Not that it mattered, really. It was the only option he had.
Boring through the startled specters, he launched himself forward and threw open the glass panel.
CHAPTER 16
“We must do something.”
Adrienne Dowman turned to look at Flora, who had spoken almost inaudibly. She was staring through the window panel at the relic as if it had mesmerized her. After two full days, the stone was still floating, still stable.
“So,” Adrienne said. “You’re one of those.”
“One of what?” Flora said, not turning her head.
“One of those people who has a single success and takes that as a mandate to do anything you want.”
Now Flora deigned to look at her. She had avoided her new associate as much as possible, spending the day trying to find out where the hell Mikel was and looking for any scraps of new data about anomalies in the South Pole. So far, both endeavors had been unsuccessful. She was feeling uncommonly frustrated and didn’t feel like listening to a subordinate.
“I thought we had the conversation about my being uninterested in your opinions,” Flora said.
Adrienne smiled an annoying half smile. “The way I look at it, Dr. Davies, you do not have a choice but to listen.”
“Not?” Flora suggested.
“I don’t see that as an option,” Adrienne replied. “You’ve said it before: the rest of my career is going to be spent right here, working for you. You can’t let me off my chain until you go public with your results about these objects, and you know next to nothing about them. So that’s pretty far in the future. The equation, then, is: ‘you need me’ plus ‘I wish to be heard’ equals ‘you will listen.’”
Flora stared at Adrienne for a moment longer, not quite believing what she was hearing, then looked back at the stone. “And you will find that I’m capable of very selective hearing.”
“We’ll see,” Adrienne said. “Let’s start with this. You’ve solved a problem with that stone. I suggest—I urge you not to turn off the system and start messing with it again or you may have to solve others before you’re ready.”
“We have no choice,” Flora said. “You’ve been taking readings since it’s been in stasis and learned very little—”
“Oh, I haven’t learned very little,” Adrienne replied. “So far, I’ve learned nothing. This object is like an electron. Stop it and it’s just another particle. You only learn when it’s active, in motion.”
“Then what choice do I have but to shut off the—what did you call it?”
“The node,” Adrienne replied. “That’s the location in the array of sound waves capable of sustaining the levitation.”
“Yes. All right, Adrienne. Give me an option.”
“Patience,” Adrienne replied. She cocked her head toward the stone. “I’ve had to tiptoe around this relic, literally. Every garbage truck, every bus that passed by on the street had me on edge. Vibrations of any kind affect sound.”
“I understand that,” Flora said. “But I don’t think you understand what we have.”
Adrienne opened her mouth to speak but thought better of it.
“The stability of a singularity that suddenly, inexplicably reaches out and expands, that creates massive inflation,” Flora said. “What does that describe?”
Adrienne replied immediately. “The Big Bang.”
“Quite so,” Flora said. She gazed at the artifact. “This is the beginning of the universe in a bottle. And it is artificial, though constructed of naturally occurring minerals, and possibly made by intelligent hands. That’s significant.”
“Dr. Davies, it’s an ancient stone in a node,” Adrienne said, correcting her.
Flora chose that moment to selectively not hear.
“And you said ‘intelligent,’ not ‘human,’” Adrienne pointed out as she replayed the statement in her head. “What did you mean by that?”
Again, Flora ignored her. Instead, she asked, “What would happen to me if I walked in there? It’s just ultrasound, right? The same that’s used on pregnant women?”
“And that we use to break up kidney stones. Or, perhaps, Group directors.”
“So it could be destructive.”
“Yes,” Adrienne sighed. “I’ll just say I hope you won’t do that. It would be a seriously flawed decision.”
Flora smiled.
Adrienne was not warmed by the smile. “You’re not going to listen.”
“All those vehicles that passed by, the trucks and buses—they did not cause an imbalance, did they?” Flora asked.
Adrienne’s mouth tightened. “Dr. Davies, you were smart enough to hire me and now I’m asking you to be smart enough to stay out of the lab until I figure out a safe, sane next step.”
“When will that be?”
“Next Friday, four-oh-one p.m.”
Flora ignored Adrienne’s unwelcome quip. “Worst case—what happens if I go in?”
“All right, here’s the truth,” Adrienne said. “Let’s ignore the question of stability. It’s ultrasound on steroids in there. What that means is, if you don’t stay inside too long and if you’re protecting your eardrums, any other effects on you should be minimal. Your body heat will probably rise.”
“How long is too long?”
“When you start feeling like you have a fever, that’s too long.”
“Seconds? Minutes?”
“Maybe two minutes,” Adrienne said. “I just don’t know. And I repeat, I do not want to find out.”
Flora had faith in the iron constitution that came with her Welsh heritage. She wanted to test that envelope. “Anything else?”
“There’s a minimal risk of cavitation, bubbles forming in your blood, tissues, or organs.”
“The practical effects of which are?”
“Your blood vessels could rupture.”
Flora gazed at the stone. “How minimal is minimal?”
Adrienne rubbed her eyebrows. “Almost nonexistent if you don’t linger once the other symptoms set in.”
“Good.” Flora swung away from the window and strode down the hall.
“Get me out of here,” Adrienne said under her breath, her eyes betraying fear as she watched the relic hovering, quiet and still and ominous.
Flora came back gloved and holding a tray with eight objects, all about the same size and shape as the artifact. Adrienne could see at a glance that none were made of the same type of stone. She guessed ancient clay, wood, and copper right off the bat. One looked like it might be alabaster, and another looked sheathed in a beige leather with an odd sheen. Flora balanced the tray carefully in one hand, thrust a pair of surgical gloves at Adrienne, and tweaked her headphones more securely over her ears. Then she opened the door to the chamber.
“Come on,” she ordered.
“Thank you, no,” Adrienne snapped.
“You’re not going to be inside,” Flora returned. “You’re going to stand in the doorway and hand me these.”
Adrienne stood still for a moment, then pulled on the gloves with an insolent look. She received the tray dubiously. “Do any of these have a history of acting up?”
“No, they’ve never misbehaved,” Flora said as she eyed the room, the boundaries of which were set by the black panels on the walls, floor, and ceiling.
Adrienne reached into the pocket of her lab coat and thumbed on a recorder. She announced the time. Flora stood still and shook out her hands. After taking a long breath, she slowly stepped into the frame of inaudible sound waves—