"C M Kornbluth - Dominoes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kornbluth C M)

Maybe this would be the day. MaybeNew York-would open on a significant decline hi Moon Mining
and Smelting. MaybeChicagowould nervously respond with a slump in commodities andSan Francisco's
Utah Uranium would plummet hi sympathy. Maybe panic hi the Tokyo Exchange on the heels of the
alarming news from the States тАФpanic relayed across Asia with the rising sun to Vienna, Milan, Paris,
London, and crashing like a shock-wave into the opening New York market again.



Dominoes, W. J. Born thought. A row of dominoes. Flick one and they all topple in a heap. Maybe this
would be the day.



Miss Ulig had a dozen calls from his personal crash-priority clients penciled hi on his desk pad already.
He ignored them and said into her good-morning smile: "Get me Mr. Loring on the phone."



Loring's phone rang and rang while W. J. Born boiled inwardly. But the lab was a barn of a place, and
when he was hard at work Loring was deaf and blind to distractions. You had to hand him that. He was
screwy, he was insolent, he had an inferiority complex that stuck out a yard, but he was a worker.
 Loring's insolent voice said hi his ear: "Who's this?" "Born," he snapped. "How's it going?" There was a
long pause, and Loring said casually: "I worked all night. I think I got it licked." "What do you mean?"



Very irritated: "I said I think I got it licked. I sent a clock and a cat and a cage of white mice out for two
hours. They came back okay."



"You meanтАФ" W. J, Born began hoarsely, and moistened his lips. "How many years?" he asked evenly.
"The mice didn't say, but I think they spent two hours



in 1977."



"I'm coming right over," W. J. Born snapped, and hung up. His office staff stared as he strode out.



If the man was lyingтАФ! No; he didn't lie. He'd been sopping up money for six months, ever since he
bulled his way intoBern's office with his time-machine project, but he hadn't lied once. With brutal
frankness he had admitted his own failures and his doubts that the thing ever would be made to work.
But now, W. J. Born rejoiced, it had turned into the smartest gamble of his career. Six months and a