THE COSMIC COMPUTER

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That set them all off. He was still holding his drink; he downed it in
one gulp, barely tasting it, and handed the glass to Tom Brangwyn for a
refill, and caught a frown on his father's face. One did not gulp drinks
in Kurt Fawzi's office.

Well, neither did one blast everybody's hopes with half a dozen words,
and that was what he was trying to force himself to do. He wanted to
blurt out the one quick sentence[Pg 15] and get it over with, but the
words wouldn't come out of his throat. He lowered the second drink by
half; the brandy was beginning to warm him and dissolve the cold lump in
his stomach. Have to go easy, though. He wasn't used to this kind of
drinking, and he wanted to stay sober enough to talk sense until he'd
told them what he had to.

"I hope," he said, "that you don't expect me to show you the cross on
the map, where the computer is buried."