Discovery

Proton Field #1

By

Laurence E Dahners

Copyright 2017 Laurence E Dahners

Kindle Edition

Author’s Note

This book is the first in the “Proton Field” series

This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

Table of Contents

Prologue 1

Prologue 2

Prologue 3

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

The End

Author’s Afterword

Acknowledgements

Prologue 1

Arlan Miller walked amongst the projects displayed at the Greater Kansas City science fair. Somehow he’d expected that the majority of the projects would involve actual experiments, designed to find answers to various kinds of scientific questions. Instead, he felt quite disenchanted by the sheer number of projects that were merely demonstrations of known scientific effects or phenomena. They were interesting in the sense that they educated the observer about scientific principles, but, to his way of thinking, they didn’t embody the scientific method wherein a student asked a question and then did an experiment to obtain an answer.

Arlan was supposed to judge this science fair. At present, he and the other judges were expected to wander around looking at the projects on their own. In a little while they were supposed to go around as a group and listen to presentations by each of the students.

He was finding that even the projects that did claim to be experiments, frequently only used those experiments to prove once again that known scientific phenomena occurred. For instance, he thought dismissively, this project showing that plants grow more rapidly if they’re provided adequate light!

As Arlan kept walking he saw a sign that made his heart leap even though he didn’t believe its claims could be true. The sign boldly stated, “A New Field Which Suppresses the Electrostatic Force.” Even though the student couldn’t have actually discovered some new kind of field, the fact that she was even trying to find something new heartened him. The student was a girl about sixteen to eighteen years old. She had on a feminine and pretty short skirt that contrasted markedly with heavy boots and very short light-brown hair. What he could see of her thighs and arms looked as if she were very physically fit. Some kind of athlete, he thought. Subconsciously, Arlan decided he was looking at a tomboy who was trying to realize her feminine side with the skirt. Chiding himself for thinking about that rather than whatever science she might be displaying, he said, “What’ve you got here?”

The girl glanced at him and down at his judge’s badge, then said, “Just a minute.”

She turned and flipped the switch on a stack of electronic equipment sitting on the table behind her, then rested her hand on a large metal ball protruding above it. Arlan stood, irritatedly wondering what she was attempting to prove, but then noticed that her short hair was rising to stand on end in a brushy halo. Ah, static charge, he thought.

The girl said, “As you can see, I’ve induced a significant static charge that’s causing my hair to stand on end. This is because my hair’s become positively charged and the like charges on the individual hairs repel one another.”

Arlan nodded impatiently. Making people’s hair stand on end looked interesting, but this was starting to look like just another example of a student demonstrating a well-known phenomenon.

The girl flipped another switch on the assembly of electronic equipment on her table then stepped over to a post holding a vertical cylinder just a little bit above the height of her head. She glanced at Arlan and said, “This cylinder contains my field generator.” She stepped underneath it and the hair on top of her head immediately drooped. The hair on the sides still stood outward a little and Arlan noticed that even the hair on top seemed to have retained a little fluffiness. She studied him for a moment, then said, “As you can see, the field has suppressed the electrostatic force which was producing the repulsion between the fibers of my hairs.”

Arlan smiled, “I think all you’ve done is discharge the electrostatic buildup.”

The girl looked irritated, “I have not. I’m wearing these big rubber soled boots,” she said, lifting them up so he could see there weren’t any conductors in the soles, “and I haven’t touched anything except the insulated handle of that switch. Besides…” she said—as she stepped out from beneath the cylinder Arlan saw her hair immediately rise back up—“As you can see, I’m still statically charged.”

Arlan stared; then he stepped to one side to look behind her and see if she was trailing a wire. “How’d you do that?”

“The cylinder’s generating my special field.”

Arlan’s eyes were drawn back to the cylinder, “Does it have a coil in it or something?”

“Can’t tell you.”

Irritated, Arlan said, “What do you mean you can’t tell me? How am I supposed to judge your project if you won’t even tell me how it works?”

“It’s proprietary,” she said, looking mulish. “If I was showing you the world’s first transistor, I’d expect you to find it scientifically important whether or not I was willing to tell you how to build one before I got my patent. The same applies here.”

Arlan grinned at her, amazed by her chutzpah. “You think this is as important as the transistor?”

“More,” she said.

“More what?”

Speaking like she was explaining something to someone particularly dense, she said slowly “More important than the transistor.”

Arlan barked a laugh and headed for the front of the room. It was time for the judging to begin.

As Arlan and the rest of the judges made their way slowly around the room, spending a few minutes listening to a presentation at each of the students’ exhibits, he found himself distracted. His mind kept wandering off to the electrostatic force exhibit and the cocky young woman showing it.

When he and the other judges arrived back at her station, the young woman again used her hair to demonstrate suppression of the electrostatic repulsion. She also rubbed a balloon with a plastic stick, causing them to be statically attracted to one another. Holding those under the cylinder caused the balloon to fall away from the stick. The other judges didn’t seem to recognize that there was anything particularly astonishing about her hair drooping or the balloon falling under the influence of her field. Or whatever was actually going on.

Arlan didn’t try to ask any questions after his previous experience. He did however get her name, Myr Sevii. He got out one of his business cards and wrote “call me” on it. He handed it to her as they moved on to the next station.

When the judges had seen all the exhibits, they gathered to make their selection. Arlan wasn’t surprised to find that none of the other judges had thought there was anything particularly interesting about Sevii’s exhibit. He argued briefly that it was the only real science they’d seen that evening, but the rest of the judges gave him blank looks. Eventually the judges voted for a very artistically done exhibit describing the effects of altitude versus latitude on biomes.

As the science fair began to close, Arlan made his way back over to where Myr Sevii was breaking down her exhibit. She didn’t notice him standing there so he cleared his throat. He had to clear his throat a second time and say, “Excuse me, Ms. Sevii?” before she turned.

“Yes?” she said, continuing to pack up her equipment.

“Um, I thought your exhibit demonstrated the only real science at this entire fair, but I couldn’t make the other judges see the light. Sorry.”

She shrugged, “Yeah, I could tell they didn’t get it.” She banged a digital signal generator into the crate on her little hand-truck with a bit of excessive force.

“What year are you in school?”

She looked at him suspiciously, “Senior, why?”

“Where are you going to college?”

“I’m not.”

“You’re not going to college?!” Arlan said, appalled.

She turned on him, obviously angry. “Not until I save some money!” Turning back to her equipment she muttered, “If I can.”

“Can’t you get a scholarship?”

She jerked the handles back on the hand-truck, kicked the axle forward with one foot and started pushing it toward the exit. “Yeah, I’ve got a partial in Track and Field. It isn’t enough for me to be able to go.”

“And your family can’t help you,” Arlan muttered to himself.

She obviously heard him though. She turned angrily and said, “No! Single mom, crippled brother, deadbeat dad, working-class grandparents… Is that enough family history for you?”

Arlan trailed uncomfortably behind her, thinking he should just let her go. She obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with him. When she slowed a little at a logjam of students waiting to exit, he got close enough to say quietly, “Call me at the number on that card. I’ll want you to send me your grades and scores, but then I’ll look into scholarship possibilities.”

“Sure you will,” she said, sounding completely unimpressed.

As Arlan got into his car, he saw Myr wheeling her little hand truck all the way out to an old beater of a car in the parking lot. He realized with some surprise that the car was probably old enough that it wasn’t self-driving. The girl must have had to apply for an actual driver’s license, he thought, something that was still possible but that few young people opted for, preferring just to let their cars drive themselves.

******

Myr’s mother Carol Sevii looked up when Myr came in carrying her crate full of the odds and ends of electronic equipment she’d gathered over the years.

Connor, Myr’s brother, yelled excitedly from over by the couch, “Did they like it?!”

Myr made a little shrug as she turned toward her bedroom, “They didn’t have a clue.”

“Aw,” Carol said, getting up. “Sorry we couldn’t be there for support. Is there more stuff to carry in?”

“Yeah, it’s in the trunk.”

As Carol carried in another crate of equipment she wondered whether there actually was anything of value to her daughter’s “static suppression” field. Carol certainly found it interesting, but it didn’t seem like Myr had been able to get anyone else excited about it. Her high school science teacher made interested noises, but Carol suspected that—just like Carol—he thought there was some mundane explanation for the way the field made hair droop and balloons fall. Some simple scientific principle they just didn’t understand. Carol had hoped that exposure to a number of more scientifically inclined people at the science fair would gain it recognition—if it deserved it. If none of the people at the fair thought it was important, it probably wasn’t.

Though Carol couldn’t help but wonder whether her daughter’s prickly personality might have turned away some of the judges. Sure, they’re supposed to judge purely on a project’s scientific merit, but they’re people, just like the rest of us.

When Carol got up to the room, she found her daughter sitting on the bed facing the wall. Myr’s shoulders were shaking as she sobbed. Carol sat down and put her arm around Myr’s shoulders, “Didn’t any of the judges seem interested?”

“One,” Myr said in a choked voice. Then bitterly, “The rest were a bunch of ignorant assholes.”

“What did the one think?”

“Probably just liked my legs,” Myr said sullenly.

About a half an hour later, Myr came back down the stairs. Carol was surprised to see Myr had managed to erase all evidence of her crying jag off her face. “Hey monkey,” Myr said, plopping down on the couch next to where her younger brother’s wheelchair was parked. “You ready to watch some Dumbed?”

“Bring it up!” Connor said happily.

“Dumbed” was their pet name for DMD, a TV show about a boy who, like Connor, had Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy. In the story, this boy had discovered his own cure. A cure that didn’t just make his muscles normal, but made him many times stronger than normal. The hero of the story hides his cured status, staying in his wheelchair as the alter ego to a superhero cryptically named “DMD.” As a superhero, DMD went around performing all kinds of good deeds, mostly for other handicapped people.

The show was clumsily done and generally ignored the tragedies of being handicapped, acting as if the unfortunate people he rescued were practically cured by a couple of good deeds. The clumsy plots had led to their assigning it the Dumbed nickname, but hadn’t kept Carol’s kids from enjoying the escapism even while they made fun of it.

Carol had an emotional love-hate relationship with the show, but fondly watched her children as they reveled in it.

After the show was finished, Myr helped her brother with his homework for a while then helped Carol get him into bed.

Later that night, as she waited to fall asleep, Carol decided she probably needed to stop encouraging Myr’s fantasy that the static suppression field was some kind of amazing discovery. Time for the girl to face up to reality.

******

A week had passed and Arlan thought it was odd that he hadn’t heard from Myr Sevii. Having a sudden suspicion, he stopped by to talk to his administrative assistant. “Joe, I told a young woman by the name of Myr Sevii to call me about a scholarship. You haven’t been blocking her calls have you?”

Joe shook his head, as mystified as Arlan should have expected that Arlan would have anyone calling him about scholarships.

Arlan frowned, wondering what could have gone wrong. “She was one of the entrants in that citywide science fair. You know, the fair I was recruited to judge?”

Joe nodded.

“See if you can track her down. That girl needs to go to college, but she hasn’t been able to get a scholarship. I want to help her find one.” At Joe’s questioning look, Arlan continued, “She was the only one with any real science at the fair. Her name’s spelled M-Y-R.”

Joe gave him a nod.

“Last name is S-E-V-I-I.”

“Okay,” Joe said doubtfully.

“If you actually speak to her, ask her if she’s interested in that scholarship I talked to her about.”

******

The next day, Arlan again asked Joe about Myr Sevii.

Joe got an odd little smirk on his face. “I found her alright. I wound up talking to her for a bit.” Joe paused as if a little bit uncomfortable but also a little bit amused by the next part, “I, um, got the impression that she thinks you’re a dirty old man who’s a little bit too interested. I told her she should google you.”

“Oh…” Arlan said, feeling a little embarrassed and not knowing what else to say.

“If I were you,” Joe said, “I wouldn’t have anything to do with her. A girl who thinks like that could cause you a lot of trouble.”

“Yeah…” Arlan trailed off, not knowing what else to say.

Joe didn’t let it drop, “What do I do if she does call back?”

“Um, I don’t know. Tell me what she says, I guess.”

About an hour after his conversation with Joe, Arlan got a message from Myr with her grades and scores attached. Looking them over, he could easily see why she hadn’t received any big time scholarships; they weren’t very impressive. The message itself said, “Here’s my contact info. Let me know if you’re still interested after you see these.”

Arlan had a lot of other things he should be attending to, but he found himself staring out his window and wondering just what it was about the young Ms. Sevii that had him so fascinated. Am I just a dirty old man? he wondered. Sure, she’d demonstrated something that appeared to be an interesting discovery. Yes, he’d always been fascinated by interesting scientific oddities. But really, he had no evidence that there wasn’t some simple explanation for the effect she’d demonstrated and, even if she really was creating a hitherto unrecognized field, perhaps all it was doing was… His thoughts came to an abrupt stop on the fact that he just couldn’t think of any simple explanations for the effect he’d seen.

Maybe the cylinder that she claimed was emanating a field actually did no more than humidify the air nearby. That’d drain the static charge off her hair and let it droop. But if so, her hair wouldn’t have risen to stand back on end as soon as she stepped out from underneath the cylinder.

Essentially, every way he could imagine making her hair droop should have made all the hair on her head fall at the same time, not just the hair up top close to the cylinder. Even if she were some kind of charlatan hiding an electronic device in her boot which generated a charge and then diminished it on some command or switch she controlled… He shook his head. Everything he could think of should have either affected all the hair on her head electrically, or if it drained the charge for some of the hair on her head, those hairs shouldn’t have recovered when she left the area of the cylinder.

Still, just because she thinks it’s more important than the transistor doesn’t mean it is. So far, Arlan hadn’t been able to think of a commercially viable product you could make from something that suppressed electrostatic charge. Sure, it’d be nice for protecting electronics from static sparks, but that was more easily done with passive devices like conductive bags. However, Arlan had a deep-seated suspicion that something important could come from it.

Arlan hated dithering. After spending a few more minutes circularly pondering Sevii and her field he decided he was wasting time. “Joe,” he called out to his assistant. “Tell Ms. Sevii there’s nothing I can do for her. Give her my apologies.”

******

Five days later, Arlan still found himself constantly thinking about Myr Sevii and her strange field. He stopped by Joe’s desk, “Does Ms. Sevii live in Kansas or Missouri?”

Joe gave him an amused look, “Kansas.”

“Find out what books, tuition, room at the dorm and meals at the cafeteria are at KU or Kansas State.”

Joe gave him a puzzled look, but said nothing more than, “Okay.”

Joe sent him a message with a budget and Arlan replied, “Tell Ms. Sevii that I’ll provide a college scholarship of $25,000 a year as long as she maintains at least a B average on a minimum of fifteen credit hours per semester. In return I’ll want her to sign an agreement granting Miller Tech five percent of her income from any inventions related to her static suppression field.”

Prologue 2

Myr settled into a Zen-like feeling. Her feet thumped steadily on the road. Her breath moved in and out. Her mind floated, sometimes seeming like it was trailing along a little bit behind and above her body as she sailed along the running path.

She loved the feeling she got when she ran. She experienced a sensation of otherworldliness and on this cool spring morning the mood felt stronger than usual. As if she could go anywhere and do anything.

It felt even better when she was in a race. Not that this was actually a race, she’d just gone out for a run. But then this guy had turned onto the same street. His pace had been slower than hers, but he’d immediately sped up to stay beside her. Myr wasn’t sure whether he was running beside her because he found her attractive or because he was just too macho to let a girl outrun him.

However, she did wonder whether he’d be able to keep it up. Most guys couldn’t.

It wasn’t long before she could tell even out of the corner of her eyes that he was starting to struggle to keep the pace. Meanwhile, she was still sailing effortlessly along. Curiously, she wondered what he was going to do when exhaustion really started to hurt. She got her answer at the next corner when he suddenly turned right. Since that street didn’t have a good sidewalk for running, she was pretty sure he hadn’t intended to go that way. He was just too embarrassed to let her run him into the ground.

She finished the run with a charge up the stairs to her floor in the dorm.

In the shower, the placid joy she’d felt during her run faded and the problems of her world crashed back in. Though, with sustained and hard-fought effort, she’d managed to maintain her better than B average through seven and a half semesters now, she knew that no one would think of her as an especially stellar student.

Myr didn’t feel stupid. In fact, despite her self-aware concern that she might simply be arrogant, she usually felt smarter than her fellow students. She was certainly better at figuring out how to do things. But her memory… Her damned memory was nothing to write home about. She thought of herself as having a great CPU, but a tiny hard drive. She might be able to figure it out a lot faster than her classmates could the first time, but when the same problem came around again she had to work it out all over again. They just remembered how they’d solved that problem the first time. Her constellation of abilities and lacks translated into great scores on projects but poor scores on tests.

Unfortunately, there were a lot more tests than projects here at KU.

When she’d first gone off to KU, she’d pictured herself spending her spare time researching, understanding, and improving her field for suppressing the electrostatic force. Instead, she’d found herself using almost every free minute to study, just so she could pull down the grades required by her scholarship agreement with Arlan Miller. Now, she wanted to go to graduate school in physics or engineering. She hoped that such training might give her the skills to investigate the phenomenon she’d accidentally discovered in high school.

The agreement she’d signed with Miller didn’t specify whether or not the scholarship would continue if she went to grad school. She’d decided to go ahead and apply to programs with the hope that he’d continue to support her. She couldn’t help but worry about what he thought he was going to get out of the hundred thousand dollar investment he’d already made in her education. Sure, Miller was a big time businessman in the tech industry and a hundred grand might seem like an insignificant drop in the bucket to him. But, she found it hard to believe that a hard-nosed entrepreneur like Miller would invest that kind of money for a five percent return on a high school science project that she still refused to explain to him. He had to be either incredibly benevolent, surprisingly naïve, or have some hidden agenda that Myr just didn’t understand.

Myr still worried about that hidden agenda. When honestly assessing herself, she recognized she was pretty. However, even if she worked hard at it she wasn’t going to be the kind of beauty that men pursued relentlessly. Still, she knew that different people liked different types and felt a deep-seated anxiety that perhaps she just happened to be Arlan Miller’s type.

Myr Sevii was not the kind of woman who would accept a sugar daddy.

Myr snorted. She’d been feeling particularly paranoid today. Sternly, she reminded herself that Arlan Miller had been a perfect gentleman the three times she’d met him. Once at the science fair, once to sign her scholarship contract, and once when he’d been an invited guest lecturer at the University.

She’d gone to his lecture because she’d decided it’d be rude not to attend a talk by the man who was paying for her education. She’d found his talk inspiring. She’d gone up to shake his hand afterward, actually wondering if he’d even recognize her after several years. That hadn’t been a problem. He’d firmly taken her hand for a shake, nodded and said, “Ms. Sevii. I hope you’re enjoying college?”

For a moment, Myr had thought he was trying to remind her of the fact that he was paying for college. In fear that he was about to ask her to go somewhere, she’d said, “It’s a lot more work than I’d expected.” She’d wanted to be able to beg off any invitations.

No invitation had been forthcoming. He’d merely said, “Keep after it then.” Without further ado he’d turned to the next person in the fairly long line of those who’d been waiting to meet him.

Sometimes she thought about how embarrassed she’d have been if he could have read her paranoid thoughts.

Prologue 3

Myr sighed. Her professor was a guru in solar cell technology. He had several plausible hypotheses regarding the doping of photovoltaic membranes. As his grad student, Myr was assigned to fabricate test cells based on those hypotheses and then determine the new cells’ efficiency. This most recent test cell was generating current, but like all the other ones she’d fabricated, it was producing less power than cells that were currently available on the market.

Myr could accept that when research was extending into untrammeled ground, results wouldn’t always be what you’d expected or hoped for. Still, solar cell research wasn’t what she’d hoped to be doing when she’d applied to grad school. Worse, Dr. Krishan, her professor, always acted like any disappointing outcomes of the test runs were due to some kind of failure on Myr’s part rather than an indication of an incomplete or incorrect hypothesis.

As if her thought had brought it on, she heard Krishan’s voice behind her, “Myr, have you got the results of the latest run?”

Myr tried not to frown as she turned. She indicated the display screen, “Yes. Unfortunately, they’re not what we hoped.”

“Oh, come on, Myr!” Krishan said in a disappointed tone. He sat down in a neighboring chair and scooted it over so he could look at the screen with her.

She could understand his disappointment, but, as usual, he started asking aggressive questions about how she’d carried out the fabrication. Not, as she could have accepted, queries about possible errors she might have made due to her inexperience, but instead questions that somehow seemed to express his doubts about her competence and attention to detail.

Finally Myr interrupted, “Dr. Krishan, obviously you have doubts about whether I’m doing the fabrications correctly. Can I suggest that we build a test cell together from start to finish? That way we could determine whether I am in fact doing any of the steps in a fashion other than exactly the way you would want me to do them?”

Krishan got an irritated look. Very authoritarian, he didn’t like it when Myr questioned him or even implied doubt. “No, no. I just want you to do the experiment right.”

Feeling angry, Myr said, “As far as I know, I am doing it right. I don’t think talking about it over and over again is going to elucidate any errors I might be making. I think we have to actually physically do it together to…”

“No!” Krishan interrupted. “You just need to do it again. And this time get it right.”

Myr blinked at him a couple of times, then said, “I quit.” She picked up her little sound-bar and slid it into her backpack.

“What? No! You can’t quit. You won’t get your degree. You won’t be able to get letters of recommendation…”

“Yeah,” Myr interrupted, feeling some despair over what her cantankerous personality was about to do. “I can quit. This is a free country. And, I’m not going to work for you when you constantly try to blame me for the results that the cells produce. This is science and results sometimes aren’t what we hoped for. That doesn’t necessarily mean the experiment was done incorrectly.” She stood up.

From under lowered brows Krishan threateningly said, “Go and you’ll destroy your career.”

Myr looked him in the eye as she said, “Though I fear you are, it’s my sincere hope you’re not that petty.” She headed for the door.

******

“End connection,” Carol said to her AI to end the phone call. She sighed. Trust Myr to get pissed off at her professor and quit graduate school. When she’d been home last, Myr had endlessly bitched about how Dr. Krishan wouldn’t let her work on her own static suppression research. Krishan only wanted Myr to work on his solar cells and apparently had a tendency to blame Myr for bad results. Of course Carol couldn’t know whether Myr might actually have screwed up the experiments However, because of Myr’s usual attention to detail, Carol suspected that there actually was something wrong with Krishan’s theory.

Nonetheless, Carol suspected that Myr’s touchy attitude probably contributed significantly to their inability to get along.

Besides, Myr’s focus on her static suppression results despite Krishan demanding her full attention to his solar cells probably added to the friction. Nothing Carol had been able to say over the years had been able to convince Myr that the static suppression effect might not be as important as Myr thought it was.

Carol headed up the stairs to see if she needed to clear anything out of Myr’s old room. Myr’d obviously have to stay with them until she found a job of some kind.

******

Joe stopped Arlan on his way to his office. “I got a call from your pet student. She’s quit grad school.”

Arlan paused, “Myr Sevii?”

Joe nodded, “I didn’t know you had any other student charity cases.”

Arlan felt a little irritated by Joe’s snarky tone, but refrained from barking at him. “Did she say what happened?”

Joe shrugged, “Didn’t get along with her professor. Had already learned how to do experiments, and she says that’s the only reason she was there.”

Arlan looked out into the distance for a moment, then said quietly, “Tell her we have a job for her if she wants it.”

******

Aleks walked into Papa Bob’s and found Joe Barker sitting in a back-corner booth. Joe had a barbecue sandwich and had ordered a beer for Aleks, knowing Aleks wouldn’t eat. Aleks checked the occupied booth next to Joe’s and felt relieved to see that the people in it were a family with noisy kids. He sat down in the back of the u-shaped booth so that he and Joe were both adjacent to the same corner, “What’s up?”

Barker swallowed and wiped his face with a napkin. Speaking quietly, he said, “He offered a job to that girl who claims to have discovered a new kind of field.”

Irritation welled up, but Aleks didn’t let it show. Barker had told Aleks about this girl years ago when Aleks first recruited him. Aleks picked up his beer, carefully touching only the labels so he wouldn’t leave fingerprints. After taking a sip, he said, “I pay you to tell me about new technology he’s actually developed. Not, pie in the sky imaginary technology he’s hoping he might develop someday.”

Barker leaned back in his seat and, giving Aleks a steady look, took a sip of his own beer. “You also pay me,” he made little air quotes with his fingers, “ ‘to keep you apprised of new areas of research.’ ”

Aleks felt a small stab of fear at the careful quotation, “Have you been keeping records of our conversations?”

“No… But I felt like it was pretty important that I remember exactly what you said you’d pay for. You seemed like the kind of guy who might try to weasel.”

Aleks sighed, “I’ll pay, don’t get excited. I just like real information better than vapor. Speaking of which, have you got any new info on the fuel cell membranes?”

Barker nodded and lifted something out of his lap, holding it out of sight beneath the corner of the table. It’d be a small, opaque, Ziploc baggie that Barker had kept wrapped up in a piece of Clorox wipe. Inside the bag would be a mini USB flash drive that Barker had already wiped with a Clorox wipe to make sure there weren’t any fingerprints or DNA on it.

Sure enough, when Aleks held out his hand, Barker dropped a little baggie into it. Aleks couldn’t blame him for being careful, industrial espionage was a big deal nowadays, especially in view of the increased tension between some of the major industrial countries. It was just that Joe Barker didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be cautious.

Feeling, as always, like he was buying a pig in a poke since he had no idea what would be on the drive, Aleks put the baggie in his pocket. Unfortunately, Joe seldom provided any information on how to replicate the technology, only enthusiastic descriptions. The lack of substance was angering Aleks’ boss. Aleks reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a cigarette pack and shook ten cigarettes into Joe’s hand. Some deft person somewhere had tapped the tobacco out of the cigarettes, slid a very tight roll of 3 one-hundred dollar bills in where the tobacco had been, then packed tobacco back in on top of the money. Then they’d put the cigarettes back and sealed the pack so it looked like it’d never been disturbed—even to the thin wrapper of plastic and the seal.

Barker took the cigarettes and slipped them into his pocket. He’d finished his barbecue sandwich. Toasting Aleks with his nearly empty beer, Barker got up and walked out.

Aleks sat, finishing his beer and pondering the frightening woman who’d hired him, then told him to move out here to Kansas in the center of the United States. He was watching a couple of other tech startups, but the main reason for being in Bonner Springs on the outskirts of Kansas City was to keep an eye on Arlan Miller. Early in his career, Miller had invented some interesting things himself. However, he’d built most of his powerhouse company on an astonishing talent for identifying unrecognized geniuses who might invent something in the future. Kelley, Aleks’ handler, was convinced that Miller Tech was going to come up with some kind of major invention. Aleks was supposed to recognize it and steal its secrets before Miller got it patented.

Aleks sometimes entertained the idea that Kelley might be a spurned lover of Miller’s, bent on getting revenge by stealing his best ideas and providing them to his competitors.

In any case, so far there hadn’t been any major innovations and Aleks felt like he might be wasting his life waiting for the big strike Kelley was banking on.

He’d tried to quit once. Thinking about that made his shortened left pinky finger twinge. Looking down at it, he thought about how Kelley’d smashed it with a hammer the day she’d explained to him that quitting wasn’t an option.

The doctors had only been able to remove the crushed part of Aleks’ finger. She might look like a nice person… but she’d proven repeatedly that she could be unspeakably brutal.

When the waitress came by, Aleks paid with cash.

******

Carol felt exhausted. She’d always counted her nursing degree as a blessing. It paid good money, provided health insurance that covered Connor and allowed her to work odd schedules that she could fit around the needs of caring for a disabled son. She typically worked four 10-hour shifts per week with some shifts falling on the weekend. This gave her some weekdays when she could take Connor to the doctor, the brace shop and therapy.

She hated that her schedule also left Connor home alone some days, especially weekends when he didn’t go to school, but he’d learned to adapt. He’d searched online to find kits that Myr had installed to motorize their doors. That way, his AI could open the door and Connor could drive his wheelchair out the door and down the ramp to where the handicapped bus picked him up for school. The same thing worked in reverse when he got home. She left food out where he could get to it and he’d gotten to be pretty self-sufficient.

However, she dreaded the day when the disability from his dystrophy became severe enough that he really needed full-time care. No matter how much she’d prefer to care for Connor herself, she’d have to put him in a facility so she could keep working. She had to work in order to keep him on the insurance that would pay for increasingly expensive care.

Working ten hour shifts left her pretty tired, but since Myr had quit grad school, lost her scholarship from Miller and moved back into Carol’s house Carol had been volunteering for more overtime. Myr’s being at home had increased expenses but also provided someone to stay with Connor. But I’m too damned old to be working a fourteen hour shift like I did today, she thought. She sighed, Forty-five isn’t all that old, why do I feel like I’ve got one foot in the grave?

Coming in the door, she hung up her coat and looked around. Things were neat and clean like they always were when Myr was home. However, Myr was slouched on the couch watching TV with Connor. They both gave Carol a wave and Carol tried to tell herself that Myr had probably spent much of the day looking for a job. Nonetheless, coming into the house feeling wrung out and finding Myr sprawled bonelessly at ease grated on her nerves. “How goes the job search?” Carol asked, trying not to sound angry.

Myr shook her head, “No bueno, unfortunately. I’m starting to worry that I’m going to have to take Miller’s job.”

Trying to suppress the surge of disbelieving anger which had just risen inside of her, Carol did her best to speak calmly, “Miller’s job?”

“Yeah…” Myr said offhandedly, “It’s my last resort but…”

Carol interrupted to say disbelievingly, “Dr. Miller’s offered you a job and you haven’t taken it?!”

Turning to look at Carol for the first time since she’d entered, Myr said, “Yeah, but like I said, it’s my last resort…” she trailed off, apparently realizing for the first time how upset Carol was. “What’s the matter?”

“Myr, my finances are stretched to the breaking point! If someone’s offered you a job, you need to take it!”

Myr stared at her for a moment, then said, “But as soon as I figure out the static field…”

Carol interrupted again, “Yes, yes, you and your damned static field! Have you ever heard the saying, ‘A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush?’ We need money now! Or at least for you to stop being a financial sinkhole.”

Myr’s face had frozen. After a moment, she stood up and started for the stairs up to her room. “Okay, I’ll call them in the morning,” she said over her shoulder as she climbed.

Carol chewed her lip as she watched her daughter go up the stairs. She felt bad, but not bad enough to tell Myr she didn’t have to take the job. Carol turned to look at Connor, thinking how, on that night of all nights, she really could have used some help getting him into bed.

Connor was staring at her, wide-eyed. “Mom?” he asked uncertainly.

“Come on kid,” she said tiredly, “let’s get you to bed.”

******

Myr set down her backpack and looked around the lab they’d assigned her at Miller’s company. She’d tucked her tail between her legs and called Joe about the job Miller’d promised.

Now, despite some apprehension about whether promises would be kept, she felt stupid for having not taken Miller up on his offer immediately. Not only was he going to pay her more than any of the other jobs she’d applied to, he was only assigning her enough work to fill half of her time so she could work on her electrostatic field the other half of her time.

The space they’d given her was generous and well set up with common lab equipment. A stack of boxes over in the corner promised to be the rest of the equipment she’d requested so she could do some of the static field experiments she’d never been able to afford in the past.

She tried to ignore her fear that once she got her experiment set up, someone would sneak in at night, study the setup and figure out how to generate her field without her. She thought, I’ve got to remember to zero the settings on the signal generators and amplifiers every day before I leave.

Chapter 1

Myr massaged her temples, dreading the incipient headache that threatened. She’d been working at Miller technology for almost two years now. Half time she worked with Nelson Randall, one of Miller Technology’s senior scientists. She felt like she’d helped Randall make significant progress on his attempts to develop better fuel cell membranes. Randall was already a leader in that field, but he made her feel good by constantly complimenting her on her insights. She liked working with Nelson and felt like she’d learned a lot more about doing science from him than she had from Dr. Krishan back in grad school.

However, she wasn’t making progress on her own project. She could still create her field and suppress static electrical repulsion and attraction. More careful measurements had confirmed that the field suppressed electrostatics without significantly discharging the electrical charge that had produced the effect.

But she couldn’t seem to scale it up into any kind of useful strength.

Several months ago she’d had a few hours of panic when measurements had shown that the field did slightly increase the humidity of the air near her coils. Humid air was well known to be capable of discharging static fields. In fact, almost anyone knew it was easier to generate static electricity sparks if the air was dry. Detecting the increased humidity had made her fear that her field’s suppression of electrostatic effects was merely due to the fact that her equipment somehow increased the water content of the air. She’d previously believed that it couldn’t be due to static discharge because of the fact that her hair stood back on end when she moved back out of the field. However, once she’d detected the humidity she began worrying about the fact that her hair didn’t stand back up quite as much. Careful measurements had shown that at least some humidity-induced discharge was occurring, but eventually she was able to convince herself that the field must also be suppressing the electrostatic effect independently of the higher humidity.

But, even without humidity—however the hell the water content of the air managed to increase around her field—posing as a bugaboo, she was getting more and more frustrated with her inability to make any progress. When she’d started, working half-time with Randall and half time on her own project had seemed like a miracle job. Collaborating with Randall would stimulate her mind and give her someone to bounce ideas off of. She’d hoped that having time to work by herself on her own project, in her own lab, with excellent resources would let her make rapid progress.

When progress hadn’t come, she’d reassured herself that Rome wasn’t built in a day. She had a phenomenon no one else had ever observed or, at least, had ever reported. A field she could reproducibly generate which seemed somehow to suppress electrostatic force on a macroscopic scale. She felt sure that it must also suppress electrostatic force on micro and nano scales. She dared dream that it might actually work at atomic scales where suppression of electrostatic repulsion between the electrons of various molecules might catalyze reactions that otherwise didn’t happen. One of the things that slowed chemical reactions was the fact that electrostatic repulsion kept the molecules from approaching one another closely enough to react. If she could reduce that repulsion…

The promise of catalysis seemed so exciting, yet, despite a number of attempts, she couldn’t seem to significantly increase the kinetics of any reactions. She had evidence that some reactions sped up a little, but the increase was hard to measure and certainly wouldn’t impress the kind of people she’d envisioned wanting to buy her tech.

She suspected her problem was because she couldn’t generate a strong enough field. The field she’d used in high school to suppress electrostatic repulsion and attraction wasn’t powerful enough to achieve any truly interesting or useful effects. When she’d tried to increase the power, the field destabilized and collapsed.

Or, at least it stopped working. She assumed it destabilized and collapsed, but wasn’t quite sure how to determine whether that was what was happening since she couldn’t really measure the field strength except through observation of its effect on static electricity.

After a year of increasingly frustrating attempts to boost the power of the field she’d given up and began trying to work on ways to focus the field. She hoped that even if she couldn’t catalyze reactions over a broad area that there would be uses for catalysis in microscopic regions.

Now she was sitting here, dreading the results of her next experiment. She’d redesigned her coils and plates but had gotten so used to failure that she had a gut certainty this attempt would fail as well. Which, of course, would leave her even more depressed. She sighed, There’s no point in wasting any more time, she thought, picking up her bottle of hydrogen peroxide. She poured 100 milliliters of peroxide into each of a couple of 200 milliliter beakers, weighed them carefully, and then set one beaker just above her new coil system. She moved the support up to hold the beaker at the level where she expected the energy of the field to be focused. The other beaker went on a neighboring table as a control.

Chewing her tongue and crossing her fingers, she flipped on the switch while keeping her eye on the H2O2. The liquid had a few bubbles from peroxide’s slow breakdown to H2O and O2. She used peroxide as her bellwether because the decomposition reaction was easily catalyzed and catalysis should produce visible oxygen bubbles to confirm the reaction was under way. Besides, she could weigh the beaker afterwards to easily determine how much oxygen that had bubbled up out of the peroxide.

Myr frowned. She thought she might be seeing a few more bubbles.

Or maybe not.

She flipped the switch off, then back on. She thought she saw a few more bubbles when the field was on, but she was only too aware of how much a little bit of wishful thinking could influence her perceptions. The weight of the beaker afterwards would measure the reaction much more accurately than her estimation of the number of bubbles that were formed. But even if it is catalyzing the reaction a little bit, it’s so little that no one would ever care, she thought morosely.

Then she heard Arlan Miller’s voice behind her, “Myr?”

Myr bit off a curse. Of course the boss would show up just as another experiment failed. Bitterly, she wondered how she was going to put enough lipstick on this fiasco to convince Miller he shouldn’t just fire her. Well, she thought, he probably won’t fire me. Dr. Randall and I’ve been getting good results, after all. But he’ll either assign me to Randall full-time, give me a different job, or demand I explain the field to him so he can get some of his other scientists working on it.

When she’d fully turned she felt surprise. Miller was there with some nerdy looking teenager. It actually could be worse than getting fired, she thought, he could be about to ask me to babysit his nephew for the afternoon! Despite her dark thoughts, Myr pasted on some kind of smile and brightly said, “Hi Dr. Miller, what can I do for you?”

Miller gave Myr a strange look, making her feel like he could see right through her false cheer. Indicating the young man with him, he said, “I’m wanting to introduce you to Vinn Saigler. We’ve just hired Vinn and I’d like to take both of you out to lunch so we can talk about how you might be able to help each other.”

Surprised to hear the apparent teenager introduced as a new hire, Myr quickly reappraised him. He looked like he’d just finished high school. She’d have believed he might be a college freshman, but if he was actually that young she couldn’t imagine why Miller would bring him around to meet her. Of course, a moderately sized company like Miller’s had to have some unskilled workers to do the janitorial work and run the loading docks, but it seemed extremely unlikely that the CEO would bring an unskilled worker like that to meet or help one of the scientists. Of course, maybe he doesn’t think of me as a scientist since I never finished my PhD, she thought morosely.

Nonetheless, she had no idea how someone with a high school education would be able to help her. Nonplussed, she said, “Um, okay. When did you want to go?”

Miller said, “Is now okay?”

“Sure,” Myr said, happy not to have to explain what was going on with her experiment. She reached back and flipped off the power switch for her set-up. Not wanting to hold up the CEO, she didn’t zero the settings on her equipment like she normally did, just turned off the lights and carefully locked the door as they left.

They exited the building and started down the street on foot, Miller saying, “I thought I’d take you to one of my favorite places, Awefull Waffles. In case you’re worried, they do serve other things besides breakfast. Though,” Miller winked at Saigler, “I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t be excited to have an opportunity to eat breakfast three meals a day.”

Vinn grinned and said, “I could go for that.”

Myr shook her head, muttering, “That’s just gross…”

Once they were seated, Myr ordered a BLT waffle sandwich. Dr. Miller ordered a savory waffle breakfast sandwich with bacon, eggs, and cheese. As young as he looked, Myr wasn’t surprised when Vinn ordered a peanut butter and banana waffle sandwich.

With the orders placed, Dr. Miller leaned back in their booth and said, “Now, let’s get down to business.” He looked at Myr, “Vinn here is a certified math genius. I didn’t hire him because Miller Tech has desperate need of someone with amazing math skills; I hired him because a friend told me about him and I believe in hiring talent, even if I have to figure out what to do with it later.” Miller glanced at Vinn, then back to Myr, “Now that we have him, the question is, ‘what do we do with him?’ ”

Myr stared at Miller a moment, then jerked a thumb at Vinn. “He looks like he just graduated high school. How does he rate being called a math genius?”

Vinn answered before Miller could, “Can you spell prod-i-gy? I’ve got my PhD.”

Miller grimaced a little at Vinn’s cocky answer, but let it slide. He turned to Vinn, making a little wave at Myr. “Myr’s also a genius, though in a completely different fashion from you. I first met her when she was in high school. She had an exhibit at the local science fair and presented on a new kind of field she’d discovered.”

Vinn snorted, “Pasture, meadow, farming, sports?”

Myr blinked while she processed the idea that Saigler was disrespecting even the possibility that she’d discovered the kind of field interesting to mathematicians or physicists. The punk was intimating that he thought she must have found a plot of land. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Miller grimacing again. She closed her eyes for a second and reminded herself that Vinn probably didn’t know how she’d struggled to make something useful out of her field. Presumably he knew nothing about it and was simply trying to inject a little humor into a situation where he felt uncomfortable.

Miller shook his head, saying, “Nooo,” in a drawn out fashion. His tone made obvious his distaste for Vinn’s response. “It was a field that suppressed static electricity. She demonstrated it by charging herself enough to stand her hair on end, then stepping into the field where her hair immediately drooped.”

Apparently oblivious to Miller’s displeasure regarding his previous comment, Saigler said, “A field of water vapor?”

Myr struggled to keep her face straight in the face of what felt like another insult. One that struck particularly close to home in view of her recent realization that the humidity was actually slightly increased in proximity to her coils. She was trying to think of a biting response when Miller said, “No Vinn. When she stepped out from under the field, her hair lifted back up.”

Saigler opened his mouth to say something—Myr expected another wise ass comment—but then the young twerp closed his yap without speaking. From the look in his eyes, Myr thought he’d expected to be able to immediately refute the possibility she had a novel field, but hadn’t. She didn’t think he’d given up; he was merely taking a moment to come up with a realistic objection. Finally, his eyes narrowed, “You’re sure she wasn’t just stepping back onto a conductor that re-charged her hair?”

“If she had, the increased moisture retained in her hair would still have suppressed the response, right?” Miller paused to give Saigler a moment to consider, but then he continued, “But in answer to your original question, no. She was wearing nonconductive shoes and there weren’t any conductive mats on the floor. Besides, this was years ago and we’ve checked the effect six ways from Sunday. Trust me, it really works.”

“So,” Vinn said slowly, “you’ve got this field that mysteriously suppresses static charge and…” he stopped, considering, “I haven’t heard about it because…what?” He looked from Miller to Myr and back, “It doesn’t do anything useful? That seems surprising.”

Miller shrugged, then waved to Myr to respond.

Fuming inside, Myr tried not to let her outward composure implode. “For a long time, I’ve been concentrating on scaling up the power of the field, but I’ve been unsuccessful at that. At higher powers, the field seems to destabilize and collapse. More recently, I’ve been working to focus the field down to a small region while maintaining similar levels of power. I believe that even microscopic regions of suppressed electrostatic force could find useful applications.”

Vinn frowned, “You’ve been working on this since high school? That’s what… ten or twelve years?” Having insulted her by implying she was older than twenty-five, he turned to Miller, “If it hasn’t worked so far, isn’t it time to move on to a different area?”

Miller opened his mouth to respond, but Myr couldn’t take the insults anymore. “No!” She felt a little appalled at the way she’d raised her voice and the fury evident in her tone, but she wasn’t about to back off. “You’ve been thinking about this for what… ten seconds?! Ever since you got out of diapers, maybe?” Myr took a deep breath and reduced her volume but not her intensity. “Most things worth achieving take time and sustained effort!”

Miller made a calming motion with his hands, then, turning his eyes on Myr, forced a chuckle. “Perhaps I should’ve started this conversation by mentioning that one of Vinn’s gifts is a first-rate talent for getting under people’s skin.” He turned to Vinn, “You’re correct that Myr has been struggling with roadblocks. I firmly believe that different people have dissimilar talents, and different types of intelligence. My hope is that by bringing two people with diverse skill sets together and asking them to attack this project as a team we might finally make some progress.”

Vinn put his palms out toward Myr as if blocking her reaction while turning his head toward Miller and saying, “Obviously, she’s already decided that because I’m young I must be stupid. I think you’d be better off having me work with someone who isn’t so narrow-minded and obstinate.”

