Page 78 of Love and the Laws of Motion
The room was spartan, a university-issued steel desk and chair in the corner, and a huge whiteboard on one wall.On the other side of the room, a dozen battered telescopes on tripods stood along the wall like a line of soldiers.
Livie set her bag down but didn’t remove her coat.Neither did Nick, since it was cold as hell in here.There was no sign of anything like a heater.He watched as she got out her paperwork, checked something on her phone, and wrote out a bunch of stuff on the whiteboard.
“What’s that?”
“We give them the coordinates of one object in tonight’s sky, so they can calibrate their telescopes based on that.Then they have to find other objects on the worksheets and answer questions.It’s pretty basic stuff.Can you grab a telescope?”
He did as he was told, following her through a door in the wall opposite the entrance.It opened onto a field.No, that was too kind.It opened onto an empty lot, bare of vegetation, the ground lumpy and uneven.Beyond the wooden fence on the far side, he could see the inky darkness of the water, reflected lights shimmering off the surface.Across the water, a strip of land, dotted with low buildings, cut across the horizon.
“That’s Jamaica Bay out there,” Livie said as she set down her telescope and deftly kicked the legs open.“Across the bay is the Rockaways, and past that is the harbor.”
Nick wrestled with his telescope, far less proficient with it than Livie had been with hers.As soon as he got one leg out and tried to move the other, the first would swing back.“This is like wrestling with an eel.What the hell am I doing wrong?”
Livie came to help.She swung her hair over one shoulder as she bent down to straighten the legs.“There.You can set it down now.They’re pretty crummy, but Adams doesn’t have the money for anything better.”
“How many more should we set up?”
“That’s it.And chances are, nobody will show up to use those two.”
“Are you serious?”
“If you were an undergrad and you had your choice of lab times, would you choose to come all the way out to Mill Basin to stand around in the cold and dark on a Friday night?”
“Point taken.This is why the Friday night slot sucks.”
“Yep.It’s a waste of time.”
This was her punishment from that asshole Langley, being shunted to this crummy babysitting assignment.It made him want to punch something, preferably Langley’s face.If he wasn’t a responsible, reformed, law-abiding citizen, he’d be seriously tempted to electronically fuck up the dude’s life in some subtle and awe-inspiring ways.But sadly, he didn’t do that stuff anymore.
“Any update from Andy about Finch?”
She shook her head.“No improvement.”
Not good.Not good at all.“What are you going to do?”
“What can I do?I’m going to keep working on the program with you, and keep working on the application for time on Hubble.That way, everything’s in place for Janet when she gets back.”He didn’t point out the obvious—that it was becoming increasingly likely that Finch wouldn’t come back.He’d tried that once before and Livie hadn’t taken it well.
“You know this research as well as Finch.Can’t you keep moving forward without her?”
“It’s her work.I wouldn’t feel right doing it without her.And besides, it’s not that easy.”
Taking her hand, he ran his thumb over the back of her knuckles.“Explain it to me.I’ve been told I’m pretty smart.I bet I can keep up.”
“Janet didn’t get the purchasing requests submitted for approval before her heart attack.”
“Can you submit them?”
“No.And even if I could, it wouldn’t matter.Janet has to personally sign off on all expenses before Skylight will release the funds to the university’s account.”
“Isn’t that dickwad Langley head of the department now?Surely he’s got the authority to do it.”
Livie’s eyes flashed up to his then away again, and she caught her bottom lip with her teeth.Something was eating at her.
“What is it?”
“Nothing.I’m sure it’s nothing.”
“Obviously it’s not nothing.What are you thinking?”
