'Thanks for the financial advice, but we don't need it.'
'As you know, we've already been in contact with a good number of your larger shareholders,' Hudson said. Jon knew, all right-that was the reason for this meeting in the first place. 'No one came right out and said it, but there is a lot of uneasiness about the company and your stewardship of it. The shareholders have not met or voted, but have informally indicated to us that they might be willing to consider a merger, stock swap, or buyout. As Mrs. Duffield said, we're not corporate raiders, but we do know a company ripe for acquisition-hostile or otherwise. Sky Masters Inc. is it.'
'Your shareholders told us that there's always a need for fresh blood, new faces, and innovative leadership,' Duffield added. 'Sierra Vistas Partners has a long track record of successfully reorganizing and reenergizing companies of all sizes, while providing maximum value and benefits for shareholders and employees alike. We want to be part of the future, Doctors. We have an opportunity to use our talent and innovation to design our country's nextgeneration technologies at a minimal cost.'
'Talent? What talent?' Jon asked irritably. 'You keep on saying you have all this great and wonderful talent. Where did you find it? We have a staff of recruiters that travel ten months out of the year interviewing quality engineers and students all over the world. If they're out there, we've already identified them, and if we can, we get them to come here or to our other design center in Las Vegas. I know all of them by heart-I've met and spoken with all the top names in our related fields.'
'Mommy?' It was the little girl, holding up the magazine to her mother.
'Just a moment, sweetheart…'
'Maybe it would be better if your daughter waited out-
side,' Jon suggested coolly. He reached for the intercom on the phone on the conference table.
Duffield smiled at Jon; then, still watching him, she bent down to her daughter. 'Yes, dear?'
'Look.' She indicated one of the articles in the journal.
'Oh, I see that. Isn't that a nice picture.' Duffield took the journal out of her daughter's hands. 'Journal of the International Association of Applied Energy Engineers. The 'Zap Mag,' I believe you call it?' she asked Jon.
'I guess.' To the intercom, he said, 'Suzanne, could you come and get little… little…' Jon realized he did not know the little girl's name.'… Mrs. Duffield's daughter for us for a few moments?'
'And I see it's an article about… what does it say?' Duffield said to her daughter, still looking at Jon. Jon and Helen both looked at the woman in total puzzlement. What was she doing, including her daughter in this conversation about an article in a technical journal? 'It says, 'Conditions for improved propagation of laser energy fields in the lower atmosphere.' How interesting. Have you read this article, Dr. Masters?'
'No, I haven't. Suzanne…?'
'It's a fascinating article,' Duffield said, almost in mock excitement. 'I believe you were the one who developed the science that allowed the rollout of the first viable plasmayield weapon system, isn't that right, Dr. Masters? But it can generally only be used in the upper atmosphere because of the distortion of the plasma wave by rare gases under higher pressures in the lower atmosphere. This tells about how laser energy fields are more effective in tactical battlefield scenarios.'
Jon looked at Duffield in surprise, then accepted the magazine when she offered it to him. Jon read the name of the writer, his brows knotting in confusion. ''By Dr. Kelsey Duffield'? But I thought you said you were an accountant?'
'I am,' the woman said. 'But my name is Cheryl Duffield.' She motioned to the little girl standing beside her with a smile. 'Dr. Masters, this is Dr. Kelsey Duffield.'
'Jon made a little puffing sound with his mouth, as if he was about to laugh but instantly knew the joke was on him. 'You… you 're Kelsey Duffield?' Helen asked incredulously.
'Yes, Dr. Helen,' the little girl replied with a tiny giggle.
'Don't be too embarrassed-people make incorrect assumptions all the time,' Hudson said. 'Cheryl likes stringing along the charade as long as she can.' He smiled mischievously and added, 'I think this was a record.'
'This was no 'incorrect assumption.' You did this deliberately,' Jon argued.
'This article has your picture on it, Mrs. Duffield,' Helen pointed out perturbedly.