Miller looked up at the ceiling as if praying for patience. Myr recognized she might have insulted Vinn first by talking about his age, but that didn’t assuage her anger. She opened her mouth to fire off a retort, but apparently Miller saw this out of the corner of his eye because he also put a palm out towards Myr to block her response. After a moment, Miller took a deep breath and brought his eyes back down to silently take in his two employees. Vinn started to say something, but Miller halted him too. Finally he said, “You two need to face some reality here.” He turned to focus on Myr, “I see a lot of potential in you. Enough that I’ve kept you on for nearly two years working half-time on a project that has paid off not the tiniest bit. A project that doesn’t look like it’s going to pay off. I want to support you and see you realize your potential, but I think you need to grasp the reality of the fact that I’m running a business. I believe that, despite your unwillingness to share the specifics of your discovery with anyone, you’re going to have to do so. The chance that you’re going to succeed in developing your finding without some outside input has to be getting very small. At this point, I’m ready to insist that if you want to stay with the company you have to sign the agreements I’ve offered you in the past. They’ll protect you by guaranteeing you a significant percentage of the profits if we get it to work and they’ll protect the company’s investment in you in the event that you decide to quit or just abandon working on it.”

Myr’d been worried for almost a year that Miller might force the agreement down her throat. She’d even begun thinking that she did need help and that she should suggest that path herself, but having it forced on her in front of—and in the form of—this puerile idiot Miller’d just hired rankled in the worst way. She took a breath to speak, but Miller continued before she said anything. “I’m aware that math is not your strong suit, so I’ve been wondering for a while if a better ability to mathematically describe your field’s properties might help you make progress. When I hired Vinn, the first thing I thought he might be able to help Miller Tech with would be a mathematical description of the phenomena you’ve been working on.”

Miller paused at this point and Myr again opened her mouth to interject, but Miller had already turned to Vinn. “Vinn, you’ve got to understand that there are a limited number of projects at Miller Tech that might be able to use your rather narrow set of mathematical skills. You also need to remember that I hired you on a trial basis because you have a reputation for being a jerk. You need to get along and to prove yourself useful if you want a job here.”

Myr opened her mouth again, but the waitress chose that moment to show up with their food. The presence of the waitress didn’t, however, keep Vinn from sighing and producing a long-suffering tone, “Okay, okay. I’ll help her.”

As the waitress distributed their plates Myr once again reached up to begin massaging her temples.

The waitress said chirpily, “Can I bring you anything else?”

Myr asked for a Diet Coke and a couple of aspirin. To her astonishment, Vinn ordered a beer. The waitress also seem surprised, however, when she checked Vinn’s ID she seemed satisfied. Myr thought, I guess he must be older than he looks. Then she continued the thought with irritation, The ugly opposite side of his implication that I look older than I am.

When the waitress left, Miller carefully steered the conversation to less inflammatory topics. He even found that Myr and Vinn both ran for exercise and enjoyed basketball.

On the walk back to Miller Tech, Dr. Miller started discussing his vision of how Myr could show Vinn her existing system for generating the suppression field and start getting Vinn’s take on how its effects might be described mathematically.

Myr felt herself tensing up.

So far, Myr had managed to keep the secret of how she arranged her coils and the plates they needed to be able to achieve their effects. She’d also hidden the exact nature of the megahertz signals required to energize them. She always built the coils and plates into opaque enclosures as well as continuing to zero the dials and switches on her electronic equipment whenever she was gone. She positioned her equipment so that the electronic controls faced the back of the room, thus keeping them blocked from casual observation.

Her tension was made worse by the fact that, in a hurry, she’d only switched off the system and locked the door when she’d left for lunch today.

Fortunately, Vinn kept his mouth shut during the walk back or Myr might have found it impossible to listen to Miller blithely talking about how she’d need to give up her secrets to someone she already loathed.

When they arrived back at Miller Tech, it became evident that Miller expected Myr to start showing Vinn her technology that afternoon. Though she’d already resigned herself to disclosing the technology in order to keep her job, she reminded Miller that she and he both needed to review and sign the paperwork that’d define the shares that she and Miller Tech would have in any revenue stream. They’d discussed them in the past but never actually got around to signing them.

Miller briefly grimaced, then nodded and took her to his office where he had Joe print out the latest version of the paperwork he’d had drawn up more than a year ago. Myr took advantage of the fact that Miller and she were a little ways away from Vinn to quietly say, “These papers aren’t all there is to it. I’m certainly not showing anything to Vinn unless he signs a ten year non-disclosure agreement.”

Miller said, “He’s already signed a generic NDA as a prerequisite to his employment here.”

Myr shook her head, “I want one specific to the electrostatic effects.”

“Myr, I’d really like to get moving on this. Besides, you gain trust by giving trust. If you two are going to work together, you need to…”

Myr interrupted, “I don’t like him. And I gather from what you said earlier that nobody else does either. I’m certainly not going to trust him without an ironclad agreement in place.”

Miller sighed, “I overstated things back at the restaurant. People don’t hate him, he just gets under some people’s skin.” Miller shrugged, “Partly that’s because he really is a genius and he’s not afraid to rub it in.” Miller gave Myr a look, “Especially when somebody says something about how young he is.”

Myr narrowed her eyes, “I still want an agreement. Not a piddling one or two year agreement… a ten year one.”

Miller sighed again, “Yeah, okay. But we’ll need to agree that he gets a share if he makes a major contribution, okay?”

“His share’ll need to come out of your part of it, not mine.”

Miller grinned at her obstinacy, “Partly out of mine, partly out of yours. It’ll be worth it if his contribution results in a product we can actually sell.”

When Myr finally got back to her lab, she unlocked the door while wondering whether there was any way she could tell if someone had been in there in her absence. Even if they didn’t do anything they might have taken pictures of the settings on her apparatus. I guess that wouldn’t be useful if they didn’t actually have the design for the coils and plates, but…

Huh, the air in here smells funny, like dried…

She was starting to worry about ozone, but her thoughts trailed off when she realized she hadn’t actually turned off the main power switch like she’d thought when she’d left. She could see that instead of the main power, she’d flipped a switch on the box next to it. A switch which disconnected the signal generator and inserted a chip capable of producing terahertz (submillimeter) frequencies. Frustrated, she flipped off the main power.

A thump came from the ceiling causing Myr to jerk back and look up. What the hell?! she thought. Though she’d only seen it with her peripheral vision, she had the impression that something had shaken the suspended ceiling and that it’d sagged a little.

Nothing else seemed to happen, so Myr started zeroing all the dials and switches on her apparatus like she wished she’d done before she left to go to lunch. She was weighing her beaker of peroxide when she heard a splat behind her. Looking around, she saw a splatter of water bounce off her power conditioner. Looking up she saw water dripping through the seams between the acoustic tiles of the suspended ceiling.

Of course, with her luck, it was landing directly on top of the electronics for her electrostatic apparatus.

Quickly stepping to the wall outlet, Myr jerked out the power plugs. Fortunately almost all of her equipment was mounted on a large plastic rolling cart. She grabbed the cart and quickly pulled it out from under the now nearly continuous drip. Jerking open the door she rolled her cart out into the hall, yelling for help.

******

Joe felt unhappy as he pulled into a slot at the Sonic Drive-In. He genuinely liked Arlan Miller and truly disliked John Smith—the alias he knew Aleks Orlop by. He didn’t believe for a moment that John Smith was the man’s real name since John Smith had to be the most common name in the United States and positively reeked of alias. Joe didn’t want to spy for the man, but he did want his two kids to be able to go to college. Joe’d managed a couple of years of junior-college and some further education online for himself, but he wanted something better for his children. Unfortunately, though John Smith had only wanted to know what Miller Tech was working on at first, as time had progressed, he’d been insisting on more and more detail.

Joe placed an order with the car-hop, then got out a little Ziploc baggie with the tiny flash drive in it. He wiped it down then, holding it with the Clorox wipe, he wedged the corner of it between the glass and the rubber strip that lined his rolled down window.

Well before the car-hop returned, somebody stopped beside his door, leaning down to look in the window.

Smith of course. As Smith’s hand covered the little Ziploc bag, Smith said, “What’cha got for me this time?”

Joe shrugged, “Some kind of plate that converts gamma rays to electricity. I guess it’s something like a solar cell.”

Smith frowned, “What good is that?”

Joe shrugged again, “Damned if I know. I thought gamma rays were something from out in space.” Joe carefully never looked any of this stuff up on his computer. He didn’t want to leave a suspicious trail. “I also finally got a picture of the static suppression set-up while it was powered on.”

As usual, Smith didn’t seem all that happy to be buying information about the static suppression set-up, but he didn’t complain. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and, deftly ripping the plastic off of it without touching the pack itself, dropped the pack into Joe’s hand.

Smith was gone long before the car-hop returned.

******

As Myr worked on drying and inspecting her equipment, she kept a suspicious eye on the maintenance people who were working up above the lab’s dropped ceiling. When they’d first arrived, they’d taken down the tile next to the leak and found a pile of frosty material on top of it. It almost looked like someone had tossed a couple of big shovels full of snow up there. The custodian had already come by and mopped the floors. He’d offered to dry her equipment as well, but Myr hadn’t trusted him. She had, however, accepted some toweling which she was using to carefully wipe each piece dry herself.

While wondering whether she should start trying to test some of her equipment or should let it to dry overnight, she looked up to see what the man on the ladder was doing up in her ceiling. He’d handed down several more of the big acoustic ceiling tiles and was peering around in the space above the false ceiling with a flashlight. Now he looked down. Seeing Myr staring up at him, he shrugged, “Sorry ma’am, I ain’t got no idea where all that there snow come from.”

Irritated, Myr said, “Oh come on. It’s got to be a broken pipe, frost around a refrigerant pipe or some kind of leak from the floor above.”

He shrugged, “Ain’t no pipes up here. No breaks or openings in the floor structure above. You wanna come up and look for yourself?”

Myr didn’t roll her eyes, though she wanted to. “Yes I do.”

She waited until the man had climbed down, then took his flashlight when he offered it. She climbed the ladder, glad she’d worn pants. Once she had her head up above the level of the frame suspending the tiles, she started looking around. The first thing she noticed was that the underside of the floor above appeared completely dry. There was some wiring, but the man was correct, there weren’t any pipes near the wet area. She reached up and touched the bottom of the floor above. Maybe it felt a tiny bit damp? But it isn’t wet. The T-bar carrier beams that held the acoustic tiles were wet, but the hanger wires that suspended the beams were dry. It’d been an hour or so since the incident, so she supposed that even if the vertical hanger wires had been wet, they would have dried by now. She glanced down at the wet acoustic tiles the men had stacked on the floor by the door. She realized it’d be almost impossible for water to run over the tiles and dribble down between them without getting the T-bars wet.

Having a sudden thought that it might not have been water, Myr leaned over next to one of the T-bars of the hanger frame and sniffed the fluid pooled there. She couldn’t detect any odor and, other than water, she couldn’t think of any odorless clear liquids. Especially ones that froze into something that looked like snow. She supposed there might be such a fluid, but some other fluid posed even more mystery than water. After all she had no better idea how some exotic, frozen, clear liquid could have gotten up in her ceiling instead of the water it appeared to be. Nonetheless, she climbed down to wring out one of the wet towels into a flask. She sealed the flask in case she wanted to analyze the fluid someday.

Glancing back up to where the maintenance man was once again peering into her ceiling, she had a sudden thought. “Hey, do you see any membranes up there? Like if some idiot decided to play a practical joke on me by putting a bag of snow in my ceiling?” As soon as she said it, she started thinking of problems with the idea. The door’d been locked so the presumed idiot would have had to crawl through the ceiling from another lab, a feat which would have been impossible due to the relatively weak suspension frame that held up the tiles.

If the man recognized how dumb her bag of snow idea was, he didn’t say anything. He just looked around with his flashlight for a few moments, then said, “I ain’t seein’ nothin’ that looks like pieces from any plastic bags. You wanna come up and look for yourself?”

Myr shook her head, frustrated, but then had another idea. “Do you see a trail of water back across some of the tiles around the edges? If someone passed a hose or pipe in and blew snow into the ceiling; when they dragged the hose back it might have dribbled some water or snow onto the tiles.”

“Yes ma’am. I done thought of that and I looked for such a thing already. Ain’t no trails of water around the edges neither. Happy to have you come up and look though, if’n you want?”

Shaking her head again, Myr said, “No thanks. What are you going to do about the missing tiles?”

“Them are ruint,” the man said, nodding over towards the wet tiles his assistant had stacked by the door. “We’ll get you some new ones and put ‘em back tomorrow after there’s been plenty of time for things to dry out up here.” He started climbing down the ladder.

“Can you wait till next week? That way if something weird happens up there again, I can see it.”

“No problem ma’am,” the man said as he started to collapse the ladder.

“Um, could you leave the ladder, at least the rest of the day? Maybe I’ll have some other ideas about what might’ve happened and want to climb up there and have another look.”

“No ma’am. We ain’t s’posed to leave our tools around in case of people might get hurt. You want to climb back up there, you just let us know and we’ll be happy to bring the ladder back.”

Myr nodded, even though she thought the man might just like looking at her butt when she was on the ladder.

******

When Myr came in the next morning she saw her coleus looked sick. She sighed; she’d never had a green thumb and kept having to buy new plants to replace their dead predecessors. She often thought she should just give up on keeping houseplants, especially in the lab. However, she somehow felt guilty if she didn’t have any homey touches. Plants reminded her of her mom who, though she’d never had much money, managed to grow a profusion of vegetation around the house.

Probably overwatered another one, she thought. Walking over, she stuck a finger into the soil to check it, thinking it’d be soaked. Instead it was so dry her finger couldn’t even penetrate the surface.

Myr blinked a couple of times in surprise, then poked her finger at the soil in a couple of different locations as she thought, I watered it yesterday morning… didn’t I? Absently she stepped over to a drawer and got out a stainless steel weighing spoon. Using the spoon, she dug down through the hard crust on the surface. The deeper layers were a little softer but still felt really dry when she spooned some into her hand. What the hell?!

Slowly she turned and looked up at the ceiling.

Thinking about the snow and water that’d come down.

Wondering if the reason the air in the room had seemed funny when she’d entered the room yesterday could have been because it’d been as dry as the soil in her plant.

Then her eyes turned to her apparatus, presumably fully dried out overnight.

******

Despite the fact that her mind kept racing and her eyes repeatedly turned up to the ceiling, Myr finished powering up and carefully testing each of the power conditioners, signal generators, amplifiers, sensors, display units, and other devices that made up her setup. She hooked them all up the same way, even down to the way they were arranged on the rolling cart. She positioned the setup where she thought it’d been before the incident. She weighed and put a beaker of peroxide at the focal point of the coil. She set every switch and dial exactly as it’d been yesterday according to her notes.

Once she was satisfied, she carefully covered her setup with the tarp she’d gotten the maintenance people to bring her.

Taking a deep breath, she reached in under the tarp and powered up her equipment. As she did, her eyes immediately shot up to the opening in the ceiling.

Nothing happened up there.

She lifted the tarp and peered at the peroxide. As before, she thought there might be more bubbles forming, but she couldn’t be sure.

She was trying to exactly replicate the experiment from yesterday so, as desperately as she wanted to, she couldn’t flip the switch from the megahertz generator to bring in the terahertz chip yet. She thought she’d had it on megahertz for about ten minutes before Miller’d interrupted her to go to lunch. If she was going to replicate, she needed to run it at ten megahertz for ten minutes before she switched it to terahertz so things would have happened just like they had yesterday.

She looked at the clock, told her AI to remind her in ten minutes, made some notes about the settings, then sat back to wait, her knee bouncing up and down impatiently.

Her AI reminded her when the ten minutes were up. Myr rolled her chair over, lifted the edge of the tarp and put her finger on the terahertz switch. Turning her eyes up to the hole in the ceiling, she flipped the switch.

Nothing happened.

Of course, nothing was exactly what should have happened, but Myr’d convinced herself that something had sucked the water out of the air in the lab, frozen it, and somehow moved it up above the lab’s false ceiling. It only made sense that her apparatus had been the cause of those events. After all that was a simpler explanation than positing three unusual events: first, that something had dried out the air; second, that something different had put frozen water up in the ceiling; and, third, that Myr had a large set of sophisticated electronic equipment powered up and working when it happened.

By Occam’s razor the three things must be related.

How the hell her equipment might have done such a freakish thing, she had no idea, but she felt really disappointed that she hadn’t seen anything when she’d flipped the switch. Hoping that whatever had happened took a while to occur, Myr settled back to wait, keeping her eyes up on the ceiling area.

After a few minutes she got bored, but started to worry that, because her attention was wandering, she’d miss seeing an important event up there. She got out the video camera she’d used to record some of her static electricity experiments and put it on a tripod. She pointed it at the opening in the ceiling tiles and turned it on.

She rubbed at dry eyes. Dammit! she thought, I should be measuring the humidity in the room.

Unfortunately she didn’t have a hygrometer to measure humidity and didn’t think anyone at Miller Tech would be likely to have one. Glancing up at the ceiling and seeing nothing happening, she turned back to her computer to figure out how much water could be in the air in the lab.

If the humidity in the room was 50% and the temperature was 24 degrees C or 75oF there should be 9.4g of water per cubic meter of air. She looked at her room and estimated it to be seven by five meters with a ceiling that’d be two and a half to three meters, depending on whether you counted the air above the false ceiling or not. Call it a hundred cubic meters, so 940 grams of water or almost a liter. A little looking on the web suggested that wet snow had four times the volume of the water contained in it. Dry snow could have as much as twenty times the volume.

Myr looked at the tiles, wishing she’d taken pictures of the snow when they’d first found it. At a guess, she thought there were about five to ten liters of dry snow in the ceiling. A reasonable range for her calculations, especially if not all the water had been extracted from the air.

Still, how could her apparatus have pulled the humidity from the lab’s air and made it into snow up above the ceiling?

Myr checked her phone for the time. She had ten more minutes before it’d be the right time to turn off her apparatus if she wanted to replicate the events from yesterday. She pushed a chair over beside the cart holding her equipment and climbed up onto it.

She’d just intended to get a look up in and around the ceiling before she flipped off the switch. Instead as her head rose closer to the ceiling, she felt heat radiating against her forehead. Then she felt an odd tugging sensation in her face just before she noticed strands of her hair lifting up and pointing up toward the ceiling. Startled, she jerked back and nearly fell off the chair. Catching herself with a hand on the chair back, she quickly stepped down.

Back on the floor, Myr stared up at the ceiling in astonishment, mind whirling. As if snow in the ceiling weren’t confusing enough, now I have a heater?! And something that… what…? Pulls?! Myr’d just begun to think about how the pulling sensation might correlate with an event that pulled water out of the air when the door opened and Arlan Miller said, “Hey Myr, we’ve got all the papers signed.”

Horrified, Myr thought, I didn’t lock the damn door?! With a sense of despair she saw Vinn Saigler’s face behind Miller’s shoulder.

At first Arlan just stared at Myr’s apparatus, wondering why it was covered by a tarp. Then he looked at Myr, wondering why the young woman looked so upset. He thought her face held a mixture of excitement, anger and despair. Her eyes weren’t on the papers Arlan held, the ones containing the non-disclosure agreement she’d insisted on. Instead she was glaring at Vinn over Arlan’s shoulder. Her eyes turned back to Arlan, “I’ve just had a major breakthrough. I don’t need him,” she said, her eyes on Vinn.

Arlan opened his mouth to try to calm the waters but Vinn interjected derisively, “Oh yeah. Of course you’ve had a breakthrough. And just now… how convenient.”

Arlan closed his eyes in an effort to calm himself. If he started shouting like he wanted to, things would deteriorate even more. Myr spoke before he could gather his thoughts, “No, not just now!” she said angrily, “Yesterday afternoon after…” she broke off. Arlan thought she’d decided not to say, “…after meeting Vinn,” and wondered if he should be grateful she’d stopped speaking.

Vinn snorted, Myr’s eyes flashed and Arlan interrupted what looked to become a real knock down drag out. “Both of you! Shut it for a moment.” After receiving sullen looks from both of them, he took a deep breath and tried to speak soothingly. “You two may not realize it, but CEOs don’t usually invest much time directly supervising new employees.” He sighed and focused on Myr first, “I’ve been doing it with you…” he turned to Vinn, “and I’ve been intending to do it with you, because I’ve found that nurturing genius can pay off big time. However,” he said grimly, “nurturing does not mean babysitting you while you’re having temper tantrums like a couple of spoiled brats.”

Arlan turned back to Myr, “I’m glad you’ve had a breakthrough, but I remain convinced you need someone with the math skills to help you analyze and describe what you’ve done so that we might better predict and plan out what else might be achieved.” Arlan saw Myr glance anxiously at a big clock icon counting down on her wall screen, but ignored her rudeness and turned back to Vinn. “I know you’re really good at math. But you’ve got to learn to get along with people who aren’t as good at math as you are. After all, if the rest of the world was as good as you, you wouldn’t be anything special, right?”

Vinn shrugged, but Arlan thought his last point might have hit home. He turned back to Myr and saw her obviously getting a reminder from her AI in her earbud. She looked anxiously at the clock again. “Somewhere you have to be Myr?”

“Something I have to do. I’m running an experiment and need to carry out the next step.”

Happy because he’d wanted to watch Myr run one of her experiments, but she’d always managed to do them when he wasn’t around Arlan said, “Go ahead. We can put this discussion on hold for a minute.”

Myr got a really torn look on her face, then it stilled, “Um, sure. If you guys could just step out…?”

Arlan put on a mildly stern look while trying not to look threatening, “Myr, we talked about this yesterday. No more secrets. We’re part of your team now and we can’t contribute if we…”

Myr’s face took on a look of resolve. She suddenly reached under the tarp and put her hand on what Arlan thought might be the main power switch for her apparatus. For a moment Arlan feared she was shutting it down rather than include Arlan and Vinn in whatever she had going, but she turned to look up at the ceiling.

A ceiling that Arlan suddenly realized was missing a bunch of its suspended acoustic tiles. Arlan heard the switch snick. His eyes were also pointed up at the ceiling so he saw the sudden puff of white blossom up there. A loud bass thump and a sudden pressurization of the air in the lab accompanied the puff. The air blew Myr’s hair and a couple of papers briefly lifted on her desk.

Then, to Arlan’s utter astonishment, snow started falling in the lab! At first he’d thought it was just some kind of white powder blown out of a hole in the ceiling, but some flakes landed on him and quickly melted. A sniff showed that the liquid had no odor though he didn’t go so far as to taste it.

When Arlan looked at Myr, he thought she looked surprised too, though perhaps not in the same way as he was. She’d immediately picked up a beaker and held it up into the densest concentration, catching some of the snow. Arlan looked back at Vinn and saw him gaping in astonishment. Arlan turned back to Myr, “What the hell was that?!”

Myr quickly sealed the beaker, then stepped over to her setup, lifted the edge of the tarp and started spinning dials and flipping switches. “That was my new breakthrough,” she said.

Arlan blinked a couple of times. “Um, and a field that suppresses static electricity makes it snow… how?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet,” Myr said. “But I will, and,” she focused a venomous look on Vinn, “I’ll do it without his help.”

Arlan heard Vinn inhale for an angry retort, but Arlan stopped him with a calming hand on Vinn’s arm. To Myr, he said, “Come on Myr. We’ve gone over and over this. You’ve signed an agreement to cooperate and you said you understood the need for a team approach.” Arlan looked up at the ceiling where the small snowstorm had appeared, then said, “I’m really excited about what… whatever just happened up there. I don’t know what it was or what it means, but I’m ready to make major investments in understanding it.” He turned sad eyes on Myr, “But if you continue to insist on going it alone, you’re going to have to actually do it on your own.”

Looking stricken, Myr said, “You’re threatening to fire me?”

Arlan shook his head, “No, I’m desperately trying to keep you. I’m trying to give you every resource I have available. But if you’re going to continue to waste your time and our resources, I’ll have to cut you loose.”

Myr’s eyes welled up and a moment later a tear ran down her cheek. Arlan had really come to like the young woman. It was breaking his heart, but he steeled his soul against the temptation to back down and give her another couple of months. After a moment her eyes dropped to the floor and she spoke in a small voice, “Okay. You’re right. After all, I already agreed and I did sign the papers yesterday.” She raised her eyes back up to Arlan’s, “But does it have to be him?”

Arlan gave a playful shrug, “He’s the only math genius I have on hand right now, but,” Arlan turned to glare at Vinn, “he’s going to do his very best to stop being a jerk. Right Vinn?”

Vinn nodded. Arlan had the impression the young man even looked abashed. Maybe he’d been impressed by the snowfall phenomenon. Perhaps even impressed enough to restrain his tongue.

Dr. Miller had canceled his next three meetings so he could talk with Vinn and Myr about what’d just happened in her lab. Vinn thought Miller not only wanted to understand it himself, but to continue moderating Vinn and Myr’s interactions. Despite the fact that Myr appeared to despise him, Vinn had a hard time taking his eyes off her. Her light brown hair curled gently, bouncing when she turned quickly. Her eyes were a fascinating pale brown with reddish flecks. She looked surprisingly physically fit—muscular, but in a way that wasn’t massive or masculine. Despite her muscularity, she remained slender and caught his eye even though he recognized that she did little to enhance her appearance. No makeup, ordinary clothing, and short hair that she simply combed out rather than styling.

Yet, even though it didn’t look like she worked at being beautiful, somehow she felt much more than merely pretty to Vinn.

Her enthusiasm when she talked to them about her experiment and the field she claimed to have discovered—those made her magnetic. He knew she was older than he was, but all the women he’d found attractive so far in his life had been more mature than he was. Vinn’s friends constantly teased him that he’d be hard pressed to find a woman as immature as he was. To this point in his life, none of the women he’d pined after had returned his affections and more than a few had actively disliked him, much like Myr seemed to. Vinn had been told repeatedly that this was because his clumsy attempts at wit often hurt their feelings. Since he so seldom managed to say the right things, this time he decided to concentrate on simply saying as little as possible. At the least he wanted to control his impulses to address her so sarcastically.

Vinn was finding it hard to keep his mouth shut though. Myr had described her coils in general terms, but the measurements she reported making of their physical properties were rudimentary at best. The same was true of the energized plates that seemed to be necessary for the coils to generate electrostatic suppression. And, she still hadn’t opened up the cylindrical cover over the coils and plates to let them see their arrangement.

When she paused, Dr. Miller said, “Okay, thanks for explaining how your setup works. I understand that you believe the field created somehow seems to suppress electric repulsion or attraction between like or unlike charges. But, how does that explain what we just saw happen up in the ceiling?”

Myr shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “I really have no idea,” she admitted. With a sigh, she said, “This is what we do know.” She held up one finger, “I’ve replicated the experiment at least once, suggesting it’s not just a freak accident.” She lifted another finger, “Since the snow event happens instantaneously when I power the equipment down, it must have to have something to do with my setup.” A third finger went up, “The event is happening about two meters higher above the field generator than where I believed the field was focused when I was energizing in megahertz ranges.” She glanced at them as if unsure they were following, “the event first happened when I accidentally switched in the terahertz chip.”

Miller nodded.

Myr put up a fourth finger, “It seems to generate heat and reduce humidity while the power’s on.” She put up a fifth finger, “It extracts heat and produces snow when I turn off the power.” She glanced quickly at Vinn, but returned her attention immediately to Miller, “My theory is that somehow the field pulled the water out of the air and concentrated it invisibly up there,” she waved at the ceiling. “The generated heat and the fact we can’t see it suggests that it’s compressing the water to a very small area. When the power’s turned off, the water rapidly re-expands and that expansion absorbs heat, turning the water into snow.”

Vinn wanted to bark out an objection since water and other liquids were known to be incompressible, but he bit his tongue. Fortunately, Miller narrowed his eyes and shook his head, “That doesn’t make sense, water’s essentially incompressible.”

Myr shrugged her shoulders, “Agreed. But by my rough calculations the lab holds close to a liter of water suspended in the air as humidity. That should generate five to twenty liters of snow which,” she again waved up toward the ceiling, “is in the range I estimate appeared up there.” She shrugged again, “Obviously, we should’ve been able to see a liter of water and we didn’t, which is why I think it was compressed even if it seems impossible. But,” she turned an intense gaze back and forth between the two men, “remember that the field’s always seemed to suppress electrostatic effects. Remember, the reason water’s incompressible is because electrostatic repulsion between the water molecules keeps them apart.”

There was a moment of silence while Miller apparently tried to wrap his mind around what Myr’d said. Doing his very best not to sound critical, Vinn said, “If that’s the case, why does it compress the water in the air, but not the oxygen or nitrogen?”

Myr shrugged again, “I don’t know. Maybe the snow does contain oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide but they all sublimate to gas so quickly we don’t even see it?” She turned back to Miller and said with a tone of frustration, “There are so many experiments we need to do before we can expect to understand it.”

Vinn wanted to object that frozen nitrogen or oxygen would have produced visible clouds of vapor—but he successfully restrained himself.

“Oh,” Myr said, “we should watch the video!”

It turned out that Myr had recorded a video of the ceiling. When they played it back, they couldn’t see anything but the frame and floor of the upstairs lab in the frames right before the sudden puff of white appeared. The white expanded across the screen from an apparent point to its full size in a mere ten frames. Since the video was being shot at sixty frames per second, that meant the expansion had only taken about a sixth of a second. No wonder it made a loud thump and generated a puff of air that blew stuff around! Vinn thought.

They went back and forth across the frame right before and the frame right after the appearance of the white, agreeing that there really didn’t seem to be anything visible in the frame before the white stuff appeared. The whiteness appeared as a smear an inch or two in diameter in the frame after. The resolution of the video wasn’t good enough to tell exactly what they were seeing, but Vinn thought that it looked like vapor when it first materialized and seemed to turn into discrete snow crystals around 40 to 60 frames after it appeared.

Seeing Myr on the video catching some of the snow in her beaker reminded them to look at what she’d caught. It’d all melted into a liquid by the time they looked at it and that liquid certainly looked like water. So far it hadn’t evaporated. They took turns smelling it, agreeing that it was odorless. Myr measured its pH at seven, which was what the pH of pure water should have been at room temperature. A rough weight showed that its density was about a gram per milliliter, also suggesting it was water. Dr. Miller had her cover the beaker so she could take it to one of the chemical analysis labs at Miller Tech. Those folks could tell them if it contained anything but water.

The most fascinating thing on the video, however, Myr had to point out to them. She ran it back to when she’d stood on her chair to look closely at the ceiling. You could see her hair lifting up and pointing toward the spot where the snow subsequently appeared. They could also see a sudden startled look in her eyes right before she jerked back and nearly fell off the chair.

They all sat and stared at one another for a few moments, then Miller said, “What frightened you?”

“Um, it didn’t just pull on my hair. I could feel a tugging sensation in my face.” After a brief pause, she continued, “And it was hot up there.”

Miller stared for a moment, then narrowed his eyes, “We need to remember that this might be dangerous. We’re dealing with a completely new and unknown phenomenon that might have risks that we just don’t understand. I’d suggest we stay far away from it anytime we’re powering it up and only approach it very slowly.” He looked back and forth between Myr and Vinn until he got a nod from each of them. He turned his eyes back to Myr, “And the next time you turn it on you should check for radiation.” Once Myr had nodded again, Miller said, “Okay, what’s next?”

Myr said, “I need to build a chamber to focus the field into. Then I can measure changes in the humidity, pressure and temperature, as well as doing infrared photography to localize the heat. With a chamber, I’ll be able to safely put some objects near the focal point and measure to see whether there really is an attraction.” She glanced at Miller, “I’ll need more equipment, especially cameras.”

Miller waived the cost issues away as if they were inconsequential. He turned and looked at Vinn, “Have you got any ideas?”

While biting his tongue so as not to say anything about how some of these things should already have been done, Vinn outlined a plan to make detailed measurements of the shape of the field generated by Myr’s apparatus as well as evaluating the changes that occurred in the field at different frequencies, currents and voltages. After that he wanted to find out what happened to the field when the shapes of the coils and plates were modified. He finished by saying, “If I can mathematically describe the shape of the field and the effects of the various changes to the plates and coils, I may be able to help design an apparatus that generates a more powerful or a more focused field.”

Myr gave Vinn an appraising look, looking as if she thought he might be helpful after all. But she didn’t say she’d let him see the arrangement or shapes of the plates and coils.

******

When Carol closed the door behind her, she heard Connor’s wheelchair coming. This was an event since he usually waited for her to arrive in the living room. She worried that something bad had happened, but then he came around the corner looking excited, “Mom, Myr had a breakthrough!”

Carol frowned, “What?”

“With her field. She called and said that something big had happened. She said she’d call you later.” Connor looked wistful, “Maybe it’s finally going to pay off?”

Carol shrugged and said, “I hope so honey.” Well, I guess it wasn’t something bad, Carol thought, but it wasn’t actually anything good either. After years of Myr reporting one failed experiment after another, Carol wasn’t surprised that her daughter would call if something positive happened. But Carol had long ago given up on Myr’s fields and she wished her daughter would stop pursuing that highly evident dead end.

It was nine o’clock at night when Carol’s AI announced a call from Myr. “I’ll take it,” she said, happy to be getting a call from her daughter even if she doubted she’d be happy about the content. “Myr what’s new?”

“Just wanted to tell you we finally got some breakthrough results with the static field,” Myr said, sounding about as excited as she ever got. However, then Myr began to describe snow in the ceiling, tugging on her hair, and decreases in the humidity—all bizarre events. Worse, it quickly became evident that Myr didn’t have any clue as to what was responsible for these unusual phenomena. She just thought that events so out of the ordinary had to be important.

Carol decided it was just one more wild goose chase. She tried to make a few positive comments, while still attempting to temper Myr’s unrealistic enthusiasm and inject a little reality into the conversation.

She could tell Myr’d been expecting her mother to be more excited and Carol felt sad not to be more energizing. On the other hand, Carol was old enough to understand the reality that life seldom fulfilled your dreams. She really wanted her daughter to stop wasting her life on some of the bizarre, poorly-understood findings she got out of her coil-plates and get on to performing predictable bread-and-butter research that’d pay bills without courting disaster.

But now’s not the time to tell her how I think she’s wasting her life trying to buy a winning lottery ticket. I need to wait until she’s had another brush with reality. Unfortunately, it seemed like Carol was always waiting for the right time. I should have been more emphatic a couple of years ago when she wasn’t taking the job at Miller Tech. As long as I’d already made her mad by yelling at her to take the job, I should’ve emphasized how she was wasting her life hoping for her damned fields to prove useful.

Chapter 2

Vinn offered to help Myr in her lab.

She immediately said she didn’t need any help.

Vinn lifted his palms, “Oh, come on. I don’t have anything to do until we make some measurements. I need some numbers to give me something to start working with.”

Myr shook her head, “The fact that you’re twiddling your thumbs does not mean I need help.”

“You’ve got to move your coils so they aren’t establishing the field up in the ceiling of your lab. Before you do that, you need to make measurements so you’ll know exactly where the field forms in relationship to the generator cylinder. It’ll be a lot easier to do the measurements with an assistant. At the very least I can help you with that.”

“Why would I need to make measurements before I move it?”

Vinn very carefully tried not to sound exasperated, “I assume you want to reorient it horizontally?”

Myr nodded.

“And since we’re assuming that this new field might be dangerous, since it tugged on your hair etcetera, we wouldn’t want it to open up in a wall or table, right?”

Myr gave him a sudden look of understanding, “Okay, you’re right. You’re saying we need to know exactly where it forms in relation to the generator so we know we’re not going to bring it up in the middle of something, right?”

Vinn nodded. “Besides, working with the actual device will help me be more grounded when I’m trying to come up with a theory for it.”

Myr got an irritated look, “You mean that before we even gather any data, you’ve already discarded my theory?”

“No, no.” He said throwing up his hands, “I didn’t really mean a theory of how it works. My job is to describe the field mathematically and, since I have to hypothesize some possible equations or other math to do that, I think of that as its own theory.”

Myr regarded him suspiciously for a few moments, then said in a disgruntled tone, “Okay. If we have to work together, I guess we’d just as well start now.”

The first thing they did was to tape the sensor of a Geiger counter to a yardstick and held it up near the focal point to check for any radioactive emissions when they powered the setup on and off. It turned out to be fairly easy to localize the focal point because all they had to do was turn the field on for a couple of minutes, then turn it off. When they turned it off, they immediately got a small puff of frosty white vapor at the focal point. The Geiger counter didn’t detect any radioactivity so they just fastened it to the table near where they expected the focal point to be after the move and left it powered up to be sure nothing changed.

Next they roughly measured the location of the focal point. They didn’t need precision measurements of its location yet, just confirmation that it formed coaxially to the coils and the distance from the end of the coil to the focus.

At Myr’s request, the maintenance guys brought over a ladder and a metal tape measure. Vinn hooked the end of the tape measure on a cable clamp that held some of the wiring to the floor above and extended it down to the top edge of Myr’s coil. Then Vinn climbed the ladder with the video camera, holding it in a location where it could get a view of both the puff and the measuring tape. Myr turned her apparatus on, then a couple of minutes later, back off. The center of the puff was 148 centimeters, or about four feet ten inches, from the end of her cylinder.

The maintenance guys, who’d stood out in the hall at Myr’s insistence, came back in and carried off the ladder though Myr managed to get them to leave the tape measure. Apparently they weren’t supposed to leave their tools for fear someone would get hurt by them, but Myr managed to convince them that a tape measure wasn’t dangerous and that they could come get it the next day.

Vinn and Myr moved the cylinder containing her set-up off her rolling cart and laid it horizontally on one of the lab tables, positioned so that the focal point should form about two feet off the edge. She insisted on tilting it up a little bit so it’d form well above the table until they were sure that positioning it horizontally didn’t cause it to form non-coaxially. It didn’t, and shortly after that they had the coil cylinder repositioned so that the focal point formed about twenty-four inches off the edge of the table and three inches higher than its surface. The cylinder containing Myr’s coils and the plates was lying flat on its side on the table, and since it was six inches in diameter, that produced the three-inch elevation.

At this point, Vinn desperately wanted to just mess around with it, but Myr reminded him how it’d frightened her by tugging on her hair and face when she’d gotten close to it. She thought she’d been about eighteen inches from the focal point when she’d felt the pull. So, every time they turned it on she’d insisted that they get no closer than three feet and that they wear safety glasses.

Vinn set out to calmly and reasonably argue for doing a few rough tests of what was going on before they tried to build really sophisticated measurement equipment. “After all,” he said, “It’d be a real shame to have the field damage something we’d spent a lot of time and energy constructing.”

Myr tilted her head and looked at him curiously. “Okay, I agree that it’d be nice to do some rough testing. But how do you propose to do that, yet keep ourselves safe?”

With a shrug, Vinn said, “I don’t know for sure. I pictured us standing behind some kind of shield and reaching out with a stick or something.”

Myr stared at him for a few seconds, then said, “That sounds stupid… but I have to admit I don’t have a lot better idea for quick and dirty testing.” She shrugged, “The guys in the next lab have a portable radiation shield with a leaded glass window in it.”

Vinn frowned, “We don’t need a radiation shield…”

“I know, but it’s a big metal shield with a window in it. I think it’ll do the job.”

The people in Dr. Randall’s lab agreed to let them borrow the shield and they rolled it into Myr’s lab. They braced it in place about a meter away from the focal point so they’d be able to reach the focus with the yardstick they’d used for their Geiger counter testing. Vinn looked at Myr, “It seems to be kind of crazy to go to all this trouble to stand behind the shield when we’ve turned it on and off several times already without the shield.”

Myr didn’t take her eyes off the equipment, “Yeah, but there wasn’t anything near the focal point for those tests. What if the first thing we put near it gets pulled in and explodes? Better safe than sorry.”

Vinn stared at her, unnerved by the possibility. “Um, maybe we could watch it on video from outside the lab?”

Myr turned to look at him thoughtfully, then said, “Good idea. But then how are we going to move something closer to the focal point when we’re testing?”

Vinn shrugged, “We could just put it near the focal point before you power it up.”

Myr continued to study him, “When I was talking about an explosion, I was thinking a little one. My equipment,” she waved at the stack of electrical equipment on her cart, “isn’t drawing a huge amount of current, so even if it’s storing all of it for a minute or so, it shouldn’t be that big of an energy release.”

“Normally, I’d agree with you, but that pile of junk,” Vinn said, waving at her equipment too, but with a tone of awe in his voice, “is doing a lot of things I would have said were impossible.”

“That’s not, a ‘pile of junk,’ ” Myr said tartly.

Vinn quickly glanced at her, afraid he’d offended her once again, but saw the twinkle in her eyes. “Maybe it qualifies as a ‘stack of stuff’?” he said, then did his best to give a woeful shake of his head, “but I don’t think so.”

“I am so starting to regret agreeing to work with you,” Myr said, picking up the video camera and moving it over closer to the focal point.

With a great sense of relief, Vinn saw she still had a subtle grin on her face.

They’d set up a monitor out in the hall and relayed the video camera’s image to it. Myr set a heavy-duty ring-stand on the floor about two feet from the focal point of the field and clamped a slender wire to it that approached to just within the eighteen inches where Myr estimated she’d felt the tugging sensation. At that point she put a ninety-degree bend in the wire and had it run six inches. They set up the camera so that it’d show them if the angled part of the wire bent toward the focal point to suggest some kind of attraction.

Myr’s equipment was all set up and they’d brought the power supply out into the hall and put it on a shelf on the cart right below the monitor. Myr was reaching for the switch when Dr. Randall came out of the lab next-door and gave them an amused look. “Taking over our hall so you can have more space for your research?”

Vinn wondered whether Myr would tell Randall that they were out in the hall because they were worried that their experiment was mysteriously dangerous. In a sense she did. She gave Randall an enigmatic look and said, “We’ve drawn a pentagon on the floor, inscribed some runes on the wall, and we’re getting ready to call a demon. Just felt like it’d be safer to be out here.”

Randall snorted a laugh, gave them a dismissive wave and started off down the hall, saying, “You and your damned secrets!”

Vinn gave Myr a curious look and to his astonishment, she winked at him. “Shall I power this bad boy up?”

Vinn nodded, surprised at just how pleased he was to be getting along with her. Myr toggled the switch with both of their eyes focused on the monitor.

Nothing happened.

Well, that wasn’t exactly true. When she turned the switch back off a tiny puff of white vapor formed just as reliably as it had before. Vinn looked at Myr and saw her frowning in concentration. He said, “Do you think you might have been closer than eighteen inches?”

She shrugged, “Maybe,” she said slowly. “Let’s try twelve inches?”

“Sure,” Vinn said, opening the door to the lab slowly and peeking in. Nothing seemed to have happened, so he walked in and moved the ring stand six inches closer. Stepping back out in the hall, he said, “Good to go.”

Myr toggled the switch again and once again they watched as the wire did absolutely nothing. Vinn turned to Myr and said, “Six inches?”

She nodded, looking a little frustrated. Vinn went in and moved the ring stand. Once again, nothing happened with the wire. He was looking at her when Myr looked at Vinn and lifted an eyebrow, “I did not imagine the tugging. You saw my hair lifting up in the video.”

Vinn raised his hands, palm outwards, “I didn’t say anything. And yes, I did see your hair rise. I’m just as mystified as you are.” He looked back at the screen, “Let’s make sure we still see the puff of white when you turn it off. That’ll confirm that the apparatus is still actually working.”

Myr turned the switch off, the puff of white appeared, and Vinn said, “Dammit!” He turned back to Myr, “Two inches?”

Myr nodded and Vinn opened the door.

The wire didn’t deflect at two inches, or at an inch, nor at a half an inch. Finally, with some trepidation, they put the wire actually in the focal point. Still nothing happened. The puff of white formed right around the wire and Vinn thought the wire felt slightly damp when he went back in to examine it. Vinn turned and grinned at Myr, “I think we’ve got to start over. I’ll just clamp your head at eighteen inches this time.”

Myr snorted, “How about just a lock of hair?”

Vinn shook his head, opening his eyes wide as if appalled. “You know we need to replicate the original experiment since we failed with our modified set-up!”

“Doesn’t have to be my head,” Myr said, lifting an eyebrow. “Could be yours.”

