Primer Page #4

You're the one talking about it.

So, you believe me?

No, I don't.

Come on. Let's go get a drink or something.

-We're going to have to move it.

-We will.

We need a box big enough for a person

to fit into. As far as turning it on--

I was testing the box. It turns out

over half the rings are redundant.

The inner ring is strong enough on its own,

so it makes the plate smaller.

A lot more is unnecessary.

What we can do...

is take a lot of these small plates and

surround a container with a web of them.

How small?

It should be accumulative so a lot of

mini-fields equal one big one, right?

Yeah, sum of series, that makes sense.

What I was going to say is we need

to find a place where we can put it...

and turn it on and it won't be disturbed.

We could just lock it in a closet.

Someplace where someone's not going to

go poking around and messing with it.

And climate-controlled.

Yeah, so whatever, we'll find some place.

So, if we go your route with what?

A bunch of mini-fields?

That's a lot of work. We'd have to....

I mean, how many days is that?

Abe, you know what we could use?

I know we've seen

a lot of crazy things lately, okay?

I know you're still trying to put

it all together in a way that makes sense.

Look, ljust want you to understand

that what's next is not a prank, okay?

I wouldn't do that to you

and I'm not doing that to you.

So when you see this, you can't yell

or make any noise or run anywhere.

I know you probably feel like you're

being tricked or made fun of. But you're not.

I promise you, you're not. Okay?

Who was that, Abe?

Let's just wait. Six minutes.

Look, you sure you're okay to drive?

What did you do all day?

The first time through?

I spent the day in a hotel room

in Russellfield.

-I'll just meet you back at the shop.

-I wonder what I did.

-I guess I went back to work.

-Yeah, probably.

Probably just worked, I guess.

Yeah, probably so.

Look, now that I know about this, Abe...

don't do this again, okay?

Not where it affects me.

Go ahead.

Hey, Rachel.

Why not the lottery?

We can if you want,

but it's not until Saturday.

And even if we win the full $10 million,

that's only $200,000 forthe next 30 years.

-And that's just one good trade.

-A couple days like this.

-I was just running a test. In and out.

-I want to do what you did.

Exactly what you did.

-The first thing I did is call in sick.

-Okay, I did that.

-Then I drove to the storage facility.

-But I need to drop Lauren at school first.

Then meet me there.

We're going to need both cars.

We need to park yours down the road,

out of sight of the facility.

-Why are we doing that?

-Because we need a ride home.

-What is that....

-It'll make sense.

Okay, I'll be patient.

When I got to the storage room,

I flooded the box with argon...

and I had to tighten it up

to secure the leaks.

-There's leaks?

-There's always leaks.

At 8:
30 a.m., I set the timer for 15 minutes...

I jumped in the car,

and drove to Russellfield.

Okay, I lost it.

-What?

-Why the timer?

Because the moment we start those

machines is the moment we'll end up...

-getting out of them, and--

-Right. Got it. Sorry.

I don't want to be standing around

when they do.

While I was on the road at 8:45,

the machine kicked on by itself...

and by 8:
49, it was completely warmed up.

In Russellfield, I got a hotel room

and tried to isolate myself.

Wait, what do you mean "isolate"?

I closed the windows,

I unplugged everything in the room...

the telephone, TV, clock, radio, everything.

I didn't want to take the chance

of running into someone I knew...

or seeing something on the news

that might....

If we're dealing with causality,

and I don't even know for sure.

-I just....

-What?

-Took myself out of the equation.

-Err on the side of caution.

Yes.

Then what did you do all day?

-I just sat there. I had some books, but....

-What? Were you nervous?

Yeah.

It's mind-numbing, all the second-guessing.

"Evacipate."

At 3:
30 p.m.,

I stopped by Williams Medical Supply.

Picked up a Class E oxygen tank and mask.

I called my mutual fund company and asked

which stock in their mid-cap fund...

had the greatest percentage gain that day.

The idea was just to get enough information

for one good trade.

Can we just download chart data

and trade on each movement?

But if we do that, I want to use the library

in Russellfield, use their computers.

So, I got to the storage room at about 3:15

and cut off the power to the box.

It cycled down to a tolerable level

at about 3:
19.

The trick is to get in

after it reaches a comfortable level...

but before it shuts off completely.

There's a window there.

So, does it hurt?

Yeah, it does a little.

It's not bad if you wait for the right time.

It's like a small static shock.

-Once you're in, you're fine, though.

-What?

I know you've done it,

and I can only assume that you don't have...

cancer or male impotence.

But what is your opinion

on how safe this thing is?

I can imagine no way

in which this thing would be...

considered anywhere remotely close to safe.

All I know is I spent six hours in there

and I'm still alive.

You still want to do it?

I set the alarm on my stopwatch

for six hours.

I regulated the O2 tank,

took some Dramamine, and tried to sleep.

Did you?

-What?

-Did you sleep?

Not at first. I've never

considered myself claustrophobic...

but I started sweating and I couldn't find

the right flow rate on the tank...

and I was breathing differently than I was

when I was testing it on the outside.

Eventually, I settled down, and...

I don't know, maybe it was the Dramamine

kicking in, but I remember this moment...

in the dark

with the reverberation of the machine.

It was maybe the most content

I've ever been.

I woke up on my own without the alarm...

and waited for the machine to cool down.

Cool down from my perspective.

It got to a point where it sounded safe

to get out...

but the stopwatch still showed

a couple minutes...

so I trusted the math and waited.

That's not a static shock, Abe.

Okay, please stop it.

You got out too soon.

You have to wait forthe stopwatch

so that you know the gain is low enough.

So, we're back here?

Yeah, we're here.

It's 8:
50, Tuesday morning.

All right. Give me a few minutes.

From there it was easy.

The bulk of the work was done.

I just left everything the way I found it.

I left the machine alone...

and didn't turn it off,

and just cleared out of there.

So your double would find everything

the same later that day and get in the box?

Right, but also, I or my double or someone

was in the box coming backwards.

So who knows what that would've done

if I'd turned the machine off.

Definitely. So, they're one-time use only.

So then, at that moment, since my double

was on the way to the hotel in my car...

I had to take a taxi home. But when we go,

we'll be able to use your truck.

-You have a margin account, right?

-Yeah. I do now. What are we buying?

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