He drew a corner of the canvas from the table by the far wall. 'The remains of the device are here for your examination. So far, we see only burned and bloody wreckage in it. Under your Supervision it will be carefully photographed and dismantled.'
He dropped the cover and returned to the centre of the platform. 'We went immediately to Dunning's house with a crew of investigators from ONR assisted by security officers of the services.
'Dunning's quite evident paranoia was carried out in an utter lack of notes. He must have lived in constant fear that his work would be stolen. His laboratory was excellent for a private worker. What his income was we don't know as yet.
'He also had an astonishing library — astonishing in that it covered almost every occult field as well. This, too, remains somewhat of a mystery.
'We investigated his college background. He appears to have had difficulty in getting along at any one college, and attended at least four. His curriculum was as varied as his library. He studied courses in electrical engineering, comparative religion, advanced astronomy, Latin, the theory of groups, general semantics and advanced comparative anatomy.
'We managed to contact about twenty of his instructors and fellow students. Their uniform opinions describe him as paranoid. He was utterly without intimates of any kind. If he communicated his theories to anyone, we do not know about it.
'So the only record we have of the expressions of the man who first devised an anti-gravity machine is this poor-quality tape.'
He nodded again to the operator at the rear of the room. The latter turned on the recorder whose output was fed to a speaker on the table in front.
At once the room was rilled with a hissing, roaring garble. The sound of planes taking off — the everyday noise of the airport. Beneath the racket was the dead man's voice, a thin, rather high-pitched sound carrying through the background noise a tone of condescension and impatient tolerance.
Mart listened with ears strained to make sense of the garble. His eyes caught Berk's and reflected his despair of ever getting anything out of the mess. Keyes signalled the operator.
'I see that you are impatient with this recording, gentlemen. Perhaps there is no purpose in playing it in this conference. But each of you will be given a copy. In the privacy of your own laboratories you will have opportunity to make what you can of it. It is worth your study simply because, as far as we know, it contains the only clues we possess.'
Mart raised a hand impatiently. 'Dr Keyes, you and the others at the demonstration heard the original discussion. Can't you give us more than is on the tape?'
Keyes smiled rather bitterly. 'I wish that we could, Dr Nagle. Unfortunately, at the time it seemed that the semantic noise in Dunning's explanation was as high as the engineering noise on the tape. We have, however, filled in to the best of our recollection on the written transcript, which we will give you.
'This transcript gives what has been pieced together by phonetic experts who have analysed the tape. Observers' additions are in parentheses. These were added only if all observers agreed independently, and may or may not be accurate. Is there any other question?'
There were, they all knew, but for the moment the impact seemed to have stifled the response of the whole audience.
Keyes took a step forward. 'I wonder if there is any one of you who underestimates the seriousness of this problem now. Is there anyone who does not understand that this secret must be regained at all cost?
'We know that within the field of present knowledge there lies the knowledge necessary to conquer gravity — to take us beyond the Earth, to the stars, if we wish to go.
'We know that if one young American could do it, some young Russian could also.
'The full facilities of ONR are at your disposal. Access to Dunning's laboratory and library and the remains of his machine will be granted, of course. Each of you has been selected, out of all whom we might have called, because we believed you possess some special qualification for the task. You cannot fail.
'We will meet again this evening, gentlemen. I trust you understand now the necessity for absolute security on this project.'
A long time afterwards, Martin Nagle recalled that he must have been in a partial stupor when he left that conference room. He felt a vague and unpleasant sensation about his head as if it had been beaten repeatedly with a pillow.
He and Kenneth Berkeley went out together. They paused only long enough to make polite greetings to his fellow physicists whom he had not seen for a long time. But he was in a hurry to leave. To get rid of that feeling in his head.
