The Gravity of Anti-Gravity (13 page)

A gasp rose from the crowd that could be heard over the sound of the machine. The Flying Wallenda was actually airborne! It rose slowly to a height of about six feet above the table, near the maximum length of the extension cord.

After about thirty seconds, Stella began to pilot the device down slowly to the table. When it was at a height just above the top of the plexi-glass shield, as planned, I pushed the device toward Pops who was standing opposite me. It smoothly floated over to him and after it got close to him, he grabbed it and pushed it back to me. I positioned the Flying Wallenda over its stand. With amazing skill, Stella had the device descend and land softly at its original starting point.

This time, instead of a gasp, a deafening cheer rang out from the crowd of thirty.

When the device was powered down and the spinning orbs stopped, the response could only be described as pandemonium. These usually serious prim and proper government drones were yipping and yelling like school kids at a football game.

Waterman raised both arms straight up in the air attempting to get control of the group. When it quieted down, he said with a broad smile, “I can’t believe it either. We’ve all just witnessed history!”

After everything calmed down and the audience finished offering their congratulations and left, Waterman came up to us and scheduled a meeting for the next morning. He said that now we needed to create a game plan get this project cruising down the road at warp speed, as he put it. Yet another Star Trek fan I thought.

At 10 AM, Dr. Brooks, Stella and I were sitting in the small office when Waterman and Burlingame came in. Waterman’s demeanor had brightened markedly since our first encounter.

“I just got off the phone with the White House, Waterman said. The President offered his congratulations. He said he wants to see you folks right away after he gets back from his vacation.”

“I hope you reminded him and his staff that this project must remain top secret,” Stella said.

“Yes I did, absolutely,” Waterman replied

“I hope so,” Stella declared. “If the government leaks any facet of this discovery, it will force Bill and me to become hermits, move to some cabin in the woods and complete out research there!”

“So what’s on your mind, Mr. Waterman and Mr. Burlingame?” I asked

“The people in Washington have come up with an outline to go forward with the refinement of the anti-gravity device,” answered Waterman.

Waterman looked down at a file he was holding and began to read it.

“First, we have devised a cover story to divert attention away from your project. Next week an administration official will announce to the public that the time shift was an aberration of nature and no future danger, or occurrences are expected. There will be conflicting opinions from every corner of the globe but those will die down within a week or two.”

“Second, we have agreed to approve your preliminary research here, which is what you wanted.”

“Third, the project will be moved to a more secure location after the preliminary research is done.”

“Fourth, we will be assigning some of our top government scientists to the project to assist Mr. Burton. Dr. Morton and Dr. Brooks, you will be assigned to another segment of the research that will be determined later.”

“Fifth, the government agrees to fund all the research, development and construction of all devices and in return will own the final products, patents and all proprietary intellectual property value.”

“Sixth, the government will supply all the security required to insure the work proceeds smoothly and quietly.”

“Seventh, the government will pay Mr. Burton a bonus of two million dollars, tax free and pay him a salary of $500,000.00 annually until the delivery of the first working unit is complete.”

“Eighth, the government will pay Dr. Brooks and Dr. Morton a bonus of $250,000.00 each; tax free, for their participation in the project and an annual salary of $250,000.00.”

“Here’s a copy of what I’ve just read. The government’s attorneys will draw up the final paperwork. Again, congratulations. If you have any questions, here’s my card, just call. I’ve got a flight out in an hour so I’ve got to run. I’ll be in touch next week.”

With that, Waterman and Burlingame left.

-18-

“We need to talk,” said Stella, “but not here.”

We went to Dr. Brook’s office. Stella motioned for us to remain quiet. She ran her hand around the underside of the desk and found a small listening device. Then behind one of Dr. Brook’s diplomas on the wall, she found another. She was using a small hand-held device to lead her to the bugs. When she found one she put it into a glass of water that was on the desk.

“That’s all of them in this office.” she said. “There is another in our office Bill.”

“How do you know all this, Stella?’ I asked.

“Remember my brother’s an investigator. He warned me to check for bugs before we said anything and he loaned me this device,” Stella answered. “He’s worked around the government before and knows their tactics. When Waterman said he was going to record our conversation; it was a ruse. As he was setting up the recorder, he was planting a bug under the front edge of our desk. That one is still there and I think we can use it to our advantage. Let’s go to the coffee shop around the corner. We can talk there.”

Dr. Brooks and I ordered black coffee, Stella ordered water. We sat down and she calmly asked “First let’s discuss the government’s offer.”

We all looked at each other. I spoke first, “I’m rich! You are looking at multi-millionaire, William Burton III”

Dr. Brooks spoke second. “I think it’s a reasonable offer.”

Stella spoke last. “Guys that offer was an insult; a pure, unadulterated insult! I’ll say it first. The government is run by crooks and thieves. Bill, if we took the device to a large corporation, they’d offer you ten to a hundred times what the government just offered. And they want all the rights now and in perpetuity?”

“Unless I miss my guess,” Stella continued, “there’s already some drunk politician divulging the details of the device to a lobbyist or some media idiot. If you haven’t noticed, I am furious and I believe were are in danger too. If the people at the top sent an egotistical moron like Waterman to head up this project, we’re in more trouble than I thought!”

Late Friday afternoon, the three of us returned from the coffee shop and sat in the debugged office of Dr. Brooks to discuss our options.

“Now Stella, you are the one most against the government’s proposal; what do you think we should do,” I asked.

