He took her by the shoulders and turned her to face him. "I can kiss a married woman," he said, "with a free mind so long as she is married to me."
She went into his arms to be held—as she was holding him—close. Ackerman more than half expected another interruption, but it did not come. That annoying thought faded as he found his entire attention held by the softly eager woman in his arms. Long, tender, silent moments passed, and then returned reality.
"I like your looks," he told her. "And that was a temporary good-bye. I'll be most careful not to make any mistakes."
Tansie's eyes were shining brightly but she merely nodded and said only: "Auf wiedersehen, my darling."
Ackerman turned and hurried down the laboratory steps with Tansie behind him. They arrived just as both technicians were placing the samples to be bombarded in the cyclotron—one in each world but in perfect register. Ackerman stood in the room beside the big machine as the others left, his temperon-clad glove poised over the congruent samples.
Then and only then he saw the rest. They came hurriedly, fearfully. But not in hatred of one another.
Calvin Blaine shook his head. "You should not have done this," he said.
"But it is done," added Barry Ford. "Now he must have perfect co-ordination, or else."
Tod Laplane shrugged. "If he coalesces these twin worlds at the wrong 'time', there will be the damnedest celestially cosmic explosion since the beginning of the universe."