“Where is your jacket?”
Zaphod looked at him in mystification.
“My jacket? I took it off. It’s outside.”
“Good, we will go and find it.”
Zarniwoop stood up and gestured to Zaphod to follow him.
Out in the entrance chamber again, they could hear the screams of the passengers being fed coffee and biscuits.
“It has not been a pleasant experience waiting for you,” said Zarniwoop.
“Not pleasant for you!” bawled Zaphod, “How do you think…”
Zarniwoop held up a silencing finger as the hatchway swung open. A few feet away from them they could see Zaphod’s jacket lying in the debris.
“A very remarkable and very powerful ship,” said Zarniwoop, “watch.”
As they watched, the pocket on the jacket suddenly bulged. It split, it ripped. The small metal model of the Heart of Gold that Zaphod had been bewildered to discover in his pocket was growing.
It grew, it continued to grow. It reached, after two minutes, its full size.
“At an Improbability Level,” said Zarniwoop, “of… oh I don’t know, but something very large.”
Zaphod swayed.
“You mean I had it with me all the time?”
“Zarniwoop smiled. He lifted up his briefcase and opened it.
He twisted a single switch inside it.
“Goodbye artificial Universe,” he said, “hello real one!”
The scene before them shimmered briefly – and reappeared exactly as before.
“You see?” said Zarniwoop, “exactly the same.”
“You mean,” repeated Zaphod tautly, “that I had it with me all the time?”
“Oh yes,” said Zarniwoop, “of course. That was the whole point.”
“That’s it,” said Zaphod, “you can count me out, from hereon in you can count me out. I’ve had all I want of this. You play your own games.”
“I’m afraid you cannot leave,” said Zarniwoop, “you are entwined in the Improbability field. You cannot escape.”