Lucy came to a standstill, panting, her wide eyes looking around her. She paid no more attention to the steadily leveled gun in Bryce’s hand. In every part of the cavern there seemed to loom scientific apparatus, none of it making sense to Lucy’s completely unscientific mind.
“You needn’t worry about Reggie,” Bryce said dryly, putting his gun away. “They’ll patch him up and turn him out when they’re sick of him. Naturally, m’dear, the whole thing was deliberately arranged. I’d timed it in such a way that that accident should have killed Reggie — only it didn’t work out. Never mind; I’ll correct the error later.”
“You’ll — you’ll what?” Lucy whispered in horror; then without waiting for an answer she hurried on: “Where are we? What is this place? Does it belong to you?”
“Every bit of it, and all the land around it. First I made gold by synthesis of elements; then I sold it and made a fortune. I can have anything in the world I want — except you. And that’s the part I don’t like. I could have you, of course, but against your will. I don’t want it that way. What I cannot forget is that you played around with my affections once, then kicked me out in favor of that idiot of a salesman! I’ve never forgotten that. I’ve schemed and plotted for this moment. I kept in touch with your movements. I knew I’d meet Reggie today because I knew just where he was going. I planned the accident that should have killed him and left me unhurt. I pushed him in the Little Oldfield Hospital in case you rang them up—”
“I did!” Lucy’s eyes were bright with anger now.
“I guessed you might. But now you’re here, m’dear, and you’re going to be here a tremendously long time. So you turned me down in favor of Reggie Denby, did you?”
“I married Reggie because I really loved him, Bryce! I never could love you. You’re too clever, too cold-blooded, too scientific—”
“I am going to show you, Lucy, what it means to turn me down,” Bryce interrupted deliberately. “I made up my mind to do it on the night you chose Reggie.”
Lucy stared at him now with horror in her eyes, panic. She no longer had the courage to be angry. “Bryce, you’re mad!” she whispered.
“Perhaps I am — mad with jealousy.” He gave a shrug “All I know is that if I can’t have you then neither can Reggie have you any longer. You didn’t like my science, you say? You will like it even less by the time I’ve finished with you!”
Suddenly he reached forward, clutched Lucy’s arm, and sent her stumbling through a distant opening in the cavern into yet another lighted area. Lucy found herself again confronted by scientific machinery that she could not possibly understand. Fear, devastating enough to make her faint, surged over her as Bryce followed her in and locked the metal door behind him. Then he stood with his back to it, a ghastly smile on his lean face. “This is one time, m’dear, when you’ll listen to science and listen well,” he said slowly. “Take a look about you, at these tubes, these magnets, that table with the straps fastened to it.”
Lucy stared at the objects indicated as if mesmerized. Then she suddenly found her tongue again.
“Bryce you’ve got to let me out of here!” Her voice was a hoarse scream. “You daren’t do anything to me! You daren’t! Reggie will find you and—”
“Reggie!” Bryce sneered. “That moon-faced dolt? What do you imagine he could do to me? I’m one of the great scientists of this or any other age. No, m’dear, he’ll do nothing. What is more, when I’ve finished with you I’ll deal with him. Yes, him — and that squealing little brat to whom I was made godfather! I’ll utterly destroy all three of you!”
As the girl stared at him hopelessly he continued: “You have only yourself to blame, Lucy. You could have had me and all the power and wealth science can bring. You chose differently, and for that I have decided there must be a price.”
“Who are you to decide my life?” Lucy demanded frantically. Flinging herself forward she drove her small fists fiercely into Bryce’s granite-like face, but he did not budge by a fraction. Finally he threw her away from him.
“Mad!” she repeated. “Always an egomaniac, and now it has completely overwhelmed you! You’re insane, Bryce! Insane!”
He remained motionless for a moment. Then he strode forward, gripped the girl in his powerful hands, and dumped her full-length on the steel table against which she had fallen. Before she realized what was happening the straps upon it were being buckled into place, across her neck, waist and ankles.
“Bryce, what are you going to do?” She could hardly get out the words.
“Plenty!” He surveyed her pinioned form and smiled coldly. “But first I have one or two things to tell you, things connected with the science you so obviously detest! You are going on a long journey, m’dear — a journey so long, indeed, that even I, a scientist, do not know where it will end. A journey into the future — alone!”
“What!” Lucy wriggled desperately in the straps, relaxed again, then breathed stormily. Her eyes fixed themselves on Bryce’s merciless features.
“You, Lucy, are going to be the victim of entropy,” he explained. “Naturally, you don’t know what entropy is, do you?”
“You know I don’t!” she shrieked. “Let me go!”
“Entropy,” Bryce stated calmly, as though delivering a lecture, “is the increasing disorder of the universe, the process by which the universe gradually moves to what is termed thermodynamic equilibrium. It can be likened to a perpetual shuffling, the disorder getting worse after each shuffle. Just like a pack of cards when we used to play that infernal game of bridge!”
“Bryce, for God’s sake—”
“If only you had read Eddington whilst at school you might have learned something about entropy,” Bryce sighed. “However, I’ve made it as clear as I can. Recently—” his tone changed to grim menace— “I fell to wondering what would happen if I created a non-entropy state, wherein nothing ever happens! So I decided to create a specified area — in this cavern to be precise — wherein molecular shuffling would achieve sudden and absolute equilibrium, a space wherein the ultimate of entropy would be reached instantly, instead of in a thousand, a million, ten million years’ time. Do you understand that?”
Lucy was beyond answering.
“Yes!” he said, his voice harsh with triumph. “I discovered how to create an entropy globe — a globe of force, the walls of which will attain absolute equilibrium, whose vibrations will extend inwards to everything inside the globe. Therefore, whatever is in the globe will be plunged into a state of non-time. Entropy will be halted! Progress will stop!”
“You,” Bryce continued deliberately, “will be inside that globe, Lucy! At your feet is one magnet; at your head another. Between them they will build up the hemisphere of the entropy globe, and within it time for you will cease to be. You will be plunged into an eternal ‘now’ from which release may never come. If it does it will be at a far distant time when scientists as clever as I find the way to unlock your prison.”
“Bryce, I beg of you!” Lucy implored huskily. “Let me go! I’ll do anything you want. Anything! I’ll divorce Reggie. You can’t do this to me! I’ve so much to live for! My baby and his future! You can’t do it!”
“On the wall there,” Bryce said, as though he had not even heard her, “is a calendar, placed I hope so that you can see it. See the date? Seventeenth of August, two thousand and nine. Remember that well!”