped table around the single
stool and podium where Raymond sat and fidgeted. The chairman
himself, the "Pope" of Technica, was out of the solar system on a
project of his own.
"We congratulate you on your success," Lemmus was saying.
"Your method was precise and your supporting evidence very
convincing. Elko Potter does indeed seem to be the inventor of the
wheel. Your detail of his life is, also, very thorough."
"Thank you, Professor," Raymond said. He allowed himself a
modest bow.
"The circumstances of his death also lend itself to our
advantage. Suicide in the Euphrates."
"It appeared to be suicide, yes. We won't know for sure until
we ask him."
The professors around him nodded, except for Steve Gibson. He
was a large-chested man with long flowing white hair and big blue
eyes. "I suggest we make that an imperative. Burns should split
his next phase into two; one being a covert contact to ask the
subject exactly that: Did he really invent the wheel? It is