50 in 50

"I would like to go now, before your daughter returns. Say goodbye for me. She's a fine girl. I'll just get my raincoat. I'm not to take anything else."

Then he was gone, and I felt there were things I should have said that would now remain unsaid. The patio door opened and Gregory came in, dripping onto the carpet. His legs were too short for his body, bowed as well. He was far more impressive on the phone.

"I've come for Byrne."

"He told me. He's getting his coat. Isn't this all rather sudden?"

"No. Just in time. We finally pressured the English police. Sent them Byrne's prints from one of your glasses. He's not what he seems."

"He seems to be a sailor, a fisherman, and a boatwright, or whatever they are called."

"Perhaps." His smile was humorless. "He is also a colonel in the Irish Army."

"So I'm a yeoman in the Coast Guard. Is either a crime?"

"I am not here to talk to you. Get him."

"I dislike being ordered about in my own home."

I weakened my protest by doing as he bid. The door to the bath was open, and Kriket was still drying her hair. "Be with you in a moment,” she called out over the hum of the machine. I went to Cormac's room and looked in. Closed the door and returned to the living room. Sat and sipped some of my drink before I spoke.

"He's not there."

"Where is he?"

"How should I know?"

His chair went over as he rushed from the room. "In quite a hurry, isn't he?" Kriket said as she came in. "Can I have a drink?"

"Bourbon on the rocks, of course."

I reached out and touched her hair, — it was still damp.

"Cormac is gone.” I said as I poured the drink.

"So I heard. But he can't get far."

She smiled as she said this and made a very rude signal in the direction of the door. Then sipped demurely as Gregory came back in, streaming water and bursting with anger.

"He's gone — and his goddamn ship is gone too. You knew about this."

"Everything said here is being recorded, Gregory," I said, cold anger in my voice. "So watch your accusations, or I'll have you in court. I have cooperated with you every millimeter of the way. My daughter and I were right here when Cormac left. If there is any blame — why, you will just have to blame yourself."

"I'll get him!"

"I doubt it. The sea brought him — and now it will take him away. To report all the government secrets that he learned here." I could not help smiling.

"Are you laughing at me?"

"Yes. You and your kind. This is a free country, and I would like to see it freer. We survived the crises of the twentieth century that wreaked destruction on the rest of the world. But we paid — are still paying — a very high price for this. It is time now that we opened our borders again and rejoined the rest of mankind."

"I know what Cormac was doing here," Kriket said suddenly, and we both turned to look at her. "He was a spy all right. A spy from Europe come to look us over. And I know his reasons, too. He wants to see if we are acceptable to the rest of the human race."

Gregory snorted in disgust and stamped out. For myself — I wasn't so sure. Perhaps Kriket was right.

Miraculous Inventions

Down to Earth

"Gino. . Gino. . help me! For God's sake, do something!"

The tiny voice scratched in Gino Lombardi's earphone, weak against the background roar of solar interference. Gino lay flat in the lunar dust, half buried by the pumice-fine stuff, reaching far down into the cleft in the rock. Through the thick fabric of his suit he felt the edge crumbling and pulled hastily back. The dust and pieces of rock fell instantly, pulled down by the light lunar gravity and unimpeded by any trace of air. A fine mist of dust settled on Glazer's helmet below, partially obscuring his tortured face.

"Help me, Gino, get me out of here," he implored, stretching his arm up over his head.

"It's no good," Gino answered, putting as much of his weight onto the crumbling lip of rock as he dared, reaching far down. His hand was still a good yard short of the other's groping glove. "I can't reach you — and I've got nothing here I can let down for you to grab. I'm going back to the Bug."

"Don't leave—" Glazer called, but his voice was cut off as Gino slid back from the crevice and scrambled to his feet. Their tiny helmet radios did not have enough power to send a signal through the rock; they were good only for line-of-sight communication.