“On second thought, a lock of hair sounds like a pretty good idea. I’ll get some tape.”

Vinn moved the ring stand back to eighteen inches, and when Myr provided a tuft of hair, he taped it to the wire. This time, when Myr powered up her equipment, the wire immediately bent, the tiny bundle of hair at the end straining toward the focal point.

After a wide-eyed look at one another, they powered down and went inside to examine the hair. They couldn’t detect any changes in the little snippet of hair. Feeling a little freaked out by this bizarre outcome, Vinn said, “Okay, that I didn’t expect. Do you have any idea what the hell it means?”

Myr appeared to be staring at the focal point, though Vinn thought her eyes were probably actually focused on something off at an infinite distance. “It probably means the effect isn’t electromagnetic,” she said, a little dreamily.

Vinn thought about it and had to agree. If it affected hair but not wire, it probably wasn’t electromagnetic. However, he couldn’t think of anything except gravity that’d attract hair. Then he realized he’d seen hair stuck to balloons by static electricity. “Maybe if it’s working on hair, it’s your electrostatic effect?” Then he tilted his head with puzzlement, “Although, I thought your field suppressed electrostatics?”

“Yeah,” Myr said, a distant tone in her voice. Then she shook her head, “It also pulled on my face so we should try some other organic materials.” She glanced at Vinn’s waist, “You ready to sacrifice your belt to science?”

At first he was surprised, then Vinn realized that his leather belt was made out of cow skin. He said, “Um, okay…”

She looked him in the eye, “First though, we should see what happens with the hair when it gets even closer to the focal point.”

“I’ll move it,” Vinn said.

Moved six inches closer, there appeared to be quite a bit more pull on the little tuft of hair, with it looking like it was straining and stretching the bend in the wire. As Myr powered the equipment down in the little puff of vapor appeared as usual, Vinn said, “Closer yet?”

Myr had had an intense look of concentration on her face. At his question, she blinked as if her thoughts had bumped over something. “Yeah, but let’s do it with just one hair instead of that entire bundle… In case something weird happens.”

This time when Myr turned on the power the wire bounced toward the focal point and then sprang back to its starting point. It quivered there for a moment then became stationary. When they powered down and went to examine it, they found that the hair and the little bit of scotch tape holding it to the wire were gone.

After quite a search, they realized a tiny ball of material on the floor beneath the focal point looked, under magnification, like it might be partly plastic and partly hair. They just hadn’t considered the possibility at first. When Vinn looked up, he found Myr already staring at him. “I’m glad we didn’t test it with a finger,” she said quietly. She stood and stretched, “I’m getting punchy. I think we should quit for the day, think about it for a while.” She started zeroing her dials and switches.

Vinn nodded, “I guess you’re right.”

******

As they left the lab, Vinn considered offering to walk Myr to her car. He wasn’t sure why, but he decided it was too early to make such an overture. He liked her, wanted to spend more time with her and wanted to see her safe, but he knew he wasn’t good at figuring out such interpersonal interactions. In any case, only earlier that same day Myr had been evincing a strong dislike for him. That alone suggested he’d probably better move very slowly. Instead, as they left the building and turned their separate ways, Vinn simply said, “See you tomorrow.” Then he put a little enthusiasm in his voice and made a little fist pump, “We’re going to figure this out!”

Looking around, Vinn was surprised to realize that the sun had already gone down. It was later than he’d expected and he felt tired. They hadn’t done anything physically difficult, but something about the weird complexities of the day had kind of taken the energy out of him.

Not wanting to eat his own lousy cooking, he stopped by Jack’s Grill for a burger and a beer. The place was packed with people watching the Chiefs play Thursday Night Football on the big screen TV. Vinn wasn’t very interested in football, so he took a table in the back, far from the action. The incessant cheering and shouting was a little much, so he left as soon as he’d finished his burger and beer.

By then his tiredness had dissipated. He’d previously asked around about places where he might be able to play some pick-up basketball so he decided to go check out one of the spots that’d been recommended. Arriving at a gym with a tired old sign out front, he found a good crowd in the large facility. It looked old but was actually in pretty good shape. Since he only had street clothes he told the people at the desk he was considering joining and asked if he could just stand in the gym and watch. They didn’t object so he walked in. He found several half-court games and one full-court game in progress.

After a few minutes, he managed to strike up a conversation with one of the guys who was waiting to sub in. He learned there were leagues that played on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mondays and Wednesdays were mostly set aside for volleyball, and Friday nights were reserved for pick-up basketball. The guy said, “Most people start out playing pick-up ball on Friday nights. Once people get to know you, you can ask to join a team in one of the leagues.” He shrugged, “Teams won’t take you if you can’t play at their level.”

Vinn decided to try playing pick-up ball a few Friday nights to see how he might fit in. After signing up for a membership he headed home.

******

On Friday morning Vinn woke up early. He couldn’t get back to sleep for thinking about what’d happened with Myr’s apparatus the day before, so he got up, took his shower and ate some cereal. He puttered around for a while, but finally went in to work early. He knew he wouldn’t be able to start doing anything in the lab because Myr hadn’t shared the combination for the lab door with him. Besides, she’d carefully kept him from getting a good look at the settings on her apparatus, so he doubted that he’d be able to replicate them and get any results even if he did get in her lab.

He didn’t feel resentful; they’d hardly worked together yet and had certainly gotten off on the wrong foot. His plan was to go to his office and take care of any stuff that might have piled up there yesterday while he was gone. He wanted to be ready so when Myr arrived, they could get right to work.

Instead, when he walked by her lab, he saw her out in the hall with the cart containing the monitor and the power supply. “Hey, what are you doing here so early?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” she said, glancing at him, but then going back into the lab to adjust the position of the video camera.

“Neither could I,” Vinn said, thinking her eyes looked a little hollow. He carried his backpack into the lab and set it against the wall. “Have you got a plan for today’s tests?”

“We need to try to make sense of what kind of objects are attracted to the focal point,” she said. “I’m figuring we’ll tape a bunch of small samples to the wire so we can see which ones are pulled in.”

Vinn bit back his immediate temptation to react sarcastically. Instead, he said, “Isn’t it going to be a problem that the tape itself seems to be attracted?”

Myr squinched her eyes shut and thumped her head with the heel of her hand. “Yes! Of course it is. I didn’t sleep worth a damn and now I’m not thinking very well either.” She eyed him, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad you’re here to keep me from doing something dumb.”

Vinn frowned, “How could I take that the wrong way?”

She turned back to study her apparatus, “You might think it meant I liked you.”

Not sure whether she was joking or serious, Vinn said, “Um… Oh no, I wouldn’t want to presume.”

“Good.”

Uncomfortably uncertain, Vinn tried to think of something to say. After a moment, he ventured, “You think we can wire the test objects to the springy wire?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a big spool of malleable wire. But, instead of wiring them to the springy wire we used yesterday, I think it’d be better if we just dangled the objects from the side arm of the ring stand on pieces of the malleable wire. That way we’ll get a rough idea of the strength of attraction by how close to horizontal the dangling wire pulls up,” she shrugged, “if it gets pulled up at all.”

“Good idea. First we better make sure the malleable wire isn’t attracted by itself.”

“Obviously,” Myr said dryly.

“Um, how about if I set up the ring stand with a piece of wire hanging from it while you finish setting up your apparatus?”

“Good idea, but don’t forget we don’t know whether the ring stand itself might be attracted. Better make sure it’s at least eighteen inches away itself to start with.” She pointed out the spool of malleable wire.

A few minutes later the ring stand with a dangling piece of wire was in place. Myr powered up her equipment and nothing happened. Nothing happened when they moved it closer either.

Myr rummaged around in a cabinet and found a tiny 5 milliliter glass beaker. Handing it to Vinn, she said, “Wire this up.” While he was twisting wire around the beaker to securely dangle it about twelve inches from the focal point, she rummaged through cabinets.

Vinn said, “Okay, it’s ready.”

When Myr powered up, there was no evidence of attraction for the glass beaker either. “Okay,” Myr said, “we can put test substances inside the beaker if we can’t attach them to the wire.”

“Vinn blinked, why wouldn’t we be able to attach them to the wire?”

Myr raised an eyebrow, “Liquids, powders?”

“Oh, yeah.”

Myr handed him the rubber eraser from a pencil and said, “Drop that in the beaker.”

The eraser pulled the beaker up and tensioned the wire toward the focal point.

The pencil’s lead wasn’t attracted. Neither was a piece of copper wire, a paperclip, some aluminum foil, a penny—which was mostly zinc—or salt from a shaker Myr kept on her desk.

Myr went next door and came back with a collection of bottles from the chemical cabinet there. They tested barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, magnesium hydroxide, mercury, potassium iodide, sodium carbonate, titanium dioxide, and tungsten; all of which were not attracted.

Calcium bicarbonate was attracted. So were aluminum hydroxide, boric acid, calcium hydroxide, latex, mineral oil, paraffin, and sodium bicarbonate. Among the ordinary objects in the lab that were attracted were a piece of plastic from an ink pen, the wood from the pencil that had given up its eraser and lead, sugar and creamer from the coffee supplies, and a bit of leather that Myr had brought in from home so Vinn wouldn’t have to sacrifice a piece of his belt.

When they put a little water in the beaker, it was attracted. However, the interesting thing was that when the beaker jerked toward the focal point, some of the water splashed out. On the video it could be seen spiraling into the focal point and disappearing. When Myr powered down, the puff of white was bigger than it usually was, supporting the idea that the vapor they’d been seeing was indeed water.

Curious to see what was happening, Arlan Miller stopped by. When he looked in the door of Myr’s lab he found Myr and Vinn staring at a whiteboard with two lists on it. The lists included what appeared to be a mixture of chemicals and ordinary objects. They hadn’t noticed him so he stood and stared at the two groups of materials, wondering what in the world the whiteboard was all about. After a few moments, with neither Myr nor Vinn moving or saying anything, Miller cleared his throat, “What’ve you got there?”

They turned to look at him with odd expressions. “Dazed” wasn’t quite the right term for the way they looked. He decided they looked more bewildered or baffled. Myr said, “It turns out that some things aren’t attracted to the focal point of the field. Remember how we were puzzled about why the field might pull in water vapor but not nitrogen, oxygen, or carbon dioxide?”

Miller nodded.

“So far we’ve found that the field attracts the things on this list,” she pointed to one topped with, “rubber eraser.” She turned back and said, “It doesn’t attract any of the things on this list.” She tapped the top of the other list, topped with, “wire,” and “glass.”

Myr turned back to Miller, “We’re trying to figure out what the things on either list have in common.” She shrugged, “Since the first observed effects of the field were on static electricity, it’s easy to focus on the fact that a lot of the ordinary objects in the ‘not attracted’ category are electrical conductors.” She turned to look back at the whiteboard, “But, most of those chemicals are powders that aren’t conductors.” She glanced at Vinn, “Maybe they’d conduct if they were a solid chunk rather than a powder?”

Vinn said, “Glass.”

At first Miller had no idea what Vinn meant. Then he realized that glass, a well-known insulator, was on the list of substances that were not attracted, along with the various metals and other well-known conductors.

Myr gave a self-deprecating snort, “There goes that stupid theory.”

They all stared at the lists together in silence for a couple of minutes, then Miller said, “Hydrogen.”

Myr and Vinn turned to look at him with puzzlement on their faces. Vinn said, “Are you saying we should test hydrogen?” He glanced back over his shoulder, “We’d have to seal it in a stoppered glass flask and we wouldn’t be able to get much in, because if we pressurized it the stopper’d pop out. We’d have to…”

Miller interrupted, “No, I meant that everything in your list on the left—the one that’s attracted, has hydrogen in it.” He gestured, “The organic materials like plastic, wood, leather, and rubber,” Miller glanced at Myr, “and your face, are really obvious because they’re loaded with hydrogen, but look at your non-attracted sodium carbonate and your attracted sodium bicarbonate. The only difference between those two is that  sodium bicarb has a hydrogen substituted for one of the sodiums.”

“Oh!” Myr said, sounding embarrassed. “I can’t believe I didn’t notice those two were the same except for the hydrogen.”

Vinn said, “What would hydrogen have to do with it?!”

Miller said, “That’s a damned good question… And good questions make for great science. But you better check that hypothesis with some pure hydrogen and some more materials that don’t have hydrogen to make sure the pattern really holds true.”

******

Joe looked up when Arlan Miller came in to the office. Joe could tell that Miller was almost ecstatically excited, even though the man looked like he was trying to appear blasé. Joe said, “Well, what rang your chimes?”

Miller grinned at him and said, “Myr Sevii. She finally struck gold. Big-time!” Miller gave Joe a sly grin as he continued on into his office.

Joe knew that the sly grin was as much about Miller’s marking another W in his column of talent selections as it was about whatever discovery the girl had made. Especially because of all the times Joe’d expressed his doubts about Sevii’s capabilities. Starting with when Miller had been excited over a high school science project, continuing when he’d wanted to fund her college education, and on to when he’d offered her a job after she dropped out of grad school. He’d offered her the job without even interviewing her! At every juncture Joe’d rolled his eyes at his boss, always implying that Miller had to be out of his mind.

Actually, Joe really liked his boss and was glad that he was getting another win. Also, he felt pleased to know that he’d be able to string John Smith along a while longer, extracting cash for little dribbles of information about whatever Sevii’d found. Joe didn’t feel very guilty about it; he felt pretty confident that he’d never given Smith any really useful information.

******

Vinn opened the door to the lab and stepped in, carrying the cylinder of hydrogen. No one at Miller Tech had had any hydrogen. They’d considered trying to hydrolyze some water, but had wanted to have larger volumes readily available. Praxair had had cylinders available but no one to deliver them on a Friday afternoon.

So, Vinn had gone over to pick one up while Myr had stayed behind testing some more chemicals.

Now that they were focused on hydrogen, Myr had been purposefully testing chemicals and objects which would or would not contain hydrogen. Vinn said, “Any exceptions to the hydrogen thing?”

Myr shook her head, glancing around to look at the cylinder Vinn was carrying. “I got Mark Wilms, who blows some glass for his research, to make this for us,” she said, holding up a fragile looking two-inch glass globe.

The globe had glass valves at each end and one of the valves had a pressure adapter. They were able to hold it vertically and blow hydrogen into it from the top to push heavier gases out the bottom. Then they closed the bottom valve and blew in more hydrogen to get some pressure inside of it. They couldn’t get very high pressure with the set-up they had, but if they had only had atmospheric pressure, there would only have been six milligrams of hydrogen which would also have meant only six millimoles and didn’t seem like enough. They’d had much more of the other substances they’d tested, for instance a penny weighed two and a half grams or 2500 milligrams, which would have been thirty-eight millimoles of zinc. Even at the fifteen psi—above atmospheric—that they could get in their glass globe, they only had twelve millimoles of hydrogen in it.

Vinn suspended the glass globe from a piece of wire, saying, “You really think we still need to go out in the hall? Nothing dangerous has been happening.”

Myr was already standing in the door. She turned and thoughtfully looked back at the set-up. “You may be right, but we’re all set up to run this test. Let’s do it, then we can move the cart with the monitor and stuff back into the lab.”

Even though Myr was out there running the experiment Vinn decided it was ridiculous for him to go stand out in the hall and watch on video. Instead, he stood in the lab to watch what happened firsthand. When nothing happened for a moment, he turned to look at Myr and found her waiting expectantly for him. Impatiently, he waved for her to go ahead. She rolled her eyes, then reached for the switch.

But before she flipped it, her hand stopped. She looked back at Vinn and said, “We think hydrogen is the common link between all the things that are attracted to the focus, right?”

Vinn nodded.

“And everything we’ve used so far is only had a little bit of hydrogen in it, right?”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, I think you’re a knucklehead for trying to stay in the lab the first time we test the field on the pure stuff.”

Vinn snorted, “So you’re saying that you won’t turn it on till I come out there and close the door?”

Her eyes narrowed, “No, I’m just conflicted about whether I should let a dumbass like you try to win a Darwin award. On the one hand, you can be pretty annoying, and it’d be nice to be shut of you. On the other, I’m sure there’d be a lot of paperwork to fill out.”

Vinn appreciated her style in giving him shit, but reminded himself that pissing her off with a comeback zinger was probably not the best way to get along. Nonetheless, he couldn’t restrain himself from sighing as he walked out the door and closed it behind him. He turned his eyes to the screen as Myr flipped the switch.

The glass globe vanished with a jerk. A puff of white appeared, not at the focal point, but on the far side of the focus from where the globe had been. A buzzing alarm started and Vinn wondered what the hell it could be.

By the time these events had registered with Vinn, Myr’d slapped the power off with a violent motion that startled Vinn. The alarm quieted. Vinn said, “What was the alarm, did something blow a circuit?”

Myr looked up at him, her face pale. “That was the Geiger counter,” she said in a shaky voice.

Vinn blinked. “Geiger?” he said in a puzzled tone. “That one just makes a kind of a popping noise, right?”

“When there’s a lot of radiation, the pops come so close together that it sounds like a buzz,” Myr said quietly. “You might actually have been well on your way to earning that Darwin award if you’d stayed in there.” She stepped to the door and cracked it open while Vinn tried to process what she’d just said. As the door opened a little wider, a puff of hot air flowed out over them.

Like opening the door on a warm summer day.

Myr shut the door and they stared at one another wide-eyed for a moment. She said, “Let’s watch the video.”

With the video slowed down to its slowest speed, they watched as it only took a few frames for the glass globe to jerk up to the end of the malleable wire. The twist in the wire unraveled and the globe flew toward the focal point where it instantly imploded. The puff of white they’d seen in real time was a shower of shattered glass from the globe flying on past the focus. No puff of white appeared like it usually did when Myr powered down, but the focus had only been on momentarily. Vinn said, “What the hell set off the Geiger counter?”

Myr didn’t take her eyes off the screen, as she said quietly, “Some hydrogen was being squeezed down to a point so small we can’t see it.” Now she looked up at Vinn, “This was done by a field that seems to block electrostatic repulsion. Then heat and radiation were released. I’m betting on gamma. What’s that make you think of?”

“Fusion?” Vinn breathed.

Myr nodded solemnly, “That’s what I think too.” She turned back to look at the screen as it cycled through the video again.

After watching it through two more times, she stood and opened the door a crack. She stood up on her tiptoes and peered through the crack. Vinn said, “What are you looking at?”

“The Geiger counter. Its lights are on and it looks like it’s working. Hopefully the fact that it’s quiet means there isn’t actually any more radiation being generated… Just a minute.” She went next door and came back with another Geiger counter. Pushing the door open, she walked into the room holding its wand out in front of her, but it stayed quiet. She set the extra Geiger down and started zeroing the dials and switches on her equipment.

“What’re you doing?!”

“Shuttin’ down for the weekend,” she un-jacked a couple of wires and plugged them into different locations.

Vinn walked in and found himself staring at a slightly blackened area on the wood of the table nearest the focal point. Realizing she was going beyond her usual zeroing of the setup by actually rewiring it to make the setup even harder to replicate, he stared at her. Horrified, he said, “You’re quittin’ now! We’ve just made a phenomenally important discovery and you’re knockin’ off for the weekend?!”

Myr turned and focused on him with narrowed eyes. Quietly but forcefully, she said, “I believe… that we just induced a nuclear reaction that occurs in the sun and in H-bombs. Accidentally! While having not a single clue what we were about to do.” She advanced a step on Vinn with a look in her eyes so intense that he involuntarily stepped backwards. “This was with a setup that has not been at all optimized… Suppose for just a moment that a little different setup might have induced a reaction several hundred times more powerful. Imagine that we might have hit those settings by accident.” She paused for a second, evidently to let Vinn think, then she arched an eyebrow, “We came pretty damned close to killing ourselves, but I’ll bet we came almost as close to killing everyone in Kansas City.”

“But…”

Myr interrupted him by placing a finger on his lips, “There are no buts on this one. We need to spend at least the weekend and perhaps a lot more time than that, thinking and reading and trying to understand what might have just happened before we even consider doing it again.” She turned and jerked out several more of the wires that connected the various equipment on her cart, this time leaving them dangling. She took a picture of the whiteboard, then erased it. She pulled her jacket off the back of her chair and slipped into it. Stepping to her computer, she un-jacked the terabyte jump drive where the computer stored all her data and dropped the drive in the pocket of her jacket. She told the computer’s AI to overwrite all its temp files, then shut down.

Glancing around the room, Myr turned back to Vinn and waved him toward the door. “Out,” she said.

“But…”

“Go home,” she said, “Or go to your office. Think for God’s sake. Don’t do.”

Desperately, Vinn said, “If you get killed tonight, this’ll all be lost to humanity!”

“That might be a good thing,” she said obliquely, entering the stairwell and heading down.

Staring after her, Vinn thought, She’s right and she’s wrong. We do need to think about this, but if she gets killed, it’d be a freakin’ tragedy. He turned and headed to his office—like he’d intended at the beginning of the day.

******

Vinn had finished his email and electronically completed some tasks that Miller Tech had assigned him. With that done he spent a few hours reading up on fusion.

What he learned was sobering.

Each proton-proton fusion reaction—the nucleus of a hydrogen atom being a single proton—if that’s what they’d produced in the lab, would have released a neutrino and an antimatter positron. The neutrino, because it didn’t interact with ordinary matter would have flown away, but the positron should have immediately annihilated itself with an electron, releasing gamma rays and generating heat. Complete proton-proton fusion of the twelve milligrams of hydrogen they’d had in that glass globe could have released about half as much energy as a typical lightning bolt. If the hydrogen had gone all the way through the proton-proton chain reaction to helium like hydrogen does in the sun it would’ve released eighteen times that much. Nine typical lightning bolts, he thought with chagrin.

Half a lightning bolt would have been plenty enough for me to win that Darwin award even without the gamma rays.

The gamma radiation generated would have dropped off as the square of the distance from its source and about fifty percent of it would’ve been blocked by the concrete block wall of the lab, but he still suspected he and Myr had absorbed more radiation than either of them would have wanted to. Guiltily, he wondered whether people in neighboring labs had been significantly radiated as well.

There was a knock at his door. When Vinn turned, a young man said, “You’re Dr. Saigler, right?”

At Vinn’s nod, the guy said, “And you work with Myr Sevii?”

Vinn nodded again.

Eagerly, the man said, “I can’t find her, but I wanted to let you guys know that we finally figured out that sample you sent us over in the chem lab.”

Vinn remembered the snow that Myr had caught in the beaker. “It was water?”

“Well, that much was obvious. But we knew you wouldn’t be asking about ordinary water so we did our damnedest to figure out what might be interesting about the sample.”

Vinn shrugged, “Okay, was there anything interesting about it?”

“No heavy water,” the man said a little bit triumphantly, as if he’d solved a puzzle that Myr and Vinn hadn’t thought he’d be able to.

Vinn frowned and drew back a little, “What?”

“Yeah, you didn’t think we could figure that out, did you? At first we were a little surprised by how pure the sample was, thinking that might be the reason you wanted it analyzed, but then we thought to test for deuterium. There wasn’t any D2O. None, absolutely zip. And, there was about half as much DHO as normal.” The guy got a very curious look on his face, “How’d you do it?”

Vinn blinked, then said, “New process. Still confidential so I can’t tell you yet, but check back next year.”

At first the guy looked really disappointed, but then he grinned and said, “I’ll be back.” He shook a finger at Vinn, “Don’t think I won’t.”

After the guy left, Vinn sat staring out the window, No true heavy water with two deuterium molecules? And half as much water that only had one deuterium molecule? How the hell could that happen? he wondered.

He would’ve called Myr to tell her what the lab found, but realized he hadn’t gotten her number yet.

Though, if I’d asked, she probably wouldn’t have given me her number, he thought morosely.

******

Vinn decided that he wasn’t going to be able to sleep that night unless he tired himself out. Besides, it was Friday night. So, despite the fact that playing ball after the kind of day they’d just had would feel anti-climactic, he headed for the gym. This time he had his gear with him and hoped he’d be able to sub in on some pick-up games.

Walking into the gym, he looked around. Though it was a Friday night, it didn’t seem as busy as it’d been on Thursday. He decided that most people were out trying to score a Friday night social life. As opposed to a loser like me, he thought unhappily. A couple of volleyball games were going on at the near end of the gym. Down at the other end five basketball goals were in use for half-court games.

As he walked down to the basketball end of the gym, he realized that one of the goals really wasn’t being used for any kind of organized game. It just seemed to have a bunch of people shooting, playing one on one, or practicing in some fashion. He decided that was the obvious place for him to start.

As he approached, his eyes were attracted to a pretty girl, dressed out in shorts and a silky tank top. Muscular legs and arms, yet slender and feminine, not brawny. She stood, casually holding a ball against a cocked hip while she talked to one of the guys. Something about her looked familiar. Then she turned, bounced the ball once and took a shot at the basket.

It was Myr Sevii!

Vinn stopped to stare. He remembered that during their first lunch with Miller, Miller had drawn them out on their lives away from work. He’d learned that both Vinn and Myr liked basketball. At the time, Vinn had figured that she liked watching basketball. He’d pictured her as a Jayhawk fan since she’d gone to KU.

Until this moment, he hadn’t considered the possibility that she might like playing.

Uncertainly, he sat down on a bench, taking a spot that hid him mostly behind some other guys but still let him see what Myr was doing. Her first shot had clanged off the rim. Vinn’s initial thought was that the guy who’d been talking to her would take off, uninterested in playing with someone who obviously wasn’t much good. Instead the guy stepped over to the free-throw line and took a shot. It went in.

Myr stepped up to the free-throw line and took the same shot. They’re playing H-O-R-S-E! he thought. Myr’s second shot spun around the rim but flew out. Not as embarrassing as the clanger, but she momentarily buried her head in her hands, looking embarrassed and frustrated.

This is bizarre, Vinn thought. She doesn’t act at all feminine at work, but she’s acting all girly here at the gym. It seemed to him that if she was going to act feminine somewhere, it’d more likely be at work than here in a male dominated basketball gym. As he watched, Vinn became convinced that Myr had just met the guy she was shooting with. Is she trying to pick him up? he wondered

Vinn kept an eye on some of the other people, but mostly focused on Myr’s game of H-O-R-S-E. She did make a few shots, but was clearly outclassed, even though Vinn didn’t think the guy looked like much of a player. When they finished their little game, Vinn stood up, thinking he’d go over and say hi. He stopped when he saw Myr pull out a couple of bills and hand them to the guy she’d been playing against. She’s playing for money! he thought with astonishment.

It looked like she was arguing with the guy now. Vinn sat back down to watch. After a moment, Myr and the guy shook hands and she took another shot. This one went in. The guy dropped his from the same spot. Though Vinn had never imagined he’d be watching a game of H-O-R-S-E rather than playing himself, this time he pretty much ignored the other games going on around Myr. He kept track of the score and this time it looked like Myr spelled H-O-R-S on the guy, though she did eventually lose. Again, she handed over some bills, looking quite frustrated.

To Vinn’s amazement, it looked like Myr and her basketball buddy were having a really heated discussion after the second game. Vinn thought she was challenging the guy to yet another game. Though Vinn couldn’t actually hear their words, he got the impression that the fellow she’d been playing against really didn’t want to take any more of her money. Probably just wants a date. Vinn hadn’t thought the guy was trying all that hard on either of the first two games, missing some shots that Vinn thought the guy probably could have made.

A couple of minutes later, Myr was shaking hands with the guy again. She turned and dribbled the ball a couple of times. Vinn realized something had changed. When she’d dribbled it before, she’d bounced it high and hadn’t looked like she had much control. Now she dribbled effortlessly, no longer keeping her eyes on the ball like she had before. She stepped up to the three-point line and drained a high arcing shot.

A glance at the guy Myr’d been playing against made it obvious that the guy was just as surprised as Vinn. Myr’s friend put up an air-ball from the same spot. Vinn watched wide eyed as Myr dropped ball after ball from even longer distances.

Looking more and more frustrated, despite appearing to try his very best this time, her opponent quickly spelled HORSE while Myr only spelled H. This time the cash went the other way and Vinn got the impression that it was a painfully large amount of money.

The guy walked away red-faced, looking embarrassed and angry. He was going to pass near where Vinn was sitting and, curious, Vinn was about to get up and ask him about whatever had just happened. But then Vinn glanced over and saw Myr watching the fellow walk away with a smirk on her face. Vinn didn’t want her to see him talking to her victim, so he stayed sitting until the guy had gone by and Myr had turned back to shooting baskets.

With the coast clear, Vinn got up and walked on over to the court Myr was on. As he got close, he called out, “Hey, Myr, I see you really do like basketball.”

She glanced over at him, grimaced, and said, “Yeah… I figured, ‘cause I’m a girl, you thought I could only be a fan.”

Although that’s exactly what he’d thought, Vinn put his hands up in protest, “Do you think everyone with a Y chromosome’s a jerk?”

“Pretty much,” she said disgustedly. She eyed him, “And I suspect you’re probably worse than most.”

“Wow!” Vinn said, trying to sound unjustifiably hurt. He had a sudden thought. He turned away and dribbled his ball a couple of times. As he took a shot, he said, “By the way, after you left a guy came up from the chemistry lab. He had the results on your melted snow.” Vinn’s ball caromed off the rim and he trotted off after it.

When Vinn caught up to the ball, Myr was right behind him. She said, “What’d he say?”

“The water was really pure, but that’s not the interesting part.” Vinn took another shot. This one banked in and Vinn trotted after it.

When he got his ball, Myr was right there again, looking frustrated. “What was the interesting part?”

Vinn dribbled out to the top of the key, turned and shot a jumper. He winked at Myr and said, “I’m sure he’s probably sent you the results by now.” That shot bounced high but did fall back in. This time when he caught up to his ball Myr wasn’t there with him. He glanced around and saw her standing on the baseline talking, presumably to her AI. Trying not to make it obvious that he was watching her, he took another shot while glancing at Myr often enough to see frustration bloom on her face. Vinn retrieved his ball and dribbled back out onto the court.

When he turned toward the basket Myr was striding angrily toward him. Trying to act as if he hadn’t noticed her coming, he went up for a shot but she slapped it away. “What’d he say?!”

Stunned by how casually she’d blocked his shot, Vinn started to trot after his ball, but Myr jerked him up short by a solid grip on his shirt. “What did he say?”

How’d she do that? Vinn thought. He had to weigh more than she did and would’ve expected to pull her along if she grabbed his shirt. Her stopping him so effectively seemed… impossible. Trying not to give away his surprise, he turned to her with a grin and said, “He didn’t send you the results?”

“No! What did he say?”

Vinn kept the grin on his face and lifted an eyebrow “Play a little one-on-one for the answer?” He didn’t want to play H-O-R-S-E, he’d watched long enough to know that she was a phenomenal shot from a distance. However, he felt confident that she wouldn’t be able to keep up with him at ball handling.

Myr stared at him for a moment, then crooked the corner of her mouth. “And just what do you think you’re going to win, if by some bizarre turn, you’re far better than I expect you to be.”

“I get to take you out to dinner and you have to give me a second chance.”

“A second chance?!”

“Yeah, you know how you’ve already decided I’m a jerk? I know I got off on the wrong foot, but if I win, you have to reset your expectations and let me start over.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, “If you beat me I’d already be pissed at you for doing that!”

“When I beat you, you’ll need to reset your expectations back to zero in order to give me that second chance.”

“A second chance for what?”

Feeling a little embarrassed, Vinn said, “To be… uh, your friend.”

She narrowed her eyes, “What kind of ‘friend’?”

“Um, a good friend.”

“I hope you’re not thinking about anything romantic! You’ve already said how you think I’m, what, ten years older than you are?”

“I, ah, did the math. I know you’re probably only about five years older.”

She rolled her eyes, “So, not romantic. You’re just hoping I’ll let you start over from ‘not a jerk’ and let you work your way back up to jerk, right?”

Vinn winced, “Yeah, when I win, you’ve got to lose the attitude and let me start over like anyone else you’d just met.”

She rolled her eyes, “When you lose, you’re going to be even further into the jerk column for being such an asshole about those results.” She glanced over toward the other side of the baseline where the ball she’d slapped away was still rolling a little, “Get your ball and we’ll get started.”

Since Myr had a little wallet in her shorts that she’d used for her bets on her games of H-O-R-S-E, Vinn wasn’t surprised to find she also had a coin to flip. She won the toss and promptly dribbled up to the top of the key. Expecting her to try to advance on the basket before shooting, he didn’t stay on top of her. In retrospect, he shouldn’t have been surprised when she turned and shot from there, after all she’d made plenty of shots from that distance during her last game of H-O-R-S-E. The ball went in without even touching the rim. “Still my ball,” she said.

Vinn bounced it to her, then pursued her back to the top of the key. This time he stayed right on top of her, but her dribble was tight and low. A quick bounce between her legs came up on her left for a left-handed drive to the basket and an easy layup. Vinn narrowed his eyes and tried to remember if he’d seen her doing any other things left-handed. “Still my ball,” she said again.

This time, he dribbled the ball up to the top of the key and passed it to her from just a few feet away. When she sank down to a low dribble like she had on the previous shot, he dropped down with her. He had his hands out and was prepared to guard her intensely. As soon as he dropped down, she bounced up and fired an easy jumper over his head. Holy shit! he thought as he turned to watch it drop through the hoop.

She actually missed her next shot, but when Vinn took possession of the ball she stole it so quickly and so nonchalantly he felt like he suddenly understood the saying “made my head spin.”

Myr beat him eleven to two. Vinn retrieved the ball and dribbled it back over to where she was toweling herself off. “Holy crap! You’re amazing!” Vinn was a better player than most guys, but she’d certainly schooled him. “You should be playing pro ball!”

“Please,” she said disgustedly. “They don’t pay those girls squat.”

“Those girls don’t play as well as you do. Were you a scholarship player in college?”

Myr snorted, “No. I was a late bloomer. I didn’t look like much of a prospect back in high school.”

Vinn waved at the courts, “Do you play in one of the leagues?”

“They don’t have a girls’ league,” she said, as if it were a personal affront, even though Vinn suspected there weren’t enough women who wanted to play to actually make up a league.

Vinn shrugged, “You could keep up with the guys.”

“Of course I could,” she said disgustedly. “They just won’t invite me to be on their teams.” She gave Vinn a challenging look, and said, “Now give. What’d the guy from the lab say?”

Vinn took a few steps to the bench and sat down, thinking she’d sit down beside him. She stayed standing. This left him looking uncomfortably up at her. She stood over him with her arms crossed belligerently. He expected her to start tapping her toe at any moment. Vinn said, “The water was really pure…”

“You already said that,” Myr said, exasperatedly.

“And it didn’t have any D2O.”

Vinn had been expecting her to be at least momentarily confused by his use of the D2O term—like he’d been when the chemistry guy had first started talking to him about heavy water.

She wasn’t.

She immediately said, “DHO was present but in reduced amounts?”

Vinn, used to being the smartest person in the room, frowned in frustration. He’d had to look up DHO to make sure that it was actually present in nature because he hadn’t heard of it before. It turned out that normally it was much more common than D2O, which made sense because the likelihood of two deuterium atoms being in the same water molecule when deuterium was a relatively rare atom should of course be much less likely than the chances that there’d be one deuterium atom in a water molecule. Vinn said, “Yeah, about half as much DHO. How’d you know?”

“The focus of the field attracts protons,” she said as if it were obvious, “but not when they’re attached to a neutron. D2O doesn’t have any solitary protons so it’s not attracted at all, DHO has half as many protons as H2O, so half as much attraction.” She turned and started walking away.

“Wait!” Vinn said, jumping to his feet and starting after her, “The oxygen molecule in H2O is loaded with neutrons.”

“The oxygen molecule just gets pulled along for the ride by the hydrogen,” Myr said back over her shoulder, still walking. “What matters is whether there are any protons that don’t have neutrons with them in the same nucleus.”

“Hang on!” Vinn said, sounding desperate even to himself. “How do you know this?!”

“It’s the only thing that fits our results this afternoon. If you can think of another explanation, send me an email.”

Vinn ran a few steps to catch up to her. For a moment he reached to grab her elbow, but thought better of it. He said, “How in the hell is the field attracting protons?”

Still walking, she didn’t even glance over at him. “I don’t know, I’m just making observations based on the data. You’re the hoity-toity theoretician Miller hired to figure that kind of crap out.” Though she still didn’t turn her head his way, he could see the corners of her eyes crinkle and a little grin turn up the corners of her mouth, “Time to earn your salary.” She pulled open the door to go out.

“Wait, dammit!” He said grabbing the door, “Let me buy you dinner and we can talk this through.”

Now she did turn her head to face him. With a big smile, she said, “You lost the game, remember? Therefore, you’re still an asshole and I don’t go to dinner with assholes.” She stepped through and let the door close behind her.

Vinn stood staring at the door, incredibly frustrated, angry, and yet… somehow even more attracted to her. Maybe I’m a proton, he thought.

******

Carol picked up a couple of hours of overtime Friday, so her seven AM to seven PM shift didn’t get over until nine. When she got home she was pleased to see Myr’s car in the driveway. She hated for Connor to be home alone even though he was very understanding about the need for her to earn the extra cash. She heard them in Connor’s room so she headed that way. Connor had the condo’s master bedroom. It had more room and it was on the main floor which was good for his wheelchair. Carol paused in the doorway and saw that Myr was most of the way done getting Connor into bed.

“So, can you see how the field wouldn’t attract deuterium?” Myr said to Connor.

In a puzzled tone, Connor said, “Because there’s a neutron in deuterium’s nucleus?” Carol realized they must be talking about Myr’s research.

“Uh-huh. So there wasn’t any true heavy water because D2O has two deuterium molecules and no plain hydrogen. Also there was half as much DHO as there is normally, ‘cause DHO only has one hydrogen molecule.”

“So,” Connor said a little plaintively, echoing the question in Carol’s mind, “what’s it all mean?”

“We don’t know yet,” Myr said, sounding like someone wondering what was inside a Christmas present with particularly pretty wrapping paper. “But when we figure it out, I think it’s going to be big.”

Connor got turned just enough to see Carol standing in the door fondly watching them. “Mom! Myr’s had another big breakthrough with her static suppression field!”

Myr arched an eyebrow, “I’m thinking I should call this new version of the field a ‘proton field.’ ”

“That’s nice honey,” Carol said to Connor, crossing the room to help Myr reposition Connor in the bed. Giving Myr a smile, but not wanting to sound too excited about more time being wasted on Myr’s fields, Carol said, “Thanks for coming by to help out.”

Myr gave her a concerned look, “I’ve been wondering if I shouldn’t move back in here. That way I could help the monkey boy every night.”

Carol patted her on the shoulder, “No, you’re young and have your own life to live. You can’t be living at home with your mom.” She glanced fondly down at Connor, “We’ve got this, right?”

“Sure.” Connor said, glancing at his sister, “Besides, we can’t have her staggering in here after all those late-night parties and hot dates, waking us up and making us jealous. And,” he lowered his voice to a stage whisper, “I can’t afford to have her see me leaping out the window to go do my superhero stuff.”

“That’s right,” Carol whispered back, giving Connor a fake punch to the shoulder. She turned to Myr, “But I do appreciate you living nearby and helping out when you can.” Which is most nights, and every night I work late, Carol thought. The money Myr’d been depositing into Carol’s account was letting Carol build up a reserve against Connor’s desolate future as well.

******

Monday morning, Aleks assumed his John Smith persona as he entered the Dari Dine. He looked around without seeing Joe Barker yet, so he picked a booth in the very back, seating himself so he could see the whole diner. Aleks liked the Dari Dine because they had a great breakfast, so they went to the place whenever he and Joe met before Joe went to work.

By the time Joe arrived, Aleks’d already placed an order for bacon, eggs, hash-browns, and rye toast. When Joe sat down, the waitress was away and there still wasn’t anybody in the neighboring booths or tables, so Aleks got right down to business. “What’s new?”

Joe said, “Apparently they’ve achieved a significant increase in the efficiency of their TEG chips.” As he spoke Joe pulled a Dari Dine napkin out of his pocket and laid it on the table. Presumably, he’d taken the napkin during one of their earlier visits. Joe picked up the napkin under his fork and carefully slid it into his pocket, presumably for the next time.

Aleks knew that one of Joe’s tiny Ziploc bags containing a flash drive would be tucked inside the folds of the napkin Joe’d laid down. Aleks didn’t reach for it. He said, “Remind me what TEG is.”

“Thermo Electric Generation. Solid-state chips that generate electricity from a heat differential. They’ve been around for a long time, but they’ve always been pretty inefficient. I get the impression from something Miller said that this one works better because it tolerates really high heat on the hot side of the chip.”

“Oh,” Aleks said dismissively, partly because he didn’t see what use TEG would be, but also because he wanted to discount the value of any information provided in order to bid down its cost. Aleks paused the conversation because the waitress had arrived to take Joe’s order. When the waitress departed, Aleks said, “My people say the stuff you’ve been sending us about static suppression has been pretty useless. First of all, though they can see the settings on your last picture of the equipment, they can’t tell how it’s wired up. Second of all, they can see that at least some of the wires are running into that cylinder which is presumably where any magic happens. We need to know what’s in the cylinder.”

“Yeah,” Joe said, “that… I’m pretty sure not even Miller knows what’s in the cylinder. I heard him talking to her once about how at least he should have some idea what’s in there, but she’s really paranoid about telling people.”

“Come on, she’s got to have some design drawings on her computer or something.”

Joe shook his head, “She doesn’t keep any files on the computer in her lab or office. I think she keeps them all on some kind of external drive she carries around with her. I don’t have any way to access that.”

Aleks wondered whether his bosses would think it was worthwhile enough to put together a team to break into Sevii’s apartment. Probably not. “Anything else?”

“There’s been a lot of excitement on the static suppression team. I’m assuming some kind of a breakthrough. Also, I heard them talking about the gamma plates. You know, the ones that convert gamma rays into electricity. They think they can sell them as a source of energy for solar satellites. If they put them on the back of the solar cells the satellites carry, the regular cells will make electricity from sunlight, and the gamma plates will make electricity out of the gamma rays after they pass through the solar cells.”

Aleks felt pretty disappointed. As usual, it seemed like everything Joe brought him was pretty esoteric. Aleks’ employers wanted something more ordinary like Miller’s high-efficiency power inverters. Something that’d take over the market and could be sold by the millions, not something exotically expensive that’d only go on a few satellites a year.

When Joe set down his orange juice, it pushed the napkin with the flash drive over closer to Aleks. After a minute, Aleks picked up the napkin and wiped his lips. He lowered the napkin into his lap where he wadded it up and stuffed it in his pocket. Looking at his cell phone’s screen he evinced a look of surprise—just in case someone might be watching. He said, “Gotta go.”

After paying the bill, Joe took the pack of cigarettes Aleks left on the table.

******

Arlan finished his first meeting early on Monday. Dying to know what Myr and Vinn had been finding, he went up the stairs to Myr’s lab. The door was closed—which didn’t surprise him since it almost always was—but no one answered a knock. He twisted the knob and found it locked.

Miller stared in surprise, thinking about how, if he’d had a finding like they’d had on Friday, he’d probably have spent most of the weekend in the lab and come in early on Monday, trying to explore it further. He knew Myr wasn’t lazy, he’d found her in the lab working extended hours on a lot of occasions in the past. For a moment he worried that something might have happened to her, then reassured himself that it was much too early to be worrying about that.

Though, he thought, if something bad’s happened to her and no one can reproduce the setup that generated her field, it could be a huge loss for mankind.

And a big loss for her mom too, he reminded himself.

Miller thought about going to his office, but instead he decided to visit Vinn Saigler. He’d just as well see how the young math genius was settling in.

When Miller arrived at Vinn’s office the door was wide open. That was one difference between Vinn and Myr. Miller poked his head around the corner, “Hey Vinn, seen Myr yet this morning?”

Vinn stood up, shaking his head no.

