"Damon Knight - Beyond the Barrier" - читать интересную книгу автора (Knight Damon)

But what could it be? A piece of apparatus? He had several
things on order, but was not expecting any of them immedi-
ately, and anyhow, when they did come, they would be
delivered in the usual way, not left for him at the bursar's
office. . . .

Deep in thought, he walked to the tube entrance. He rode
home with the thing on his knees, hard and metallically cool
through the wrappings. There was no writing on the paper
anywhere; it was neatly sealed with plastic tape.

The tube car sighed to a stop at the Beverly Hills station.
Naismith went aboveground and walked the two blocks to
his apartment.

When he opened the door, his visiphone was blinking red.

He put the parcel down and crossed the room with his heart
suddenly hammering. He saw that the recorded-call telltale was
lit, and touched the playback button.

A voice said urgently. "Naismith, this is Dr. Wells. Please
call me as soon as you get in; I want to see you." The voice
stopped; after a moment the mechanism clicked and the neutral
machine voice added, "Two thirty-five P.M." The playback
stopped; the telltale winked off.

Wells was the head of the college psychiatric office;
Naismith went to him as a patient every two weeks. Two
thirty-five this afternoon—that was when Naismith had been
in the middle of his temporal energy demonstration. He had a

sense that things were happening all around him—first the girl
with her disturbing question, and the dark man leaving a
package for him at the bursar's office, and—

At the thought, Naismith turned and looked at the package
on the table. At least he could find out about that, and with-
out delay. With a certain grimness, he seized the package, put
it on his desk, and with a bronze letter opener began to cut the
tape.

The wrapping came away easily. Naismith saw the gleam of
blued metal, then spread the papers apart, and caught his
breath.

The machine was beautiful.

It was box-shaped, with rounded edges and corners; all its