Old Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

prefer to consider Tennessee Williams’s view from The Glass Menagerie. ‘Time is the longest distance between two places.’”
    Kavanaugh liked the quote. The longest distance between two places.
    “And the job, no the duty you’re inheriting, is to maintain that critical distance between the two places that we guard. Then and now.”
    Kavanaugh’s pulse quickened. He stroked his scalp again.
    “You look anxious.”
    “Do I? I’m sorry.”
    “Be patient.” Gruber’s tone changed. “I’m not going to die on you today.”
    “Sir, please accept my apologies if I…”
    “Accepted. Now tell me what you know that is not between the covers of our next edition.”
    “Not in the magazine?”
    “What our other research tells us.”
    “Thank you,” the younger man answered. “Well, the Soufrière cave was abandoned. A little more oil exploration off Grenada. And no one will be able to get back into the mountain in Barbados. So, nothing of any concern.”
    Gruber’s tone abruptly changed. His old eyes bored down on Kavanaugh. “My dear friend,” he said without an ounce of warmth, “there is never nothing of concern. Never. How can we determine what has value if we don’t take everything seriously? We sailed on the Mayflower and survived the gulags. We explored the Antarctic and traveled to the four corners of the globe. Our people have been to the moon, for God’s sake. We’re always concerned. How we act on that concern is the real issue.”
    Gruber closed his eyes and lowered his head, a sign that more was coming.
    “Satellite telephones. Computers. Even the blasted Internet that we pay hundreds of thousands of pounds to keep secure. Information, Mr. Kavanaugh. I demand information. You must as well. Do I have to live longer in order to train someone else?”
    “No, sir.”
    “Then get a full grasp of it, Mr. Kavanaugh, before it’s too late! Out, now. Out of my chair. You’re dismissed.”
    As Kavanaugh left the office, he heard the unmistakable sound of a pill bottle being unscrewed. Martin Gruber was taking more medication. Kavanaugh smiled. The job would be his soon and these egotistical rants would be over.

Six
    NEW HAVEN, CT
THAT NIGHT
    There was no shortage of boxes, books and piles of paper for McCauley to wade through in his two bedroom apartment. That had to do with the fact that there no reason for McCauley to stay organized. Or more accurately, no one to stay organized for.
    After stepping over his work on his way to his lonely bed, he closed his eyes and constructed the summer campsite in his mind. His tent would serve as home and office. Outside there’d be multiple areas to collect, sift, examine, and catalog the inevitable findings. As for sleeping quarters, two per tent: the two women in one, the men in the others. At any rate, it would start out that way. Likewise for the two showers provided by the park. The latrines would be downwind, though that was a bit of a misnomer. The Montana summer would be hot and dry, and with the exception of rolling thunderstorms, relatively windless.
    He could predict the routine and prepare for it. His graduate students would come in excited. They’d find what and who they had in common before deciding whom they’d befriend. They’d listen to him for a few days, then begin to think they know more. He’d settle them down. Some might think about leaving, but they’d all stay. They always did, because by the second or third week, they’d actually find something interesting and it would reinvigorate their sense of purpose.
    Hooking up usually hit week three. When partners changed in week five, an uncomfortable silence would fall over the camp. McCauley had the solution for that. A wild night at the bar; laughter, and talk about the sexual and mating habits of the dinosaurs. The detailed descriptions always brought laughter and obliterated the walls that had invariably gone up or the silos where they’d retreated.
    The rest of the term would