Miller got the distinct impression that Vinn was concerned Miller might be mad about her showing up to work late. “It’s no problem; she’s put in lots of long hours on other days. I was just hoping to talk to you guys about your findings from Friday. Do you know when she’s going to be here?”

Vinn shook his head again, “She’s not exactly Chatty Cathy.”

“And you guys didn’t do any more work over the weekend?”

Vinn slowly shook his head one more time.

Miller felt disappointed. He’d thought they were getting along much better when he’d talked to them Friday afternoon. Certainly, there was nothing like some amazing results to bring a team together. Maybe she’s decided she doesn’t want to share her findings? Miller thought, then chided himself for paranoid thinking. But he couldn’t help picturing maintenance finally opening the door to Myr’s lab and finding all her special equipment gone and a resignation note on the desk. Suppressing those concerns, Miller gave Vinn a smile and said, “Well then, how about if you and I talk about some of those amazing findings you guys made on Friday?”

They sat down in Vinn’s little office and Vinn said quietly, “We tested hydrogen after you left.”

Miller smiled, “Yeah? What’d you find?”

Vinn looked a little reticent. He said, “First we tested some other substances that would or wouldn’t have hydrogen in them.” He looked at Miller, “You know, to be sure your hypothesis held up?”

Miller nodded, “Did it?”

Vinn nodded, “Yeah. Actually, Myr did that while I went out and picked up a bottle of hydrogen from Praxair. By the time I came back, she’d gotten some guy named Wilms to blow her a little glass globe with valves and fittings so we could put hydrogen in it under a bit of pressure.”

Miller frowned, “Why not just blow some hydrogen at the focal point?”

“We wouldn’t be able to see what happened to it.”

Miller shrugged, acknowledging the point, “Wouldn’t it have been easier to put it in a balloon?”

“Balloons are made of rubber. Rubber’s got hydrogen in it and we already know it’s attracted to the focal point. Glass, being silicon dioxide, doesn’t have any hydrogen. Even the fluxes and stabilizers in glass are hydrogen free.” He shrugged, “Besides, we’d already tested glass and knew it wasn’t attracted.”

“Ah… so what’d you find?” Miller asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

“It, uh…” Vinn stopped as if uncertain how to proceed.

Miller tilted his head curiously, though with a tinge of apprehension, “What happened?”

“You know how we were suspending our test samples from a wire to see if they were attracted?”

“Yes,” Miller said, a little impatiently.

“It jerked the glass so hard that it unwound the wire.”

“Oh,” Miller said, relaxing a little. “So, hydrogen is strongly attracted.”

“You don’t understand. The globe flew to the focal point and imploded, shattering the glass.”

Miller tilted his head curiously, “Why would that happen?”

Vinn said slowly, “Remember how we’re thinking that all the water vapor in the room got pulled to a point up in Myr’s ceiling?” At Miller’s nod, he continued, “But we couldn’t see the water up there, at least until her machine got powered down, at which point it reappeared with a thump and quickly frosted into snowflakes suggesting a rapid reexpansion.” Vinn looked up at his own ceiling, “When the machine was powered up it was hot up there, Myr thought because the water vapor was being compressed.” He looked at Miller, “She thought a liter of water was being compressed down to a point so small we couldn’t see it. Which,” Vinn cleared his throat as if a little embarrassed, “is supposed to be impossible.”

Miller said slowly, “But she was thinking that her field suppressed the electrostatic force that normally holds atoms apart, letting them get closer together, right?” At Vinn’s nod, he said, “So if the globe only had hydrogen in it, which all got compressed down to a point and the walls of the globe were thin, the vacuum could have imploded it?”

“Yeah,” Vinn said, gusting the air for the word out in a big sigh. “But I think it has to be more than that.”

“More, how?”

“First you should know that we got back the chemical analysis on the snow she caught in the beaker that first day?”

“Yeah?”

“It was really pure water that had reduced levels of deuterium. About half as much DHO as it should have had, and absolutely no D2O.”

“What?” Miller frowned, “Why would that happen?”

“Myr thinks it’s because the field attracts protons. Not hydrogen, but protons that don’t have neutrons associated with them. Obviously there are neutrons nearby in the oxygen of H2O, but if there are neutrons in the atomic nucleus then there’s no attraction. Thus, H2O is attracted but D2O isn’t. DHO has an intermediate attraction.”

“Whoa!” Miller said thoughtfully. “All of this is… almost impossible to believe, but… I guess it fits your data.” He looked at Vinn, “You guys have any theories to explain this?”

“Um, I’ve spent the weekend running numbers.” Vinn shrugged, “I’m working on the idea that the field’s warping space as far as protons are concerned.” He looked at Miller, “You know those graphical representations of how Einstein’s calculations show space-time being warped by gravity?”

“What, you think that Myr’s creating some kind of black hole for protons?!”

“Not all the way down to a black hole, but equivalent to a pretty crushing amount of gravity.”

“That’s crazy. With a ‘crushing amount of gravity’ and the electrostatic effect suppressed so that the protons can get closer together you’d have fusion.” Miller looked at Vinn expecting him to look embarrassed, but the young man just stared right back at him.

Then Vinn gave him a little nod. “Right after that glass globe full of hydrogen imploded, an alarm went off. I didn’t know what the hell it was, but thank God Myr recognized the Geiger counter and immediately shut down her equipment.”

“The old analog counters we have here don’t have alarms,” Miller said weakly.

“Yeah… but when they’re detecting lots of radiation, the little popping noise they normally make gets to be a buzz that sounds like an alarm.” He shrugged, “Or at least the one in Myr’s lab sounded like an alarm to me.”

Miller sagged back in his chair, “Holy crap!” Vinn didn’t say anything, apparently giving Miller time to process what he’d just heard. Finally Miller said, “So we’re getting the same kind of fusion that happens on the sun?”

Vinn shook his head, “In the sun, two protons fuse to make a diproton which is unstable and comes back apart, but then sometimes one of the protons beta decays into a neutron to give you deuterium which is stable. The deuterium then fuses with another proton to become helium-3. After a few more steps you’ve got helium-4 and a couple of protons. And, of course, a hell of a lot of energy.” Vinn shrugged, “But if Myr’s right about a neutron in the nucleus nullifying her field’s attraction, then as soon as those two protons become a deuterium, the deuterium gets squeezed out of the focal point and doesn’t participate in any more fusion.” He shrugged again, “So, presumably what’s happening only replicates the first step of stellar fusion—which means a lot less power… but still plenty.”

Stunned, Miller just stared at Vinn. After a moment, he said, “And the radiation?”

“Fusing the two protons releases a neutrino and a positron. The antimatter positron annihilates with an electron and releases two gamma photons.” He tilted his head, “This whole thing generates a lot of heat too. The room was hot and there was a burn on the end of the table.”

Miller suddenly widened his eyes, “Oh crap! Do you think you guys got a significant radiation exposure?”

“Can’t be sure, but I don’t think so,” Vinn said slowly. “We were pretty far away from what had to be a point source and we were behind a concrete block wall that should’ve soaked up about fifty percent. Besides, Myr slapped the power off in about a second.” He shook his head, “She’s really fast.”

Miller frowned, “What about neutrons?”

Vinn shrugged, “What I’ve found doesn’t describe any free neutrons released by proton-proton fusion. Deuterium-tritium fusion certainly releases neutrons. Neutron bombardment of the fusion vessel making the vessel radioactive is a significant problem for those types of fusion. My understanding so far is that, even though proton-proton fusion converts one of the two protons into a neutron to make deuterium, those neutrons don’t fly off to bombard anything because they all stay in the deuterium nucleus. But, even if I’m wrong about that, proton-proton fusion due to Myr’s apparatus might or might not generate neutron bombardment because it’s happening under very different conditions than what people have studied so far.” He shook his head, “We need a neutron detector before we run her apparatus again… Especially if there’s any free hydrogen available.”

Miller said, “I doubt anyone here at Miller Tech has one, you’ll probably have to buy one.” He sank back in his chair, thinking for a bit, then said, “We’ll need to get you guys hooked up with Bill Araujo, he’s developing a plate that converts gamma rays into electricity.” Miller looked at Vinn to be sure he understood, “Like a solar cell does with visible light. It’d be great if you could harvest the energy from the gammas directly without having to use them to generate heat.”

Looking doubtful, Vinn said, “Is that really even possible?”

With a little snort, Miller said, “I was pretty surprised myself. But it’s been around for a while, Araujo’s just improved the efficiency. He’s thinking they could be used to generate power for satellites. Out there they’d be harvesting cosmic gammas or gammas released by radioactive materials.” Miller gave Vinn a quizzical look, “I don’t know how they’d hold up to heavy bombardment from your fusion reaction, especially since there’d be a lot of heat.”

“I was thinking we’d be using that heat to generate steam for a turbine. Maybe the steam generation could keep the temperatures down low enough that the plates don’t melt,” Vinn said, “depending on what they’re made out of?”

“They’re made out of metal, but they have some kind of insulator between them. I’ve been told what the components are, but I’ve forgotten… Oh! And Jim Mickelson is working on a new TEG chip that’ll directly convert heat into electricity.”

Vinn frowned, “All that stuff sounds pretty sexy, but why not just use steam turbines? They’re proven technology.”

“Yeah,” Miller said, lifting an eyebrow. “But they’re big. If you wanted your car to run on fusion directly, wouldn’t it be great to just have a small version of Myr’s fusion bottle surrounded by gamma collector plates and TEG chips sending power directly to an electric motor?”

“Maybe?” Vinn said doubtfully.

Miller stood up, “I’m gonna go talk to those guys and see what their latest is. I’ll try to feel them out on whether their devices would work in the kind of environment we’re talking about.”

Vinn watched as Miller walked down to the corner. Then Miller called back to him, sounding a little excited, “Myr’s light’s on.”

Vinn felt a little leap in his own heart. He got up and started down the hall after Miller, wanting to run, but not wanting to seem too eager. When Miller turned the corner into Myr’s lab, Vinn did trot a few steps then slowed to a fast walk after he’d turned the corner just before he arrived himself.

When he arrived, he heard Myr saying, “You were right about the hydrogen. Some pretty astonishing things happened after you left.”

Vinn had just poked his head around the corner of Myr’s door when Miller said, “Yeah, Vinn’s been telling me about it. Fusion, huh?!”

Myr glanced at Vinn with some distaste, “Yeah, fusion. Has the boy genius there worked out the math for it yet?”

Miller looked at Vinn, “I didn’t know he was working on it.”

“Isn’t that what you hired him for?” Myr asked.

With Miller and Myr both focused on him, Vinn felt uncomfortable. “I need measurements of field strength…” he began.

Myr interrupted with a disdainful tone, “I didn’t think so.”

Miller began irritatedly, “Now look you two…”

Myr interrupted him as well, “What? You want us to play nice or you’re going to fire me?” She lifted an eyebrow, “Now? That’d be like shooting yourself in the foot.”

Miller stared at her for a moment, then said slowly, “The agreement you signed gives Miller Tech certain rights to your invention even if you leave us, so it wouldn’t be the end of the world for us if you picked up your toys and left. I certainly don’t want you to leave us. I think your new results are incredibly exciting, and I want us to figure out what’s happening as quickly as possible, using all the resources the company can bring to bear… Okay?”

A little reluctantly, Myr nodded.

Miller said, “One of the resources the company can bring to bear,” he waved at Vinn, “is this young man here. I think you guys’ll make an awesome team, but you’ve got to give him a chance.”

Myr looked away and mumbled something.

Miller said, “Sorry, I didn’t understand that.”

Myr still didn’t look at either of them, but this time she spoke a little louder. “I said, I’ll try to give him a chance, but he’s got to stop acting like such a jerk.”

Miller looked at Vinn. Vinn shrugged, “I am trying.” Then with resolve, “And I promise to try harder.”

Miller turned back to Myr, “I think we all recognize that Vinn can be abrasive, but you need to recognize that you’re a little thin-skinned. Now that he’s gotten on your bad side, you have a tendency to immediately think the worst of anything he says.” Miller paused, waiting for her to comment. After about twenty seconds, she merely gave a little nod. Miller decided that was probably about as good as he was going to get out of her that day.

“Okay!” Miller said rubbing his hands together, “Let’s go to the conference room and plan out some experiments!” He turned to Myr, “I’ve got to tell you about a couple of other developments here at the company that might bear on harvesting energy from low energy fusion. Also, we can bring over some technical people to help you guys start studying…”

******

Myr felt exhausted when she got home that night, but still incredibly excited. She desperately wanted to talk to somebody about what’d been happening but she was restrained by all of Miller Tech’s nondisclosure agreements. For a moment, she considered calling to tell her mom the news.

No, Myr decided, she isn’t going to believe her daughter’s done anything important until I can show her incontrovertible proof in the form of widespread acceptance.

Chapter 3

Tired, Vinn rubbed his eyes, then stared at his screen some more. He and three of Miller’s technicians had staked out a room in the basement of Miller Tech’s research building. The room had the advantages of being large, with high ceilings and heavy concrete walls. To Vinn’s surprise, Myr had frowned but hadn’t objected when he’d asked if he could move her set-up down there to do some testing on the shapes and gradients of her field under different conditions.

She’d apparently reconciled herself to the necessity of letting Vinn learn the settings of her equipment. He had to know them, after all, so he could modify them and learn the effects of the modifications on the field. She did, however, insist that he not let the techs see the settings and that he zero the dials and switches every time he left the room.

And she wouldn’t let him open up the cylinder that actually emitted the field.

The first thing he and the techs had done was to design a fixture to hold Myr’s field-emitting cylinder. The fixture also held a two-inch diameter glass rod, ten feet in length, coaxially out in front of the cylinder. Each time they began a new series of field strength measurements, the first thing they did was determine where the focus was at the new settings and that it’d be inside the rod for the rest of their tests. Then they mounted the glass rod and tested to make sure the rod didn’t affect the field strength at the new settings. So far, having glass at the focal point hadn’t affected the field in any of their testing. It did, however, have the benefit of keeping things safer. So far they hadn’t had any injuries, but Vinn couldn’t help but shudder when he remembered the day an ink pen fell out of his front pocket and got sucked into the focal point of the device.

Where it whirled around and disappeared, ejecting the metal clip, spring, and point to bounce on the floor.

He didn’t know for sure what would happen if his finger got into the focus, but he had a pretty good idea from what’d happened when he’d put a chicken wing in the focus. He’d had a firm grip on the wing with a pair of pliers but still had a difficult time pulling his end of the wing away. It felt like what he would imagine he’d feel if he’d fed the end of the wing into a high-speed sausage grinder. When he pulled the wing back with the pliers, two thirds of it had disappeared into the focus. When they turned the field off, a glutinous mass of flesh with no residual organization fell out of the focus to splat onto the floor.

Therefore, they tried to keep the focus positioned inside of the glass rod at all times except for some very careful testing at each new setting. The glass rod also had the benefit of preventing water vapor from being sucked out of the room and concentrated at the focus. Dew did form on the rod after they’d had the field on for a while, but with the glass rod they could run the field for hours of testing without creating a snowstorm when they shut it down.

The machine shop built Vinn several steel rods with various gauges mounted incrementally along their length. Some were strain gauges that measured the strength of attraction of little balls of polyethylene—polyethylene being loaded with hydrogen—to the focal point. Some gauges measured the static suppression effect. Others measured heat, which was only generated when something like water vapor got compressed down to a point at the focus of the field. Thus, heating didn’t happen when the focus was within the glass rod. Of course, they had their Geiger counter and neutron detector running for every experiment, but so far, presumably since they weren’t releasing any pure hydrogen that could reach the focus, they hadn’t detected any radiation.

What they’d learned was that the field always seemed to be spherical and centered on its focal point. That focal point was always coaxial with the cylinder, but could be moved further away or closer to the end of the cylinder by varying the voltage. Unsurprisingly, increasing the current enlarged the size and strength of the field. Below the 950-gigahertz range, the field only suppressed electrostatics. It was above this frequency that it began to create the “proton field,” as they were calling the effect that seemed to warp space for protons. In the lower terahertz range a graphic representation of the gradient of the field was nearly linear, or in three dimensions, cone-shaped, but at higher terahertz ranges it became geometric or horn-shaped.

The 10,000 volts that Myr’d been using when Vinn had started working with her placed the focal point a hundred and forty-eight centimeters from the end of her cylinder. 1000 volts put it at seventy-four centimeters, 100 volts put it at thirty-seven centimeters and ten volts put it at 18.5 centimeters. The field collapsed below nine volts and above 12,000 volts so they could only form the field between about six inches and a little over five feet from the end of the cylinder. Vinn wondered whether a modification of the electronics might let them generate it closer or farther, but testing that theory would have to wait.

Most interesting was the fact that, by Vinn’s calculations for proton field strength, he thought even a weak, low-current field in the high terahertz range would achieve small amounts of fusion if hydrogen was fed into the focus.

He was already picturing a lead covered steel sphere with a focal point at its center and a hydrogen feed leading into a small central cavity. Since each centimeter of lead shielding would cut the emitted gamma radiation in half, ten centimeters or four inches of lead around the focus would cut the radiation by more than a thousand times. Six inches would cut it by thirty thousand. If they set the focal point to fuse the hydrogen from the feed, the sphere would be able to heat a home pollution free.

Or it could generate steam to run an engine.

Nick, one of the techs who’d been helping him, broke into his thoughts, “Dr. Saigler? It’s five o’clock.”

Vinn wanted to snap something about how they couldn’t quit in the middle of something so important, but mindful of Dr. Miller’s urging that he work on his interpersonal skills, he cheerfully said, “Quittin time! And it’s Friday night, we’d better get out of here before someone else drinks all our beer.”

******

Myr looked up at a knock on her door. She wasn’t doing anything particularly secret, so she thought she’d left the door unlocked. “Come on in,” she called out.

The door opened and she saw Arlan Miller standing there. She waved him in with a sense of trepidation. Generally she liked talking to Miller, but late in the afternoon on a Friday? She always worried that he might be bringing bad news.

Miller sat down and eyed her for a moment, making her even more nervous. “So, you know it’s terribly important to me that you and Vinn get along.”

Much as she wanted to roll her eyes, Myr simply nodded.

“I’ve been talking to him about his personal interactions.” He shrugged, “For most of my employees, when they’re having trouble dealing with others I just send them to a lady I know who does some coaching, but to me, the two of you are really important.”

Miller had stopped and seemed to be waiting for something from Myr, so she slowly said, “Okay.”

“I could send you to talk to her if you’d like, but I’m willing to put in the time with you myself because of the potential I see in you.”

Myr suddenly realized that he didn’t think Vinn was the only one with a problem. Miller’d generally been very supportive and she felt surprised to find out how hurt she was to realize he wasn’t happy with her… disposition. Or whatever the psychobabble people would call it. Though she really would have preferred being counseled by a stranger, she tried to maintain an upbeat attitude, saying, “Go ahead. How can I do better?”

“I was kind of blind to it at first. I’ve been talking to Vinn like he’s the biggest part of the problem. I’d been thinking he says something rude to you and you just bite back.” Miller shrugged, “Even he admits that he was pretty rude the first day I introduced you two. But he’s pointed out that, even though you’ve agreed to work with him, you’ve remained pretty hostile ever since.”

Tilting her head, Myr said, “Yeah, I really don’t like him. I am working with him though.” She said this last as if it were a triumph of her character over a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Miller sat looking at her pensively, as if trying to decide what to say next. Finally he said, “Vinn tells me you call the two techs assigned to you, Tech-one and Tech-two?”

Myr shrugged, “Yeah, I’m not so good with names, especially when I’m focused on other stuff.”

Miller gave her an unhappy look. After a moment, he said, “this stuff you’re working on, it’s going to change the world, right?”

Myr nodded, feeling pleased that he saw its potential.

Miller leaned back, “I can guarantee you that changing the world is going to require, not just a brilliant invention, but serious leadership skills. That is, if you want to be the one to bring your vision to the world.” He looked at her inquisitively, “Can you grasp that?”

“Sure,” she said with a shrug.

“That means that you need some ability to get people to love you enough that they’ll follow you. And one of the first things a real leader needs to be able to do is to remember people’s names.”

Myr shrugged in a helpless fashion, “I can understand that, it’s just that I’m not any good at it. Actually, I’m not good at memorizing anything.”

“What you really mean is that you just don’t care enough to put in the effort.”

At this sudden criticism, Myr jerked back as if she’d been slapped, “I’m not good at names!”

Miller shook his head. “Granted, you aren’t. But you could be if you cared, I’ll guaran-damn-tee it.” He sighed, “I’m sending you a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. It’s a really old book, but I want you to read it. The principles of getting along with people are the same now as they were a hundred years ago.”

Wide-eyed at being given an assignment at her age, Myr said, “I’ll try to get to it but I’ve got a lot…”

Miller interrupted her, “If you can’t get to it on your own time, read it Monday. But I don’t want you doing anything else on the job here until you’ve finished it.”

Myr did roll her eyes at that, but then thought to herself that he’d never really know whether she’d read it or not. “Okay,” she said, managing not to sound sullen.

He lifted an eyebrow as he got up to leave, “And don’t think I won’t be able to tell whether you’ve read it.” As he walked out the door, he left a parting shot, “We’ll talk more later. I can give you some other things to read if that’s not enough to improve your interactions.”

Damn! What is he, some kind of mind reader?

******

Though Vinn had actually hoped to go out for a friendly beer with his two technicians, they’d treated his invitation like he’d been joking. Instead, he found himself back at the gym on another Friday night, looking to play some pick-up basketball. “Scotty,” he called out as he passed one of the half courts where groups often faced off. Scott was a pretty good basketball player who Vinn had shot around with a few times. At present, Scott looked like he was playing a game of two on three. The guy Scott was guarding fed the ball to the unguarded third man on his team who made a quick layup.

“Aw, man!” Scott said disgustedly as he turned to see who’d called out to him. “Vinn! Hey, wanna play third man on our team here? We’re getting our asses handed to us.”

“Sure!” Vinn said, setting his ball on his towel and trotting out onto the court. He’d love to meet more players and get something regular going.

Scotty and his friend Mark were a little bit better players than the three guys they’d been playing against. With the addition of Vinn the balance of power suddenly shifted and they started catching up. They’d been down quite a bit though, so even though the final score was pretty tight the three other guys did eventually win.

It turned out that the five guys Vinn had joined were pretty good friends. They switched off players for two more three-on-three games that Vinn really enjoyed. At the end of the third game, Mark said, “Hey Vinn, we’re thinking of forming a team to play in the league, you interested?”

“Oh, yeah! I’d love to have a regular game.” Referring to the league’s requirement that you had to have at least seven players, he said, “Who’s your seventh?”

Scott said, “Don’t have one yet, still looking. Know anybody who’d like to play?”

Vinn shrugged, “Nope. I’m new in town so I haven’t met many people yet…” He trailed off as his eye caught on Myr. She was over on the court where people typically just shot around. Some guy was talking to her. She took a shot, putting up a clanger. Is she trying to shark another guy at H-O-R-S-E? he wondered. “Um, that girl over there,” he said, indicating the court with a jerk of his head, “she’s pretty good.”

The guys turned to look just as Myr put up an air-ball. Mark turned to Vinn and said, “Oh, come on. I’m into charity just as much as the next guy, but we want to win a few. We don’t know you well enough to give that up just so you can make time with the pretty lady.”

Vinn grinned at Mark. “I’ve got a hundred bucks that says she and I and Scott can beat the four of you in a game of three on three,” he said, waving a hand at Mark and the other three.

Mark snorted derisively, “You and Scott are pretty good, but you’re not even close to that good!”

“You guys up for one more game then?” Vinn asked, looking around at them.

“Sure,” Jimmy said, “long as I can get a hundred bucks of that action myself.”

Steve momentarily lifted his hand, saying, “Me too.”

Scott said, “Hey Vinn, you’re covering those bets yourself, right? I don’t want any part of that action.”

No one had said they wouldn’t play, so Vinn said, “Sure, I can use the extra cash. Let me go get her.”

Vinn trotted over to the other court, “Hey Myr.”

Myr turned, giving him a little warning shake of her head, even though she said, “Hi Vinn,” in a pleasant enough tone.

Vinn jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the other guys, and spoke in a low tone, “Hey, me and the guys there are thinking of forming a team to play in the league. We need a seventh, you interested?”

“Sure you are,” Myr said quietly, rolling her eyes, “Why don’t you not waste my time?” Louder, she said, “Me and Henry here are just starting a friendly game of H-O-R-S-E.”

Myr started to turn away, but Vinn leaned in after her, whispering fiercely, “You bitched about how none of the guys would invite you to play on their teams. Here’s your invitation. Are you turning it down?”

Myr turned back to him, eyes flashing. She opened her mouth to utter an angry retort, but then closed it and looked over at the guys Vinn had indicated. She looked back at Vinn and said, “Yeah sure. Those guys said they’d be happy to have a girl on their team.” She lifted the corner of her lip in a sneer, “What are they thinking, that I’d be their cheerleader?”

“No. They don’t want you, just like you said. But I told them that you and I and Scott, that’s the tall blonde guy, could beat the other four in a half-court game of three-on-three. You ready to prove yourself?”

Henry, the guy Myr had been playing H-O-R-S-E with, evidently thought that Vinn’s tone was a little too hostile—or that Vinn was horning in on his action. He stepped closer and said, “Look buddy, why don’t you leave the lady alone?”

Myr lifted her left hand with the middle finger extended. “Piss off Henry. I’m gonna go school some boys on the finer points of how this game is played.”

Plaintively, Henry said, “But what about our game?”

Myr reached in the pocket of her shorts, pulled out her little wallet and peeled off a ten. Holding it out to Henry, she said, “You won. Now, piss off.” She started toward the other court, walking like she was stalking prey.

Vinn walked with her, saying, “Why do you play H-O-R-S-E with those guys anyway?”

“I just come down here to shoot. Some asshole always comes by and offers to ‘give me a few pointers.’ ” She flashed Vinn a little grin, “I like putting assholes in their places.” Her eyes tracked ahead to the guys they were about to join, “Just like I’m going to enjoy this.”

When they arrived at the other court, Myr started introducing herself to the other guys, starting with Scott. As she moved on past Scott, he turned to Vinn and leaned close to his ear, “You know we don’t have a freaking chance, don’t you? She didn’t make a single shot while we were watching and she wasn’t even under any pressure.”

Vinn couldn’t help giving Scott a grin. With a smirk he said, “Just wait and see.”

Then he started worrying about whether her victory a month or so ago had just been a fluke.

Myr’d finished introducing herself to the other four guys. She stepped back over to Scott and Vinn, crooking a finger to get them to lean in. Quietly she said, “I’ve hardly ever played on teams, mostly just one-on-one or H-O-R-S-E. I’ve watched though, so I think I pretty much know what to do.” Vinn looked up at Scott and saw his new friend giving him a disgusted look. Myr was continuing, “Why don’t we just get started. You can tell me if you’d like me to do anything different after we’ve played a point or two.”

Mark’s team of four granted Vinn’s team of three the right to bring the ball in first. Scott brought it in to Vinn even though Jimmy’s coverage of Myr was very loose. Steve, on the other hand, was all over Vinn. Vinn tried to get past Steve, first on the left, then on the right, but without success. Scott was calling for the ball over near the basket, but Steve could obviously hear him and was defending against passes in that direction. Vinn stumbled and picked up his dribble. With Vinn pinioned at his pivot foot, Steve was practically on top of him.

Then Myr drifted by behind Vinn. He passed her the ball, though he had the feeling she’d have stolen it if he hadn’t. Having brushed off Jimmy as she went by, she immediately shot.

It rimmed out. Vinn’s heart sank when Mark grabbed the rebound. As Mark dribbled out beyond the arc to mark the change of possession, Scott shot Vinn a look that said, I can’t believe she took that shot!

As Vinn turned to guard Steve, the next thing he worried about was that perhaps, having missed her first shot, Myr would get nervous and, either be afraid to shoot, or would force shots but have a cold hand and keep missing.

Out beyond the arc, Mark fired a bounce pass to Jimmy. Vinn’s heart fell when he realized that Myr’d lagged behind, letting Jimmy get between her and the basket. As soon as Jimmy got the ball he’d have a completely free drive to… Vinn’s worldview stumbled when Myr took a lightning step and stole Mark’s pass. The pass that everyone else on the court, including Vinn, had thought she had no chance at.

Vinn was near the arc, so he took a couple of steps to get outside of it, then turned to look at Myr. The pass she’d thrown before he even finished looking her way hit him in the hands so hard it stung. He caught it, but it was a near thing. Blinking in surprise, he brought the ball back across the arc.

The entire evolution had caught Steve by surprise as well. That left him a few steps out of position. While Steve desperately tried to catch up, Vinn drove for the basket, making an easy layup.

Steve grabbed the ball and immediately inbounded it to Jimmy. Vinn suspected they were pushing the pace of play, expecting to tire Myr out. With four players they could sub any time any of them got a little tired. His hopes that they might cut Myr a little slack were gone as Jimmy hustled out behind the arc with Myr trailing behind. Vinn was dogging Steve pretty hard and Scott was tight on Mark so Jimmy brought the ball back across the arc by himself.

Myr stole the ball from Jimmy.

She was back outside the arc before Vinn had really caught up on what’d happened. This time she fired the ball to Scott with a hard bounce pass. Vinn thought the pass was going to be too close to Mark. Instead it was just far enough away that Mark stumbled while stretching for it. With Mark off balance, Scott easily took the ball to the hole.

We’re up by two! Vinn thought. Even though he’d so confidently bet $300 he felt really surprised.

When Mark stepped off the court, Ed subbed in for him. Vinn had hoped they wouldn’t be so obvious about trying to wear his team out, but if he’d been down two, he’d have done the same. Ed brought the ball in to Steve and Vinn trailed Steve out to the arc. Steve turned and shot a pass to Jimmy. Apparently he’d taken to heart Myr’s ability to catch the pass that had been meant for Jimmy. He sent his pass to the opposite side of Jimmy from Myr. Jimmy turned to look for the basket…

Myr’d reached in from behind and stolen the ball again! She dribbled casually back out toward the arc, but Jimmy lunged after the ball trying to steal it back. Jimmy overreached and stumbled. Myr crossed the arc and, finding herself all alone, turned and put up a high arcing shot.

It dropped through the hoop without touching the rim, giving them two more points since she’d shot it from beyond the arc.

“Jesus Jimmy!” Mark shouted from the sideline, “Stay on her!”

Jimmy shook his head in frustration.

“Time for me to sub in for you anyway,” Mark said, stepping over to the baseline under the basket and grabbing the ball.

“Be my guest,” Jimmy said in an irritated tone as he trotted off the court.

Mark brought the ball in to Steve. Vinn had left Steve poorly guarded while watching the byplay. Steve quickly took it out beyond the arc and turned back toward the basket. By then Vinn was back on him tight.

Mark set a pick that Steve used to brush Vinn off. Steve turned toward the basket as Vinn watched helplessly, hoping he’d miss.

Steve never made the shot.

Myr, who’d been guarding Mark, transitioned seamlessly to Steve and stole the ball while Steve was focused on putting it up! She was almost back across the arc before the three guys had come to grips with what’d just happened.

Myr turned and made another of her effortless shots from beyond the arc, drilling it for two more points.

Holy crap! Vinn thought. We’re up six—zip. She’s way better than I thought!

They finished the game at twenty-one to nine. Mark, Jimmy, and Steve sullenly transferred a hundred bucks each into Vinn’s account while Scott crowed as if he’d expected to win the whole time.

Vinn said, “You guys ready to take her on as our seventh player for the league team?”

To Vinn’s astonishment, despite the way she’d played, they looked at one another uncertainly. Steve said, “Um, there’s a lot of difference between half-court three-on-three and full-court five-on-five play. I wouldn’t mind it if we had enough players to sub in for her when she got tired but…”

Myr interrupted, stepping into Steve’s personal space, her eyes flashing up at him, “Put your money where your mouth is Bubba!” She waved toward the side of the gym, “I’ve got another hundred dollars says you can’t keep up with me, ten sprints the length of the court.”

Steve snorted, “Oh come on!”

Myr pulled her little wallet out and peeled off two fifty dollar bills. She held them out toward Vinn, “Hold these while I teach this boy a lesson.”

A few minutes later, they were over at the side of the gym agreeing on the rules. When they actually started running Myr started out way too fast. Vinn, knowing she wouldn’t be able to keep it up, stepped closer when she got back down to the near end of the court and said, “Pace yourself.”

She didn’t slow down.

Instead, she kept up the same pace the whole time, sailing along unconcernedly as Steve lost the spring from his step, started to blow, turned red, and after the eighth lap— already lagging a length of the court—shuddered to a stop. He turned and, bracing his hands on his knees, watched as she finished the last two laps, still keeping the same speed. When she was done she stopped to pat Steve on the back. “You’re gonna need to get in shape if you wanna play league ball,” she said with faux sympathy.

******

With some anticipation, Arlan Miller headed to his weekly meeting with Myr and Vinn. From something Vinn had said, Arlan expected to at least hear the results of Vinn’s measurements of the shape of the field. Arlan wasn’t quite sure what Myr’d been doing, but he hoped she had something interesting to report as well.

They met in a small conference room. As Arlan walked in, Vinn was speaking to his AI, having it throw graphic images up onto several of the wall monitors. While Arlan was still looking at the screens and wondering exactly what was represented there, Myr walked in carefully carrying a huge ceramic pot. She set the pot down, reached into it and carefully pulled out a device that looked like one of the big D cell flashlights people used back before LED bulbs.

Intrigued, Arlan said, “What’s that?”

Myr nodded at Vinn, “Why don’t we hear about whatever Vinn’s learned first?” She uncoiled a cord from the base of the flashlight looking device and plugged it in to the wall.

Vinn had been staring at the flashlight analog too, but at Myr’s direction, he launched into a description of what he’d learned about the fields. Arlan was fascinated to learn the effects that changes in voltage, current, and frequency had on the size and gradient of the field created. Most fascinating was the way that higher frequencies created a geometric gradient which promised extremely high proton compression at the center of the field.

Vinn said, “As long as we align Myr’s cylinder so that the focal point of the field is in glass or steel or some other hydrogen free material, a lot of the bizarre effects we noticed on that first day aren’t present. The room air doesn’t dry out significantly although a slight dew gets deposited on the material. There’s no snowstorm when it’s shut down, and,” he looked back and forth from Arlan to Myr, “presumably no fusion.” They’d agreed not to speak of the fusion effect with anyone else, keeping the secret to the three of them for now.

Speaking quietly as if afraid someone out in the hall might be listening, Vinn said, “I’ve also done some testing when the techs aren’t around. The field forms just fine in the middle of that spherical steel chamber I had made up. Measurements near the focal point inside the chamber are exactly the same as they are outside.” Vinn had had his eyes on his graph of the results. Now he looked at Arlan and Myr, “This means we should be able to achieve fusion inside a chamber constructed to block egress of the radiation.” In case they hadn’t grasped the significance, he said in an awed tone, “We have a source that can generate heat, and therefore steam, on a level small enough to warm homes or energize cars. Of course, it should also work at a size big enough to power entire cities but it would seem like many small plants would be the way to go. You’d save on electrical transmission losses.”

Arlan felt a shiver crawl over his scalp and run down his back. “Have you been able to generate equations that describe the relationships between current, voltage, and frequency versus the strength, location, and gradient of the field?”

“Sure,” Vinn said, treating the question dismissively, as if generating the equations had been trivial, though when he put the equations up on the screen, they didn’t look simple or intuitive. Pointing to the graph of frequency versus the gradient of the field, he said, “We’ve experimentally verified the changes in gradient at various points, but as you probably know, generating terahertz signals at some frequencies isn’t easy. There are various materials and crystals that generate certain frequency bands, but we can’t just spin a dial to generate any frequency we want.” Vinn pointed to the very high end of the frequency range, “Up here near infrared light frequencies the coil-plates no longer generate a proton field. Down here,” he pointed to a moderately high frequency, “we generate a proton field with a very steep gradient.” He shrugged, “We don’t know what happens in between those two points because right now we can’t generate those frequencies.”

His eyes tracking back and forth from graph to graph, Miller said, “Great work!” He looked at Vinn, “You have anything else to tell us?”

Eyes on Myr, Vinn said with a slight smile, “Nope. Dyin’ to hear what Myr’s been working on though.”

Myr gave Vinn a sharp look. Arlan thought Vinn had been genuinely interested in what Myr might have been working on, but that Myr felt he was implying she hadn’t been working. She picked up the flashlight looking device she’d brought. She waved it around a little bit. With a glance at Vinn, she said, “I’ve been working on a portable version.”

Arlan immediately realized that the device had a cylindrical shape like the larger field generator she’d been working with for so many years. The end of it was a glass shaft that extended about eight inches beyond the main body.

Myr continued, “This one has a dedicated circuit built into its base. You can’t vary all the parameters like we can with the big table top version Vinn’s been working with. But it’ll generate a proton field and a few of the parameters can be modified.” She held it out to Arlan and said, “Try waving it around. Um, don’t slash it around like a sword; just gently wave it out in open air.”

Arlan took it uncertainly and waved it around in a circle like Myr had. It felt like a big flashlight, but he had no idea what she was trying to prove with the waving.

Myr held out her hand and took the device back from Arlan. She pulled the heavy glass shaft off the end of it, then held it over the big ceramic pot and tugged a slider switch on the handle. With a “foomp,” a cloud of vapor exploded outward and the big pot was suddenly full to overflowing with snow. Arlan stared; the pot had to hold at least three gallons.

Myr upped his estimate when she said, “That’s a little more than five gallons of snow, which came from about a half-gallon of water that had been held at the focal point.” Her eyes tracked to Vinn, then to Arlan.

Arlan had the distinct impression that Myr was wondering whether he “got” whatever she was trying to prove. “Um,” he said, “it’s pretty cool that you’ve reduced the whole thing down to such a small device and it still works.”

Myr handed the device back to him and said, “Swing it around again.”

Arlan did, not noticing any change.

When he handed it back to her, she held it back over the pot and switched it back on. A hole immediately appeared in the snow, then heat emanating from the focal point started to melt more of the snow. Lifting an eyebrow, she said, “Did you notice anything else?” She wiggled the handle around, sucking up more of the melting snow.

Arlan slowly shook his head.

“Did it feel like you were swinging a half gallon of water around?”

Arlan felt surprise wash over him. “No!” he said realizing that both times it’d felt much like it would to swing a heavy flashlight. Even more importantly, swinging it the first time hadn’t felt any different than swinging it the second time.

Arlan glanced at Vinn and saw his eyes were wide with realization. “No weight or inertia?” Vinn asked.

“Nope,” Myr said. She looked at Vinn, “Like you said, the field seems to warp space. The warp pulls the water to the focal point, relieves electrostatic repulsion so the molecules can get closer together, and squeezes them down to a point so small we have a hard time seeing it. And, if we move the focal point, the water just trails along after it.”

“That can’t be!” Vinn suddenly exclaimed, “That’d break conservation of energy…” he trailed off, looking as if he was thinking furiously in the face of evidence that contradicted all expectation. His eyes went back to Myr and he lifted his hands almost helplessly, “You’d be able to lift the water up to a higher point while it was weightless and inertialess; then pour it down through a turbine generator, thus creating energy!”

Still sucking up snow with her wand, Myr gave Arlan a sly grin as she jerked a thumb at Vinn. She said, “The boy’s a lot smarter than he looks.” She turned back to Vinn and continued, “You guys might have noticed that I carried it in here without it being plugged in, but I was moving slowly. That’s because it was just running on the lithium batteries in the handle. I plugged it in because of just the issue you’re pointing out. It takes quite a bit of power for the focal point to be strong enough to drag the weight along with it at any significant speed. Therefore, I needed the wall current for Dr. Miller to be able to move it very fast. He would have been able to wave it around slowly on just the batteries, but if he’d tried to move it as fast as he did, the field would’ve collapsed and the snow storm would have occurred out over the table,” she waved in the general direction of the middle of the table. “So, energy is conserved because the device needs a lot more power when the focal point’s moving a lot of mass around than when it isn’t.”

Vinn made a little bow. He said, “I hear your words with great relief, though my spirit was crushed by the implication that I look stupid.”

Myr rolled her eyes, “I didn’t say you’re actually smart. However, I might admit that you have a modicum of intelligence if you can figure out the practical consequence of this without a bunch of hints.”

Arlan had just been wondering about useful implications of the effect she’d demonstrated. Now his eyes darted to Vinn while he worried that Myr’s attempted witticisms might have hurt the young man’s feelings. Vinn was frowning, apparently in thought rather than in anger. Thankfully, Arlan thought, guys got insulted by their friends as a form of affection. It happened so often that they their feelings didn’t get hurt very easily.

Myr only gave them a moment to think, before saying, “Oh, come on guys. Just think how much easier it’ll be to lift water into space!”

Vinn gave her a look, “Where are you going to get the power to run a proton field that’ll render a significant amount of water massless and inertialess?”

She blinked at him as if surprised, “Weren’t you just telling me that you could build us a little fusion plant?”

Arlan saw the light of understanding spread across Vinn’s face. Vinn said, “Oh, yeah! You could…” Vinn paused to frown in thought, “you could have a rocket that didn’t have a big tank because it carried its propellant in a field focus… assuming we can release stuff from the focus a little at a time…” he glanced at Myr.”

She nodded, “We can, just turn it off for microseconds at a time.”

“We let water out of a focus and into a fusion core where it gets superheated into steam and powers a generator. That power keeps the rocket-fuel’s focus activated so the fuel’s essentially volumeless and massless…” Vinn paused again to look at Myr, “Wait, we can use a proton field focus to shrink a hydrogen containing fuel like kerosene, but it won’t work on the liquid oxygen.”

Myr shrugged, “You could use a mono-propellant like highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, but why not just exhaust your fusion superheated steam through the rocket nozzle?”

Vinn thumped his head with the heel of his hand and said, “Duh!” He looked thoughtfully out into space for a moment, then said, “So, we’d have a small, light vehicle—because it essentially didn’t have tanks—which generates its thrust from superheated steam. It’d divert some of that steam to generate the electricity that maintains the proton fields.” He thought for another moment, “And, rendering the water weightless and inertialess means we don’t need as powerful a rocket to lift us into space.” He shrugged, “Well, the power’s still needed, but instead of throwing it out the back as a rocket exhaust, we’re using it to run the generator.” He gave her a considering look, “Have you run the numbers to see if this’ll actually work?”

Myr rolled her eyes, “You’re the numbers boy.”

This is freaking amazing! Miller thought to himself. Aloud, he said, “Do run those numbers, but maybe we need to focus on one thing at a time. It seems like the biggest payoff’s in fusion?”

Myr’s head turned like a turret to focus narrowed eyes on Miller. Speaking almost fiercely, she said, “I thought you were a man with vision? The kind of man who’d hock the company he had in order to build a company that could do all these things at once?”

Miller stared at her for a minute; then he said, “You’re right.” His eyes went back and forth from Myr to Vinn, then he grinned, “We’re gonna change the world, aren’t we?”

She nodded, then grinned, “Might even be bigger than the transistor, huh?”

Miller barked a laugh as he remembered her making such a claim years ago.

Vinn give Miller a puzzled look, not understanding what might be funny about that comment. Shaking his head, he leaned over to look down into the big ceramic pot that she’d nearly emptied with her device. “You’re using this heavy ceramic pot so that you don’t have to worry about the focal point sucking up the plastic walls of a tub?”

Myr nodded ruefully, “It got too close to a plastic one and pulled the wall of the tub over to start chewing away.”

“You should put a heavy duty stainless steel mesh over the focal point. That way you could suck water or gas into the focus for your experiments without having to worry about sucking up part of the tub.” He glanced up at her, “Or having the focus eat your finger.”

Myr looked at him for a moment and Miller thought she was going to try to claim she’d already thought of it, but she simply said, “You’re right… thanks.”

