"Superior, aren't you?" sneered Jason Charless.
"Not at all. I know my ability to the nth degree and possess no false modesty. I am also aware of my limitations—and I must study my circumventors."
Jason Charless thought this over silently. Harry and Narina had something that the machine lacked, some factor that the machine needed. As a simple adding machine cannot be made to compute in higher mathematics, so this monstrous machine must be incomplete until the missing abilities were added. It struck Charless that Narina Varada and Harry Vinson must—at all cost—be kept from the presence of the machine—
"Whatever their actions, it will be but a matter of time. I would prefer that I study them, however, and this means that they must be alive. So the sooner the better. Do as I tell you; go aloft where you will find an aircraft ready to fly. Take it and tell your people and explain. Then have them send me Narina Varada and Harry Vinson."
Charless believed this to be a trick, and he was suspicious until he was in the plane and far away.
5
Harry Vinson looked at the tiny grayish metal block and shook his head. "You name it," he said to the girl.
Narina leaned against the bulkhead, her slender feet braced against the gentle swell of the sea. "I cannot," she said.
Vinson combed the myriad of thin wires with his fingers. "It must be some sort of controlling mechanism, that's certain."