Then he squared his massive shoulders and stepped onto the tri-matter slab—and vanished. One by one the members of his general staff followed.
When the last of them stepped into thin air above the softly glowing square, Carl walked over to a switch board and pulled the disconnects that broke the surge of power playing over the room.
His pale assistants watched, hypnotized.
Carl smiled at them encouragingly. He glanced at his watch and estimated the time left.
"Another hour at the most now," he said quietly. "It could come any second."
The wooden walls of the room closed them in with brooding foreboding. A heavily barred window brought a view of the steel bridge that led to the city.
A large clock on the wall became the center of attention. A red second hand moved with slowly deliberate swiftness around the dial.
And in the center of the waiting group the luminous square built flush with the wooden floor waited too, its face inscrutible, its substance anchored in three roots of Being.
An electrical tension was building up around the hushed group of scientists. Vague stirrings of cold light rippled the surface of the square block of tri-matter.
"The cleavage is beginning," Carl said quietly. "When I say the word step through. The entropy shift must be just right or we'll find ourselves with Hitle and his gang. Now!"