******

Aleks stared unbelievingly across the table at Joe. “You mean to tell me… you set up this meet to tell me that Miller’s really excited about what the static suppression team’s been finding… even though you don’t have any idea what they’ve learned?!”

Joe shrugged, “I heard the new guy say something about fusion, but I have no idea what they might be fusing.”

Aleks purposefully widened his eyes, “And you think I want to know this?!”

“You said you wanted to be kept informed about what was going on. I’m letting you know they’ve had some kind of major breakthrough.”

“I hope you don’t think I intend to pay you just to learn,” he lifted his fingers and wiggled them around while rocking his head from side to side and speaking like a little girl, “that they’re all excited? I need to know what they found, and if it looks important, I need to know how it works!”

Joe looked completely unconcerned, “No problem. You originally told me you only wanted to know what they were working on. I usually don’t have any way to get you any more info without sticking my neck out, so I can only tell you those kinds of things when it’s completely safe for me to get the information,” he shrugged, “and that’s not very often. I’ve been worrying that this whole thing with you has been getting a little bit too… deep for my liking. Why don’t we just call an end to our association? That way we can part as friends.”

Aleks narrowed his eyes as he stared thoughtfully across the table at Joe. Does he really want out? Aleks wondered, Or is he just trying to shake me down for more cash? I guess he could just be trying to get the same amount of money he used to get—even though he’s no longer giving me any useful info. Aleks leaned forward and spoke conversationally, “Interesting thing, isn’t it, how having to wear body cams really changed the way the cops behaved?”

Joe looked surprised by the apparent non-sequitur, then his eyes focused on Aleks’ finger where it was tapping the pin Aleks always wore. The one with the jewel in the center that was actually a lens. Aleks had always made a show of disconnecting the lens of his regular body-cam so Joe wouldn’t feel like he was being recorded. He’d always refused to talk to Joe unless Joe also had his cam visibly disconnected. Joe’s eyes took on a haunted look as he looked back up at Aleks, “Hardball, huh?”

Aleks gave him a slow nod, “I need better information.” He looked away, then back, “Soon.” Slowly, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes and peeled the plastic off the top. He tore open the top in a way that let him wad up the little piece he’d pulled off and stick it in his pocket. He shook the pack so a single cigarette stood tall and produced a fake smile, “Smoke?” He figured that giving Joe a single money-cigarette instead of the entire pack Joe’d gotten used to would send another powerful message.

Joe worked his chin back and forth a little, giving the cigarette a contemplative look. He reached out and took the cigarette. As Joe’s hand returned to his side of the table, Aleks noticed with some irritation that Joe had managed to not only take the cigarette that stood tall, but the one next to it. Joe said, “I’ll see what I can do.” He got up and walked out without a backward glance.

******

Despite her assertion that Vinn was the numbers guy, Myr found herself trying to calculate the energy efficiency of accelerating a mass using a focal point. Even though those kinds of calculations weren’t her strong suit, she’d decided to try to work out the energy required to accelerate a half-gallon, or two liters, of water. Essentially the amount her portable focus generator had been moving in order to let Dr. Miller wave it around the day before without his feeling like he was moving a significant mass. By her figures, accelerating those two kilograms of water up to a walking speed of five kilometers per hour should have required about two joules of energy. Trying to get a feel for it, she waved her hand around a little while and decided that she’d probably been accelerating the device to that speed in about a half a second. Since a watt is a joule of energy per second, she figured four watts of power would have been needed to accelerate two kilos to five kph in just a half second.

Since four watts seemed to Myr to be a tiny amount of power, she tried converting it into horsepower. It was about five thousandths of a horsepower, which by definition was enough power to lift 0.4 kilograms of mass one meter in one second. Or two kilos—the weight of two liters—of mass 0.4 meters in one second. She thought about it for a while and decided that the numbers sounded reasonable. In fact, lifting two kilos of mass 0.4 meters in one second seemed like even more than they’d done yesterday. Then she thought about the fact that if she was to lift two kilos that fast she’d have to accelerate as well as lift them. Maybe it is a reasonable figure, she thought.

She’d have expected some inefficiencies in the device to result in a need for more electrical power than the four watts she’d calculated. The portable device consumed about forty watts just maintaining the proton field at rest. Unfortunately, to be able to wave it around she’d needed to provide 320 additional watts.

Can it really be using eighty times as much power as my calculations say it needs? she wondered. Could I have made a mistake in my figures or is it really that inefficient?

Myr sat staring at a diagram of her coil-plates, considering once again the possibility that their physical layout could be changed to improve their efficiency. She’d made many changes over the years she’d been working on static suppression. Those changes had been based on intuitive guesses she’d made about what might make the coil-plates work better or worse. Using such trial and error she had improved the static suppression efficiency somewhat, but realized that an architecture which made a good field for suppressing electrostatics might be very different from a setup that most efficiently created a high-strength proton field.

Today her intuition wasn’t supplying her with any ideas, misguided or otherwise, on how to improve a proton field.

The possibility that terrified her was that perhaps someone really good at math might be able to measure the effects of various changes in the shapes, sizes, and dispositions of the plates and coils and actually engineer a better architecture rather than simply making changes according to their intuition and then testing to see if improvements actually followed.

Someone like Vinn.

She really wanted to show Miller that Vinn wasn’t needed, but she wasn’t so sure it was true. Besides, she thought, thinking about some of the things she’d been learning about leadership, a good leader would ask him for help, then pat him on the back if he did a good job.

There was a knock on her door. Myr looked around, immediately thinking of when Miller had come by to talk to her about her social skills. Although she actually felt grateful for the advice, receiving it had been a little humiliating. Looking around, she saw her lab’s door was locked, so she got up and opened it. Instead of Miller, Vinn stood there.

She reacted to her first thought, saying, “Coming by to tell me the guys’ve decided to throw me off the team before we even play our first game?” Realizing that she was reacting in just the antagonistic fashion that Miller had been asking her to change, by the end of the sentence, she changed her tone from bitterly anticipatory, to joking with a smile.

Vinn shrugged in an “aw shucks” fashion, “Naw, they just asked me to get you to promise not to show them up when their wives and girlfriends are around.”

Myr found this funny enough to crack a real smile, “Tell them, ‘No-can-do.’ They’re just going to have to pick up their games and stop playing like toddlers.”

Vinn grinned back at her, “I’ll pass the word that they need to put on their big boy pants.” Then his expression changed to serious, “I’ve been running some numbers…” he paused as if unhappy about what he was going to say.

Attacking the problem head-on, Myr said, “It’s taking a lot more power than it should to move things around with the focal point, right?”

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “According to the best figures I can come up with, it’s taking fifty to a hundred times as much power as it should for you to be able move a liter of water around without collapsing the field. Admittedly, we don’t have the best instrumentation for measuring this kind of thing, but I’m pretty sure our efficiency is really low.”

Myr realized that last week, calling it “our efficiency” would have irritated her since she thought of it as her device. But now, since she was making an effort to think of the project as a team effort which she was leading, she actually liked the fact that he’d said, “our efficiency.” Besides, she was pretty excited that her numbers were in the same range as his. She let her shoulders slump a little and said, “Yeah, my rough estimate said I was feeding it eighty times the power needed. I’ll bet you’re going to tell me that it’s going to be hard to lift to orbit if we can’t improve the efficiency, right?”

Vinn nodded. “Do you have any ideas for improving the design to make the numbers look a little better?” He gave her a shy smile, “I’d really like to be able to say I was part of the team that launched some new-fangled rockets into space.”

Inwardly, Myr took a deep breath and gritted her teeth. Outwardly, she leaned a little closer and spoke sotto voce, “Yeah… I think we’re going to have to make that bitch who came up with the coil-plate assembly let us look at its internal structure and do some testing so we can engineer a better design.”

Leaning back in surprise, and also so he could get a better look at Myr, Vinn said, “Really?”

Keeping to the spirit of her little act, Myr said, “Yeah, shall I twist her arm while you pose the tough questions?”

Vinn apparently couldn’t help snorting, but he came back with, “Just pull her hair. If you hurt her shoulder she might not be able to shoot in our first game.” He winked, “Gotta keep our focus on what’s really important, after all.”

Myr frowned, “I think her hair might be too short…”

******

Joe settled himself nervously across the desk from the attorney. “Everything we say here is confidential, right Mr. Rauch?”

“Call me Marvin,” Rauch said, “and, yes, anything we say is confidential under the attorney-client privilege.” He lifted a warning finger, “As long as it’s to do with something that’s happened in the past. If you’re about to ask my advice on how to commit a crime or how to cover up one you’ve already committed, that’s not privileged.”

“Um, no… What if… if I wanted to ask you to negotiate with the police regarding a crime I’d already committed, uh… but I’m suspecting that they might want me to keep committing that crime so they can catch somebody else?”

Marvin squinted a little bit at the convoluted logic, but said, “If they tell you to do it, you shouldn’t have a problem.”

Joe thought for a moment, then said, “Well, here’s the deal. I work for a hot high-tech company and this… fellow’s been paying me to tell him what’s going on over there.”

“Industrial espionage,” Rauch said.

Joe nodded, “I told him I wanted to call it off. I like the place and the people I work for and I’ve been feeling guilty about the spying… even though I could really use the money.” Rauch didn’t say anything, so Joe shrugged and continued, “I’ve seldom fed him anything I didn’t think was pretty much useless. Stuff like, ‘They’re really excited about their new project making such and such.’ But I don’t really tell the guy how to make anything—partly because I don’t really understand it anyway, and partly because I don’t have access to those details. He’s been insisting that I tell him more, and when I told him I wanted to call off our… relationship, he intimated that he’s been recording all our conversations so that, you know, he could blackmail me if he wanted.”

“Ah, and you’d like to turn him in first.”

“Yeah. If I can get immunity. It seems like a win-win ‘cause the police could catch him—maybe roll up his whole organization.”

Rauch looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, then said, “I could try to negotiate that for you Mr. Barker. But, I’d need the actual details so the police would be able to decide whether it was important enough information that they’d be willing to grant you immunity.” He gave Joe a discerning glance, “You understand that there’s no potential payoff here for me, right? So I can’t undertake this on a contingency? You’d need to pay me by the hour.”

“Yeah,” Joe said, disconsolately, “and I know your fee schedule. Hopefully it won’t break me.”

“Okay, let’s get your whole story then.”

******

Having reached the twelfth level, Connor told his AI to turn off the videogame he’d been playing. It wasn’t much fun anyway. Turning to Myr, he said, “What’s going on with your proton field?”

She shrugged, “I built a smaller one.”

“You made that huge cylinder smaller?”

Myr nodded, seeming a little distracted.

“What good is that? Even if the cylinder’s smaller you’d still have to carry around all that equipment to power it up.”

“No, all the stacks of equipment were just so that I could feed the cylinder with almost any signal I could dream up. Now that I know what signal I want to give it, I built a much smaller circuit that just generates the signal I want.”

“How small?”

Myr held up her hands about fifteen inches apart, then made a circle with her fingers about three inches in diameter.

“Whoa!” Connor said, “That’s a whole lot smaller.” Curiously, he said, “What are you gonna do with it?”

Myr shrugged again, “Mostly I was just trying to prove it could be done. It’s not actually terribly useful. It turns out…” she ran down.

“Turns out what?” Connor asked. Sometimes he felt like Myr only talked to him because he was so sick and probably wouldn’t live all that much longer. But it wasn’t like Connor had a job or was dating a lot of pretty girls.

Or had a lot to look forward to…

He wrenched his mind out of its descending spiral. Myr and Connor’s mom were by far the biggest part of Connor’s social life. He did have a couple of friends that he hung out with occasionally. They also had muscular dystrophy, but, other than their disease, they and Connor didn’t actually have all that much in common. Connor spent far too much time watching television and playing video games. Connor’s mom had pointed out that when Myr was visiting, he couldn’t afford to be depressed or crotchety and drive her away. He needed his sister to also be his friend.

Myr blinked away her distraction and said, “It turns out that the field,” she looked at Connor to make sure he was following, “you remember me telling you that the focal point will suck up a lot of water?”

Connor nodded.

Myr frowned, “And you also remember I’m not supposed to be telling you this stuff, right? So, you absolutely can’t tell anyone else.”

Connor rolled his eyes, “Of course.”

“So, this new smaller device, you can carry it around in your hand,” Myr said, glancing at Connor to see if he was following. Apparently reassured that he was, she said, “And if you suck a couple of liters of water up into the focal point and carry the device around with the water in the focus…” She looked at Connor again, “it doesn’t feel any heavier!”

“Whaaat?!” Connor said, drawing out the word. “What’s it do, put the water in another dimension or something?”

Myr tilted her head as if pondering a new idea and Connor wondered if he might have contributed something important. But then she said slowly, “I don’t think so… because when you move the device around it needs more power, as if it needs that power to move the water from one place to the other and that’s why you don’t feel it.” She paused, frowning, “I guess that’s not the right way to say it, at least for how we think it works. We think the focus pulls protons to its center. But it sucks up more power when it’s pulling them along from one place to another and if you move it faster than it can pull the protons along, the field just collapses and releases them.” She exploded her fingers away from one another and said, “Poof, instant snowstorm.”

“So… what? You could use it to transport oil with a smaller truck or something?”

Myr blinked, “Well, I guess.” She grinned, “How about for moving water up to outer space?” She gave him a wink, “It costs five to ten thousand dollars or something like that to lift a pound of stuff into orbit.”

“Cool! Wait ‘til we tell Mom.”

Myr shook her head, saying grimly, “Let’s not.”

Wide eyed, Connor said, “Why not?”

“Um, first of all I’m not even supposed to tell you. And, have you noticed how she almost gets mad when I bring up my field research?”

Connor frowned thinking about it.

Myr continued, “And she’s always trying to suggest I should stop working on it too. I just think she doesn’t believe her daughter could be the one to discover something truly important. Have you ever heard the saying that no one can ever be famous in their own home town? I think it’s the same kind of thing.”

Connor tilted his head curiously, “Why can’t you be famous in your own home town?”

Myr shrugged, “ ‘Cause everyone knows you so well they’re sure you can’t be special, I guess. The idea’s been around so long there’s a version of it in the Bible.”

“Oh,” Connor said, not at all sure he understood.

“So, don’t say anything about it to mom, OK?”

“Sure.”

Chapter 4

Arlan got to the little conference room for his meeting with Myr and Vinn but they weren’t there. A little irritated that they weren’t there before their boss, he queried his AI and snorted. He was so excited to hear about what they were doing that he’d actually arrived a bit early. Doesn’t reflect well on my pompous image, he thought wryly.

Myr and Vinn showed up together which Arlan took as a positive sign. Myr even gave him a smile, saying, “Hi Dr. Miller.”

Mentally rubbing his hands together, Miller said, “What’ve you guys got to tell me?”

“Vinn and I both ran calculations showing that the energy efficiency of the focal point at pulling mass from one location to another is pretty low,” Myr said.

Vinn had been speaking to his AI, lighting up screens on the wall of the conference room and holding Miller’s focus. Arlan’s eyes jumped to Myr when he realized that she’d just delivered what sounded like unhappy news, without sounding angry or disheartened. In the past, when she’d had less than stellar news to deliver, she’d been sullen and defensive about it. Miller didn’t know whether to be unhappy about the lack of efficiency or upbeat about Myr’s new attitude. “How… inefficient are we talking?”

“When it’s moving the water from one place to another, the device needs fifty to a hundred times more power than it does just to form the field. As you would anticipate and hope, it doesn’t keep drawing a lot of power once it’s accelerated the mass. After all, once the mass is compressed down to a point there’s really no frictional resistance to its movement.” She waited for Arlan to nod his understanding, then continued, “It takes just as much power to decelerate it at the other end. Still, the figures augur well for using focal points in the transportation of water, oil and other hydrogen containing liquids.” She shrugged, “On the other hand, lifting a mass, like we’d want to do if we’re boosting stuff out to orbit, would need more power the whole time you’re lifting, just like you’d expect.” She quirked a grimace, “And it needs way too much power when it’s lifting, just like it does when it’s accelerating.”

Miller found his eyes involuntarily going to Vinn, wondering whether Myr’d gotten her numbers right. Myr gave a little laugh, “Yes, numbers boy there got essentially the same results as I did. Either I’m getting better… or maybe he’s slipping a little.” It pleased Miller no end to see Myr wearing what appeared to be a genuine smile as she said it.

Miller tried to act matter-of-fact about it, saying, “So, what’s this mean for our plans to become the preeminent power in the space industry?”

Glancing at Vinn, Myr calmly said, “We’ve decided we’re going to have to study the effects of the arrangement of the coils and plates in the field generator to see if we can improve its efficiency.”

Startled to hear Myr say she was going to let anyone else, much less Vinn, examine the innards of her field generator, Miller glanced a little wide-eyed at Vinn who gave a tiny nod. He looked back at Myr and found her grinning. She shrugged and said, “Someone convinced me that we’re going to have to work as a team.”

“Hot damn!” Miller said, “That’s great, have you made any progress?”

They both shook their heads. Vinn said, “I’ve looked at it with the cover off, but that didn’t give me any great ideas on how to modify it. I’ve got the machine shop making some coils and plates with different physical dimensions, as well as getting plates made out of a bunch of different materials. The coils need to be made out of conductors, so for now I’m only trying silver and a small one made out of graphene in addition to the copper ones we already have.” Vinn glanced nervously at Miller, probably concerned because good graphene conductors were still pretty expensive. Miller did his best not to wince or otherwise react. Vinn continued, “While we’re waiting for the new coils and plates, I’ve got Nick and Randy doing measurements on the field after I physically rearrange the relative positions of the various coils and plates and...”

Vinn continued detailing his plans for a bit. When Vinn ran down, Myr said, “We’re hoping that if Vinn can come up with some mathematical expressions that predict the effects of some of the changes, he’ll also be able to suggest ways to optimize the field generator and improve its efficiency.” She shrugged, “Of course, it might be that we’ll only be able to decrease the amount of power required to establish the field, but not be able to diminish the amount of power required to accelerate or lift masses contained within it.”

Vinn leaned away from her like she’d said something horrific, “That’d be a bummer. You need to work on your positive thinking.”

Miller laughed, “That would be a bummer. You guys working on anything else at present?”

Myr said, “I’ve been working on a design for fusion based steam generation. I bought some chevron edged lead bricks to build a lead castle for radiation protection. Using that, I’ve been doing some testing by generating a focus in the middle of the castle and releasing tiny, tiny amounts of hydrogen in the vicinity.” She glanced at Miller, “Which is harder than it sounds because the focus tries to suck hydrogen right out of tubing.”

With concern, Miller said, “Are you sure you should be doing that without someone who has a little more experience with fusion and radiation available to help?”

Myr waved a hand expressing her confidence, “I only let microgram quantities of hydrogen even get close to the focus, so even if every pair of protons got pulled out of the feed and underwent proton-proton fusion, only about 50 kilojoules of energy is released. Something like the amount of power in a pea sized drop of gasoline.”

“But the radiation…”

“Blocked by the lead castle,” Myr interrupted. “No gamma radiation detectable outside the castle. Also, it’s not making any neutrons according to our detector.” She spoke to her AI and some diagrams appeared up on the screens in the room. Waving at them she said, “I’m getting ready to submit these designs for a first trial at a steam generator. Let me know if you guys have any ideas for changes.” She started pointing to items on the diagram including the stainless-steel chamber, a hydrogen feed, some embedded sensors, the water injection port and the steam exhaust. “Then, this layer here is lead to make sure no gamma escapes,” she concluded.

Miller frowned as he studied the diagrams, “But where are you going to put your field generator?”

“Outside the chamber,” Myr said, pointing to the empty area of the diagram above the shielding. “Remember, the generator projects the field a distance away from itself. It doesn’t seem to matter if there’s something like lead or stainless steel between the generator and the focal point, it still generates the same kind of focus.”

“Really? Stainless steel doesn’t block field formation?” Miller asked dubiously.

Vinn responded, “Yeah, it’s really bizarre. Nothing seems to block it. We can’t even form it less than six inches from the generator and we can form it as far away as about five feet, but nothing we put between the generator and the focal point seems to affect formation.” He shook his head, “I can’t even come up with a theory yet for why nothing stops it… maybe when we have more data something’ll come to me. Some kind of warping of the dimensions or something crazy like that.” He looked back and forth from Myr to Miller, “I think it’d be good if we had something that blocked it from forming. Kind of a safety… Have I told you what happened when I put a chicken wing in the focus?”

Arlan found himself a little dismayed to learn about how the chicken wing had been crushed to jelly. In retrospect, it was obvious that, since biological tissues were loaded with hydrogen, something like that should happen; it was just that it was a little frightening to think how dangerous it could be to get too close to a focal point. On the other hand, considering what could happen if a significant quantity of hydrogen got loose around the focal point, a crushed chicken wing didn’t seem like it ought to be that big a deal. A lot of power tools could tear up a finger after all. “I hope you guys are taking precautions?”

“Yeah,” Myr said, “we form all our focal points inside of glass when we don’t need to have molecules entering the focus. When we do want to let something get sucked into the focus, we use the stainless steel mesh cages that genius-boy suggested.” When she called Vinn genius-boy, Myr had a sly grin and her eyes flicked over to him, suggesting it was teasing instead of derogatory.

Miller tilted his head thoughtfully, “I know you feel safe doing the fusion stuff, but I’m really wanting to get a nuclear physics expert on board. I’ve put out some solicitations and had applications from several scientists and engineers who’re considered experts in the field. I’ve invited three of them for interviews and I’d like you guys to talk to them too, okay?”

Vinn shrugged uninterestedly but said, “Sure.”

Myr grimaced momentarily and Miller thought that in the past she’d have been opposed because she didn’t like the suggestion that she needed any help. Perhaps also she’d have felt threatened if they had a true expert around. However, he thought she probably remembered how recently she’d said that they needed more people in order to make more rapid progress. Instead of objecting, she grinned and said, “I don’t know if my people skills are up to judging applicants, but,” she shrugged, “how am I going to learn if I don’t participate, eh?”

Arlan nodded, then taking a deep breath, he broached the subject he’d been dreading. “Okay, next. I’ve talked to our patent firm and we have a meeting tomorrow to start describing to them what we’ve got. Before we file for patents, we need to decide how we’re splitting the income.” He spoke to his AI and the wall screens flickered to put up the figures he’d come up with. “The discovery of the static suppression field is all Myr’s, though she granted Miller Tech five percent of her income from inventions related to her field in return for the scholarship that put her through college.” He glanced at Myr and Vinn. They were staring up at the screen and thankfully neither of them looked upset. “However, the proton field was discovered after Myr started working for Miller Tech and her employment contract specifies that the company gets fifty percent of royalties from discoveries made here. And finally, the two of you discovered fusion together, though that discovery depended on static suppression and the proton field so I would suggest that fusion royalties be divided according to the calculation displayed. You can see that 27.5 percent of fusion royalties go to Miller Tech, 66.25 percent to Myr and 6.25 percent to Vinn.” Miller paused, hoping not to be hit with a storm of objections. His eyes drifted to Myr, hoping she wasn’t about to explode.

She’d slouched back in her chair and looked completely relaxed!

Myr waved a hand and said, “Put Vinn down for 6.25 percent out of my share of the royalties from the proton field.” She looked over at Vinn and rolled her eyes, “I don’t want him to quit working on the field and start focusing exclusively on the fusion piece.”

Completely stunned to hear Myr giving away some of her share, Miller said, “You’re sure?”

Myr waved carelessly and said, “Yep. If he keeps his hyper-smarts against the grindstone, this’ll be worth so much money none of us’ll care.”

******

Aleks sat down on the stairs just west of the Cloud Gate sculpture in Chicago. He didn’t think this was a good location for a meet at this time of year. It was too cold out and there weren’t all that many tourists hanging around the big mirrored bean. He thought he stuck out like a sore thumb.

Also, Aleks wanted to pull up his hood, but he needed to be able to hear in all directions.

He’d been sitting there just long enough to get really irritated when he heard his handler’s voice come from behind him. “Hello Aleks.”

Aleks didn’t turn or otherwise acknowledge the woman’s voice. It wasn’t supposed to look as if they were having a conversation. Besides, Kelley was such a stone cold bitch he didn’t want to see her. Good-looking, yes. Heartless, and vicious—yes and yes again.

It wasn’t just his finger that made him shudder when he thought of her. The only other person in the organization that Aleks had ever talked to at length told him she killed people for fun. That she’d joined the organization not for the money or some sense of duty, but because she liked doing horrible things to people. The guy thought she only worked for their nebulous bosses because it gave her an excuse—and even paid her—to do what she’d probably be doing anyway.

He didn’t want to look at her and wished once again that he’d never met her in the first place.

She continued, “I must say that the information you’ve been providing is interesting…” She paused, then continued in a low, angry tone, “Even if it’s useless.”

Aleks felt his anus twitch. He put his gloved hand over his mouth and spoke without moving, making an effort to look like he was just blowing to warm up his fingers. “My source is unwilling to take risks to obtain specifics.”

“Well,” Kelley said acerbically, “it’s great to know that truly important technology might exist. However, we’re paying you to find out how it works.”

“I sent a list of possible ways we might obtain such information.”

“Ah, yes. You understand, I hope, that we’re concerned about the fact that some of your proposed methods might kill the goose that lays the golden eggs?”

Aleks said, “So, choose one of the safe ones. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Search her apartment.” Kelley said, “Don’t hurt anyone… Yet.”

“Okay.” When he hadn’t heard anything more after another several minutes, Aleks assumed she’d left. He got up and went on his way without looking back.

******

Vinn trotted out onto the court, embarrassed to realize that he was the last one there for the team practice. He’d intended to be first so that he could try to mediate any arguments that might crop up between Myr and the rest of the guys. To his relief, he saw Myr standing hipshot, talking to their elected captain Scott. The other guys were practicing their shooting.

As Vinn stepped up beside them, Myr was saying, “I’ve been reading up on the various positions. It’d seem like I should play point guard ‘cause I’m short, handle the ball well, and can shoot the three.” She shrugged, “But I don’t know very much about the game so I can’t lead the team.”

Scott was staring at her, “You don’t know much about the game… How’d you get to be so good at it?”

“I’m not good at team play.” She shrugged, “This is the first team I’ve been on.” She gave Scott a wicked little smile, “I do like beating guys at H-O-R-S-E and one-on-one, especially for money.” Now she gave him a coquettish smile, batted her eyes and said in a saccharine tone, “Would you like to shoot some baskets with me?”

Scott looked flabbergasted, so Vinn interjected, “I thought you liked to watch basketball?”

Myr rolled her eyes, “The first time we played I said you probably thought I could only be a fan. You claimed I’d unfairly pigeonholed you as a Y chromosomed jerk.”

Vinn blinked, “So you’ve never been on a team and you don’t even watch basketball to know how a team works?”

“It can’t be that hard. I’m just saying I probably should be the shooting guard.”

Feeling a little dismayed, Vinn looked at Scott but Scott simply rolled his eyes and waved off Vinn’s concern. “It’s not like most of the teams we’re going to be up against are going to be running a whole lot of fancy plays anyway. With only this one practice before the season, we certainly aren’t. We’ll play man-to-man defense and try to come up with three or four offensive plays.” He turned and shouted at the rest of the guys, “Hey, gather round.”

Myr grinned and said, “Woman.”

“Huh?” Scott said, looking as if he was afraid he’d said something offensive.

“Woman-to-man defense,” Myr said with a smirk.

Driving home Vinn mused on how Myr surprised him at every turn. After what she’d done the night they’d accepted her onto the team, he shouldn’t have been surprised at how she played. Unfortunately, he kept underestimating her—always feeling like she’d just gotten lucky the other times he’d played ball with her.

That was obviously not the case.

At the practice, she’d indeed proven to have very little knowledge about team play. But, just like she’d shown the other night, she was phenomenal at one-on-one defense, stealing the ball over and over and over. She also blocked shots being made by guys much taller than she was. And, no one defending her could get used to how far from the basket she’d take a shot, not only catching the guy guarding her by surprise, but dropping the ball through the hoop most of the time.

Vinn wasn’t sure how they’d do playing in a league that probably had some excellent athletes who played together all the time, but he suspected they might surprise a few people.

******

Bob Salzberg studied Arlan Miller. Miller was signing Bob’s copy of a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Miller looked as if he were in his mid-fifties, younger than Salzberg had expected, especially considering that the man had apparently founded Miller Tech and it was already a good-sized company. The man looked more like a dynamic leader than a down in the lab researcher, but he had a reputation for doing some of both. Salzberg had no idea what use Miller Tech might have for a nuclear engineer, but at age 58, Bob just wanted a job where he could coast on into retirement. He was sure he could quickly straighten out whatever nuclear issues Miller Tech might be having and then kick back.

Miller said, “Now that we’ve got the NDA out of the way, let me tell you what we’d need you for. A couple of the young folks I’ve got working for me have come up with a method for achieving proton-proton fusion. I’m looking for someone who can make sure we develop it safely.”

Salzberg leaned back in his chair and folded his hands pontifically over his stomach. With a disbelieving little shake of his head he said, “What are they trying? Some kind of pinch?”

A tiny grimace crossed Miller’s face and he said, “No, not a pinch. Let’s assume that they actually have achieved fusion. What I’d be wanting you to help us with is the development of protocols and safety engineering to prevent any disasters. What kinds of things would you be concerned about?”

Salzberg snorted, “My first concern would be trying to understand what’s making them think they’ve got fusion. A lot of people have thought they could do it and some have even been foolish enough to think they’ve done it, but decades of attempts and billions of dollars have been thrown at it, so far without success.” He shrugged, “However, there are a lot of odd results that can make you think you’ve achieved fusion when you haven’t.”

“But, assuming they’ve actually been successful, against all the odds?”

“Well, I guess it’d depend on what methods of confinement they’re using. Magnetic, inertial, pinch, they all have their own issues and instabilities.”

“None of those,” Miller said, looking a little frustrated.

“Well, I guess I just have to see what they’re doing before I could understand what they’re doing wrong.”

Miller stared at Bob for a moment. “Okay then,” Miller said standing and extending his hand for a shake. “I appreciate you coming by. We’ll be in touch if we’d like to talk to you further.”

After a startled moment, Salzberg stood up as well. “Don’t you want me to give your device the once over? I signed the NDA.”

“Not at this time. We’ll be in touch if we need more information.”

As Salzberg walked out, he wondered what Miller’s problem was.

******

Ellen Mitchell had looked through Miller Tech’s website and hadn’t been able to see anything that’d suggest they’d have any need of a nuclear physicist. Still, they’d advertised a job and she really wanted one. She was only thirty-six and felt pretty certain that the National Ignition Facility was going to be closed down in the next ten years. She didn’t want to be part of the glut of nuclear physicists who suddenly found themselves on the market when her job at the NIF disappeared.

Her biggest fear was that there would be nothing cutting-edge about whatever Miller Tech wanted her for.

Miller looked up from the screen he’d been perusing, “Sorry, I’d gone over your CV a week or so ago, but wanted to make sure I had it fresh in my mind before we started talking.”

“No problem,” Ellen said. Even if she felt a little offended that Miller hadn’t read up on it earlier this morning, she certainly wasn’t going to say so.

Reaching out, Miller picked up some papers off his desk, saying, “And I see you’ve signed our Non-Disclosure Agreement. Any issues with that before we get started?”

Ellen shook her head. It’d all seemed like pretty standard boilerplate to her. “I hope that you’ll keep my interest in a position here confidential? I wouldn’t want word to get out that I thought the NIF was going to be shuttered sometime soon.” She forced a grin, “My bosses still think they’re going to be able to get it to work, but I’m pretty sure I’m reading a lot of writing on the wall.”

Miller leaned back, studying Ellen a moment. “I’d want to talk to some people who’ve worked with you before we considered making a hire. Any suggestions on how I could do that?”

“You could call Dr. Anson, my PhD advisor, or some of the other grad students I worked with? You could even call some of the people I work with now, if you wouldn’t mind implying that you just want me to consult, rather than letting them know I’m thinking about jumping ship.”

“Okay,” Miller said thoughtfully. His smile brightened, “You might be wondering what in the world Miller Tech would need a nuclear physicist for?”

Ellen grinned, “Having looked over your website, I have to admit that the question had crossed my mind.”

“We’ve got a way to achieve fusion,” Miller stated baldly, then just let the claim stand there.

Ellen felt the smile freeze on her face as her hopes were dashed. She reminded herself that this company could probably afford to pay her salary even if they were pursuing something as futile as low energy fusion. But then she considered the low likelihood that they’d keep pursuing fusion once they realized how impossible it was. They certainly hadn’t been trying an inertial or magnetic confinement, she felt pretty sure she would’ve heard about it from friends in those fields. Trying not to let her feelings show, she cleared her throat a little and said, “Cold fusion, or something like that?”

Miller got a secretive smile on his face, “Something like that, though the output’s pretty hot.”

Ellen reminded herself, I can’t afford to make this man angry even if he is lost in a blind alley. “That’s a pretty bold claim,” she said quietly. She’d already started thinking about how disappointed her husband would be. He’d grown up down the road in Lawrence Kansas and still had family in the area. He hadn’t liked California in general or Livermore in particular, so he’d been excited about the possibility of moving back to the center of the country.

“Let me ask you to assume,” Miller said, “that we’re already able to cheaply achieve net-positive fusion of regulated quantities of hydrogen. Quantities small enough that we could controllably generate steam to run a small turbine. Something that might generate enough power for a single home or vehicle. What would your concerns be?”

Ellen tried not to stare. There’s really no point in trying to sugarcoat it for this guy. A job here wouldn’t even last as long as the one back in Livermore. She said, “Well, my first concern would be related to the impossibility of your claim. But, if I grant that you’re actually able to achieve controlled fusion on a small scale and can generate more energy than you’re consuming, I’d be worried about radiation. Particularly, since I’d assume you’re fusing deuterium and tritium, I’d be concerned about neutron activation of the chamber.” She tilted her head, not sure that he’d understand what she was talking about, “The neutrons released by your fusion reaction will be captured by the nuclei of the atoms in the wall of your reactor vessel thus making the nuclei in the chamber walls unstable. The vessel itself becomes radioactive.”

Miller said, “Suppose I told you that we’re only fusing protons? No deuterium or tritium involved.”

“When you fuse two protons to make a diproton, they almost always decay back into hydrogen so you don’t get any net energy. When they do stay fused, it’s because one of the protons became a neutron, so you do have deuterium.” She shrugged, “Essentially you always have deuterium. Next the deuterium fuses with a proton to make helium-3…”

“Granted,” Miller interrupted before she could go through the entire chain of events, “except that in our set-up the deuterium no longer participates in the reaction so all we have is proton-proton fusion to deuterium.”

“Okay,” Ellen said slowly, “even if that worked,” which it doesn’t, she thought, “you’d still have a fair amount of gamma radiation.”

“We do,” Miller granted. “What could we do about that?”

Ellen grinned at him, “Scuttlebutt is that someone at your company has improved a plate that converts gammas into electricity?”

Miller grinned back, “I can neither confirm nor deny.”

She shrugged, “Even without that, a lot of the gammas could heat a stainless-steel steam generation chamber. The ones that get past the steel could be absorbed by a lead layer.”

“That’s what we’ve been thinking,” Miller said, looking at her thoughtfully. “I’d like to have you talk to two of the people who’ve really been doing the work on this, okay?”

“Sure,” Ellen said. But she was already thinking about how she should visit her husband’s family in Lawrence before heading back to California.

******

Aleks saw Myr Sevii close her front door and walk out to her car. Picking up his coffee he slugged back the lukewarm dregs. Once her car had exited the parking lot, he picked up the nice briefcase he had his tools in, got out of the car and started across the lot to her apartment.

Arriving at her door, he pretended to ring the doorbell. He slowly glanced around as he pretended to wait for somebody to come to the door. No one was visible. Leaning back, he lashed out with a foot. The door flew open.

Cheap ass apartment doors, he thought disgustedly. He spun and quickly backed inside, pushing the door shut and holding it there with a foot while he opened his briefcase. Pulling out a battery-powered electric drill with a screwdriver attachment, he quickly drove a sheet-rock screw into the door frame so it’d hold the door un-suspiciously shut. Setting down the briefcase, he took off his nice jacket and slacks, folding them carefully and putting them away. He pulled out a cheap coverall and put it on along with a baseball cap, mirrored sunglasses and a painting mask. They represented a cheap disguise, just in case there was a security camera in the apartment.

He put on nitrile gloves and, finally ready, he turned around and looked the place over.

A couple of hours later, the apartment looked like a war zone. Aleks had started by opening the case of the desktop computer and taking out its hard drives. Since then, he’d been systematically trashing the place in his search for other forms of computer memory. He had a few optical disks and some USB drives that didn’t look promising. They were all labeled to hold less than 500 gigabytes.

Aleks had used a hammer to break all the outlet covers in order to confirm that they weren’t false outlets hiding stuff in the walls. He’d pulled off the bed clothes and slashed open the mattresses. The closets had been emptied and every piece of clothing checked for lumps. The drawers had all been pulled open and dumped, checking the drawer bottoms for taped on chips. The insides of the cabinets had been inspected for the same. A tiny pantry had had every box of cereal torn open and every can stomped. Bigmouth jars had been emptied into the sink. The refrigerator was empty with the fruit broken open to be sure it was really fruit. Same for the freezer. There were only two sick looking potted plants, but they’d been dumped as well. A couple of big wall screens had been torn down to make sure they didn’t have something taped to their backs. The bathroom medicine cabinet had been emptied, then pulled out of the wall.

Aleks made another circuit of the entire apartment, looking for any other possible hiding places. I’m betting there’s nothing on those drives. She’s keeping the data somewhere else, he thought with irritation.

After changing his clothes again, he peered out the window, then let himself out the other door. He didn’t want to have to figure out how to keep the broken front door closed.

Back at his place, Aleks rubbed his head and stared off into space. The optical disks actually had video on them. He’d checked them for extra data without success. All the hard drives and jump drives were encrypted in a fashion that hadn’t responded to any of the software Aleks had. He’d deliver them to his handler, along with all the information he had on Sevii so they could guess at passwords. But, since he couldn’t even get to a window that requested a password, he wasn’t sure they’d have any better luck. Personally, he thought Sevii’d modified an encryption program somehow so that only her own program would be able to open them.

Even if they were able to decrypt the data, Aleks suspected the information they wanted wouldn’t be there.

Kelley would not be happy. And, when that bitch wasn’t happy, Aleks couldn’t find any peace.

******

Vinn stared at Myr when she trotted out onto the court. She never wore makeup at work, but she had on makeup now. She must have had to drive directly to the gym after they’d left work just like Vinn had. He didn’t know much about makeup and so wasn’t quite sure what all she might be wearing, but he could tell she at least had on lipstick and some kind of eyeshadow and mascara.

With some dismay, he pictured her putting on makeup in her car’s visor mirror during her ride over to the gym. She was wearing one of the jerseys the team had had to buy in order to play in the league. On Vinn, it looked like the cheap one-season jersey that it was. Somehow, just like the silky-looking jersey she wore when she was sharking guys at H-O-R-S-E, the team jersey looked sexy on Myr. With dismay, he thought, I would have expected, if she wanted respect as a basketball player, she’d have toned down the girly, not cranked it up!

Scott looked disconcerted by her appearance as well. Vinn wasn’t surprised when Scott left Ed and Myr as the two players on the sidelines at the start of the game. Concerned about her reaction, Vinn glanced at her to see if she looked angry. When he did, she gave him a wink.

He had no idea what that meant.

Out on the floor, the guy guarding Vinn said, “Wow, you guys must’ve had a really hard time finding a seventh, huh?” When Vinn didn’t respond, the guy said, “You know she’s gotta play at least five minutes, don’t you?”

Vinn said, “She’ll play, don’t worry.”

The guy snorted, “Sure she will.” A minute or so passed, then the guy followed up with, “She’s cute, I’ll give you that. Nothing like having a bimbo on the sidelines to make the rest of you guys play harder, huh?”

Vinn told himself to just let it slide, but he just couldn’t. Instead, he muttered, “That bimbo’s gonna bring you some pain when she comes in.”

The other guy just laughed.

Vinn took a break early because he wanted Myr to get in the game. He felt a little worried about what Myr’s reaction might be if she decided the guys were trying to keep her on the sidelines. Ed subbed in in Vinn’s place, leaving Vinn and Myr standing on the sidelines. He glanced at her, wondering if he should say something about her makeup.

She grinned at him, “Go ahead, say it.”

Trying to look innocent, Vinn said, “What do you mean?”

“Come on, you know you want me to lose the makeup.”

“Um, well, I am a little surprised.”

She snorted, “Yeah, they’re gonna be surprised too, aren’t they?”

“But… don’t you want them to take you seriously?”

She arched an eyebrow, “Oh, they’re gonna take me seriously.”

Steve came out before Vinn had to think of a response. When Steve joined Vinn on the sidelines, he said, “Playing full-court is too much like running wind-sprints, and after the other night we all know how I suck at those, right?”

Vinn didn’t answer; he was too focused on Myr, worried about whether she’d be able to hold her own. She was bringing the ball in from under the basket and the guy guarding her evidently thought pressuring her would be a good way to score a turnover. He was in front of her, arms out to signal his intent to keep her from bringing it in. Myr said something to him that widened his eyes; then she blew him a very visible kiss.

The guy looked flustered and she fired a bounce pass under his outstretched hand.

The pass went unerringly to Scott. Scott was their best ball-handler, and he drove hard down the floor, evidently hoping to catch the other team off guard while they were focused on Myr.

Myr beat Scott down the floor.

Vinn thought Scott’d been hoping to go all the way for a layup, but one of the defenders got out in front of him so he pulled up. Myr was waving for the ball, but Scott ignored her, shooting it to Mark at the post instead. Mark put the ball up, but missed. He did, however, grab his own rebound. Bringing it back down, he dribbled it once, evidently thinking he could try to go back up, but he got stymied. Looking for someone to send it back out to, he ignored Myr and threw it to Ed.

The guy guarding Ed stole the ball from him and turned for the other end of the court. Everyone else turned too, but somehow Myr had the ball back! The guy guarding Myr had also turned for the other end of the court which left her all alone.

She put up a three pointer.

It wasn’t one of her best shots and Vinn gritted his teeth when it banged into the rim and shot up, but it went straight up and came right back down through the hoop.

The guy who’d been guarding Myr grabbed the ball to bring it in. Myr stood in front of him with her hands only slightly up. Vinn thought, She’s got to get her hands higher, the guy’s a lot taller than she is! Evidently the guy thought the same thing because he threw it in from up high.

But Myr deflected his pass anyway. One of the guys from the other team recovered it, but it was a near thing.

The other team took the ball down court to make a two pointer. Mark came out, putting Vinn back in the game.

That trip down the floor, Scott made a two pointer. The other team brought the ball back down court where they ran what looked like a practiced play. However, when the play had developed and they put up their shot, it missed. The ball came to Vinn who rebounded it.

Turning Vinn scanned the court. Holy crap! Myr’s way the hell down court and still going! Finding it hard to believe she’d pulled so far out in front, Vinn took a step to the right and fired a long pass down court. It wasn’t his best throw, but Myr snagged it without even looking like she’d had to stretch after it. She was all by herself, so Vinn expected her to go in for a layup. Instead, she pulled up at the three-point line and dropped another bucket.

Noticing the stunned look on the guy guarding him, Vinn patted him on the shoulder, “Told you she’d bring you pain!”

Although they played in a clumsy and undisciplined fashion, made a lot of errors, and missed a lot of shots; their team won the game by a comfortable margin. Over and over, the guy who got the rebound looked down court to see Myr already there. She constantly stole the ball and kept putting up fade-away jumpers from unreasonable distances—which kept falling in.

They all went out for a beer afterwards. By the time they got to the bar Myr’s lipstick and eyeshadow had disappeared. Once everyone had a full mug, Scott raised his in the air and said, “To Myr Sevii, our secret weapon!”