'Would you read an article that had the picture of a nineyear-old girl over it?' Cheryl asked. 'Most scientists and engineers wouldn't. Even with as much as one percent of today's masters and doctoral candidates five or more years below the average age-and Kelsey was twenty-three years below the average for her first doctorate-few accept young savants as anything else but freaks. Besides, we thought it was funny.'
'I don't appreciate the humor in it, or your subterfuge for this meeting, intended or not,' Helen said pointedly. 'These meetings rely on a great deal of mutual trust and professionalism, neither of which you've displayed. Jon?' She looked over at her husband, expecting him to say something or even storm out of the room. But he suddenly looked totally confused, at first reading bits of the journal article, then looking quizzically at Kelsey Duffield. 'Jon?' Jon opened his mouth, closed it, pointed at the magazine, made a sound as he tried to say something again, then started staring off into space. Helen was confused and a little frustrated-her 'good I cop' act was not happening here. 'Jon…?'
'It looks like you have a question, Dr. Jon,' Kelsey observed, with that impish smile-too similar to Jon's, Helen noted with immense dismay. 'About the article?'
'I…' He looked like a fish out of water. Now, Helen thought wryly, she knew what some of the members of his doctorate boards must've looked like as he spoke to them about technologies that wouldn't become realities for a generation to come-Jon Masters, the supergenius, was finally having to deal with his own little supergenius. 'A laser energy field? A plasma energy field excited by a laser? That's impossible. They don't exist at the same space-time. They can't exist together.'
'You're still working around the notion of noninterchangeable space-time continuums, Dr. Jon?' little Kelsey asked, truly surprised at the notion. She shrugged, then nodded knowingly. 'Well, I guess if you still subscribe to the idea that matter and energy exist in only one spacetime as defined by things like frequency, mass, and acceleration, then it's true-they can't exist together. But I think there are an infinite number of continuums that exist in each measurable space-time.'
'That's… that's ridiculous,' Jon said, but even as he said it, he couldn't convince himself it was so ridiculous. 'Measurement, predictability, quantification-all those are space-time equivalents. Mathematically anything can be proven or disproven, but you can't build-or sell-something that only exists as an equation on the blackboard. Even Einstein couldn't do that.' At that, Kelsey Duffield's smile grew even broader. 'Okay. How?'
'How much is it worth to you to find out?' Hudson asked.
'Excuse me?' Jon said, purposely raising his voice. 'You're going to start haggling like we're buying souvenirs in a marketplace in the Bahamas or something?'
'I didn't mean to sound impertinent,' Hudson said. 'But although I don't understand a fraction of what Kelsey does or says most of the time, she has over and over proven to me that what she says is real and can work. I've invested most of my personal fortune in her and her work, as I'm sure you guessed that her parents have.
'But the Duffields know anyone can build a lab-the difficult part is getting the products of the lab to be accepted and turned into something useful and important. As much as Kelsey's theories and experiments are revolutionary, they will never gain acceptance in the real world because of who she is. Sky Masters has a good reputationthe best in the world. That's why we've come to you.'
Jon Masters looked at his wife, to Hudson, then finally to the Duffields. Kelsey stood quietly, her tiny little hands folded neatly before her. He then looked back at his wife, his eyes silently asking the question he dared not verbalize. Helen nodded, trying to reassure him with a faint smile. Jon turned back to Kelsey. 'You're going to tell us everything? Lay it all out for us? Explain everything?'
'Yes,' Hudson said. 'For a third.'
'What did you say?'
'We're going to share, Jon,' Kelsey said. The more she spoke, the faster she seemed to age-in just a few seconds it suddenly seemed as if her voice, her mannerisms, even the look in her eyes had all grown up. 'You and Helen and I-'
'That's Dr. Masters to you, little girl,' Jon admonished her.
'I feel much closer to you than all these boring titles, Jon and Helen,' Kelsey said, her eyes smiling-maybe laughing, Jon thought. 'I like you. I like you both very much. You're like my big brother, and Helen is like my big
