Read Time Travelers Strictly Cash for Free Online

entered, and hastened to open the door leading into the doctor’s imier sanctum for them. Dimsdale dismissed him, and Howell sat down heavily in the luxurious desk chair, putting her feet up on Bharadwaj ‘s desk. They were both silent for perhaps ten minutes.
    “Eight years,” she said finally. “Will it really work, John?”
    “No reason why it shouldn’t,” he said. “Every reason why it should.”
    “It’s never been done before.”
    “On a human, no; not successfully. But the problems have been solved. It worked with those cats, didn’t it? And that. ape?”
    “Yes, but-“
    “Look, Bharadwaj knows perfectly well you’ll have his skull for an ashtray if he fails. Do you think he’d try it at all if he weren’t certain?”
    After a pause she relaxed. “You’re right, of course.” She looked at him then, really seeing him for the first time that day, and her expression softened. “Thank you, John. I thank you for everything. This must be even harder for you than it-“
    “Put it out of your mind.”
    “I just feel so-“
    “There is nothing for you to feel guilt over, Reb,” he insisted. “I’m fine. When… when love cannot possess, it is content to serve.”
    She started. “Who said that?”
    Dimsdale blushed. “Me,” he admitted. “About fifteen years ago.” And frequently thereafter, he added to himself. “So put it out of your mind, all right?”
    She smiled. “As long as you know how grateful I am for you. I could never have maintained Archer’s empire without you.”
    “Nonsense. What are your plans-after, I mean?”
    “When he’s released? As few as possible. I thought perhaps he might enjoy a cruise around the world, sort of a reorientation. But I’m quite content to hole up in Luna or up in Alaska instead-or whatever he wants. As long as I’m with him, I…”
    Dimsdalé knew precilely how she felt. After this week it might be weeks or years before he saw her again.
    The phone rang, and he answered it.. “Right. Let’s go, Reb. They’re ready.”
    The top of the cryotank had been removed now, allowing direct access to Archer Howell’s defrosted body. At present it was only a body-no longer a corpse, not yet a man. It was “alive” in a certain technical sense, in that an array of machinery circulated its blood and pumped its lungs-but it was not yet Archer Howell. Dr. Bharadwaj awaited Rebecca Howell’s command, as ordered, before firing the complex and precise charge through the pineal gland that he believed would restore independent life-function-and consciousness-to the preserved flesh.
    “The new liver is in place and functioning correctly,” he told her when she arrived. “Indications aze good. Shall I-“
    “At once.”
    “Disconnect life support,” he snapped, and this was done. As soon as the body’s integrity had been restored, he pressed a button. The body bucked in its plexiglass cradle, then sank back limply. A technician shook her head, and Bharadwaj, sweating prodigiously, pressed the button a second time. The body spasmed again-and the eyes opened. The nostrils flared, and drew in breath; the chest expanded the fingers clenched spasmodically. Rebecca Howell cried out, Dimsdale stared with round eyes~, Bharadwaj and his support team broke Out in broad grins of relief and triumph…
    And the first breath was expelled. In along, high, unmistakably infantile wail.
     
    Rebecca Howell’s mind was both tough and resilient. The moment her subconscious decided she was ready to handle consciousness again, it threw off heavy sedation like a flannel blanket. The, physician monitoring her telemetry in the next room started violently, wondering if be could have cat-napped without realizing it.
    “What’s wrong?” Dimsdale demanded.
    “Nothing. Uh, she-a second ago she was deep under, and-“
    “-now she’s wide awake,” Ditnsdald finished. “All right, stand by.” He got up stiffly and went to her door., “Now comes the hard part,” he said, too