Arkwright Read Free Page B

wheelchair, leafing through the papers on the desk. Kate had once been spanked for doing just that, during the only Christmas get-together she and her parents had ever attended, but Harry didn’t seem the slightest bit embarrassed to be caught in the act.
    â€œLooking for an idea to steal?” Maggie asked, her tone playfully scolding.
    Harry made a rude sound with his lips. “You kidding? He stole his best ideas from me.”
    â€œSo you’ve always said.” George turned away from the globes and picked up the drink he’d left on an end table. “You’re just jealous he … well, never mind. Hello, Ms. Morressy. So happy you’ve come. I’m just sorry we haven’t met until now.”
    â€œNo, we haven’t. But I’ve never met any of Grandpapa’s friends, so I guess that figures.” The two men were strangers to her but obviously old acquaintances of her grandfather’s. “Maggie told me your names, but I don’t—”
    â€œHarry Skinner,” Harry said. “One of Nat’s colleagues. We got started at the same time.” A wry smile as he carefully returned some typewritten pages to their place on the desk. “I seldom wrote under my own name, though. Most readers know me as Matt Brown.”
    He gave her an expectant look, as if hoping that she’d recognize his byline. “I’m sorry, Mr. Skinner—”
    â€œHarry.”
    â€œBut I haven’t read much science fiction except my grandfather’s.”
    A sad smile, accompanied by an even sadder sigh. “Story of my life,” Harry said quietly. “Thirty-nine books, and I’ll probably be forgotten ten minutes after I’m dead.”
    â€œI always said you should have picked a better pseudonym.” Maggie walked over to one of the armchairs and lowered herself into it. “Something more memorable than the shade of paint you put on your house.”
    â€œGeorge Hallahan.” George carried his drink to the couch. “Not a writer … or at least not science fiction.”
    Kate nodded, and then something tickled the back of her mind. She remembered a piece she’d written a couple of years earlier when she’d covered a conference at MIT regarding interstellar exploration; several speakers had made reference to the work of a former Manhattan Project scientist, a physicist from the Institute of Advanced Study by name of …
    â€œDr. George Hallahan.” She stared at him. A legend in the theoretical physics community. “You knew Grandpapa.”
    â€œAn old and dear friend. He’d call from time to time when he needed help with something.” Seeing the astonished look on her face, George grinned. “No, you won’t find my name in any of the acknowledgments. The security agreements I’d signed when I was doing military research at General Atomics would have meant getting a visit from the FBI if they’d learned I was telling a science fiction writer how nuclear rocket engines worked. Besides, it didn’t hurt Nat’s reputation to let his readers believe that he dreamed up that techy stuff all by himself.”
    â€œNot to mention his plots,” Harry muttered.
    â€œHush. Not true, and you know it.” Maggie turned to Kate. “It doesn’t sound like it, but Harry and Nat were best friends, practically brothers. What you’re hearing is the sound of sibling rivalry.”
    Kate discreetly glanced at her watch. It was almost one o’clock. If she stayed much longer, she’d hit the weekend traffic on the pike going back to Boston. “Well, it’s been a pleasure to meet all of you, but—”
    Maggie held up a hand. “This is important, and I promise we won’t take much more of your time. It concerns your grandfather’s will.”
    â€œOh?”
    An apologetic smile. “I wish I could tell you otherwise, but it’s not what you