“Hear, hear,” they all chorused.

******

Myr still felt pumped from the game when her car pulled into her apartment’s parking space. She told the car’s AI to set the locks and got out.

At her apartment door, she felt surprise when her key unlocked the lock, but the door still wouldn’t open. It felt like it was jammed in the middle because she could still move it a little near the top and the bottom. Maybe it’s just swollen from a humidity change? She thought about shoving really hard, but decided to go around through the other door to have a look at the jamb from the inside.

When she pushed open the other door, the devastation she saw inside made her pull back in shock. Pausing motionlessly, she pondered whether she should call 911. Could whoever did this still be inside? she wondered pulling her Taser out of her jacket. After a moment’s listening to silence, she decided they had to be long gone. Calling 911 was certainly a priority, but she wanted to have a quick look around herself first. She pushed the door back open and walked through her place, getting more dismayed at every step.

The destruction was so thorough it made it seem like vandalism. At first she felt violated, but then she slowly became enraged.

She decided to call 911 before her head exploded.

The policeman pulled off his cap and scratched his head in puzzlement. “Any high-end jewelry or other reason someone might suspect you’d have some small, highly-valuable items?”

Myr shook her head saying, “Why?” wondering why anyone would think of her as a burglary candidate.

“When they toss a place like this they’re usually looking for something small. You have any secrets they might have been looking for?”

“No,” she said, even as a sick dread rose up inside of her. Data files! she thought in horror. I didn’t check to see if my data drive was still there! I’ve been so paranoid about keeping my data secure and yet I didn’t even consider that the data might’ve been what they were after! She shook her head in disbelief. We’ve just had an immensely valuable breakthrough at work and I thought someone was trying to steal my cheap-ass jewelry!

While the two cops continued taking pictures and searching for evidence, Myr stepped back outside and went to her car. “AI.” she said, speaking to her phone, “Call Vinn Saigler and Arlan Miller.”

“It’s after 9 PM,” the AI responded, in an effort to keep her polite.

“Call them anyway.” While she waited for the connection, she reached up under the dashboard and down into a little crevice under the floorboard carpet. With great relief, she found the data drive she kept in the car. She plucked it out and stuck it in her front pocket.

The AI said, “Arlan Miller and Vinn Saigler are both on the line.”

Trying not to let her anger show in her voice, Myr said, “Someone’s broken into my place and trashed it, searching for something. I’m assuming information about…” she paused, suddenly deciding she didn’t want to say anything about their fusion discovery on a public network. After a second, she continued, “About our generator.”

A stunned silence greeted her for a moment, then Vinn said, “Holy crap! You think they found anything?”

Miller reacted more to the traumatic event Myr was going through by saying, “I’ll come over and sit with you until the cops are done. You should stay at my place tonight.”

Even though Myr was more angry than fearful, she found Miller’s response heartwarming. She responded, “Thanks for the offer. My place is completely destroyed, but I’ll stay with my mom until I get it straightened out. What I’m more worried about is whether anybody’s come after you guys?”

They both responded negatively.

“Dr. Miller, can you get building security to check over our offices and make sure no one’s tried to break in there?”

“Good idea,” he responded. “In fact, I’ll go over there and have a look around myself.”

“You guys are keeping your data encrypted, right?” Myr said.

Miller said, “All the drives on Miller Tech computers are encrypted.”

For a moment Vinn didn’t say anything, then he said, “Um, I have a laptop and…”

“Aw shit!” Myr swore. “And it’s not encrypted, right? Why not?!”

“Um, I’ve never had any secrets on it before. I just didn’t think…”

“I knew I shouldn’t have let you look at the coil-plates!” Myr interrupted, “Where’s the laptop?”

“At work,” he said hesitantly.

Furious, Myr said, “You need to get your ass down there and secure it! If by some miracle it’s still there you need to encrypt it tonight. Really, you should move all the data off of it onto an external drive that’s not only encrypted but locked up in a secure location.”

“Sorry,” Vinn said repentantly.

Myr knew she should say, “It’s okay,” or something to that effect, but didn’t trust herself to speak in her current fury. Instead, she just said, “AI, disconnect.” Getting out of her car, she headed back into the apartment.

She met one of the cops coming out of the bathroom, “Any chance you guys are going to catch whoever did this?” She hoped she didn’t sound too bitter.

The policeman gave a tiny shake of his head as he said, “We’ll try, and there’s some chance, sure. But not a very good one. If they took a high-value item that we might find at a pawnshop or something? That’d give us a better shot.”

Myr realized he was asking whether something expensive might be missing. About the most expensive things she had were her computer and her two big wall screens. The wall screens had been ripped off the wall for no apparent reason and one of them was broken. She looked over at her computer. It’d been moved, she realized. No surprise considering everything else in the apartment seemed to have been moved. As she got closer to it she realized its case was loose. Did they toss it around and break the case? she wondered. Then she saw some of the screws that held the cover in place lying on the floor. With sudden suspicion she pulled the cover off and saw the hard drives were gone. Dammit! Then she thought, Good thing I don’t keep anything important on this thing.

The policeman said curiously, “You work on your computer yourself enough that you don’t keep the lid screwed on?”

Realizing the cop hadn’t noticed the hard drives were missing, she opened her mouth to tell him. Then, deciding she’d rather the police didn’t know this whole thing had been an effort to steal proprietary secrets, she simply shook her head no. She didn’t want them to know it was industrial espionage until she talked to Arlan Miller. Maybe he could get the FBI involved? she wondered.

The policeman reached out and patted her on the shoulder. It wasn’t reassuring. Instead, she felt like he was taking liberties though she tried not to react. He said, “Sorry about all this. I think we’ve got all the information we need. Do you have renter’s insurance or something that’ll help you pay for the damage?”

She simply shook her head.

“Want help putting some of the big things back in place?”

“No thanks,” Myr said.

She just wanted everybody out of her home.

Once the two policemen were gone, Myr lifted the register off the HVAC duct in the kitchen and reached down inside of it as far as her arm would go. She remembered thinking when she chose the spot, that with her long slender arms, she could probably reach further into the duct than most people. With great relief, she found her back up data drive lying where her fingers could barely reach it deep in the duct.

She put it in her other front pocket.

Ten minutes later she’d packed a suitcase and was heading out the door to her car.

Aleks looked up when he saw movement. Finally! he thought as he recognized Myr Sevii carrying a suitcase in the direction of her car. It was getting late and he was feeling tired.

Aleks didn’t follow immediately; after all, he’d already put a cell tracker inside her bumper. He gave her a five-minute lead then asked his car’s AI to follow her based on the tracker.

When Kelley realizes we aren’t going to get anything out of those drives and decides we need to do something more aggressive, he thought, I’ll be ready with the mom’s address. Maybe that’ll keep her off my ass.

******

Marvin Rauch sat down in the indicated chair and the FBI agent sat down across from him, giving him a distasteful look. The man said, “What’s this about?”

Rauch leaned forward and extended his hand, “Marvin Rauch, attorney.”

The FBI man grimaced, but shook Marvin’s hand, “Noah Deming.”

“I have a client who’d like to turn state’s evidence.”

“What’s he done?”

“He’s been pursued by an industrial spy. Admittedly, he’s strung them along with a little bit of information now and then and he’s collected some money, but he doesn’t think he’s given them much of anything useful. However, he’s been having some second thoughts about what he’s been doing and decided he’d like to help you guys capture them.”

Deming sighed, and Marvin could tell the man thought of this as small potatoes. “Who’s he work for?”

Marvin said, “Miller Technologies,” hoping that the agent would have heard of the company. Although Miller Tech was a big name in high tech industry, it wasn’t a major player in the Kansas City area economy. Marvin knew that if the agent hadn’t even heard of the company he’d have a tendency to discount whatever’d happened as small and unimportant.

Instead, Deming leaned forward intently, “In Bonner Springs?”

Surprised, Marvin merely nodded.

Deming stood up abruptly, “I’ve got some people who’d like to talk to you.”

Marvin was taken to a small conference room and offered a coffee. Ten minutes later, three more agents showed up. The lead, Agent Foster, said, “We’re trying to track down someone who tried to steal some secrets from Miller Tech.” Foster waved at the man Marvin had first spoken to, “Agent Deming tells me that your client has been providing Miller Tech’s proprietary secrets to someone?”

“No,” Marvin said, “my client does not believe he has provided useful technical information to his contact. He was sucked in, in what I assume is a typical slow fashion. At first he only agreed to keep his contact informed about the direction of Miller Tech’s research, something which is not necessarily secret. But, as so often happens in these situations, his contact slowly began to threaten blackmail, requesting technical drawings and actual proprietary information. Most recently, his contact has intimated that he will turn my client in as a spy if such information’s not forthcoming.” Marvin surveyed the agents with his eyes, “My client, now realizing that this man is actually engaging in illegal industrial espionage, would like to help you capture him.”

The agents glanced at one another; then Foster said, “If you’ll give us a minute, we need to discuss this.”

Marvin left the building with an agreement that if Joe cooperated fully, including wearing a wire and delivering a traceable chip to his contact, he wouldn’t be charged. However, Joe would have to tell Arlan Miller what he’d been doing.

******

Myr looked up to find Vinn standing hesitantly in her doorway. “Hey Vinn, I need to apologize for yelling at you the other night. I shouldn’t…”

“Yeah, you should have,” Vinn said, sounding disgusted with himself. “Just because I’ve never had any really valuable information to encrypt, doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have been smart enough to recognize it when it came along.” He shrugged and grinned, “Besides, I know you were pretty stressed out from having your place broken into and trashed. It’s no wonder you were biting peoples’ heads off. Glad I could serve as a relief valve.”

“I’d like to be better than that,” Myr said quietly.

“Wouldn’t we all,” Vinn said slowly, with hushed emphasis. He didn’t say anything for a second, then moved on. “Hey, I’ve got some results on the coil and plate testing I’d like you to look at.”

Brightening, Myr waved at the wall and said, “Sure, throw them up on the screens.” As Vinn spoke to his AI and graphs started to blossom on the big wall screens, Myr pondered her relief that Vinn was showing her the results. When she’d first agreed to let Vinn and Miller look at the coil-plates outside their enclosures, she’d worried that somehow she might get pushed aside. Even though she was the one who’d really come up with the invention, she felt a little uncertain around them. After all, they’d both finished their PhDs and Miller kept calling Vinn the boy-genius. Maybe her big leap had been a simple bit of serendipity and they’d just been waiting for her to give up and let them develop it.

Vinn started showing her the various plots of field strength he and the techs working with him had generated. The graphs showed how the fields changed depending on the materials the plates and coils were made out of. A coil made out of a better conductor did improve output, but not by very much. Surprisingly none of the materials they tried for the plates actually gave better results than the copper Myr had originally used.

Myr was feeling vindicated that her original device worked so well but, at the same time, disappointed that they hadn’t been able to generate any major improvements that might increase the efficiency. Then Vinn threw up a new set of graphs. “But look what happens when we change the shape of the plates.”

“Shape?” Myr said as she stared at a graph with a much higher peak.

“Yeah, this one has a dish shaped plate. You might think it’d work best with the concavity pointing toward the focus, but instead it works best with the convexity toward the focus.” Vinn shook his head in puzzlement, “You have any idea why that’d be?”

“No,” she said slowly. “I’ll think about it. But I’m hoping you’re going to tell me that really high peak is generated with the same amount of power?”

Vinn nodded, his eyes still focused on the screen. Then he turned to her and grinned, “It’s a lot more efficient… Launch to space efficient!”

Myr jumped up and stepped toward Vinn. For a second she intended to hug him, but at the last moment she chickened out and put up her hand for a high-five. When he lifted his hand, she smacked it resoundingly, “Way to go!”

She was rewarded with a triumphant grin.

She studied the graph a moment longer, then said, “I’ll bet I could build a lot smaller field generator.”

******

Ellen Mitchell rode the elevator down to the basement of Miller Tech feeling quite surprised to be there again. Dr. Miller, who rode the elevator with her, had called her a few days ago to offer her a position at Miller Tech. When she’d tried to politely decline because of her inability to accept their claims of nuclear fusion, he’d invited her out to at least consult on their set-up herself.

All-expenses paid.

He’d even invited her to bring along her husband and two young children so they could visit Jeff’s family in Lawrence, offering to pay their way as well. First class.

The goal of the visit was to have her go over the fusion device herself. If she could prove they weren’t actually achieving fusion, that’d be important information for them. If they did have fusion…

Obviously, they really think they’ve got fusion. Miller seems so excited; I really hate to dash their enthusiasm. But at least Jeff and the kids got to fly out to visit the grandparents first-class.

Getting off the elevator and walking down the hall, Miller said quietly, “You’ll remember Myr, who you met last time. Just be aware she may be a little distracted, someone broke into her place last Thursday.”

Ellen didn’t get to ask any questions about the home invasion before they entered a big high ceilinged room. To her astonishment, she saw a stack of lead bricks on a sturdy table. A lead castle?! You’ve got to be kidding me…

******

Jeff looked up to see Ellen when the front door opened. With a happy shriek, their toddler, Ada, barreled across the room to throw her arms around her mother’s knees. Chris, the four-year-old, glanced up, but was too focused on driving the electric car grandpa had bought him.

Taking in the stunned look in his wife’s eyes, Jeff said, “No good, huh?”

Wide-eyed, Ellen said, “Can we move to Kansas?”

Jeff leapt to his feet and pumped a fist. “Yes!” he shouted.

Jeff’s mother came in from the next room, an anxious look on her face, “Is it good news?”

Looking at Ellen, Jeff said carefully, “Do you think they’ve got a chance at fusion?”

“They don’t have a chance…” Ellen said, pausing just long enough for everyone to get concerned, then smiling, “They’ve got fusion. And we’re getting in on the ground floor, with stock options!”

******

Joe arrived at the Dari Dine five minutes early as Agent Foster had suggested. Walking toward the booth in the back that the FBI guys had suggested, he looked around with his eyes, but avoided turning his head. He spotted Agent Deming, who he’d been told to expect, though Deming didn’t look his way.

Sitting down in the booth he waved at the waitress with a suddenly shaky hand. Thank God for Miller Tech’s informal dress policy, he thought. If I were wearing a tie, it’d be choking me. He pulled a couple of napkins out of the dispenser and used them to wipe a sudden prickly sweat off of his forehead and neck. Thankfully, John Smith didn’t come in while he was still drying himself off. Smith arrived right after Joe finished and had stuffed the moist napkins into the crevice beside the seat.

As he’d been advised by the FBI, when Smith arrived at the booth, Joe didn’t make any pretense at joviality. Foster had pointed out that friendliness wouldn’t fit after they gotten along badly at their last meeting. Instead, Joe gave Smith a level look and said, “Morning.”

As he sat down, Smith gave Joe a big smile. “You watch the game last night?”

Panic washed over Joe. Smith had never talked sports with him before, why was he doing it now? Joe couldn’t help but wonder whether Smith knew about the FBI stakeout and was about to act as if he didn’t have any interest in industrial secrets and never had. Joe swallowed and said, “The Jayhawks?”

“Of course,” Smith said expansively, “who else?”

“They, uh, looked pretty good,” Joe said tentatively.

“Yeah! And that new freshman guard… 26 points!”

The waitress came and Smith ordered a big breakfast. Joe’s stomach was roiling so he only ordered a coffee and a bagel. Smith gave Joe a look that made him even more nervous, then said, “What’s eating you?”

“Um, I think it’s something I ate last night.” Joe patted his stomach, “I hope it’s not food poisoning.” Feeling a new prickle of sweat on his brow, he hoped that the possible food poisoning might explain his perspiration as well as his meager breakfast. Joe resisted an overwhelming impulse to glance over to be sure Deming was still there.

“Hey man, I hope not too,” Smith said, though Joe didn’t think the man was actually sympathetic.

Joe realized he’d forgotten to fold the tagged chip into a napkin before Smith arrived like he’d intended. He pulled a couple of napkins out of the dispenser and used one to dab at his brow. He lowered both into his lap but then had to dig in his pocket for the chip. At least he didn’t have to worry about his DNA being on a chip anymore. While Joe was working at this, Smith nattered on about the Jayhawks and how well they’d played. A minute later, Joe had slipped the chip between the folds of the clean napkin. He casually dropped it on the table. “I hope they can make it all the way through the tournament this time,” he said, referring to the Jayhawks’ chances in the NCAA.

Agent Foster had specifically warned Joe not to bring up spying himself. The FBI wanted Smith, or whatever his name was, to solicit information spontaneously. Joe glanced at the little pin on Smith’s lapel. He’d initially thought that he shouldn’t look at it, but Foster had said that appearing nervous about it would encourage Smith. Joe wondered whether his glance at the pin had appeared nervous or not. He thought, I don’t suppose I’m much of an actor.

Good enough, it seemed. Smith said, “Got any better info this time?”

Their waiter returned with the food and, as he rearranged stuff to make room for the bagel and coffee, Joe managed to push the napkin with the chip out into the middle of the table. As the waiter walked away, Joe looked meaningfully at the napkin and said, “I managed to grab a few diagrams and a couple photographs, but they don’t mean much to me. Maybe your people can figure them out?”

“I hope so… for your sake. The people above me, they can be… pretty unpleasant if they don’t think they’re getting their money’s worth.”

Joe’s stomach cramped at this. He didn’t feel completely confident that the FBI would be able to protect him and his family if John Smith’s spy ring got angry. He mopped his brow again, relieved that, at this point, looking nervous would be appropriate for the conversation they were having. “Um, what do they want? I mean, what would they think would be worth their money? Uh, if I could get it for them maybe then they’d just leave me alone?”

Smith gave him a smile that didn’t reach the eyes. “Fusion. They’re all atwitter about fusion. But they’re gonna want to know how to actually do it, not just have you tell ‘em somebody else can. You need to figure out how to get them a full set of drawings and specs.”

Joe swallowed nervously, “I don’t know how I can do that. I’ve told you she doesn’t keep the information on Miller Tech’s computers.”

“Come on Joe. She isn’t working on this all by herself, is she? Even if she’s good at protecting her data, there’ll be someone who’s got the information and isn’t as careful.”

Joe wanted to get out of the diner. He thought that he’d gotten Smith to incriminate himself sufficiently, assuming the wire Joe was wearing was actually working. Joe glanced down and saw that Smith had snagged the napkin with the chip while Joe wasn’t looking. Then he realized he hadn’t touched his bagel or his coffee. What’s more, he really didn’t want to. He pushed them away, saying, “My stomach really doesn’t feel up to eating this morning. Maybe I’d better get on my way.”

A glint in his eye, Smith said, “Yeah, you do that. Too bad your appetite got you into this, huh?”

Joe started to rise, but realized he hadn’t extracted his payment, something the FBI had told him to be sure to do. “I could sure use a smoke,” he said, eyes on the pack into Smith’s pocket.

“Yeah, yeah,” Smith said pulling out the already opened pack and shaking it to extend a single cigarette. Joe took the cigarette and stood up. He would’ve been angry just getting one in the past, but today he was happy. One was all the FBI needed. Joe was about to simply walk away when Smith said, “I’m pretty sure they’re not going to be happy with whatever you gave me today. I’d suggest you start working harder on finding better info. You don’t want to get any visits from people who aren’t as patient as I am.”

Jerking his head in an unhappy nod, Joe headed for the door. Despite his strong desire to do so, he didn’t look around to see what Deming or any of the other FBI people might be doing.

And, as if betraying Smith hadn’t been rough enough, he still had to tell Dr. Miller what he’d been doing…

******

“The new arrangement improves the efficiency of the focal points a lot.” Vinn said, “I’ve run the numbers and we really should be able to get to space.”

Arlan thumped a fist on the table, “Yeah!”

“I’ve been studying nuclear thermal rockets,” Vinn continued, then spoke to his AI, telling it to throw up some diagrams on the wall screens. Arlan and Myr looked up at the screens as Vinn said, “There was quite a bit of research on them back in the nineteen-sixties and seventies.”

Arlan said, “Using fission reactors?”

“Yeah. One of the big problems was that those reactors were really heavy and, of course, they generated a lot of neutron radiation. One of the important things I learned from that research is that the hotter you can run a thermal rocket the more efficient it is—as measured by the specific impulse produced.”

Arlan frowned, “Fission gets really hot.”

“Yeah, it does.” Vinn quirked a lip, “Hot enough to melt the reactor.” At Arlan’s questioning eyebrow, Vinn continued, “So, the issue is that you have your nuclear pile generating heat inside a chamber. The propellant, usually liquid hydrogen, flows over the outside of the chamber. The hot chamber heats the hydrogen so it expands. Unfortunately, you can’t afford to let the chamber get any hotter than the melting point of the material it’s made out of so you can’t max out the efficiency of the rocket. This led to their experimenting with reactors that actually had liquid or gas cores…” He paused, then waved a hand dismissively, “All that’s just to say we have some significant advantages. We don’t have a fission pile which saves a huge amount of weight, and we can achieve fusion in the middle of a chamber full of water—far away from the walls of the chamber—so they won’t have as much of a tendency to melt.”

“Why did they use hydrogen instead of water for propellant?”

Myr said “It expands more and gives you a bigger impulse. But we can’t use it because if you feed large quantities of pure hydrogen to a focal point it’s all going to fuse.” She moved her hands violently apart in an exploding motion and said, “Boom!”

“Wait a minute,” Arlan said. “If you’ve established your focal point in the middle of the chamber to suck hydrogen in and cause fusion, why isn’t it also going to suck the water into the focal point?”

“It does,” Myr said, “but remember the focal point attracts hydrogen far more effectively than it does water molecules because the hydrogen protons in water are bound to oxygen and oxygen has a bunch of neutrons. Once fusion starts generating a lot of heat at the focus, it converts the water into steam and blows it right back out of there. We think it probably pulls a layer of hydrogen in beneath the water and that layer forces the water to the outside.” She shrugged, “The heat of the fusion drives the water away as well.”

“Won’t it melt the tube you’re using to inject the hydrogen into the focus?”

“We can inject the hydrogen into the water pretty far away from the focus. The focus does a great job of sucking the hydrogen right through the water.”

“How much of this have you actually tested out?”

Myr said, “Really, the little chamber we’ve built to test out our fusion model isn’t too different from the chamber you’d need on a rocket. So, you could say we’ve tested most of it. But, we’ve placed an order for a high-strength, high-temp chamber attached to a rocket nozzle so we can see how much thrust we actually get.”

Arlan opened his mouth to ask a question, but Vinn spoke first, “You know how you hired Ellen Mitchell to help us with the nuclear physics part?” Once Arlan nodded, Vinn continued, “We need to hire a rocket scientist to help us with this. After all,” he winked, “this really is rocket science.”

******

Myr got home to her new apartment. It was more upscale and closer to her mom and brother as well as having better doors than the old place. Even though the doors themselves were heavier and stronger than her old ones, she’d done some reading and replaced the screws in the lock set and strike plates with longer heavier ones to make it harder to kick open.

Every time she thought about her better doors though, she wondered why she’d put in the effort. After all, the new apartment still had glass windows that could easily be broken with a rock. She’d looked into getting bars installed on the windows but didn’t think the owner of the complex would allow it. She sighed, I’m gonna have to buy a house of my own one of these days, she decided. She’d been poor for so long that, despite the fact she’d gotten a pretty good salary for the past few years at Miller Tech, she just couldn’t think of herself as wealthy enough to own her own house.

As soon as she’d finished putting away the groceries, she picked up the bag of flour she’d left out and carried it over to set it on her glass and metal coffee table. Before she hung up her coat, she pulled out an HVAC register and hid away her terabyte jump drive. Hanging up the coat, she reached into its pocket and pulled out what looked like a regular flashlight. Once again it wasn’t a flashlight, but another version of her proton field generator. This one was even smaller than the one she’d demonstrated to the team a while back. More pocket sized, though still big enough to be clumsy in any pocket except the one in her coat.

Sitting down on the couch, Myr handled the little generator tentatively. She’d gotten so used to having a glass or metal rod protecting the focal point that this one—which didn’t have that protection—made her nervous.

There were quite a few safety features built into it. In order to turn it on, a rotary switch in the base had to be turned on and twisted to the desired setting. That switch turned itself off if the device wasn’t used for sixty seconds. Even with the rotary switch on, a focus wasn’t generated unless the user’s small finger depressed a momentary switch near the base and the index finger depressed a momentary switch about two thirds of the way up. Finally, the thumb had to push a slider forward at least a millimeter. In that state, the focal field would activate six inches in front of the generator. Pushing the thumb slider further forward upped the voltage, moving the focus out further. With the thumb slider fully forward the focus would appear almost 3 feet away.

Myr poured out some flour and spread it around till it’d at least dusted the entire top of the table. Taking a deep breath, she turned the switch on the base of the generator to its second detent and gripped the device so she could push the two buttons with her index and small fingers. Holding it level with the top of the table she depressed the pinky finger button, moved the thumb slider forward, and then used her index finger to push the switch near the front. About eighteen inches out onto the table a small splotch of the flour disappeared.

She let off the button and the flour puffed back onto the table

Myr practiced for about twenty minutes until she could open the field focus fairly accurately at almost any distance from the minimum six inches, out to this generator’s maximum distance of nearly 3 feet. Because the thumb slider had a two-inch travel that was being translated into a 2.5 foot distance, she was only accurate to plus or minus a few inches, but she was better than she’d feared. She switched off the generator and went to her utility closet to find stuff to clean up the mess on the coffee table.

She’d gotten out a dustpan and a whisk broom when she laughed at herself. Putting them away, she went back over, picked up the field generator, and turned the switch on the base to the fourth detent. Turning it on, she swept the focal point back and forth over the table, sucking up swathes of flour about four inches wide. When she was done, the glass of the table looked sparklingly clean. Keeping the device powered up she carefully walked over to hold the focal point above her trash container. She switched it off. With a “poof” sound, the flour billowed into the trash. Unfortunately, just before she turned it off, she got the focal point a little too close to the plastic bag lining the container. The field pulled part of the bag toward itself and sucked it in, ripping a hole and spilling a little garbage into the container itself. Since the container was made out of plastic, she couldn’t use her handy-dandy mess-cleaner-upper to correct that problem. Dammit! she thought, pulling the bag out of the trash can, carefully holding the rip closed so it wouldn’t spill.

Chapter 5

Myr, Vinn, Ellen and a group of their techs were all working in the big room in the basement. Vinn and Ellen were running tests on version 3 of the field generator. Myr was putting together version 4.0 for the next set of tests. Vinn was holding up one side of a sensor ring while the tech fixed it in place. He needed something to do while waiting for the next set of data to analyze. Something besides anxiously hoping the data’d continue to fit his mathematical model.

Out of the corner of his eye, Vinn watched Myr. He realized that at first he’d simply been infatuated with her slender, fit look and pixyish face even though he’d found her acid personality difficult to tolerate. Now though… now he found himself thinking about her a lot. I still love her look, he thought, but either she’s changed the way she acts or I’ve come to understand it.

Myr still had a biting wit, but somehow the bite was teasingly pleasant rather than viciously hurtful. She no longer called Patty and Bart Tech-one and Tech-two. Vinn thought they’d come to really like working for her. He wondered if some of her brittle edge had been defensiveness because of her lack of a PhD. Recently she’d started making fun of herself for not having one.

PhD or not, Vinn thought she was a true genius. Her particular brilliance lay in her ability to… he wasn’t sure what it was; somehow she suddenly figured out things that had stumped everyone else. She might not be able to call up facts from memory, but she had a surprising knack for assembling disparate and confusing results into a suddenly comprehensible whole.

Besides which, she was freakishly good at basketball. People in the league were starting to talk about her as she helped the team win game after game.

What’s not to like? he thought to himself. He desperately wanted… something more to happen between them. If only I had the courage to talk to her about something besides basketball or work.

Myr looked up and saw him watching her. She grinned, “It’s good to see you using all that genius to literally act as a ring stand.”

He grinned back and shot for a self-deprecating tone, “This is about my speed. I’m thinking about going back and getting another PhD in ring-standing. Just worried about whether I can hack it.”

Noticing movement out of the corner of his eye, Vinn looked over and saw Dr. Miller standing in the door of the lab. Miller cleared his throat to get their attention and by the time everyone looked around Vinn realized that Miller looked fairly distraught. “Myr, Vinn, Ellen, we need to talk.”

Myr frowned, “Okay, what about?”

Miller gave a brief shake of his head, “Let’s do it in the conference room.”

“But we’re…” Vinn began.

Miller shook his head again, “We need to talk now.”

Myr and Vinn both looked a little frustrated when the three of them arrived in the conference room. Ellen had only been working at Miller Tech for couple of weeks and didn’t know how things usually went so she merely looked curious. Vinn looked resigned to the delay but Myr said, “Can I at least go back and get the techs to keep working on my assembly? They’re just standing around.”

Miller sighed, “I’m worried we need to abandon fusion completely.”

“What? Why?!”

“You know I’ve been working on setting up an invitational conference at which we’d have a bunch of companies look at your proton field technology and eventually bid to commercialize it, especially fusion…” he paused, glancing back and forth from Myr to Vinn. “I was working up a presentation for it when I suddenly pictured one of the reps asking me if a focal point generator wouldn’t let almost any Joe Blow build an H-bomb.” Miller stopped again to stare sadly at his young protégés, “I don’t want to rain on your parade, but I’ve started thinking we need to destroy all records of this technology and take our memories to the grave with us.”

Vinn and Myr both started shaking their heads at him. Vinn said, “Joe Blow wouldn’t be able to do it…”

Arlan interrupted, “Come on Vinn, all he’d need is a proton field generator and a tank of hydrogen. Mount the generator on the side of the tank, focus it inside, and he could take out Kansas City.”

“No, he couldn’t. I won’t disagree that he could achieve fusion and make a big boom, but he isn’t even going to be able to destroy a city block.”

Arlan narrowed his eyes, “Why not? And if you’re going to tell me that we just won’t sell high terahertz generators to anyone except certified utilities, we can’t take a chance that someone won’t just build his own.”

“I’ve run the numbers already because I had the same concern,” Vinn said. “Even the steepest gradients we could theoretically generate wouldn’t be able to make a really big bomb. The problem is that the focal point becomes more and more microscopic as the gradient gets steeper. So, you have this tiny area where fusion occurs, and as soon as fusion starts happening at the focus you have tremendous heat-pressure pushing the hydrogen back out.” He shrugged, “We’re not even close yet, but I think if we optimize everything, we might be able to fuse about seventy milligrams of hydrogen a second. That’s about ten gigawatts or 12 million horsepower—somewhere close to the amount of power generated by each of the three rocket engines on the back of the old space shuttle.” He tilted his head, “It’s a lot of energy, something like what you’d get from blowing up two tons of TNT each second, but megaton H-bombs were like blowing up millions of tons of TNT.”

“Even two tons sounds pretty scary…” Arlan began tentatively.

“Yeah, but that’s with a lot of engineering optimization. We wouldn’t be selling ones optimized for explosion to people to install in their house. They’d be getting ones designed to steadily fuse small amounts of hydrogen in order to power a house or car. But, let’s say some idiot does manage to optimize one himself and hooks it up to a tank of hydrogen…” Vinn shrugged, “Let’s say the idiot manages to generate as much energy as a few kilos of TNT. You can imagine that it’d blow up his hydrogen tank and destroy the field generator almost instantaneously. The fusion process would stop in microseconds. I’m not saying it won’t do any damage. It will, but your idiot could do as much or more damage with a gallon of gasoline and, so far, we haven’t outlawed that.”

“Gasoline?” Arlan said, surprised by what seemed like a non-sequitur.

“Yeah, you have to supply the oxygen separately, but gasoline has about ten times more energy by weight than TNT. Surprising huh?”

Arlan blinked in surprise but then shrugged that off. “Sure, but you’re saying that we’ll be able to generate a lot more energy than those few kilos of TNT you’re proposing…”

“Yeah,” Vinn said, “but we’re proposing to produce that fusion in water inside a chamber engineered to resist the expansion of the water and channel it steadily outward through a rocket nozzle. Joe Blow would be doing it inside a closed hydrogen cylinder that’s going to explode and dissipate the hydrogen before he even gets to the equivalent of a half kilo of TNT.”

Miller turned to look at Ellen, “You’re our nuclear physics expert, is Vinn’s assessment correct?”

She shrugged, “Yeah. Running the theoretical numbers it is. Of course, I’m still astonished that it works at all, but I ran the numbers we have and got the same conclusion. The real miracle here is that we can produce sustained, controlled fusion over long periods of time. It doesn’t look like it would be possible to achieve huge amounts of fusion in microseconds like you’d need for a bomb.” She leaned forward, “Barring someone coming up with a way to increase the size and intensity of the field focus beyond what we think’s theoretically possible, it isn’t going to let anyone build bombs that are more powerful than current conventional explosives.”

Arlan opened his mouth to speak, but Ellen put up a halting hand and said, “I want to point out that everything we’ve said here so far is all based on theoretical numbers. We need to do a real-world test to make sure we’re not catastrophically wrong.”

Everyone turned to stare at Ellen with wide eyes, “How do you propose to do that?!”

“Testing of nuclear weapons was initially done in uninhabited regions of Nevada or out on atolls in the Pacific,” Ellen said musingly, “Later they did a lot of testing underground. We could do it way out in the ocean…”

Vinn interrupted, “They stopped doing that because…” he paused tilting his head thoughtfully.

Apparently recognizing that Vinn was thinking his way through what might be wrong with the objection he’d been about to make, Ellen said, “They stopped because they were contaminating everything with radioactivity. But that’s because the fission bombs—and even their H-bombs used a fission weapon to fuse the hydrogen—were dirty. Several reasons for that. First of all, those bombs often spread around quite a bit of undetonated plutonium. Second, those bombs were neutron rich and those extra neutrons induced radioactivity in other materials through neutron activation. An extra neutron renders a lot of elements unstable. In the ocean, the water doesn’t get activated but radioactivity can be induced in the sodium and chloride of the salt in that water.”

Vinn nodded, “And we don’t have to worry about that because the gammas released by proton-proton fusion don’t induce radioactivity.”

“Right, proton-proton fusion to deuterium doesn’t release neutrons if it stops there. On the sun, where fusion of hydrogen goes all the way to helium it does release neutrons. However, both theoretically and in practice the fusion we’re inducing doesn’t release any neutrons.”

Arlan frowned, “What would be the advantages of underground testing? There are a lot of abandoned lead and zinc mines in southeastern Kansas.”

“They tested underground because if they fired a weapon far enough below the surface none of the radioactivity would escape,” Ellen said. “We don’t really need to worry about radioactivity other than the gammas released at the time of fusion.” She lifted an eyebrow, “That is, as long as we don’t stand where the gammas can hit us—essentially direct line of sight.”

“So, we could test underground if we wanted?”

“Sure, we could,” Ellen said dubiously. “But abandoned mines are dangerous because they can collapse. And, when they did those tests, they filled in the shafts after they’d put their bomb down there. That’d be hugely expensive. Remember, what I’m suggesting is just that we be absolutely sure our devices aren’t somehow able to fuse far more hydrogen than we think they can. In other words, ‘could Joe Blow destroy Kansas City with one of our field generators and a tank of hydrogen?’” Ellen’s eyes tracked to each of the other three people in the room, “If we do accidentally explode a really big bomb, I’d much rather it was out in the trackless expanses of the Pacific than somewhere in Kansas.”

“We’d kill a lot of fish.”

She shrugged, “I think marine life density is low out a long way from land. Besides, all our theories say any explosion ought to be fairly small, right?”

Myr said, “We could make sure it isn’t huge by only providing a certain amount of hydrogen… Maybe twice as much as we think the focal point can fuse, so we can tell if it goes beyond what we expect, but not enough that we’d be firing off kilotons.”

“I’d rather kill some fish than induce a worldwide nuclear winter.” Ellen said slowly, then grinned, “Besides, I feel like a little vacation to Hawaii, how about you guys?”

******

As Arlan walked into his office in the morning, he saw Joe sitting tautly at the desk Joe usually manned in the outer office. Joe looked very much out of sorts and Arlan stopped, “Hey Joe, you feeling okay?”

Joe didn’t look him in the eye as he said, “Not really. Can I talk to you in your office?”

“Sure,” Arlan said, concerned, “somebody sick?”

Joe shook his head as they walked into Arlan’s office. Joe closed the door behind him; then stood in front of Arlan’s desk, twisting his hands together and looking uncomfortable.

“Sit, Joe,” Arlan said waving at a chair. “Tell me what the problem is and how I can help. Whatever it is, you know I’ve got your back.”

Joe took a deep breath, then said, “How you can help… In the best of all worlds, you wouldn’t fire me. In the best I can hope for kind of world, you wouldn’t blackball me for every other job I might ever apply for.”

Arlan sank back in his chair, feeling like he’d been punched in the gut. Joe went on to tell him about how he’d been approached by someone wanting to be “kept abreast of new developments” at Miller Tech. “Of course, I told him no. But he said he didn’t want any specifics or secrets, he just wanted to know what direction you were moving. What the rumors were in the halls… Nothing,” Joe lifted his hands to make finger quotes, “confidential.” Joe sighed, “The guy made it sound so innocent, like being a reporter or something.” He glanced at Arlan, but then immediately dropped his eyes again, “And, he paid a lot of money. Helped with the kids’ college tuition, you know?”

“That doesn’t sound like such a big deal,” Arlan said.

“Yeah,” Joe said, his voice breaking, “but it was classic bait and switch. He kept asking for more information. When I didn’t want to give it, he threatened to blackmail me over what I’d already given him. And,” he continued in a small voice, “of course, he started paying me less since I wasn’t giving him what he wanted.”

A sick feeling in his stomach, Arlan asked, “What did you give him?”

“As little as possible.” Joe went on to tell Miller about turning state’s evidence for the FBI and going to his last meeting wearing a wire. “But,” he said, “I did tell him that scuttlebutt was that you were working on fusion. He wanted diagrams and descriptions which I couldn’t have given him even if I’d wanted. I’m pretty sure his people are the ones that destroyed Ms. Sevii’s apartment… I feel pretty awful about it.”

“But the FBI’s on it now?”

“They were already on it, from you reporting the break-in at Ms. Sevii’s, and your suspicions about what they might be after. Hopefully I got them a few steps closer to the real spies.”

Arlan sat, staring at the floor for a couple of minutes. Finally he looked up, “What do you think I should do Joe?”

His voice breaking, Joe said, “You oughta fire me.” He wiped at an eye, “Of course, I’m hoping against hope that you won’t.”

Arlan turned his eyes to the window and sat thinking another few minutes. Finally, without turning back around, he said, “Aw hell, I don’t know what to do. Take the day off and we’ll both think about it.”

Joe blew out a long breath, “Thanks for… for at least considering alternatives.”

As Joe walked out, Arlan said, “See if you can find someone to man your desk for the rest of the day. Come back and talk to me again tomorrow morning.”

******

Myr looked up at the knock on her door frame and saw Dr. Miller standing there. “What are you working on?” he asked.

She waved at a stainless-steel cylinder, “Assembling our high-powered field generators for the tests in Hawaii.”

Miller’s eyes widened as he took in the size of the two cylinders.

Myr chuckled, “Don’t worry; the actual field generator isn’t all that much bigger than our usual ones. There seems to be a law of diminishing returns from oversizing the coils and plates. The main reason these cylinders are so big is that they have to contain the high-powered batteries that activate the generator and power the radio that lets us control it. It also has a set of sensors to help measure the size of the explosion… Well, at least the initial impact before the explosion destroys the device.”

Still looking concerned, Miller said, “Are we going to be able to get these things on the plane?”

“Yeah, I checked.” She winked, “It is going to cost you a pile of money though.”

Miller rolled his eyes, but waved that aside. “I need to talk to you and Vinn. Any idea where he is?”

“Yeah.” Myr said with a suspicious tone, “This isn’t going to be another one of those,” she deepened her voice, “ ‘you must abandon all research,’ kind of talks, is it?”

“No, but it’s still probably going to piss you off.”

She frowned, then sighed. “Let’s go find Vinn and get it over with.” She led the way out into the hallway.

Once they were all in a small conference room, Miller said, “Let’s all sit down.”

“Oh-oh, is this going to take a long time?” Myr said, trying for a teasing tone, but knowing she sounded worried.

“No,” Miller said, “I just want you sitting down on the opposite side of the table so it’ll be harder for you to come after me.” Myr saw Vinn give Miller just as odd a look as she felt sure she was giving him.

As soon as they were all seated, Miller said, “Joe Barker, you know, the guy that runs my office?” They both nodded and Miller, looking unhappy, continued, “We probably should fire him, but I don’t want to.”

“What?” Vinn said, “He seems to do a great job, as near as I can tell. He’s always friendly. If he can’t handle a problem he knows who can. He’s… a great resource—I’d hate to lose him.”

“I agree with everything you’ve said,” Miller said. But then he grimaced, “However, Joe got sucked into a pit by some kind of industrial spy.”

Myr felt a sick feeling well up in her stomach. Sitting forward involuntarily, she said, “Is he the son of a bitch that ransacked my apartment?!”

“No! No,” Miller said, putting up his hands, palm out and waving in a calming fashion. Miller explained how Joe’d been recruited with promises of big payoffs for minor updates about the direction of Miller Tech’s research. But, then how he’d been pulled down a descending spiral of decreasing payoffs, increasing demands for information and threats of blackmail. “Joe’d already gotten a lawyer to help him work with the FBI when your place got burglarized. He’s turning state’s evidence and helping them catch the guy.”

“Burglarized! Hell, my place got raped,” Myr heard herself saying in an angry tone.

Miller nodded, “Yeah, sorry. But it wasn’t Joe that did it.”

“But he’s probably why they were after my data!”

“No doubt,” Miller said lifting his palms in a helpless shrug. “But I think of him as a victim in this too. A victim who’s sure as hell learned his lesson. And, a friend and,” Miller’s eyes went to Vinn in acknowledgement, “an important resource for our company. A guy who’s got a family and a couple of kids to support.” Miller looked back at Myr, “However, you’re far more important than Joe. If you say so, I’ll fire him.”

Myr felt her own eyes widen, “You’re puttin’ this on me?!”

Miller shrugged, “Yeah. I won’t tell him you’re the one who made the decision unless you want me to, but you’re probably the one he hurt the worst.” Miller tilted his head a little bit and gave her a curious expression, “Things like this are tough. If you’re going to be a leader, you’re going to have to deal with them.”

Her stomach roiling, Myr said, “He hurt the whole company!”

Miller only nodded.

Myr closed her eyes and sat silently for a minute, then she said, “Oh hell. I like him too and I can picture in my mind how he got led down the garden path, then shoved off into the quicksand.” She quirked a small grin from beneath a lowered brow, “I still think you should fire him, but I don’t want you to.”

Miller took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thanks, I don’t think we’ll regret it.” He looked back and forth from Myr to Vinn, “Otherwise, we ready to go to Hawaii?”

Vinn grinned, and tossed his head, “Oh hell yeah! I’ve been dieting, getting my tips bleached, bought a new bikini…”

Miller interrupted, “You don’t have any weight to lose! Besides, this is a working trip.”

They both snorted.

******

When Joe got to work the next morning he found Miller already there. Uncertainly, he went to stand fidgeting in the doorway of Miller’s office. Miller looked up, “Hey Joe, I’ve got to leave for the airport in a few hours, can you check to make sure all the arrangements for Hawaii are still in place?”

Joe opened a suddenly dry mouth, “Does that mean I’ve still got a job?” he asked in a trembling voice.

“Have you learned your lesson?”

Joe nodded, not trusting himself to speak aloud.

“Then get back to work and keep doing the same great job you’ve always done.”

Feeling the tension in his stomach ease, Joe nodded again and started to step away. Miller said, “Joe?”

Joe turned back, “Yeah?”

