novel 88 - 11. beyond the mountains

by nick nelson

part 11 of ?

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i am sorry, professor. but after this month’s payroll is delivered, i am going to have to leave you. really? i am sorry to hear that, mike. what is the reason for this sudden - i assume it is sudden - decision? i have met a wonderful girl named sally jane and we are going to start a new life together and raise a family and she does not approve of my having such a dangerous occupation as escorting payrolls across deserts and mountains. well, i am sorry to lose you, mike, but i wish you well in your new life, and thank you for all your past services. was there anything else you wished to communicate to me? no, that is all the information i have for you today. then i wish you a pleasant rest of your day. mike left, and the professor returned to his thoughts. professor isaac newton was a mad scientist of the old school, and conducted his experiments on time and space in a secluded laboratory deep in the mountains. respectable scientists of the establishment derided him a a quack, but he felt he was on the verge of a momentous breakthrough, and the decision of his assistant, mike tenth street, a semi-reformed desperado of the old school, did not trouble him greatly, as he was confident he would always muddle through. because of the professor’s craving for secrecy, and the remoteness of his workspace, his underlings had to be paid, not in the digital currency of the new modern world, but in gold and other old fashioned valuables. that is where mike had come in. but now mike was leaving. he might not have to be replaced, if the new time and space machine could be revealed to the world, before the next payday. time and space would tell. next