Rockets to Nowhere by Lester del Rey

Author:Lester del Rey [del Rey, Lester]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction
Publisher: John C. Winston Co.
Published: 1954-02-03T20:46:05+00:00

Chapter 10

Fresh Evidence

They had driven Jet’s car to El Paso. Danny’s mother had been too cheerful all the way, more so than when he’d first left for Chicago. His father had been almost as carefully cheerful this time, apologizing over and over for being unable to send Danny by plane, but the scholarship had included train fare; even with the sudden promotion, his finances were still strained from all the technical books and journals he’d been forced to buy.

It had meant nothing to Danny. He liked the monorail trains. But now at the station, he wished the express would never arrive. There was still that hard, false brightness on the faces of his parents and the quick exchange of glances when he wasn’t supposed to be looking. Whatever those special Security men—if they were Security agents—had said must have been more important than it had seemed at first.

They sat in the station restaurant now, while Danny tried to stuff a banana split down his throat to please his mother. He could look through the windows and see the compartments being made ready to move out and contact the eastbound train. He saw his luggage being wheeled up to one and realized the time was growing short. A fine vacation this had been!

His eyes wandered to the figure of a small man slumped down on a seat near the compartments. The man had been sitting there for fifteen minutes, wearing a light coat and with a hat pulled down over his eyes, in spite of the heat. Danny wondered briefly at what had brought him here, before returning to his own problems.

He swallowed the last of the ice cream and shoved back the dish. His mother smiled again, too quickly. His father had been staring at the same man outside with a peculiar expression, but now he glanced at Danny and brought himself forcibly back to the current situation.

“Let me know as soon as you get set and find a place to keep it,” he said quickly, “and we’ll send out your car. You’ll find it handy there, too, I guess.”

“Sure,” Danny agreed. He hadn’t even thought of having the little Morris sent to him. He knew he should be happy to be going to study under Hayden, but somehow it seemed like being sent off to prison. He’d almost forgotten that a normal life was still possible. “And keep working on Chapman, will you? Maybe if I keep myself on good behavior, you can get my pass upped to match yours.”

Surprisingly, then, his mother started to cry quietly, making no sound, but turning her face away as the tears started to flow. Dr. Cross stared helplessly at Danny, who was dumfounded. It wasn’t at all like her. Then she caught herself quickly, and turned back, the smile forced onto her lips again.

“Silly of me. But if it hadn’t been for that darned pass, I’d have had you all summer, and now … Oh, forget it. I’m all right now.”

Danny nodded uncertainly.

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