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.Or the shift through the dimensions might have ripped at John's mental fabric—maybe dislodged a bubble of memory so strong that it could exist independent of its owner.Who knows?"And what fun it would be to find out.He could see months of research opening out before him, maybe even years, maybe even a new branch of science."And if I could get hold of John Bruce's brain scans, there might be something the SHIFT team overlooked.""I don't remember hearing about any other SHIFT missions after John's.Couldn't that be proof that something went wrong?""What?" He was half in the room, half racing into the future."Oh, that.No, that was down to navigation problems.The craft was supposed to slip into the higher dimensions and then return.A short journey just to prove that flight was possible.Trouble was it came back fifty miles away from where it was supposed to.Spectacular sight mind you—one second it was there, hanging in space, a couple of thousand miles above the Earth, then." He clicked his fingers."It winked out of existence and reappeared fifty miles to the left.""So it did go wrong?""After a fashion.They knew about the navigation error long before John got anywhere near the craft.But it wasn't seen as a problem.You see, they experienced the same magnitude of deflection during the unmanned flights.It was predictable.They didn't know where he was going to reappear but they knew it would be about fifty miles from the start point.And it wasn't as though he was going anywhere.Just nipping into the void and back.""Seems one hell of a risk to me.""Ah, but you didn't have half of Washington breathing down your neck.SHIFT could have been cancelled if there were any more delays.""Still seems a crazy way to run a project.""It's a crazy world.Anyway, SHIFT's on hold now until they sort the navigation problem out.No point venturing to the stars if you can't find your way back, is there?" He paused, thinking.Then smiled."I don't know though.It does have that certain appeal, doesn't it?""So SHIFT was cancelled after all?""No, not cancelled—put on hold.The funds are still there.If and when they crack the navigation problem""So, what do we do?"He didn't answer immediately.He stood, staring vacantly out the window, mulling over the possibilities.What was the best plan of action? Rush off to the States and try to persuade John Bruce to submit to a brain scan? What chance was there of that? And what if the whole thing was a fake? An opportunist telepath reading Louise's mind and regurgitating events for.for what? Attention? Prestige? Some strange twisted plan that might never be fully understood?"Tell you what, I'll get in touch with SHIFT and, in the meantime, let's have a look at Mister Pendennis before Ziegler changes his mind.""Do I have to be there?""Definitely.If there is a telepathic link between the two of you, end of story.I can calibrate the imagers to pick up even the weakest telepathic bond so there'll be no chance of him faking anything.""And if there is no link?""That, Ms.Callander, is when it starts to get interesting."Chapter FourNick tossed his car key onto the dining room table and switched on the HV.It was all he could think about on the drive over.Go home, call up every John Bruce holocast you can find and see if there's a change.One that nobody had noticed.It would have to be something subtle.Maybe a slight loss of motor skills—was that why he'd left NASA? Or gaps in his memory, or.The HV prompt light came on.All he needed now was the remote which, as usual, was hiding—probably buried beneath last night's Indian take-away.Or was that the night before's?Someday he really had to find the trigger to his tidy gene.He found the remote, wiped off the red sauce and switched to voice input."John Bruce," he said and selected 'news.'A news anchor materialised in the corner of the room—the image, half life-size and floating two feet off the ground.She smiled at Nick and spoke in a soft southern drawl."John Bruce will be leaving the campaign trail today to attend a SHIFT reunion in Florida.The thirty-one year-old former spaceman is currently trailing third in the polls in New Hampshire but."Nick froze the image and asked for a list of every John Bruce appearance, with titles and dates [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]