"Will Hubbell - Cretaceous Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hubbell Will)

"One thing, before you go," said Tom.

"What's that?"
"Who invented this..." Tom lowered his voice to a dramatic whisper. "... time machine?"

"Someone named Peter Green. But, Tom, please don't talk . . ."

"Don't worry, bro, mum's the word."

TOM'S APARTMENT LOOKED like a stage designer's idea of a bachelor professor's habitat. It
was crammed with clutter reflecting his fascination for the past. Books, pa-pers, and maps mingled with
geologists' tools, camping gear, fossils, and an extensive collection of toy dinosaurs. When Rick entered
the door, he smelled the pungent spices of Southwestern cooking combined with the scent of rock dust.
Tom called from the kitchen, "Want a beer?"

Rick walked to the kitchen and grabbed one from the fridge. "Thanks."

Tom threw some chilies in oil. "You're going to miss my cooking this summer. Is that when you're going?"

"Tomorrow, actually. At least, that's the first trip."

"At the beginning of the semester?"

"I'll be gone from the present time frame for less than a minute."

"Oh ... I forgot. This is time travel."

"You still don't believe me," said Rick.

Tom added some chopped onions to the oil and gently stirred them as he talked. "I made some inquiries
this afternoon," he said. When he saw the alarm on Rick's face he quickly added, "Don't worry, I've been
very dis-creet. I called up David Ross over in the physics depart-mentтАФsaid I needed information on
time travel for a lectureтАФand he did a literature search. Rick, there's been almost no research in the area,
except Eckmair's work in the thirties. He claimed to have demonstrated it on the subatomic level, but his
findings are still in dispute. The rest of the papers were strictly speculative. Most physi-cists believe time
only goes in one direction. Those that don't think it might reverse inside a black hole or some other exotic
place in the universe, but certainly not inside a man-made machine."

"What if they're wrong?" replied Rick. "I've got some evidence, five grand and airfare."

"That's hardly evidence," answered Tom. "This doesn't make sense. A discovery like that doesn't appear
out of nowhere. There should be research papers leading up to it. Green would get the Nobel Prize for
something like that."

"There could be some reason why he hasn't published. Maybe he doesn't want the government involved.
Maybe the government is involved."

"There's another thing," said Tom. "Who's this Peter Green? There are only two scientists by that
nameтАФone's a botanist and the other's a retired chemical engineer."