Cretaceous Sea

He found Peter Green and John Greighton sitting in wicker chairs, finishing off their wine.

'Here we are, John,' said Green, 'one of the rarest and the finest.' Rick set down the decanter and the two snifters. Though he disliked playing the servant, he asked, 'Do you need anything else?'

'Pull the curtain,' said Green.

Rick pulled the curtain as he left. He was about to return to the staff tent when two small pterosaurs alighted not ten feet from where he stood. They were behaving oddly, and Rick stopped to watch them. One of the pter-osaurs assumed the usual quadrupedal stance, but the other reared up to balance awkwardly on its hind feet. While it was upright, the pterosaur puffed out a pouch in its neck like a small balloon. It pranced about for a few seconds in this posture, then dropped to a normal stance, rested, and repeated the display. Rick thought he might be witnessing courtship behavior. He assumed the pter-osaur with the pouch was the male and wondered how the female might respond. He remained still to find out. The two pterosaurs performed their ritual in silence; the only sound was Peter Green's and John Greighton's con-versation from the other side of the curtain.

'... 2047, that was a good year, and not just for cham-pagne ...'

Snob talk, thought Rick absentmindedly. He focused on the pterosaurs ignoring the drone of talk until a deri-sive laugh caught his attention. 'Twenty-nine?' said Greighton's voice in a condescending tone.

'Where's your taste? All that stuff was crap.'

'Not 2029,' responded Green's voice, 'I mean 1929.'

'Expensive vinegar,' sniffed Greighton, 'if it even ex-ists.'

'Oh it exists, all right,' said Green. 'In the year 1929. That's when I'd stock up—at bargain-basement prices.'

'You'd use your time machine to buy wine?' Greigh-ton's voice sounded incredulous. Rick forgot the pterosaurs and focused on the voices behind the curtain.

'I was just using wine as an example. Buying stock would be more worthwhile. Eastman Kodak in the 1890s... Microsoft in the 1980s ... Biofab in the 2020s ...'

'Have you done this?' asked Greighton, sounding in-trigued.

'If I had, you wouldn't be sitting here. I'd own every-thing worth having in your portfolio. I'd be the billionaire and you ... you couldn't even afford the fare to this place.'

'Why are you telling me this?' asked Greighton in a cold voice. 'Are you threatening me?'

'No, no, not at all. On the contrary, I have an offer for you.'

Rick quietly moved to a less conspicuous position.

'I've proven that I have a working time machine,' contin-ued Green. 'With such a machine, history is a treasure map. There are no gambles, only sure bets.'

'Go on,' said Greighton, sounding interested.

'But there are some difficulties. With your help, they'll be easily overcome.'

'What kind of difficulties?'

'I'm going to trust you with a secret,' said Green in a conspiratorial tone. 'I didn't invent the time machine. I ac- quired it.'

'From whom?'

'A party from the future.'

'Are you telling me that they simply gave you a time machine?'

'The acquisition was more in the nature of a hostile take-over.'

'I see,' said Greighton.

'I'm not a man to miss an opportunity,' replied Green. 'I suspect you're not either. Am I right?'