“I want to start by saying that it’s not about the money for me. It’s about fairness and insuring the device is used for good and proper purposes. As I’ve said before, the device represents money and power, a dangerous combination. So let’s go over their offer,” she said.

“First, they are assuming the intellectual, patent and other rights.
This means they are offering you no residual licensing payments and no future rights of any kind to your invention. Bill, if you like the millionaire title, how about billionaire.”

“I like that,” I said. “Bill goes with
billionaire better than it goes with millionaire.”

“And you and I Dr. Brooks; they’re saying they can move us anywhere, even away from the project. Bill, no offense, but you are young and they feel they can manipulate you. They don’t want anyone standing in the way of them taking complete control.” Stella went on.

“The parts about providing funding and security are fine but any significant corporation would provide both cheaper and more effectively than the government.”

Stella’s face took on a devious grin and she said, “Let’s have a little fun with the
Washington boys.”

She laid out a kind of script. The three of us rehearsed and when we got back we went into my and Stella’s office where we knew the bug was still operational.

“Good afternoon everyone,” Dr. Brooks said. “Now that we’ve all had a chance to digest the government’s offer how do we proceed?”

‘”I think the Government idiots think we’re pretty stupid” I said. “If the device actually worked, it would be worth billions, maybe trillions, so their offer is a joke. We’ve got to get them to pay as much as possible, up-front before they figure it all out. Let’s ask for two billion for me and a billion for each of you. We’ll have them wire the funds to secure banks all over the world. You know; the banks that don’t cooperate with the
U.S. authorities. As soon as we confirm the transfers, we’ll all go our separate ways and spend the rest of our lives on some beach on some tropical island.”

Dr. Brooks and Stella were laughing hysterically but quietly. Then Stella composed herself and said, “Great plan, Bill. I am still laughing about the fact they never figured out how we got the device to actually fly before their very eyes.”

“And even their hot-shot tech’s inspection turned up nothing,” said Dr. Brooks.

“Monday we’ll request a meeting to respond to their original proposal.” I said. “Something tells me they’ll waste no time getting us the money.”

“It is the government we’re trying to con,” said Stella. “It’s easy; millions of people do it everyday.”

Stella reached under the desk and produced the bug. I made the sound from the back of my throat that sounds like static. I announced slowly and succinctly, “I hope you enjoyed our little production of ‘Fool the Feds’, Mister Waterman,” with emphasis on Mister. “My machine works but your clandestine tactics have heightened our distrust of you and the government. The proposal is a start but woefully inadequate in its current form; Bill Burton signing off.” I made that static sound a little longer and dropped the bug in a glass of water.

On Monday, when I arrived at work, Stella was already there.

“Bill, just what I was afraid would happen, did. Have you seen the news?” Stella asked.

“Yes,” I said, “but all I saw was some White House spokesman say something about the time shift being just a ‘bump in Mother Nature’s road’ or some such drivel.”

“That’s what the government said but have you seen the internet?” Stella asked. “All the independent blogs and minor political sites are reporting that the time shift was a result of some machine. They are short on specifics, but it is evidence of a leak. I knew we couldn’t trust the Feds.”

“Let’s go talk to Dr, Brooks and see what he thinks about this development,” I said.

“He’s tied up for a while. He is releasing the men who were working on the time shift issue. Fortunately, all of them have jobs and will return to them. He got approval to give them two weeks bonus pay so his task should be fairly easy.” Stella informed me.

“What did you do this week-end?” I asked. “I kind of missed drinking in your brilliance these last two days.”

“I spent a quiet time with my brother.” Stella answered. “I want you to know I’ve told him everything, Bill. He’s smart and has expertise that we don’t. Without him the Feds would still be listening to our every spoken word. And there’s something else I want to show you. Let me bring it up on my laptop.”

“OK, this is the video of the Fed’s techs in your barn when we were in the house,” Stella said. “Remember, they were looking for parlor tricks? Well look closely, some of the guys look like they are in fact inspecting the device. But look at the others. They’re installing video surveillance equipment.”

“I am getting a little tired of being treated like a criminal. Don’t they need some kind of court order to do that?” I asked.

“They do, and for the Feds they are easy to get. Unless I miss my guess though, Waterman never bothered. We will ask him about the video and bugs when we see him next.” Stella said while shaking her head in disgust.

When Dr. Brooks walked in I asked. “How’d it go with the other scientists?”

“Fine,” he answered. “I sensed that most of them hadn’t discovered anything useful and were just as happy to move along,” “By the way, Mr. Waterman just called. He wants to meet Friday. He wants us to prepare a counter proposal. And he wanted me to tell you two that he didn’t appreciate the theatrics. It turns out he was out at the time and our little performance went all the way to the White House. I think we’ve embarrassed him.”

“Uh oh,” cautioned Stella. “Beware of a bureaucrat scorned.”

-19-

Friday morning, Waterman walked in with a new man who was his boss. Dr. Brooks, Stella and I had already assembled in the conference room.

“I’d like to introduce my superior Mr. Joshua Cushing. He is Deputy Director of the FBI and reports to the Director.”

Cushing was a handsome man in his early fifties and wore what appeared to be an expensive suit and carried himself confidently. We exchanged pleasantries and as had become a regular occurrence lately, Stella jumped in.

“Mr. Cushing, have you found the source of your leak?

“Leak, to what leak are you referring, Dr. Morton?” asked Cushing.

“The internet is rife with rumors that the time shift was caused by a device.” Stella answered. “Don’t tell me you aren’t aware of it. The information didn’t come from our side so it had to come from yours!”