“That’s the reason for all the cloak-and-dagger secrecy. Never mind calling your projection man. This I’m going to run through myself. See what you think of it.”
They were all disgusted. “I’m getting tired of all this kid stuff,” said Kessler.
As I started for the projection booth I heard Mike say, “You’re no more tired of it than I am.”
From the booth I could see what was showing on the downstairs screen, but nothing else. I ran through the reel, rewound, and went back down.
I said, “One more thing, before we go any further read this. It’s a certified and notarized transcript of what has been read from the lips of the characters you just saw. They weren’t, incidentally, ‘characters,’ in that sense of the word.” I handed the crackling sheets around, a copy for each. “Those ‘characters’ are real people. You’ve just seen a newsreel. This transcript will tell you what they were talking about. Read it. In the trunk of the car Mike and I have something to show you. We’ll be back by the time you’ve read it.”
Mike helped me carry in the machine from the car. We came in the door in time to see Kessler throw the transcript as far as he could. He bounced to his feet as the sheets fluttered down.
He was furious. “What’s going on here?” We paid no attention to him, nor to the excited demands of the others until the machine had been plugged into the nearest outlet.
Mike looked at me. “Any ideas?”
I shook my head and told Johnson to shut up for a minute. Mike lifted the lid and hesitated momentarily before he touched the dials. I pushed Johnson into his chair and turned off the Ughts myself. The room went black. Johnson, looking over my shoulder, gasped. I heard Bernstein swear softly, amazed.
I turned to see what Mike had shown them.