“I’d recommend you apologize to Ms. Sevii. She’s pretty upset about what happened to her place.”

******

Rabbie stood on his charter boat, Big Red, dubiously watching the little group approach. Almost all his runs were for deep sea fishing so when Faye had told him that some scientists wanted to go out in his boat he’d refused. That is, he’d refused until Faye had told him how much they were willing to pay.

Even better, they wanted to go out far enough that it’d require an overnight trip and they were taking enough stuff that it’d justified him chartering Big Red to them. And, they’d requested that he take along an extra inflatable life raft, which they’d paid for and told him he could keep afterward.

When he’d first seen the little group coming along the dock, he’d thought they must be going out on a different boat. He didn’t know what he’d expected, probably some geeky looking guys with thick glasses and white coats. Instead, the people heading for his boat appeared to be one ordinary looking dark skinned guy in his fifties, a pale woman in her thirties, a slender woman in her twenties that he thought must be a runner because of her well-toned legs, and a geeky looking guy who might barely be 20. The two younger ones had intermediate skin colors. If Rabbie’d seen them on the street, he might have thought they were a guy, his surprisingly young looking—or second—wife, and his two kids. They were dressed like they were on vacation, wearing shorts, T-shirts, deck shoes, and, he suspected, had swimsuits underneath. Up close, the young guy looked quite physically fit as well. There must be something about the way he carried himself that gave Rabbie the impression he was such a nerd.

As he’d been warned to expect, they were carrying a surprising amount of gear. Rabbie introduced himself, and when they gave him their names he noticed that each one had a different last name—so he decided they probably really were a group that worked together rather than some kind of family group. Teasingly, Rabbie said, “Hey, we’re supplying the food, you didn’t have to bring enough gear to camp out on the boat.”

Miller, the older guy, smiled at Rabbie and said, “You’d better be bringing the food, all this stuff is scientific gear. Did you get that extra life raft for us?”

“Sure did. Saburo’ll show you where to stow all that stuff.”

It was a lot of stuff—they made two trips back to their vehicles before they’d loaded it all onto Big Red.

It was late afternoon as they headed north out to sea. Rabbie watched his charges excitedly ooh and ah over the scenery. Miller’d joined Rabbie by the wheel, but the younger ones were running around in their swimsuits. The young guy had on a t-shirt but looked pretty muscular considering how much of a geek Rabbie thought he was. Rabbie was having a hard time keeping his eyes off the two women and decided they must be eye candy rather than real scientists. He glanced at Miller out of the corner of his eye, “Where exactly are you guys wanting to go?”

Miller chewed his lip for a minute. “About eighty to a hundred miles offshore… In your professional opinion, somewhere where there aren’t any fish.”

“No fish? Why?”

“Well,” Miller said a little hesitantly, “the reason we’re out here is we want to test some equipment that we think is going to blow up…”

“Blow up!” Rabbie said turning to look back at where all their equipment was stored, “You brought explosives on my boat?!”

“Not explosives… no, but devices that can explode. They… they make steam, like for a steam engine? But, they can make a pretty big bang.”

Rabbie narrowed his eyes, “How big?”

Miller glanced away, then turned back to look Rabbie steadily in the eye. “By our calculations, about as big as you’d get from a half ton of TNT.”

“Holy shit!” Rabbie said, turning a startled glance back toward where their equipment was stacked. “You brought on a lot of stuff, but it doesn’t weigh a half ton.”

“Yeah, it’s a device, not explosive chemicals,” Miller said, his eyes back out on the horizon. “You don’t have to worry about it accidentally blowing up. It has to be powered up and correctly assembled before it could possibly go off.”

“A half ton of TNT…” Rabbie said musingly. How big an explosion is that? I’ll want the boat to be a long ways away.”

“Yeah, us too,” Miller said. “We’ll want to be completely back behind the horizon which we’re figuring is about six miles… Here, I’ve got some videos of underwater explosions I pulled off of YouTube.” Miller spoke to his AI and a video popped up on the screen that usually displayed the images from Big Red’s radar. “This one’s five tons of high explosive.”

Eyes wide, Rabbie watched the explosion. The one with five tons was set off about fifty yards from a navy ship and was scary huge with water fountaining far above the top of the boat. Film inside the ship showed people rocked about by the shock wave, though the boat didn’t seem to have been significantly damaged. “Wow!” Rabbie said, “That’s pretty scary. I wouldn’t want this ol’ fishing boat to be that close to an explosion, even one a lot smaller than that, but… why six miles? You should be plenty safe at a few hundred yards and you’d be able to see what happened a lot better.”

“We’ll be able to see anyway,” Miller said jerking a thumb back over his shoulder toward the equipment. “We brought some drones in that huge stack of equipment back there. They’ll stay near the experiment and send us video.”

“But still, why do we need to be so far away?”

“Because… the reason we’re doing this is to make sure our calculations are correct and the explosion isn’t a whole lot bigger.”

“Oh,” Rabbie said, thinking furiously, “how much bigger? These aren’t some kind of atomic weapons, are they?”

Miller turned to give Rabbie a steady gaze, “Not exactly. Not the way you’re thinking, anyhow, though they do fuse some atoms. As to how much bigger, that’s why we’re doing it way out at sea. We want to be sure our theory isn’t wrong and it’s not a whole lot bigger.”

Rabbie gave him a worried look, “You couldn’t blow up the whole world could you?!”

Laughing, Miller said, “No, no chance of that. We’ve done everything we can to make sure that it couldn’t be any bigger than that first video with five tons of high explosive.” He shrugged, “Of course, we’ve never done it before, so we can’t be sure. We think it’s better to play it safe and imagine that it might be much bigger than the one with five tons. One possibility if we truly don’t understand how this technology works, is that it might be like the explosion of eighty tons of TNT… Would you like to see a video of an atomic bomb set off underwater? I’ve got a video here of one that’s the equivalent of 23,000 tons of TNT from back when they did the nuclear testing on Bikini.”

Wide-eyed, Rabbie said, “I thought you said it couldn’t be that big?!”

Miller shrugged, “No, it can’t. But, let’s watch the video anyway.” He spoke to his AI and a video that had obviously been converted from film popped up on the screen. “You’ll be able to see that even if we’re really, really, really drastically wrong about how big it is, we’d still survive the explosion if we’re six miles away.”

“Kanapapiki!” Rabbie swore softly in Hawaiian, his eyes on the enormous “Baker” explosion. “Do you have permission to do this?”

Miller frowned, “We spent some time trying to figure out if there’s any group or body that thinks it has the right to give permits for testing like this and we can’t find one. Do you know of a place where we could have gotten a license?”

Rabbie shook his head.

Morning dawned on a beautiful day. Though, out here in the mid-Pacific as winter approached, that still meant waves about five to ten feet high. Rabbie’d noticed his passengers wore seasickness patches behind their ears, and he suspected they were glad of them even though he thought the weather was relatively mild.

They’d had a pleasant dinner the night before, then Rabbie’s mate had taken the night shift, running Big Red farther and farther out to sea. They’d stopped in an area where Rabbie had never caught or heard of others catching fish. The water here was really deep and his fish-finder sonar hadn’t seen anything for hours. Rabbie felt fairly confident that any explosion they generated wouldn’t kill many fish—if any.

The scientists unloaded a hefty stainless steel cylinder, then spent time attaching a pole to it that held a very small cylinder labeled “hydrogen,” about five feet from one end of it. They attached it to a float with a ninety-foot tether and ran a wire along the tether to an antenna on the float.

They dismounted the little hydrogen cylinder and the young woman opened the valve on it to empty it. Then they mounted it on top of a fancy digital scale that the guy held suspended on a frame so the motion of the waves wouldn’t affect it so much. Once they’d written down its weight to what looked like a lot of decimal points, the young woman took the cylinder and filled it from a bigger tank, also labeled hydrogen. She spent a lot of time carefully filling it to an exact pressure as measured by a high tech gauge. Then they weighed it again. Both of the women and the young guy then spent time doing calculations with the help of their AIs. Rabbie turned to Miller, “What the hell are they trying to figure out?”

Quietly, Miller said, “The hydrogen is what goes bang. They’re trying to make absolutely sure there’s no more than 130 milligrams of hydrogen in that little cylinder.” He sighed, “If they manage to fuse all hundred and thirty milligrams, it should create a blast like about four tons of TNT. They don’t think they’ll be able to fuse even ten percent which would be the equivalent of 400 kilos of TNT.” Miller glanced at Rabbie and, apparently deciding Rabbie might not be comfortable with the metric system, he said, “That’d be about 880 pounds of TNT.”

Rabbie frowned, “How big is a milligram? I thought they were small.”

“Yeah.” Miller gave a little snort, “It’s a thousandth of a gram. A nickel weighs five grams, so you can tell we’re talking about a pretty small quantity. That’s why they’re measuring so carefully, and measuring it a couple of different ways, and each one calculating their own result. We do not want to screw this up. Like a carpenter, ‘measure twice, cut once,’ except they’re trying to check it far more than two different ways.”

“Wait, I thought hydrogen was lighter than air. It doesn’t weigh anything at all does it?”

Miller said, “It still weighs something. Just like your boat’s lighter than water so it floats on the ocean but it’s actually still pretty heavy, something lighter than air can still weigh a little bit.”

“So, the hydrogen in that little cylinder weighs as much as how many nickels?”

“It weighs about as much as one fortieth of a single nickel,” Miller said soberly. “It’s not much, that’s why they’re trying to measure it so carefully.”

Rabbie studied Miller for a moment, then decided the eggheads were a little out of balance. If they thought that something weighing less than a nickel could blow up like tons of TNT, they must have slipped a few digits back in kindergarten. He felt himself relax, At least I don’t have to worry about them setting off a really big explosion, he thought.

Next they used some instruments to do some testing out at the end of the rod in front of the big cylinder while one of them used a radio to send signals to it. Finally satisfied, they made a big deal out of turning off the radio, going so far as to dismount the batteries from it. Then they mounted the small cylinder back out on the end of the rod in front of the big cylinder and lowered the whole thing into the sea.

The big and little cylinder sank as they let out the tether and eventually they dropped the float and its antenna over the side as well. While Rabbie slowly pulled the boat a couple hundred yards away from the antenna float, one of his men inflated the extra life raft the scientists bought. The geeks uncrated their drones which weren’t the kind of hovering drones that Rabbie had expected. They were like little airplanes and they all mounted in a rack that attached to the life raft. The scientists had a small sea anchor that they attached to the bow of the raft and a little sail they attached to the stern so that it always faced into the wind. Rabbie said, “Why aren’t you using hover drones with four vertical propellers like everyone else uses?”

Miller shrugged, “Too much wind out here in the trades. They’d get blown away. These little airplane types of drones can fly into the wind so they stay nearly stationary, and they can stay up a lot longer.”

After hanging a bunch of electronic sensors off the edge of the raft and putting more sensors and cameras up on top of it, the scientists had Rabbie turn the boat and move away six miles like Miller had said earlier. Miller kept asking Rabbie to check the sonar for fish and he did so faithfully even though he thought it was ridiculous to worry about them in view of the “smaller than a nickel” explosive. When they were nearly at the six-mile limit, the younger of the two women apparently used the radio to launch one of the little drone airplanes. They all watched a picture of the ocean on a little video screen as the little drone circled higher and higher. At first, other than the float and the raft, nothing was visible on the surface of the ocean out to the horizon. Then Rabbie saw a boat. The scientist didn’t seem to notice it, so he turned to Miller, “There’s a boat there.”

Miller nodded, “That’s us here in Big Red. The drone’s up about 100 feet, so its horizon’s a lot further away than ours is.”

Of course it is, Rabbie thought, feeling stupid. I’m the guy who spends almost every day out on the ocean! Why’s this guy having to tell me about the horizon? After a moment, he consoled himself, I guess I’ve never had to recognize I’m looking back at myself before.

The scientists blew up a balloon and sent it up trailing an antenna wire. They put their battery back in the radio and attached it to the antenna wire, then all huddled around and conferred with one another for a couple of minutes. The young guy spoke to his AI and a couple of minutes later five more little screens lit up. Rabbie recognized that they’d launched the rest of their drones. For a little while the screens didn’t seem to show anything but ocean, but then Rabbie could tell they’d each turned their cameras back toward the site from which they’d launched. The images centered so the life raft and float were in the middle of their screens. The younger of the two women switched on the radio and pushed a button.

A white spot instantly appeared on the surface of the ocean around the float; then an explosion burst through the surface, blowing water high into the air. It was scary big, but Rabbie thought it was smaller than any of the ones he’d watched on the YouTube videos. Way bigger than you’d get with any explosive smaller than a nickel though, he thought. He wondered why they’d lied to him. That big cylinder must have been packed with C4 or something, he thought.

The scientific types seemed happy because, just like Rabbie, they thought the blast was smaller than the ones on YouTube. He heard them saying things about “comes out to a quarter ton,” and “the high end would be a half ton.” Rabbie’d been wondering if maybe they were actually hoping for a huge explosion and all Miller’s talk about expecting a small one and worrying about a big one had been ass-covering for when the authorities showed up. Then again, they sure acted like they were happy with the size of boom they’d had.

Miller had Rabbie run Big Red back to the life raft which appeared completely undamaged. They pulled it in and dismounted all their gear from it. Rabbie’s crew deflated the raft while Rabbie drove the boat around so he and Miller could look for any remnants of the antenna float.

They didn’t find a scrap.

That being all the scientists wanted to do, Rabbie turned Big Red back for Honolulu, though they didn’t get in until well after dark.

******

The team’s Hawaiian travel arrangements had included three extra days to deal with whatever problems developed during testing. Since, astonishingly, everything had gone well on their first attempt, they were using the unscheduled days for a little R&R on Waikiki’s Duke Kahanamoku beach. Shortly after sunrise which—considering the time change—still felt a bit like midday to her, Myr walked out onto the sand in front of the hotel. Kicking off her flip-flops, she trotted down to the firm moist sand near the water’s edge, turned left and ran a short distance to get a feel for what beach running was like.

She could tell that running on the sand was going to be more work than running on a firmer surface but after a moment’s thought decided it’d be an interesting challenge. Taking off, she spent some time trying to decide which part of the moist sand was the best and what stride length to use. That determined, she settled down to a good long run. In the distance, she saw a shirtless guy running toward her along the same strip of damp sand. She looked out to sea, taking in its gorgeous, greenish blue colors.

Soon her mind had drifted off into the steady thrumming of her legs and the joy of the exertion. Distantly she noticed the guy getting closer, but paid little attention.

When he got close they had to give each other a little room on the strip of sand they both preferred. As she moved over she glanced at his torso and noticed he was in really great shape.

She heard a shout behind her, “Hey!”

Irritated, Myr pretended not to notice the guy. Even more exasperating however, she heard him stop. Then she heard him start up behind her—he was following her! As usual when some guy decided to run with her, Myr picked up her pace, knowing that most men couldn’t keep up and counting on exhaustion to keep him at a distance. However, this guy must’ve sprinted to catch up. Most guys didn’t want to be so obvious so they tried to pull up gradually, a strategy that allowed her to slowly increase the pace and wear them down. This guy pulled up beside her too quickly for that strategy. Myr kept her eyes straight ahead and wondered what kind of tired old line he was going to trot out.

In Vinn’s voice the guy said, “Hey, you mad?”

Startled, Myr glanced over. It was Vinn. Why do I keep thinking of Vinn as such a wimp? He plays basketball with me for God’s sake! Yet somehow her mind managed to repeatedly pigeonhole him as an underdeveloped nerd, especially whenever she saw him in a work setting. Perhaps the fact that he never dressed to emphasize his physique and never made a big deal out of his fitness might have something to do with it.

She glanced at him again. Running, with his shirt off, he looked… wow! His body was hard, his muscles well-developed. He had a six-pack! Mentally, Myr rolled her eyes at herself. “No,” she said, “I was just off in my own little world and didn’t notice it was you. Sorry.”

“Okay,” he said, giving her a sad puppy look, “have a nice run.” He slowed, and a moment later when she glanced back over her shoulder she saw that he’d turned and started back the other way on his return to the hotel.

Now Myr wondered if she’d hurt his feelings. Maybe he’d expected her to stop and talk. Her antipathy toward him had completely faded and she’d begun to think of him as a lot of fun. Seeing him out running in just his shorts had left her feeling… She wasn’t sure. She didn’t like to think that physical attraction played a big part in her thoughts about a man but… he was pretty ripped.

With a snort, she stopped, turned around and went back after him. I’m not this shallow, she thought to herself.

By the time Myr caught back up to Vinn she felt too embarrassed to admit that she just wanted to spend time with him. “Hey there, Mr. Numbers, have you got any figures for the yield of our little explosion?”

He gave her a surprised look, “Yeah, I had those on the boat ride back in. I thought you knew.”

“Well, I knew it was toward the small end.”

“We fused somewhere between eleven and fifteen milligrams, depending on which measurements you go by. In the range we expected, certainly.”

“Great,” Myr said, now wondering how she could turn the conversation away from work and on to something… not work. She settled for, “Got any plans today?”

“Ellen’s trying to work out a helicopter tour, interested?”

“Sure,” Myr said, trying to sound enthusiastic, even though she’d hoped for something that might just involve herself and Vinn. He thinks you’re too old for him, she chided herself.

******

Aleks sat, wearing a wire and waiting in Addison’s St. Louis steakhouse, musing on how his life had so turned to shit. First of all, he couldn’t believe that pussy Joe Barker had had the balls to go belly up and turn state’s evidence. When the Feebs had shown up to take Aleks in, he’d thought it must have been for any one of a number of other things he’d been doing. When their questions had made it evident that they were there about his spying on Miller Tech and that they knew everything Joe Barker could possibly have told them, Aleks’ initial reaction had been disbelief.

They’d offered Aleks a deal he’d had to take. He was tasked with helping them take down his handler so the Feebs could keep eating their way up the chain. In return, he’d do only a year in federal lockup. Aleks actually wanted the year in lockup. It would give Aleks plausible deniability with the organization by serving as evidence the Feebs had screwed him over too. And it put him in a relatively protected location for a year until things cooled down. Not that he knew much about the organization above Kelley, but if they were anything like she was, they had to be scary. They could probably reach into the joint to snuff him if they wanted, but it’d be more difficult.

Maybe a year’d give them time to cool down.

Sitting and waiting had Aleks about to crap his pants. Kelley was such a bad-ass bitch that he would never have dreamed of crossing her if he hadn’t been backed into a corner. He’d warned the FBI she was extremely dangerous and they’d responded by seating three Feebs at the table cattycorner to his. The G-men were supposed to protect Aleks if Kelley went savage. The Agency also had people stationed at all the exits.

Aleks had told them he didn’t think it would be enough, but they’d just stared at him with disbelief.

He sincerely hoped Kelley wouldn’t get away so she could come after him later. The thing that worried Aleks most was the possibility that she might just take him out in a fit of rage once she realized she’d been betrayed.

Aleks looked up at a sudden hush and saw Kelley at the focus. She’d always been attractive and ready to use her looks to get her way, but not in a fashion to draw excessive attention. Tonight however, she was platinum blond and wore high spike heels. She was in a short dress, split down the front to her belly button. The outfit showed a spectacular amount of cleavage and its hem was so high that if she bent at all it’d bring her underwear into view. The silence in the room came from all the people who’d interrupted their conversations to gawk. Aleks stared too, It’s like she’s gone out of her way to attract attention! Why? Out of the corner of his eye, Aleks realized the Feebs weren’t staring. Aleks got a sick feeling in his stomach. She knows! he thought. How?

Aleks started to stand, but Kelley waved him back into his seat, “No need to get up Aleks,” she said opening her purse and reaching in, as if looking for lipstick. “You’ve already disappointed me.”

There was the stunningly loud crack of a gunshot. It took Aleks a moment to realize that Kelley had fired a pistol without even pulling it out of her purse. It fired twice more. The three agents at the table next to his were all pitching out of their chairs. Wide-eyed, Aleks saw they’d all been taken out with head shots, so their body armor had helped about as much as Aleks had feared. Before the screaming started, Kelley gave the Feebs a distasteful look. Despite the ringing in his ears, Aleks heard her say, “Should’a stared like everybody else boys.” Having confirmed how she’d known who the Feebs were, she turned her gaze to Aleks, “And you shouldn’t have sold me out.”

As Kelley’s purse swung his way Aleks was already diving out of his chair and scrambling under the next table. The pistol barked twice nonetheless. Aleks felt the thumps as the slugs hit him in the chest. I’m done for, Aleks thought as he rolled to watch. She shook the purse off her gun and ejected the magazine out of it. She slapped a new one in.

Snatching a woman’s coat off the back of the lady’s chair, Kelley slipped into the coat, then pulled off and tossed a wig. A short haired brunette now, she merged into the panicked rush for the door.

The last thing Aleks saw was Kelley dropping the gun into the pocket of the coat, then reaching down and snapping the heels off her shoes. They must have been made to break away like that, he thought as the lights dimmed.

******

Joe was most of the way to work when he heard a husky female voice from the back seat of his car. “Take your car off AI, Joe,” it said.

A chill washed over him as he glanced into his rearview mirror. There was a pretty, though hard-looking woman back there. Why didn’t I see her when I got in the car?! “Wh-who are you?” he stuttered, a horrible certainty welling up inside of him.

Something cold pressed against his neck and she said more emphatically, “Shut off the car’s AI Joe.”

Joe told the car to allow manual driving and took the wheel. She said, “Turn right.”

Joe braked and started to turn right, wondering whether he could push the door open and roll out while it was moving slowly. His hand shifted to the door handle…

“I’ll pull the trigger if you even crack that door,” she said calmly.

Sweat breaking out on his forehead, Joe pulled his hand away from the handle and finished turning the corner. “Where do you want to go?” he said in a resigned tone.

“Pull in and park in that empty slot,” she said emotionlessly.

Joe didn’t want to park because he’d be next to another car. Its proximity would limit his car’s door opening and make exiting slower. He steeled himself to try to jump out as the car turned into the slot but the woman coolly said, “Don’t do anything stupid.”

Joe settled for parking at the far right edge of the slot—something the AI would never have done—so his door could be opened as widely as possible. As he told the AI to put the car in park he felt a sharp prick in his neck. Jerking away, he yelled, “What the hell?!” He put his hand on the door handle.

“Just a little something to ensure your cooperation Joe,” the woman said. He heard her window rolling down. “That medication’s going to make you feel weak. So, if you try to run, you won’t get very far. Now, I want you to tell me which people at Miller Tech understand this fusion stuff they’ve got going.”

“You know, the FBI knows all about you people,” Joe said, hoping that if she didn’t know the feds were involved it might frighten her away.

“The FBI are a long way from here Joe,” she said matter-of-factly. “But I’m in your backseat with a gun to the back of your neck. I need you to start talking before I get irritated. Who understands fusion?”

Joe realized that she hadn’t been lying about the injection. His muscles were twitching and he felt weaker. He felt himself slumping in the seat and realized there was no way he’d be able to run away. “I don’t know…” he tried, desperately stalling for time.

“Joe,” she said, “I need you to understand who you’re messing with here. I’ve already killed Aleks Orlop, known to you as John Smith, and three of the FBI guys who were guarding him. Aleks let me down by trying to lead the FBI to me. Now, you’re starting to let me down. I’m the kind of coldhearted bitch who’d kill you just because you irritated me. And, if you get me really pissed, I’ll kill your wife and those two kids after we’re done. So, who understands fusion?”

Joe was starting to find it difficult to breathe. Panic started to set in. “Jesus! Um, Sevii does,” he said with a gasp. “She’s the one that…” another breath, “came up with it.”

“There you go,” the woman said, as if she were reassuring a child. “That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now, who else?”

“Dr. Saigler, maybe?” Joe worked to take another breath, “Mitchell too?” He gasped, “I don’t know!”

“Thanks Joe,” the woman said brightly and patted him on the shoulder. He felt another prick in his neck. “Antidote?” he huffed hopefully.

“No Joe, sorry. I’m afraid it’s just a lethal dose of the same stuff.” She patted him faux sympathetically again, “But you’ve been cooperative enough that I’ll leave your family out of this mess.”

Oh God! Joe thought as he felt his muscles twitching and weakening further. Desperately short of breath, he sagged against the door as he heard the back door open. She got out. Seconds later he heard another car door open and close, then that car pulled away.

As Joe heaved to take one more minuscule breath, his last thoughts were, She just wanted me to park here so she’d have a short walk to her car…

Chapter 6

Arlan felt irked. Joe normally beat him to work, but this morning he hadn’t been there. What’s more, he still hadn’t shown up. Arlan had had to contact the head of the admin pool and ask her to send someone over to man Joe’s desk. Apparently Joe wasn’t even answering calls to his AI. When the assistant from the pool had proven clueless on yet another issue Arlan had thought with some frustration, You’d think, after committing a firing offense and being let off, Joe’d be tending to business!

Arlan was talking to his AI and framing another search for data the assistant couldn’t find, when he saw the temp assistant standing nervously in his doorway. “What?” he said, letting his irritation show.

The assistant said, “Agent Foster from the FBI is here and would like to talk to you?”

Even more irritated that the assistant had failed to tell him the FBI had an appointment, Arlan said, “And you didn’t tell me they were coming because…”

“Um, they don’t have an appointment… but, he says it’s very important.”

Arlan felt a cold chill. And Joe’s missing! He stood, “Send him in.”

When Foster stepped through the door, he closed it behind him. Arlan suddenly worried that he couldn’t know for sure who the man was, but the agent pulled out a badge and showed it to him. Rather than just glancing, Arlan looked at it carefully to make sure the picture and the name matched. With some trepidation, he said, “What can I do for you Agent Foster?”

“I’m afraid I have some bad news. Joseph Barker, uh…”

The agent paused and studied Arlan as if to be sure Arlan knew who Joe Barker was. Arlan nodded, but didn’t trust himself to speak as a lump slowly congealed in his stomach.

“Mr. Barker was found dead in his car along his presumed route to work this morning.”

“Oh God!” Arlan said as an image of Joe’s wife exploded across his memory. He hadn’t seen Joe’s kids for years, but remembered them as teenagers at company picnics. “Foul play?”

“Not clear. No signs of trauma. His car was parked, though badly, as if he did it under manual control. We might not have heard about it yet except the guy in the car next to Joe’s couldn’t get into his car. He saw Mr. Barker apparently sleeping in the vehicle, and when Mr. Barker wouldn’t respond to knocks on the window he called the police.” Foster shrugged, “The police notified us.”

“You think he might have had a heart attack then?”

Foster didn’t say anything for a second, then slowly shook his head, “Maybe, but the timing’s far too coincidental.” He sighed, “I have more bad news, I’m afraid. Last night a team of our agents attempted to apprehend the next person up the organization of the spy ring who recruited Mr. Barker. We had already turned Mr. Barker’s contact and that individual set up a meet for us with the contact’s handler in St. Louis.”

“The guy got away?” Arlan said.

“Woman,” Foster said. “She not only got away, but she killed Mr. Barker’s contact and four of our agents while doing so.” Foster paused while considering Arlan, “It probably hasn’t escaped your notice that she could easily have driven here from St. Louis overnight. She could have been the one who killed Mr. Barker this morning.”

“Oh… Holy crap!” Arlan muttered sickly, feeling his buttocks clench against a sudden loosening of his bowels. Could she be coming after me? Aloud he said, “Are you thinking she’s a threat to people here at Miller Tech?”

Foster nodded slowly, “It’s hard to fathom why she would’ve felt it necessary to kill Barker. But… she killed one of our St. Louis agents going out the door of the restaurant. Since the agents had been completely unable to contain the outrushing crowd after the shooting in the restaurant, she’d already made good her escape. We, uh, think she may just like killing people.”

Arlan closed his eyes and squeezed back a sudden need to urinate. “And she might be coming here… So we should… what, send everyone home?” He opened his eyes in order to be able to see Foster’s reaction.

Foster’s eyes widened as if he’d been startled by the idea. “Oh! No, that’d be a terrible idea. In their homes they’d be completely vulnerable to one-on-one attacks. We’re bringing in a team to protect your main building here. We’d like to take the important players in your fusion technology to a safe house. We’d also like to take their close family members there. We don’t want her to be able to capture them for leverage.”

Arlan soon found himself arranging a small conference room so that Foster could make a presentation to the fusion team. Over in the big auditorium, one of Foster’s fellow agents would talk to the rest of the people at Miller Tech. Miller went off to gather Myr, Vinn, Ellen, and the techs who normally worked with them.

Busy, they didn’t want to come, but agreed with wide eyes when he told them that Joe was dead and had probably been murdered. In the conference room, Foster told the team about Joe and about the killings in St. Louis. He showed them some poor quality images of an attractive woman they’d gotten from Aleks and the FBI agents’ lapel cameras.

Myr found herself sitting, listening to the FBI presentation and feeling like she was in some kind of surreal dream. In the pictures the woman who they said had killed everyone looked like an expensive hooker. Certainly not how Myr had ever pictured a murderer.

Myr just couldn’t get her head around why this woman was killing people. She could grasp that the woman might want their technology, but it didn’t seem like the murders furthered that goal. Maybe she’d gotten trapped by the FBI guys at the restaurant and had killed them to escape… but why kill poor Joe?

“Ms. Sevii?”

Myr turned her eyes back to Agent Foster, realizing she’d drifted off into her own little world. “Sorry,” she said. She lifted her eyebrows interrogatively, “Yes sir?”

“It’s okay. I know this has all been quite a shock. I’m trying to get an idea how many family members you’d be bringing to the safe house?”

“Safe house?”

“Yes ma’am,” he said patiently. “We believe that you’re in significant danger and some of your closer family members might be at risk of being held hostage. We’d like to move you to a location unconnected to your previous life. A place where you’d be harder to find and where we can protect you better until we catch this woman.” When Myr didn’t say anything for a moment, he said, “Dr. Miller tells me that you have a mother and a handicapped brother that he’s aware of. Is there anyone else that she might use as leverage?”

“Um… no, I don’t think so. My grands, aunts, uncles and cousins all live pretty far from here.”

Myr found herself assigned to Agent Dalrymple, an eager young FBI man. He was supposed to take her to pick up her mother and Connor, then take them all to the safe house. Myr eyed him as she walked down the stairs. Any day but today and I’d be thinking how cute he is, she thought. On this day, however, she wondered whether this handsome but inexperienced looking young man would have the chops to protect her and her family from the kind of stone cold killer Foster’d described.

As they left the building Myr turned toward her car. Dalrymple said, “This way ma’am, we’ve got a Suburban for you, your family and Dr. Saigler.”

Myr looked around and realized with some surprise that the “we” referred to Vinn and another FBI agent who were right behind her. I’m freaking oblivious, she thought. I need to pull my head out before we actually run into any trouble! She said, “Hey Vinn, are we picking up any of your family?”

He shook his head, “The closest one’s in Denver.”

Myr looked at the other agent. He looked forty, fit, and somehow… hard. He introduced himself as Agent Newhouse. Myr thought Newhouse’d be a lot more protection than the young puppy assigned to her if things went in the soup. “Young puppy!” she snorted at herself. Dalrymple’s at least as old as I am and a lot older than Vinn.

They arrived at a black Suburban. Her hand on the door handle, Myr turned to the agents and said, “My brother won’t be able to ride in this, you know. He’s got muscular dystrophy and uses an electric wheelchair. We’ll have to take my mom’s van.”

The two agents looked at one another. Newhouse said, “Not a problem ma’am. Once we pick up your mother and brother, Agent Dalrymple will ride with you in the van. Dr. Saigler and I will follow you in the Suburban.

When they pulled up in her mother’s condo complex, Myr opened her door saying, “I’ll get them and be right back.” She pointed, “The handicap van is that gray Dodge in the disability parking slot.”

Dalrymple got out as well, “I’ll go in with you.”

Myr’s initial reaction was to say she didn’t need help, but then she turned to look at him. A dawning realization swept over her. The agents think it’s possible that the killer woman’s already here! She thought that if that were the case, she’d a lot rather have Newhouse with her. She considered making the request, but then decided she didn’t want to act like a nervous Nelly. She chided herself; rationally she knew there was no way she could tell which of the two agents would provide the best protection. She turned and headed up the walk.

Approaching the door, she told her AI to open it.

Apparently startled when the mechanism she’d installed for Connor power opened the door, Dalrymple stepped to the side of the door frame and pulled her with him. He quietly said, “Let me enter first. I’m wearing a bulletproof vest. You tell them I’m coming in so they’re not startled to see a stranger. Don’t say I’m FBI, just that you have a guy with you.” Dalrymple pulled a weapon out of a shoulder holster and held it down behind his right thigh.

Deciding that his suggestion sounded reasonable, Myr nodded. She called out, “Mom, Connor, I’ve got a guy with me.”

Dalrymple stepped all the way across to the other side of the doorway, then stepped back the other way as he entered. Heart thumping, Myr stepped through the door behind him. She didn’t want her mother to panic seeing Dalrymple without her.

With great relief, Myr saw her mother and Connor sitting at the kitchen table. She told her AI to close the door, thinking she didn’t want anybody sneaking in behind her.

Myr blinked. Carol and Connor had horrified looks frozen on their faces.

A woman stepped out of the kitchen with a long stick in her hand. Myr recognized it was a pistol with silencer just before the woman fired it. The report was loud, though not as loud as Myr’d expected.

Myr hit the ground behind the coffee table, thinking it didn’t offer nearly enough protection and wondering if she’d been hit without feeling it. She’d heard that people often didn’t know they’d been struck by bullets.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dalrymple hit the floor as well and thought he’d scramble over behind the recliner. Myr thought that’d be good since their being separated would split the woman’s attention.

But Dalrymple only twitched. To her horror, Myr realized the bullet had hit Dalrymple.

Shit!

The woman with the gun advanced on Myr, keeping the weapon pointed at her. Unable to think of anything else to do, Myr lifted her hands and tried to look harmless. Cheerfully the woman said, “Hi, I’m Kelley. You must be Myr Sevii?”

For a moment, Myr considered denying it. Deciding that’d be pointless, she nodded.

“Get up, get up,” Kelley said brightly. “Are there any more where he came from?” she said waving her gun in Dalrymple’s direction.

Myr nodded again and slowly stood up.

“Come, come, sit with your family,” Kelley said, airily waving at the table where Carol and Connor were sitting.

Myr looked at Dalrymple. He’d stopped twitching, but she could see he was still breathing. His face looked… odd, but Myr couldn’t see a bullet wound. She said, “Can I check on…”

Kelley gave a dismissive wave, “Oh no, don’t bother. He’s not gonna make it. I’d put a mercy round in him, but you know…” she shrugged, “no more noise than necessary. Come, sit.”

As Myr moved slowly to the table, she forced herself to look at the bubbly woman who held them captive. Psychopath, she thought. I thought psychopaths were almost all men? “Almost” might be this woman’s loophole. The blonde woman had short hair and a long but not unattractive face with a smooth complexion. She looked flushed. Excited, Myr thought. She loves killing.

Unhappily, Myr said, “What do you want?”

Kelley practically bounced up and down, “Well first,” she waved at Dalrymple, “how many more of them are outside?”

“I don’t know, quite a few,” Myr lied sullenly.

“Oh now… I don’t think you’re telling me the truth,” Kelley said. If there were a bunch of them, they’d already be busting in, guns a blazin’.” She waved the gun at Dalrymple, “Why, I’ll bet he’s the only one.” She snickered and, put on a fake southern accent to say, “Well Ah do declare, Ah believe they done sent a boy to do a man’s job.”

Myr didn’t respond, merely funneled her hate into a glare, hoping that it might be just as helpful to Newhouse if Kelley thought no more FBI people were outside. Myr thought, If no one stops her, there’s not a chance she’s going to let us live.

Changing to a no-nonsense tone, Kelley said, “Sit!”

Myr sat down.

Kelley smiled broadly, even though the smile looked patently false. “Now, tell me where you’re keeping the data on this fusion stuff everyone’s so excited about.”

Myr glanced at her mother whose eyes were wide. Her mother mouthed, “Tell her it doesn’t actually work.”

Myr knew her mother actually didn’t believe her daughter had invented anything, but decided it might be a good tactic. Sullenly, she said, “It doesn’t actually work.”

Kelley laughed as if she’d just heard the most delightful joke. Her eyes hardened, “Then, tell me where you’re keeping the information on the imaginary fusion thing.”

Myr shrugged, “At work.”

Kelley tilted her head, “Now, I’m thinking you just might be lying to me again? Before he died, your friend Joe told us you don’t keep anything on the computers at work.” She winked broadly, “And everybody knows you don’t keep it in your apartment, right?”

Myr shook her head.

“In fact, I’d be willing to bet you’re keeping some kind of high density drive right there on your person, aren’t you?”

Myr shook her head again.

Even though she could feel the terabyte jump drive in her front pocket.

Kelley stepped back behind the kitchen’s peninsula and pulled open a couple of drawers while keeping her eye on Myr. Glancing down into the drawers, she said, “I think I might just have to do something to dissuade you from lying to me.”

Stomach clenching, Myr assumed Kelley was looking for a knife, but instead she pulled out a rolling pin. She walked back out into the area next to the kitchen table, hefting the pin by the handle on one end. Myr steeled herself for a blow as Kelley lifted the pin, but instead Kelley’s vicious swing hit Connor in the arm. Myr could hear the crack of the bone breaking over the thump of the impact. As Connor cried out, Carol lurched to her feet and reached for his arm. Myr started to rise, but found herself looking down the barrel of Kelley’s gun.

“You ladies take your seats before I break the retard’s other arm,” Kelley hissed in a nasty tone.

Myr chomped down on her usual impulse to angrily tell an idiot that Connor’s intelligence was normal. She slowly subsided into her seat.

Kelley resumed her false cheerfulness, “Now, why don’t you stand up and empty your pockets.” She winked, “Remember, I’ll be patting you down afterward. If I find anything you didn’t put out on the table,” her tone got ugly, “I will break his other arm.”

Myr looked at Connor. He looked resigned even though he was gritting his teeth and hunching to the side. Tears ran down his cheeks. She stood and started to pull off her coat.

Cheerful again, Kelley said, “Now you’re sure there’s nothing in the pockets of that coat?”

Myr stopped with it partly off, shrugged back into it and patted the pockets. Immediately, she felt her small focal point generator. She slid her hand into her pocket and casually laid it on the table, trying to act as if it were nothing important. Then she shrugged out of the coat and hung it on the back of her chair. Reaching into her back pocket she pulled out her AI and tossed it on the table. Her stomach flip-flopped as she reached into her front pockets, wondering whether she could palm the terabyte jump drive. Deciding she couldn’t take that risk with Connor’s left arm, she tossed it on the table too. She made a show of patting her pockets to be sure she hadn’t missed anything. She wished she’d found something else, having only three items on the table seem to cast the jump drive in stark relief.

Kelley grinned at her, “Seems like you might’ve forgot about that jump drive?”

Myr nodded grimly, still not saying anything, though she suspected the look in her eyes said plenty.

Chirpily, Kelley said, “Now, the hard drives poor Aleks got out of your computer had some kind of super-duper encryption on them.” She paused for a moment, then continued, “And I must confess, I’m told our people haven’t been able to get past it. So, I’m gonna have to ask you to decrypt those files and,” she tossed another jump drive out on the table, “put them on this drive in the clear.”

Moving slowly, with the thought that every bit of delay gave the FBI more time to realize something had gone awry and work out a rescue, Myr picked up the encrypted jump drive and jacked it into her AI. When her AI requested the decryption password, she gave it. Looking up at Kelley, she said, “It’s a big drive. It’ll take a while.”

“While we’re waiting,” Kelley said musingly, her eyes on the proton field generator, “what’s that other thing?”

“It’s a… focal field generator,” Myr said slowly, her heart starting to beat harder as she thought about it.

“It’s not off the shelf… It’s something you guys built, right? Something to do with fusion?”

“A… prototype, yes.” Myr said reluctantly.

Kelley’s eyes narrowed, “So you could do fusion with it?”

Myr shrugged, “You’d need hydrogen, but… yes.”

“What are all the buttons and switches?”

Myr reached out and picked it up, hoping the trembling in her hand wasn’t visible. “You turn it on with this rotary switch at the base,” she said, turning it to the third detent. “This slider moves the focal point away from the end of it,” she said as she slid the slider all the way to its end, trying to disguise the fact she was pointing to the cylinder at Kelley and worrying about the fact that Kelley’s gun was pointed at her chest.

A knock came on the door. Vinn’s voice said, “You okay in there? What’s the holdup?”

A frisson of fear slid up Myr’s spine as she imagined what would happen to Vinn if he came in the door. And, probably to Agent Newhouse, as well, but… more importantly Vinn.

Myr felt a little surprised to realize just how much she didn’t want Vinn to get hurt.

Kelley shot Myr an excited grin, “Tell him to come on in. Say you need help with the wheelchair.” Kelley’s gun swung toward the door, “Then tell the AI to open the door fifty percent.”

Starting to stand up, Myr called out, “I’m gonna need help with the wheelchair.” As she stood, she transferred the field generator to her right hand. She slid the thumb slider to the end and depressed the button at the base with her little finger. “Come on in,” she said loudly, then lunged forward to what she thought was a three-foot distance, pointing the generator at Kelley’s head and depressing the index switch.

Events seemed to pass in slow motion. For a long moment, Myr thought she hadn’t reached far enough, or had reached too far, or the battery was dead, or something else was wrong.

She expected the gun’s muzzle to turn toward her.

But then she realized that Kelley’s eyes had retracted back into their sockets. The woman started to fall.

Horrified, Myr let her fingers off the buttons.

Kelley fell to the floor and bounced bonelessly, the gun skittering out of her hand as she flopped onto her back. Distantly, Myr noticed her eyes no longer looked hollow.

They had a flat lifeless look, like a beached fish.

Carol stood and stepped around Connor. “What happened to her?!” she asked in a morbidly curious tone as she walked to Kelley and kicked the woman’s gun away. Then she stepped past Kelley to kneel beside Agent Dalrymple and feel for a pulse.

Again a knock came at the door. Myr heard Vinn’s voice again, “You’re going to have to open the door if you want any help!”

Her eyes still locked on the horror that’d been Kelley, Myr said, “AI… open the door. Call 911 and ask them to send ambulances.”

Outside, Vinn heard the door latch throw and a motor start to crank the door open on power. As he’d said he would, Agent Newhouse dove low through the door, gun out. He’d told Vinn he’d be trying to move quickly across anyone’s field of fire.

Vinn moved to where he could see Newhouse through the opening door. Newhouse stood and Vinn could tell he’d stopped worrying about any threats in the room. Vinn could see someone laying on the floor… Agent Dalrymple with a woman kneeling beside him.

Newhouse knelt with the woman at his partner’s side.

Newhouse had said Vinn shouldn’t come in until Newhouse gave him the all clear, but Vinn thought Newhouse’d forgotten about him. Vinn desperately wanted to see that Myr was okay, so, though he wasn’t sure whether it was brave or foolish to enter the lion’s den in absence of the go-ahead, Vinn also stepped inside. In an effort not to be completely imprudent, he at least moved laterally across any field of fire.

Inside the room, Vinn didn’t see any threats. A blonde woman lay on the floor. Myr looked dazed as she put things in her pockets. She glanced at Vinn, but didn’t say anything. Instead she walked over to kneel beside Newhouse and the other woman. Vinn realized from her appearance that the woman must be Myr’s mother.

“How is he?” Myr asked

“I don’t know,” Ms. Sevii said, sounding unhappy. “He’s got a pulse and he’s breathing, but…”

Vinn could see a bullet wound in Dalrymple’s cheek and some swelling on the side of his head. Newhouse was wide-eyed and looked pretty upset.

“I already called 911,” Myr said.

Myr’s mother sighed, “I don’t think there’s anything else we can do until he gets to a hospital.” She got up and moved over to look at the blonde woman lying on the floor, taking her pulse as well. After a minute, she looked up at Myr. “She’s… I don’t know… unresponsive, like in a coma.” She frowned, “What the hell happened to her? No one even touched her!”

