Dark Matter. Cameron Cruise

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СКАЧАТЬ younger man reminded Morgan of himself during his early years: self-made, fearless in establishing his dominance in the field of parapsychology. There was even a slight physical resemblance. Both men possessed a shock of white hair; Morgan’s the product of age, Zag’s, a credit to his stylist.

      Morgan had never seen hair so white-blond it was almost translucent. And the fashion eccentricities didn’t stop at his hair color or the occasional eyeliner. Last week, Zag had shown up wearing a leather kilt.

      But then, given the company he kept, rock stars and Oscar winners, the choice in wardrobe was hardly surprising. His suit today was a patchwork of suede dyed in shades of brown, making the man’s near-colorless eyes appear almost beige. Like Morgan, he was popular with the ladies. Only his broken nose prevented his delicate features from being too pretty.

      Morgan always claimed it was Zag’s seminal work in auras that had granted him the keys to the Brain Trust. But there was also the matter of money. Zag’s corporation, Halo Industries, made even Morgan’s vast fortune appear modest. Even now, work was being done on a new underground laboratory, courtesy of Halo Industries, one to rival any used by the government for its supersecret black projects.

      “If all the laws of physics are set,” Zag continued, “then from the moment of the big bang, everything is predetermined. How you act, how you think, even if you should want spaghetti for dinner, these are just atomic interactions—in your brain, in your body. At a fundamental level, even people interacting are just atoms interacting.”

      “But even as you yourself point out in the article, the laws of physics are not set. Under quantum physics, the world is full of uncertainties.”

      This soft lob came from Martha Ozbek, considered by many as Theodore Fields’s opposite number in academia. An anthropologist by training, she had developed an expertise in psychic artifacts and the paranormal. Her recent book, How To Find Self, a tome discussing man’s unique relationship with the paranormal over the centuries, had remained on the New York Times bestseller list for half a dozen weeks.

      While cagey in revealing her own beliefs, she was a fervent advocate for the paranormal, often coming to Zag’s defense in these clashes. She’d had the privilege to work with the likes of Thelma Moss, a parapsychologist known for her work in Kirlian photography, photographs that purportedly supplied tangible proof of supernatural auras. To Martha, the belief in the paranormal dated as far back as the cave drawings in France, and therefore, was a legitimate area of study for an anthropologist.

      Martha herself was worthy of a little study. At almost sixty, she could still catch a man’s eyes. She favored flowing caftans in colors that accented her bright blue eyes and short platinum hair. Recently, there’d been rumors of a talk show.

      Zag held up his hands and smiled. “That’s right, Martha. The world is full of uncertainties. Anything is possible. In quantum physics, all outcomes are merely a matter of probability, which opens the door for free will. Come on, Theodore, you can’t tell me it’s not at least worth discussing?”

      “It’s worth discussing about as much as it is worth pondering the question do pigs fly?” Theodore scoffed. “You’re trying to use quantum mechanics as the scientific basis for free will. And there is no scientific basis for free will. You can’t observe it, you can’t measure it, you can’t study it.”

      Martha placed a calming hand on Theodore’s. “And yet, before Galileo, we didn’t know the equation for the relationship between velocity and acceleration. Perhaps, Theodore, we merely do not yet know the equation to study free will.”

      Theodore grimaced. “Don’t you see what he’s trying to do? If you buy his argument, you can use quantum mechanics to legitimize anything—even his kiddie camps for pseudopsychics.”

      Zag leaned back in his chair, enjoying the moment—the great Theodore Fields losing his cool. It seemed to happen more and more these days. And Zag was just getting started.

      “Is that how you see the Halo-effect schools? Kiddie camps for pseudopsychic ability?”

      “Or worse,” Theodore said.

      Zag grinned. “Oh, please, Theodore. Don’t hold back.”

      “I can understand bamboozling some rich asshole who wants to cultivate some fantasy that his child is special. But this recent addition of working with autistic children at these schools—really, Zag, it’s too much. You tell their poor, desperate parents that their children are unique rather than disabled, that you can help them develop their unusual gifts, milking them with that hope.”

      “But they are unique, Theodore,” Zag continued coolly. “I’ve been working with autistic children since graduate school. I’ve seen these children do incredible things. You want to put them in a box and drug them, I see them as an evolutionary next step in brain development. My work is to try and use psychic tools to access their potential.”

      “Psychic tools? What is a psychic tool? Oh, wait!” Theodore reached for an empty space on the table and held up his hand as if holding something. “Here it is! My psychic tool!”

      Morgan held up a hand. “Enough, gentlemen. While I enjoy your verbal sparring, I believe we were discussing Zag’s unorthodox use of the uncertainty principle. Lionel?” Morgan asked, reaching out to the group’s resident mathematician and referee, who was sitting between Theodore and Zag. “Do you want to chime in here?”

      Dr. Lionel Cable had recently been recognized for his seminal work in algebraic topology. A compact man of African American descent, he had a prominent scar in the middle of his forehead caused by a childhood accident. He was the most recent recipient of the Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics and the only cool head in the room.

      He didn’t hesitate to step in. “It is true that the uncertainty principle can be misused. Since Einstein, we’ve been trying to apply quantum physics on the cosmic scale. We have no idea if these principles are even relevant at the macro level.”

      “We don’t know being the salient point, Lionel,” Martha argued. “So why run from the discussion? During the eighteenth century, the French Academy of Science denied the existence of meteorites. Museum curators all over Europe threw out their collections of meteorites for fear of appearing backward. Stones falling from the sky? It smacked too much of religion—the hand of God and all that. Once it was the church persecuting theorists, now it’s science? Well, I for one refuse to be bullied from discussing the topic at hand.”

      Morgan turned to Lionel. “Isn’t the macro level merely the summation of what happens on the molecular level?”

      “Wonderful,” Theodore said. “You make up a law and then find a way to apply it broadly. That’s great science. Did we read the same article, people?” He looked around the table, sounding almost desperate. “The man quoted Edgar Cayce and Madam Blavatsky!”

      Edgar Cayce, the sleeping prophet, was possibly the best-known American psychic. He was also responsible for some of the more controversial theories about the lost city of Atlantis—a favorite topic of Zag’s and another one of Theodore’s pet peeves.

      “Cayce believed that the Atlanteans had a great crystal that allowed its people to focus their extraordinary abilities to achieve fantastical things. Helena Blavatsky claimed that Atlanteans invented airplanes and grew extraterrestrial wheat,” Theodore continued, his face growing ever more florid. “Atlantis is fodder for Disney, for God’s sake, not science. Is this the kind of hogwash you want to sign your name to, Morgan? СКАЧАТЬ