"Yeah, it creates something of a problem, all right." Kennely walked over and stared into the depths of the hole where water was slowly accumulating.
"We'll come in in the morning and be surprised as anybody over the wreckage here. Then I'll tell Mac the gadget is equipment I've been looking for on my indicator project. I'll explain it got missent to the model shop and I didn't bother to investigate until I needed it. That ought to hold water."
"What did you mean when you told Tarman you'd return the machine in twenty-four hours? Yon know we can't do anything in that time."
"We can't — unless we think of some kind of a deal to make with him. They must want something we've got. Anyway, it gives us that much delay and keeps them from biting the whole plant in little pieces."
"O.K. Let's call it a day and clear out of here. We can't do anything tonight. We'll sleep on it and talk it over in the morning.
Devon's sleep during the remaining few hours of the night was anything but restful. His nightmares were filled with enormous termites that were chewing up the house a cubic yard at a time, and he ended up in a cold sweat at five thirty, looking and feeling as if he'd been on an all-night binge.
He dreaded the idea of going to the plant. Kennely could carry off a thing like this without a flick of an eyelid, but Devon could hardly get away with it. He couldn't josh Mac for getting plastered and tearing the shop apart and become just the right shade haughty at the slightest suggestion that he knew something about the business because he was there last night.
He found what he expected as he walked down the hall towards the model shop on the way to the lab. The entrance was completely blocked by a mob of other engineers and assembly-line workers trying to get a glimpse of the mysterious holes in the floor, and the machinery that had been sliced.
As Devon struggled to ease past the mob, he saw Kennely in the center of things up front, being properly amazed and speculating aloud as to the possible causes. He spotted Devon.
"Chris! Come and see what Mac's been doing!"