The rest of the meal passed in almost complete silence. Berk and Mart knew that Jennings wanted to talk. They knew he was thinking of their last association, on Project Levitation, but he couldn’t speak of that with Goodman present.
The AEC man seemed to sense that he was something of an intruder. As the silence continued, a look of disgruntled determination settled upon his face, as if he intended not to be left out of any secrets that might pass between the others.
Afterwards, they went up to Mart’s room. Carolyn and the children had gone to a show, so they were alone. Jennings lit a fresh cigar and sat down by a window where he could see the haze of lights and desert dust over Las Vegas. Mart stood a moment near the window, looking out. Then he turned.
“I want a patent on what I’ve got,” he said. “That’s all I’m after. Nothing but a patent.”
Jennings blew a cloud of smoke into the air and looked up quizzically. Goodman lurched impatiently in his chair. “You have patents!” the AEC man said. “I even wired Washington and had a copy of the Volcano patents sent out while I went to Los Angeles. You’re covered on everything you’ve done!”
But already Jennings was smiling as he watched Mart through the haze of cigar smoke that was fading between them. “So you want a patent!” he murmured. “I should have guessed that it would be something oblique like that, since you were teamed up with Berk. This is Berk’s angle, isn’t it?”
"We worked it out together,” said Mart. “We had developed these things and didn’t know what to do with them. Finally, Berk got so tired of my griping about the impossibility of using them without giving them away that he suggested we do something about it. We have.”
Jennings shook his head. “Not yet, Mart. You haven’t done anything except stir up a hornet’s nest. It remains to be seen whether or not the stirring-up is going to result in any real action on your problem.”
“The stirring-up is something in itself,” said Mart. “Things will never be quite the same again for anyone who fully understands the symbology of the Volcano.”
“You are talking over my head!” said Goodman irritably. “I fail completely to understand what this is all about. You have produced a model which you have tacitly admitted has been correctly interpreted by myself and Dr. Jennings. Now you say you want patents — on a device which is already covered by patents!”