All the Colors of Time Read Online Free PDF Page A

deep breath. “No. No, this project has been my
life for four years. I can’t just get up and leave. And I don’t want to see it
used to kill. Besides, my father would be ashamed of me if I ran out in the
middle of it all.”
    Oslovski nodded. “Vahid?”
    “I’m scared,” he said.
    “We’re all scared,” said Oslovski. “The question is, do we
stand around and shake and shiver, or do we do something about it?”
    “I’d like to do something,” admitted Vahid.
    “Right.” Oslovski let out a pent up breath. “Now, given the
situation, what do we do?” She looked at the group around the table.
    “We could send the General and his people back to the
Cretaceous and leave them there,” suggested Trevor.
    “Be real,” said Shiro. “We don’t even know if we can penetrate the Cretaceous.”
    “Seriously. Can’t we strand them someplace—I mean, some
time?”
    Shiro shook her head. “That would be as immoral in its own
way as what they might be planning. Besides, they might manage to change the
course of evolution or something.”
    Louis Manyfeather sat forward in his seat. “What if we go back in time and make sure the
assassin is captured?”
    Oslovski grimaced. “Tempting, but none of us is exactly
James Bond. Besides, that might change history just as effectively as a
successful assassination. We need to make as little impact as possible on what’s
already happened. We need to—to change the present to protect the past. Keep
them from going back at all, if possible.”
    “We could lock up our data,” suggested George. “Tell them
what they’re asking is impossible.”
    Oslovski nodded. “I thought of that. But remember, we’ve
already shifted back past their
target. The computers know that. I know you’re a talented programmer, George,
but you’d have to be the king of hackers to destroy all that data without
leaving a trail. Every activity log on every piece of equipment in the O.R.
will call us liars if anyone develops a sense of curiosity. Besides that, who’s
to say they won’t just go elsewhere for the expertise?”
    “But that would take years,” said Louis.
    “The net result would be the same, don’t you see?” asked
Oslovski. “Time is no object. No matter how long they wait, if they achieve
their goal . . .”
    He saw, and nodded glumly.
    “If we can’t get rid of them and we can’t fool them,” said
Trevor, “then what can we do? Hypnotize them so they give up and go away? They’re
not going to change their minds just because we think they need an attitude
adjustment.”
    Oslovski stared at him. “An attitude adjustment,” she
murmured.
    “What?”
    “Something Vance said last night about human nature. That
presented with an unchangeable circumstance, the human mind adjusts its
attitude to accept it . . . or goes mad, I suppose.”
    Shiro nodded. “In other words, it grows the serenity
necessary to accept the inevitable. But how can we make the irresistible force believe that is has met an immovable
object?”
    Oslovski raised her eyebrows. “Maybe Trev has something
there—hypnotism.”
    Trevor snorted. “I was being facetious, Magda. There’s no
way we can hypnotize the entire Defense Department.”
    “We wouldn’t have to. The entire Defense Department isn’t
going to be time traveling. They’ll send one or two men back—hell, we can control that much. We’ll tell
them the field won’t allow more than that.” She started pacing, thinking. “I
want to change the script for the next Phase Five experiment. We’re going to
send Toto downstairs.”
    oOo
    While the others ate lunch, Magda Oslovski went up to her
husband’s second floor office. He was munching on a tuna sandwich when she came
in clutching her coffee cup in both hands.
    “Hi,” he said. “Have you had lunch?”
    She shook her head and he handed her half of his sandwich. “You
have ‘that look.’”
    “That ‘lean and hungry look’?” she asked around a bite