They were checking the control panel's insides one more time there, as Jeanie finished her short talk with the new janitor. She had not dared disturb Cooper in his few moments of glory in finding the error, so she gave the instructions for the cleanup herself. They were standing in front of the Transporter, and the man was leaning on the push broom he held with both hands. She had introduced herself as Cooper's assistant, but as they turned to continue their work, Jeanie added with a smile,
"You can call me Jeanie....everyone else does!"
The man turned to look at her from the second step to the machine platform and put up his right hand, as if to wave.
"Oh, er, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself! I'm Mike...Mike Montaine!" He gave another nod and a huge grin, and tugged on his pocket identification card as if she could read it from there.
"We'll be talking again, soon, Mike, I'm sure. Good luck with this chaos. Remember, Dr. Cooper wants this area spotless! It's important that this property be tested today."
Then she was gone to find the others. Mike wanted to ask what the 'property' was used for, but figured he wouldn't get an answer anyway. He reached the platform and with hand on hip, viewed the main part of the disaster area. He shook his head. "Whatever happened here, I'm sure glad it's not my fault. Well, better get started somewhere, and looks like this is the place!"
He moved to the right rear circle, and began sweeping as fast as he could, being careful to get all the finest bits of concrete. He pushed the debris toward the front circle on the same side.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the lab Dr. Cooper had ordered technician Larry Daniken, a handsome, blonde youth, under the control panel with a hand held computer called an Electronic Circuit Monitoring Device. You could only see Larry's legs as he lay on the floor on his back, checking out the wiring one more time.
"How's things look under there now, Larry?" Cooper called to his helper.
"There's lots of noise in here, sir!" came the muffled reply. "Sounds like a hive of angry bees! There's got to be another problem I just don't understand. It doesn't register on the monitor, Dr. Cooper, whatever the cause is. I've never heard of or seen anything like this in my life!"
"O.k.," Cooper called to him. "Come on out, Daniken, I'll have a look. Maybe if I activate the switch we'll locate the problem in no time; again."
Larry was glad to pop the upper half of his body into the open once again. He had worked with many experimental devices before, but this one gave him the creeps. When he was underneath it, he felt sick and terribly light headed. He was absolutely