Myr shrugged but didn’t say anything.

Vinn stepped closer to look down at the blonde woman. He said, “This is her, isn’t it?”

Myr stood up from where she’d been kneeling by Dalrymple and stepped over next to Vinn. In a choked-up voice, she said, “Yeah, that’s her alright.”

Vinn put an arm around Myr’s shoulders. A moment later she buried her face in Vinn’s neck, clinging to him, sobs shuddering through her shoulders. As he stood holding her, he thought. This isn’t exactly how I hoped my first hug from her might happen. “Hey… It’s okay,” Vinn said, trying to sound reassuring, “She doesn’t look like she’s going to hurt anyone anymore.”

“Because I—I, killed her!” Myr croaked into his ear.

“What? How?”

“Proton field…” Myr sobbed, reaching down and pulling one of their small prototype field generators out of her coat pocket. “I opened it in her head.”

“Oh…” Vinn said, staring at the generator and thinking about what had happened to his chicken wing back in the lab. It would have sucked some of her brain down to a point, crushing it to nothing. Then if Myr turned the field off, that brain would’ve reappeared in her skull as gelatinous mush. He squeezed Myr, “Hey, she’s been killing people right and left. If you hadn’t, probably a lot more people would’ve died.”

Myr let go of Vinn to wipe her eyes on her sleeve. “I know. But…”

Flashing lights announced the arrival of the ambulances.

******

Myr didn’t find it surprising that she and her mother were still sitting with Connor in his little cubicle in the emergency department several hours later. They’d been to ERs a lot with Connor and knew that if it wasn’t a screaming emergency, it always took forever. What was surprising was the fact that Vinn was still there with them. She kept thinking he’d make his excuses and go home. Myr’d even told Vinn they were okay, in case he’d only been hanging around because of her histrionically hugging him and crying on his shoulder back at her mom’s condo.

He’d just said he wanted to stay with her and her family to help in any way he could.

Which gave her a warm fuzzy feeling.

Finally, the bone specialist came back in and called up Connor’s x-rays on the wall screen in the room. After introducing herself, she turned to Connor and said, “You can see that your arm bone or humerus is broken here in the middle.” She pointed at the screen. Myr winced at the way the bone had broken into two big pieces with some smaller shattered pieces right in the middle where it’d sustained the impact from the rolling pin. The doctor continued, “Most breaks like this are treated in a kind of plastic cast and do quite well. It can be treated by surgically putting a plate on the bone. That has the advantage of letting you use the arm sooner,” she shrugged, “but the disadvantage of requiring surgery. Surgery, of course, has some concerns in that it damages the muscle in your arm when we make an incision.”

Connor uncertainly turned and looked at his mother. She said, “It’s up to you Connor, you’re twenty-one now and you need to be deciding these things for yourself.”

Connor turned back to the doctor, “So, with my muscular dystrophy I probably should avoid the surgery because I can’t afford to have any more of my muscle damaged, right?”

The doctor sighed, “Yes, that’s true. But, with your arm in the plastic cast you won’t be able to use it, so your muscle will atrophy from disuse. I’ve done an electronic search of the medical literature to see if anyone has advice for how to treat humerus fractures in patients with muscular dystrophy and I can’t find any papers on the topic. My gut feel is that it’d probably be better to have surgery and get back to using your arm as soon as possible, but I don’t have any evidence to back it up.”

“How bad does the surgery hurt?”

“It probably hurts worse for a couple of days because of the incision, but then the pain’s probably better because the bones aren’t wiggling around inside of your arm every time you move.” She shrugged, “Casts don’t hold bones completely still like most people think.”

Connor glanced at his mother and Myr. “I think I’d rather have the surgery, what do you think?”

Carol said, “It’s probably for the best.”

Myr said nothing, just nodded. She knew her brother wouldn’t live a whole lot longer, so it seemed like the best thing would be to get his arm working again as soon as possible. She didn’t want him to lose even more time with his arm disabled in a cast.

Connor nodded, “I’ll have the surgery.”

The doctor arranged for Connor to be admitted to the hospital and set his surgery up for the next day. As Myr and her mother walked with Connor and the nurse pushing Connor’s stretcher up to his hospital room, Myr felt even more surprised to find Vinn still tagging along. Vinn was walking alongside the stretcher talking to Connor while Myr and her mother were walking behind. Carol leaned close to Myr and quietly said, “He cares a lot about you, doesn’t he?”

“Sure, he’s my brother. Do you think surgery’s the right thing?”

“I think whatever Connor decides, we should back him up. He doesn’t need us second guessing him.” She poked Myr in the side, “But, I was talking about your young man… He’s crazy about you.”

“My what…? You mean Vinn? He and I just work together!” Even if I’d like something more, she thought.

Carol shook her head, “You may think you just work together, but I’ve seen the way he looks at you when you’re not looking.”

He does? Myr thought. Out loud, she said, “Mom! He’s four years younger than I am. He doesn’t want to date an old lady!”

Carol laughed, “Oh, you should’ve seen the look on your face. You’ve got it bad for him too, don’t you?”

Myr felt a blush rising, but was saved by a voice from back down the hall behind her, “Ms. Sevii?”

Carol and her mother both turned to look. Agent Foster was trotting after them. “Can I have a few words?” he asked.

As one, the two women turned to look at Connor. “I’ll be fine,” he said.

Vinn said, “I’ll stay with him.”

Carol shook her head, “We need to go with Connor so we’ll know where his room is.”

Foster said, “No problem, I’ll go with you to his room and then we can talk in one of the waiting rooms near there.”

Myr had a sick feeling that she knew what Foster wanted. She dropped back a little further, tugging on the agent’s sleeve so that he’d fall back with her. “How’s Agent Dalrymple?”

Foster said, “The bullet broke a couple teeth and went through some of his sinuses then along the side of his skull. It exited in the back where we couldn’t see the wound at first. It didn’t hit his brain so the doctors think he’s going to be okay.” After a pause, he continued, “Well, he’ll need some surgery for his face, but that’s a lot better than dead.”

“That’s… that’s wonderful,” Myr said. “What are you wanting to talk to us about?”

“We’re trying to figure out what happened to the killer, Kelley Simpson. The doctors say she’s brain-dead, though her body’s fine. MRIs of her brain show a big area that’s… They don’t really know what’s happened to it. They just say it’s,” he waved his fingers in little quotation marks, “ ‘lost its structure.’ There aren’t any marks on her though. Did you see anything hit her or… I don’t know, see any other explanation for whatever happened to her?”

Myr said, “Um… Would the person who did it be in trouble?”

Foster turned to stare at her curiously, “Somebody did it?” Then he waved the question away, “No, never mind. No one would be in trouble. She was actively murdering people. Anyone who stopped her would have our undying gratitude and they certainly wouldn’t get charged.”

Myr blinked, “Should such a person have a lawyer anyway?”

Foster took a deep breath, “It’s never my place to tell people they don’t need legal representation. But, no one’s in trouble here. We’re just trying to figure out what happened.”

They’d stopped walking by then. Myr looked off into the distance for a few seconds, thinking. Finally, she said, “I’d better get back to you on this. I know what happened and I expect that I’ll be able to tell you, but I need to talk to some other people, if not lawyers, before I talk to you about it.”

Foster studied her for a moment, wondering who she was protecting, then said, “Okay. I’ll talk to you in a few days then?”

“Sure,” Myr turned and trotted to catch up with her family and Vinn.

Once they had Connor in his hospital bed and the nurses had finished bustling around, her mother turned to Myr and said, “That was one of the FBI guys?”

Myr nodded.

“What did he want?”

Myr studied her mother, trying to decide what to say. Her mother had narrowed her eyes before Myr finally said, “He wanted to know what had happened to that… that killer woman.”

Carol frowned, “Why would he think you’d know that?”

Myr tried to hold her face expressionless, but after a moment she could feel her expression crumpling and tears starting to run down her cheek. Myr’s mother stepped over and put her arms around her. Patting her on the back, she said, “It’s okay. You didn’t kill her.”

Snuffling into her mother’s hair, Myr said almost in a sob, “Yes… actually I did.”

“How?! I know you reached toward her, but you never even touched her before she went down!”

“With… our new technology,” Myr rasped past the frog in her throat.

“Oh, come on Myr,” Carol said, pushing Myr away a little and looking into her eyes. “You didn’t even touch her! You’ve got to stop having these fantasies about your electrostatics, especially if they’re making you think you’re to blame for something like this.” She pulled Myr back into a hug, one hand going back to rubbing Myr’s shoulder.

“Myr, what’s the matter?” Connor said from over in his hospital bed.

Vinn responded for her, saying, “She’s upset about killing that woman.”

Connor said, “Oh, was that one of your field generators?” at the same time as Myr’s mother straightened and said in an appalled tone, “Myr didn’t kill anyone! She didn’t even touch anybody!”

There was silence as all of them stared at one another; Vinn giving Myr an embarrassed look. He’d obviously thought Carol already knew what’d happened, so now he felt badly about spilling the beans. After a tiny shrug, Myr broke the silence by saying, “It’s okay guys. I’ll get over it.”

Vinn gave Myr a look that he obviously intended to be meaningful, then tapped his coat pocket. It puzzled her for a second; but then she realized that he meant she could show her mother the field projector she had in her coat pocket. She gave him a little shake of her head. She’d rather not spoil her mother’s innocence.

******

Myr and her mother were sitting in the surgical waiting room while Connor had his surgery. Myr was reading, but when she looked up at her mother, she saw her mother’s eyes were red. Myr put a hand on her arm, “Mom, I’m sure he’s going to be fine.”

Carol wiped at an eye, “Yeah, me too. It’s just that… I’ve been trying to save and the hospital bills…”

“Wait, won’t your insurance cover most of this?”

Carol nodded, “Most of, yeah. But that can still leave quite a bit after the deductible and co-pays. I—I can afford it, but…” She turned to look at Myr, “Did you know the Levinson lab has a dystrophin gene vector that’s been successful in animal trials?”

“Dystrophin gene vector?”

“Yeah, a gene vector’s something that can deliver a gene to cells even inside an animal. Typically it’s a virus that’s been repurposed to deliver the gene instead of spreading its own genome like it did before. In this case, it delivers the gene for the dystrophin molecule. That’s what’s missing in patients with muscular dystrophy.”

Myr’s eyes widened, “There might be a cure?”

“Well,” Carol said cautiously, “there’ve been vectors before. They’ve been able to deliver the gene, but since patients with muscular dystrophy don’t have any dystrophin, once the patient starts to form the protein, usually their immune system rejects it as a foreign molecule. If that happens, your immune system destroys the muscle as fast as the gene resurrects it.”

“Oh,” Myr said thoughtfully, “so what’s the big deal that they have a new one?”

“Levinson’s managed to modify the dystrophin gene so that it’s much smaller and she’s altered the sections of it that the immune system usually recognizes. She’s swapped in parts of the similar utrophin molecule which DMD sufferers still express so the immune system doesn’t object to it. Levinson’s modified molecule still works to restore muscle strength.” Carol got a hopeful look on her face and her voice reduced to a whisper, “They think they might be able to start some human trials in just a few more years.”

“That’s great!” Myr said. “But, then I don’t understand. What’s got you upset?”

Carol shook her head, “Connor’s coming up on the age when a patient with Duchenne’s will be getting lots of medical complications from the weakness—even without this damned broken arm. And if we do get him in Levinson’s trial and it works, he’ll need so much therapy. And a new start in life. Sure, insurance will pay for some of the medical part, but there are huge chunks of bringing him back from the brink of death that insurance won’t cover. And, if he gets really sick…” Carol’s voice choked up, “I wanted to have more saved up to be able to pay for really high-end care if he gets some complication that tries to kill him before he can get the gene therapy.” She shook her head, “I thought we were going to get through this year without a big expense. We haven’t even gone through the deductible. But now, here it is almost the end of the year and we have a huge expense right before the deductible resets for next year.”

Myr said, “Mom, I know you’ve told me over and over you don’t want to hear about the proton field, but we really have had some breakthroughs recently.”

“Proton field? Oh, yeah, that’s the new name for your electrostatics, right?” Carol nodded to herself, and patted Myr on the arm. “Of course dear. And if it ever does pay off, I’ll be delighted if you can help out a little.” She looked away and said resolutely, “But let’s not count our chickens before they hatch.”

******

The night after Connor’s surgery, Myr stayed in his room with him. Her mom had stayed with him the night before surgery and Myr wanted Carol to sleep in her own bed. The hospital had a chair that folded out into a bed for family members who stayed overnight, but it wasn’t very comfortable. Of course, the only way to get Carol to go home had been for Myr to substitute for her and stay with Connor herself. Now Myr was struggling to get to sleep.

Myr floated up into the air, turning and moving off across the room as if she were swimming through the air. She didn’t actually have to move her arms or legs like she would to swim, all she had to do was think about where she wanted to go. Wondering why she hadn’t been doing this her whole life, she did a slow backflip. Immersed in the joy of being able to fly, she suddenly wished she could teach Connor how to do it. If he could—like her—make himself light enough to float, or even to nearly float, even his atrophied muscles would let him move around without a wheelchair…

A bump brought Myr up out of the dream. She looked blearily up at the nurse who’d accidentally bumped into the chair Myr was sleeping in. The young woman apologized but turned back to continue helping Connor.

Goosebumps suddenly spread over Myr, running up onto her scalp. The young nurse apologized again as she left the room, but Myr didn’t hear her. Her mind had started racing.

******

Agent Foster was glad that Myr Sevii had come in to answer his questions without his having to go track her down. To his puzzlement, she was carrying a plastic grocery bag which looked like it had several objects in it. Taking his eyes and his curiosity away from the bag, he said, “So, you’re ready to tell us what actually happened to Kelley Simpson?”

Sevii nodded. Then, looking almost sick. “I… I killed her with some of our new technology.”

Oh, Foster thought, suddenly understanding why she’d been reluctant to talk about it when he’d first asked her. He shook his head, “Don’t worry about it. No one’s after you—that woman needed to die.”

“Yeah,” Sevii gusted the word like a sigh. “Intellectually, I agree. Emotionally though…” She looked down at her feet, “I’d always thought that I’d never take a human life. But I didn’t hesitate, not even a second, when I thought she was going to kill Vinn…” Though her head stayed down she turned her eyes up and gave an embarrassed little grin, “And Agent Newhouse too, of course.”

Foster suppressed his own grin. The young woman obviously cared a lot about Vinn Saigler. Smoothing his face, Foster said, “Of course. Can you tell me how you did it? How this… technology works so we’ll recognize it if someone does it again in the future.”

“Yes, but I’d ask you to keep it to yourself for a couple of weeks? We’re presenting it to investors in a few more days and would rather word didn’t get out before that presentation.”

Foster nodded, wondering whether this technology could be so dangerous that it shouldn’t be released to the public.

Sevii reached into her plastic bag and pulled out a glass beaker like he’d used back in high school chemistry. She also pulled out a ring with three legs he thought he remembered being called a ring-stand. She set the beaker on top of it. Finally, she reached in and pulled out a little ball of meat. It looked like a tiny chicken. Holding it up, she said, “Cornish game hen.” She dropped it into the beaker. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out something that looked like a medium-size flashlight, though it didn’t have a lens at the end. She twisted the knob at the back, then gripped it. She pushed a slider forward with her thumb; after that it looked like she pushed some buttons with a couple of her fingers while pointing it just to the right of the beaker. She held it there for a second, then let a finger off one of the buttons.

A tiny puff of vapor appeared next to the beaker.

Saying, “Okay, here we go,” she pointed the flashlight-looking device directly at the beaker and pushed the button again. To Foster’s astonishment, the Cornish game hen rattled inside the beaker, crumpled and disappeared. As it did so, it banged up against the side of the beaker hard enough that the beaker started to fall off the ring stand. Sevii, amazingly quick, reached out and grabbed the beaker, catching it before it could hit the table and break.

Foster noticed that Sevii pointed the flashlight up into the air when she reached out to catch the glass beaker. She set the beaker back on the ring stand. To his amazement, Foster noticed that the game hen was so completely gone the glass didn’t even have a smudge on it. Nonetheless he wondered, Some kind of sleight of hand? Before he could say anything, she pointed the flashlight back at the beaker, lifted her index finger back off its button, and with a “foomp” sound, the game hen reappeared back inside the glass vessel. As he stared, he saw it wasn’t really a game hen anymore. It looked like about the same amount of meat, but like it’d been puréed or something.

“So that’s what happened,” she said.

Foster blinked “What happened?!”

“I pointed this thing at her head and turned it on. It squished some of her brain down to a point like what just happened to the game hen. A point so small you can’t even see it. Then when I turned it off, that chunk of her brain resumed its original size. But, as you can see,” she said waving at the beaker full of puréed game hen, “once it’s been squished down to point size, when it resumes its original size it’s lost all of its organization.” She shook her head, “And, when that happens, a brain doesn’t work anymore.”

“Holy shit!” Foster said, trying to come to grips with what this meant for his world of law enforcement. “Are these easy to make? How far away can you demolish someone’s brain?”

“About five feet,” she said. “They’re pretty hard to make, but they can be pretty useful for a lot of things. So, companies will probably start making a lot of them. They’ll be about as dangerous as a really sharp sword, but obviously a lot easier to carry around. For a lot of the things they can be used for, we’ll be able to build them so they aren’t actually dangerous. But you know mankind, some people will modify them and use them for ill anyway.”

“Oh geez,” Foster said, trying to figure out all the problems this was going to cause for law enforcement. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into stuffing this genie back in its bottle, can I?”

She slowly shook her head, “This may be evil, but these things are going to be able to do tremendous good as well. The human race isn’t going to want to give them up…”

******

Frank Meriwether settled himself into a seat in the second row of the auditorium at Miller Tech. General Motors had sent him as their representative to this demonstration of a new technology that Miller Tech said it was making available for licensing. Irritatingly enough, Miller had refused to divulge the type of technology they were going to be licensing so GM had no idea whether it might be useful to the company. Larry Wilson, Merriweather’s boss and the chief of the technology section, had decided not to invest his time coming to check out the mystery tech himself since they had no idea whether it might apply to any of GM’s product lines. However, Miller Tech had enough of a reputation for developing significant technological improvements that Wilson had wanted someone to be here.

Just in case the technology turned out to be something GM could use and he needed to make a presentation to Larry, Frank set up a better camera than the body cam he wore all the time. Besides, having this one on a small tripod on the desk in front of him would provide a steadier picture.

There were reps from all kinds of different companies present at the meeting, nearly filling the auditorium. Frank saw people he knew from companies as disparate as AT&T, GE, Ford, Duke Energy, SpaceX, and Boeing. There were a lot of other reps Frank didn’t recognize, though each rep had a little sign on the table in front of him denoting his name and company. Miller had certainly cast a wide net and Frank couldn’t help but wonder what kind of technology Miller thought might be able to hold the interest of such disparate companies.

He turned his attention back to the front of the room where Miller Tech had what appeared to be two large glass or acrylic barrels set up, one on each side of the room. The one on Frank’s left was about the size of a fifty-gallon barrel and appeared to be filled with a clear liquid, maybe water. The one on his right was much bigger but it looked empty.

The buzz of conversation faded as Miller walked in and thanked everyone for coming. “I think you’ll be glad you did,” he said enigmatically.

A young man and two young women had come in with Miller. He introduced them as well, though Frank paid little attention except to note with some surprise that the older of the two women was apparently a nuclear physicist and that Miller described the younger one as the actual discoverer of the technology to be presented. Miller said, “We’re going to start things out by having Ms. Sevii demonstrate some of the astonishing things the new technology can do.”

Frank focused on the young woman as she picked up what looked like a baseball bat on a heavy power cord and moved toward the tank full of water. She was pretty and she moved easily, as if she were athletic. Frank found himself wondering what she looked like underneath the shapeless, if immaculately pressed, white coat she was wearing for the demonstration.

“This,” she said, holding up the baseball bat, “is a proton field generator.” She paused and smiled broadly at the audience in the auditorium, remaining silent long enough that a buzz of conversation started to rise. When she continued, she said, “I think I hear some of you saying, ‘proton field?’ As if you don’t know what a proton field is. Don’t worry; no one else does either.” She gestured at the big screen at the front of the auditorium and an image appeared there. It was one of the horn-shaped wire frame diagrams often used to describe the distortion of space-time by gravity. She continued, “We seem to have discovered a field which distorts space in a similar fashion to the way gravity distorts space-time… But only for protons, and only for protons that don’t have neutrons with them in their atomic nucleus.” She paused again and looked at her audience with an eyebrow lifted. A susurrus of conversation rose in the room as people tried to comprehend what she’d just said.

The young woman waited for a crescendo in the buzz of conversation to drop off, then said, “Let me repeat that.” She continued, “Essentially, what I’m saying, is that hydrogen atoms are attracted to this field, though not deuterium. Importantly, the field also suppresses the electrostatic forces present at the atomic level. What this means is that hydrogen atoms, and molecules containing hydrogen atoms, are pulled toward the focal point of this field and are able to accumulate there at much higher densities than one would expect… because the electrostatic repulsion which normally keeps them apart is suppressed.” With a broad grin, she turned her baseball bat and pointed it at the glass tank full of clear liquid. She turned a couple of switches and then depressed several buttons. Immediately, some kind of vortex appeared in the center of the tank of water. She said “So, I’ve opened a proton field here in the middle of this big glass tank full of water. Each H2O molecule contains a couple of hydrogen atoms which are strongly attracted to the focus of the proton field. Not only that, but as they try to approach the focus of the field, the electrostatic suppression effect allows them to come closer and closer to one another without repulsion. As you’ll notice from the way the water level is dropping, the water in this tank is rapidly being scrunched together at the focal point.”

Frank stared at the tank in astonishment. The water level was dropping, and fast. Following his first instinct, Frank looked for a hidden outflow conduit, even while he was thinking that Miller Tech would be the laughing stock of the industrial world if they’d gotten everyone together to watch some sleight-of-hand and then claim it was some kind of new technology. This can’t be, can it? he thought.

It only took a couple of minutes for the young woman to empty the tank. She lifted her bat so that the putative focal point off the end of it would rise up out of the top of the glass barrel she’d been holding it in. “Now, despite the suppression of electrostatic force, compressing all of that water down essentially to a point has generated heat. I’d bring it over close enough that some of you in the front row could feel the heat emanating from it. But, it’s dangerous. I’ll remind you, in case you haven’t considered it yet, that your own tissues are loaded with water. If it got too close, it’d suck you in just like it did those fifty gallons of water. So,” she picked up what looked like a rod a half an inch in diameter and eighteen inches long with a three-inch meshwork sphere at the far end, “I’m going to make it safe by covering the focal point with this stainless-steel rod that’s got a meshed stainless steel basket at the end of it. Steel doesn’t have hydrogen, so it’s not affected by the field.”

She looked around at the dubious appearing crowd and grinned again, “Now, this is a little freaky. Remember that there’s fifty gallons of water compressed down to a point so small you can’t see it, out there in space about eighteen inches from the end of the focal point generator. As you can imagine, that little dot of water is now a pretty firm structure and so when I hit it with this stainless steel,” she moved the rod she had in her other hand and it definitely hit something, making a clink sound like you might expect if you hit a stainless-steel rod up against a hard, sharp point, “it’s like I hit something solid.” She wiggled the rod around a little bit. “Now I’ve slipped one of the holes in the mesh on the basket at the end of this rod over that dense point full of water.” She screwed the back end of the rod into the end of the bat shaped cylinder. Holding it up and carrying it toward the front row of seats, she said, “Now it’s safe because it wouldn’t be able to suck your hand through the mesh. If you’ll put your hand near it, you’ll feel two things. First, the focal point’s still hot from compressing all that water. Second, you’ll feel it attract the water in your hand.”

The young woman walked along the front row holding the mesh cage at the end of the rod close enough for people to put their hands out near it. Frank wanted to lean out over the first row and try and put his hand near it too, but had to settle for just looking at the astonished expressions on the faces of the people in the first row. A lot of people had their hands up, wanting to ask questions. When the young woman didn’t call on any of them, a guy from SpaceX just broke in loudly, “It’s all well and good for you to claim you’ve got fifty gallons of water squished down to a point in space, but I have doubts based on two issues. First, water’s incompressible; and second, fifty gallons of water weighs somewhere close to 200 kilograms. You obviously aren’t strong enough to carry over 400 pounds around out at the end of that stick!”

She grinned at him and said, “Good observation! Besides, if I did have 400 pounds of water on the end of the stick it’d have a lot of inertia which would make it difficult to start and stop its movement, right?” She lifted an eyebrow, “But what you’re forgetting is that the field generator just generates the proton field wherever I point it. Then, the water itself follows the focus of that field.” She paused to let everyone think about it for a moment, then continued, “So, I don’t feel any resistance to moving the field, and all the water at its focus, whether it’s side to side or up and down. However, lest you think we’re breaking some kind of law of the conservation of energy, the field needs a lot more power if it’s going to hold 400 pounds of water up in the air than if it isn’t.” She winked at the guy who’d asked the question, “That’s why I’m towing around this big power cord. I need it to supply enough juice.”

She swept the auditorium with her gaze, then said, “I’m sure most of you’re still dubious, so I guess it’s time to prove there actually is something—besides my imagination that is—at the focal point.” She turned and walked over to the second larger glass barrel, saying, “Now, as I get ready to release some of the water into this large glass container over here, I want you to consider the fact that just like compressing the water generated heat, allowing it to expand…” She held the cage at the end of the rod up over the larger glass barrel and did something to one of the controls. Clouds of vapor and a fountain of snow exploded out of the small cage. She turned and smiled at the rapt looking crowd as snow kept pouring out of the end of the device. “Allowing it to re-expand makes it cold.” She lifted the wand away from the top of the barrel which was suddenly completely full of snow. She started walking back over to the first large glass container. “Since snow takes up a lot more space than water, I’m going to have more than enough snow to fill both these large glass vats.” She stopped at the first container, held the wand over it and fountained huge quantities of snow into it as well.

Looking back at her audience, she focused on a guy whose desk was labeled “Vail,” “I’m thinking ski areas might find this technology pretty interesting when natural snow-fall is less than they would like… And here’s something else that could be pretty nice. Remember how the field only attracts hydrogen atoms? Well, that means it doesn’t attract sodium, or chloride, or other minerals. We think at first the ions dissolved in the water travel with it toward the focal point. But when the pressure at the focal point gets crushingly high, all those ions just get forced right out of the focus. In any case,” she pointed to the huge barrel on the other side of the room, “when that snow melts, the water will be astonishingly pure. This tech is going to make desalination and water softening very easy.”

She put down her baseball bat and walked toward the left side of the auditorium. Lifting an eyebrow, she looked at a couple of guys in the third row and said, “I’m betting your companies will find all that snow pretty interesting, huh?” Frank looked at the nameplates on the desks in front of the two men and saw that they worked for Trane and Carrier, two big air-conditioning companies.

The young woman looked around the crowd, “According to our calculations, using proton fields for heating and cooling would be significantly more efficient than current heat pumps. Still, heating and cooling is a relatively minor benefit of this technology. Think back to what our friend from SpaceX pointed out. Essentially, if you provide the power, large quantities of hydrogen containing liquids can be made essentially weightless and inertialess.” She winked at the guy from SpaceX and used a stage whisper everyone could hear to say, “I hear a big expense for the space program is lifting water up to orbit. With enough electricity to run a proton field generator, that’s just become pretty easy.”

As the young woman walked back out into the middle of the room to survey the gaping faces in front of her, Frank whispered to his AI telling it to get his boss on the line, urgently.

The young woman stood boldly, with her feet a little apart and her hands on her hips. She said, “Admittedly, it’d take quite a bit of power to maintain a proton field that contained a lot of water while it was being, not just lifted, but accelerated up toward orbit.” She lifted an eyebrow, “And you should rightfully be wondering where all that power’s going to come from… Let me introduce you once again to Ellen Mitchell,” she waved at the other woman who looked to be in her thirties. “Ellen’s going to explain where power’s going to come from in the future. Don’t forget,” she winked, “Ellen’s got her PhD in nuclear physics.”

As the other woman was approaching the middle of the room to begin her spiel, Frank’s boss, Larry Wilson, spoke into Frank’s ear through his AI. “Okay Frank, what the hell’s so damned urgent? This had better be good!”

Speaking in a low tone, Frank whispered, “You need to be watching this presentation here at Miller Tech. They’ve got a device that’s going to change the world and GM’s going to want to be bidding…”

“Come on! Record it and just tell me about it when you get back! Bidding on new tech’s never an emergency.”

Frank had been keeping his eye and one ear on the woman at the front of the room. She’d just said, “So, if you use a very high gradient proton field to squeeze hydrogen… you get fusion…”

Whispering into the mic for his AI, Frank said, “Boss, they’ve got fusion.”

There was silence of the other end of the connection and Frank thought perhaps Wilson had hung up, but then Larry said, “Well, if that’s real and not imaginary, maybe it is an emergency. I’ll keep watching while I’m heading to the airport.”

The woman had directed everyone’s attention to a sphere mounted on a table with heavy duty wheels. She said, “This sphere has a stainless-steel chamber, surrounded by eight inches of lead.” She looked up at the people in the auditorium, “This kind of fusion does produce gamma rays, which lead is pretty good at blocking. It does not produce neutrons, one of the major problems with the other types of fusion in development. Those systems typically fuse deuterium or tritium and release a lot of neutrons. Such neutrons activate the materials of the chamber making the reactor radioactive.” She went on to explain how the plumbing on the chamber brought water with a tiny bit of hydrogen in at one side. The hydrogen was fused, generating heat which turned the water into steam.

She turned it on and a steam turbine on the left side of the table spun up, turning a generator which, if you believed the meters they had hooked up to it, produced over thirty kilowatts of power. She told them it could easily produce 200 kilowatts. She pointed out how this was far more power than you would need for a household, and the equivalent of 270 horsepower for a car… “In fact,” she said, looking at the man from SpaceX, “you could use fusion to launch rockets. Vinn Saigler’s going to tell you guys about that.”

The young guy, who looked even younger than the woman who’d started the presentation, came out to show them diagrams of how fusion could heat the chamber of a steam powered rocket nozzle. A nozzle that could generate more thrust than the rocket engines SpaceX was currently using. “And,” he said, “remember that the rocket won’t have to lift huge tanks full of fuel. Just a tiny tank of hydrogen and a focal point full of water. So, the size of the overall rocket can be a lot smaller. Well, and it’ll also have to lift a fusion powered steam engine that’ll be generating the power for the focal point… But still you should be able to get to space with something only a little bigger than the family car.”

Frank felt like his head was about to explode. Trying to understand all the ways this was going to change the world was boggling his mind.

Miller came back in and started giving details on how companies could bid on licenses for the technology.

Epilogue

Vinn shook his head as he watched Myr bring the ball down court. It was hard to believe that their little team of seven was playing in the championship game for the league. Of course, they didn’t have much of a chance against these guys. There were nine of them, all of them over six feet tall, in good shape, and pretty good athletes. The guy guarding Myr obviously thought that she was their weak link and that he was going to get a turnover. He was defending her hard—hands out, swiping at the ball and blocking her view of her teammates, trying to make it difficult to pass the ball away.

Under intense pressure like that, Vinn knew he’d be feeling a little flustered. If Myr was feeling any strain, it didn’t show. She let her dribble get a little too close to her opponent and he lunged for it. Vinn thought the guy was already looking at the wide-open highway to the basket when he pounced. But Myr had passed the ball behind her back to her other hand. With the guy off balance, now she was the one with a wide-open lane to her basket.

She drove hard toward the paint, but the guy guarding Vinn dropped him to step into Myr’s way. Myr jinked left and the guy surged into her path. The dude had to move his feet so Vinn hoped Myr was about to draw a blocking foul from the guy.

Instead, the ball slammed into Vinn’s hands.

Damn! What a pass, he thought as, undefended, he turned and put the ball up and into the basket.

They won the game.

Vinn had no doubt that the other team would have beaten them if they’d played the way they usually did. And in fact, they did play at their usual level—except for Myr.

Myr upped her game.

She upped her game, as Vinn now realized she did every time they really needed her to play better so they could win. Tonight, playing against a team that should have dominated them, she was simply unreal.

Over and over, the other team thought they had her trapped, but she threw passes through holes no one else could see, delivering them to teammates who were undefended. Charging down court against an intense defender, she’d pull up abruptly to fire beautiful three-point jumpers while the guy guarding her desperately tried to stop.

She got fouled a lot and never missed a free throw.

Vinn found himself wondering whether she could take her game to yet another level if she needed to.

At the bar where they’d celebrated all their wins, the guys were pumped. Steve, the guy she’d drubbed at wind sprints before she even joined the team, crowed over how she’d run the other guys into the ground. Grinning at her, he said, “And I know how that feels!”

Happily, Vinn exclaimed, “Yeah, I know how it feels too. I tried to keep up with her for a run on the beach in Hawaii. I had to pretend I had something else to do and turn around.”

Myr gave him a gentle slug on the shoulder, saying, “Hey! You could’ve kept up!”

Chris said, “Hawaii?! You two went to Hawaii together? You’re not about to get all romantic and ruin our team, are you?”

“No, no, it was for work,” Vinn said. He caught a flash of a look he didn’t understand in Myr’s eyes. Did I just disappoint her? he wondered. Could she… want more?

“You guys went to Hawaii together… For work?! Can I get a job at your place?”

******

As Connor drove his wheelchair down the ramp out of their handicap van, he turned toward the door of their condo and waited for his mother to stack some packages in his lap. Once he was loaded up, he headed toward the door and told his AI to open it. It was Saturday and his mom had dragged him out to go shopping. Connor didn’t particularly like shopping, but he knew he needed to get out of the house. Seeing other people besides his mother and his sister was important to his psychological health.

However, they hadn’t really had any exciting social interactions with the strangers they’d encountered at the various stores. His mother’d had a whole long list of places she’d wanted to go. Connor had thought about begging off the latter half of the excursion, claiming exhaustion, but he didn’t. He’d been feeling depressed because his broken arm had slowed him down. It didn’t hurt anymore and the doctor said it was healing ok. But the whole process had weakened it. One of his friends with muscular dystrophy had gotten pneumonia and died a couple of weeks ago, bringing Connor’s own impending mortality into sharp focus. He and the other two dystrophy patients that he’d been friends with were finding it harder to get together as their weakness advanced and their families got more stressed.

He was looking forward to getting back to his room and playing some multiplayer video games. The games didn’t require muscle strength and he’d gotten pretty good at them. A huge bonus was that the guys he played against had no idea he was disabled. They treated him like a normal person, giving him shit and crowing when they won. He liked that they didn’t treat him with kid gloves like everyone else Connor knew.

As he rolled in, he saw Myr lounging in the recliner. “Hey monkey boy,” she greeted him.

“Myr! What are you doing here? Did your astonishing social life somehow evaporate?”

She grinned, getting out of the recliner and starting to take the packages off of his lap. “I had to break a lot of guys’ hearts today. Told all my boyfriends I had something more important to do.”

“More important? Don’t you mean more fun? Hanging out with me and getting your ass kicked at Assassin’s Slayer?”

She shrugged, “Well, there is that. But, actually I’ve been working on a little project in your room. That’s why mom dragged your ass all over creation this morning.”

“Really?!” Connor said, excited. He had no idea what she might have been doing in his room, but pretty much anything his sister might have done was likely to be pretty awesome. He turned his chair toward the hallway to his bedroom.

Connor stopped abruptly in the doorway. Some bizarre kind of metallic framework was suspended several inches below the entire ceiling of his room. He turned to look back over his shoulder at his sister, “What the hell did you do to my decor?”

She snorted a laugh, “Well, I’ve got to admit it isn’t all that pretty. Maybe we can hang some silk from it, you think?”

“Silk?! Are you trying to make it look like some kind of French hooker’s boudoir?!”

“No, no!” Myr laughed, “What do you want? Mirrors? Pleated leather? Pray tell me, what would be masculine enough for a big-time stud like you?”

Connor frowned, distracted, “What the hell is it, anyway?”

“Ah, well, drive in there a little further and I’ll show you.”

Still staring up at the ceiling, Connor rolled his wheelchair further into the room.

Myr said, “Tell your AI to increase ceiling attraction to twenty-five percent.”

Puzzled, Connor gave the order.

He grunted, saying, “Holy shit!” He suddenly felt lighter in his seat. Turning wide eyes on his sister, he said, “You put field generators up there?!”

Eyes shining, she nodded her head. “You wanna try fifty percent?”

“Oh my God, do I?!” He spoke to his AI and suddenly felt himself get lighter yet. Speaking again to his AI, he ordered seventy-five percent. Moaning ecstatically with the sudden sensation that he was light enough to move, he turned to Myr again. He could hardly speak, but managed to croak out a thank you. After swallowing a couple times to get his voice back in control, he looked back up at the ceiling, “Will it go all the way to 100 percent?”

“Yeah,” Myr said, sounding like she was having a little throat difficulty too. “It’ll go beyond a hundred. But a hundred percent is what it’d take to make you essentially weightless if you were up about about a foot from the frame.” She shrugged, “This isn’t a perfect form of antigravity. The focal points pull harder the closer you get to them. If you set it a little above 100 percent, then manage to get up too close to the frame, you’ll fall toward the ceiling”

“Wait a minute, if I get too close could they suck me in and squish me down to nothing?”

Myr laughed. “No, these field generators produce a linear field, not the geometric ones that we use for most of our other stuff. So, you feel the pull farther away and it doesn’t get incredibly intense when you get close to them. But it’ll still pull harder up near the ceiling.” She lifted an eyebrow, “And, if you get yourself stuck up against the ceiling, you’ll have to gradually decrease the pull a few percent at a time to get down safely. I’d recommend against it my young monkey boy, because once you start to fall down away from it, the further you get from it the faster you’ll drop. My suggestion would be that you not get yourself into a zero G situation ‘cause you’ll probably break if you come crashing down.”

Connor had started lifting his hands up and moving them around, “Look! I can use my arms!”

Myr gave him a mock frown, “You could use them before. It’s just that you can use them better now.” After a pause for him to glare at her, she said, “You want to try standing up?”

Connor’s eyes opened wide. It’d been years since he’d been on his feet. “You think I can stand up?!”

She shrugged, “Should just be a matter of adjusting the lift from the ceiling to the point that you can. Wanna give it a shot here at seventy-five percent? I’ll hold on to you in case you start to fall.”

“Let me boost it a little more for my first try,” Connor said. Speaking to his AI, he asked it to increase the lift to ninety percent. Myr stepped over and got a grip on Connor’s stronger left arm. Reaching down with his right hand he undid the buckle of his seatbelt, then scooted himself forward and stood up for the first time since he’d been a child. He couldn’t stand completely because his leg joints were stiffened from disuse, but, still, he was on his feet! “This is awesome!”

From behind them they heard their mother’s voice, “Connor, what’s holding you up?” Her voice took on a more strident tone, “What—what’s going on?!”

Myr let go of Connor to catch their mother who’d stepped in to the room expecting full gravity. Her first step had bounced her up high enough to almost hit the ceiling. Carol was rotating over frontward and looked like she might come down head first. Even though she wouldn’t land very hard, Myr unconsciously grabbed and righted her. Myr was only away from Connor’s side for a second, then was back making sure he was steady. His heart was thumping with the excitement of standing alone.

Carol said, “What the hell?! How is this happening?”

Myr smiled at her, “Come on Mom. I told you I was installing something in Connor’s room, that’s why you had him out gallivanting all over town.”

“Yeah, well, I pictured another one of your electric doors or something like that. What is this, some kind of antigravity?”

Myr got a smile like a Cheshire cat, “Some kind, yeah.”

An excited new expression dawned on her mother’s face. “Oh my! I saw in the news feed that Miller Tech put a bunch of exotic new technology up for sale a few weeks ago. Is this some of it? Did they let you bring some samples home for Connor?”

Myr nodded.

Connor took a breath and said, “Mom! This is…” He paused when Myr patted him on the arm.

Carol said, “Did you get to work on the team that developed this?!”

Connor felt like his head was going to explode if he couldn’t fill his mother in, but Myr merely nodded at Carol while gently squeezing Connor’s arm.

His mother’s voice filled with concern, “Connor, don’t you need to sit down?”

Connor shook his head, “No Mom. I hardly weigh anything. I want to try walking.”

“Let me get your other arm.” His mother came around and took his right arm; then Connor started slowly walking around the room. His mother was having a significant amount of trouble with her own balance in the low gravity, but he didn’t want to tell her that she seemed more hindrance than help. She turned to Myr, “How are you so stable walking around in this?”

“I’ve been getting plenty of practice while I figured it out.”

Carol’s mind jumped away from that issue and onto another. “Is it incredibly expensive? Will they let you have more of it for the rest of our rooms?”

Myr shrugged, “Like most new tech, it isn’t cheap.” She winked, “But I’ve got an in with the company, so I should be able to get more of it without any problems.”

Carol gushed, “They’re so nice down there. I’m so glad you went to work for Dr. Miller!”

Connor couldn’t take it any longer. The words exploded out of him, “Mom! It’s her invention. It’s her proton field!”

He saw his mother turned to stare at Myr.

Myr gave her a tiny nod.

Carol said, “Oh… Are you… Are you going to get some money from it?”

Myr nodded again. “I deposited some in your account.”

“Oh, how much?”

Myr shrugged and winked, “Why don’t you check your balance?”

Carol frowned, frustrated that she had to do so instead of Myr just telling her. But she spoke quietly to her AI for a second. Then she staggered, grabbing Connor’s desk to stabilize herself. “$10 million?!”

“Yeah,” Myr said, “I thought you might want to help fund Dr. Levinson.”

The End

Hope you liked the book!

If so you might try Lifter (Proton Field #2)

Author’s Afterword

This is a comment on the “science” in this science fiction novel. I’ve always been partial to science fiction that posed a “what if” question. Not everything in the story has to be scientifically plausible, but you suspend your disbelief regarding one or two things that aren’t thought to be possible. Then you ask, what if something (such as faster than light travel) were possible, how might that change our world?

And, try not to “hand wave” anything else…

This story’s “what if” has to do with asking what would be the potential of a field that warped space for protons? What if you could warp space for protons in a fashion similar to the way that space-time is warped by neutron stars and black holes, pulling matter in and crushing it together. Without requiring huge amounts of power to apply the pressure since somehow the field also suppresses electrostatic repulsion. What would happen if only protons were susceptible to such a field?

With this as a framework, I started trying to figure out what might happen (fusion etc.) and what else might be possible. Being a nerd, I spent an inordinate time using Wolfram Alpha to calculate how much energy would be released by only the first proton-proton step of hydrogen fusion. Also watching videos of underwater explosions to comprehend how big they’d be, doing internet searches to find out how much water vapor there is in your typical room (1 liter), and doing calculations to find out how much energy it takes to accelerate two kilograms of water up to a walking speed of 5kph (0.4 joules). Now, because I really want things other than any oddball premises of the story to be physically correct, I’m hoping I didn’t make some serious math errors!

I find all this pondering and calculating fascinating—as I consider what might happen and try to think of all the possibilities that might be opened up. There are other technological possibilities beyond the ones described in this book (can you say “Proton Field #2”?) and I’m sure I’ve probably missed even more of them, Some of you readers will be pointing out more ideas to me in the near future.

I love the fascinating suggestions and feedback I get from readers!

Just an FYI, I once knew a very pretty young woman who really did make quite a bit of money sharking guys into betting on games of H-O-R-S-E. I’ve always thought it was hilarious and thought it ought to be in a story.

I had a great time writing this tale and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it.

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the editing and advice of Nora Dahners, Gail Gilman, Elene Trull, Mike Alsobrook, Allen Dietz, Mike Giroux, Jack Hudler and Eddie Still, each of whom significantly improved this story.