Split second, p.8
Split Second, page 8
“Only one course each year,” she said. “He had plenty of grants, and became a full professor two years ago, at the age of twenty-seven. When most physicists are just getting their PhDs.”
“What was he like?”
“Wonderful,” she said, determined to discuss this in an emotionally detached state. She had leaked too many tears already. “Generous and funny. Thoughtful, but absentminded. Might order an amazing personalized cake for your birthday and Mylar balloons, and then totally forget to pick them up. And he was brilliant, of course.”
“You are too, aren’t you? I know you have to be pretty bright to be getting a PhD in genetics at UCSD. But I have the feeling you’re even brighter than most in this program.”
Jenna sighed. “Well, at the risk of seeming immodest, that is probably true. But I’m special-needs compared to Nathan. His mind was in another realm. I’ve always loved bright people. But at the same time, I can’t stand intellectual snobs. You know, the type of people who look down their noses at anything mainstream, because they’re way too smart for that. The type who have to say everything as pretentiously as possible, using the most obscure vocabulary every chance they get.”
Blake nodded but kept his eyes on the road.
“Don’t get me wrong,” continued Jenna, “I have nothing against people with good working vocabularies. I’d like to think I have one. And sometimes a less common word needs to be used to convey a nuance, or achieve a necessary level of precision. But if something can be said simply, it should be. Using big words isn’t impressive. Getting points across simply, succinctly, but with great clarity is.”
She paused and the flicker of a smile played across her face. “It’s like that famous quote, ‘If I would have had more time, I’d have written you a shorter letter.’”
“Never heard that one before,” said Blake. “But I like it. And I know the type. I’ve always believed that someone truly brilliant wouldn’t feel the need to show off.” He grinned. “You know, would simply use the word use, rather than utilize the word utilize.”
Jenna laughed. “Exactly. That’s my exact point. The truly brilliant can be subtle about it. Nathan was the opposite of an intellectual snob. He never put on intellectual airs. He was down-to-earth in every way, and so was his language, although he could dazzle when speaking formally or when he required the highest levels of precision. He had nothing to prove. So if you met him at a party and knew nothing about his background, you’d think he was just a regular guy. But before too long you’d begin to see it. The wit. The depth of thinking. The speed of assimilating a new situation. The way he could choose words to make the mundane seem magical.”
She stopped as the ache inside became nearly unbearable.
They sat in silence for several minutes, and Blake knew enough to let her regroup. He continued on toward Palomar, scanning the road ahead for cops since he was heavy on the gas pedal by nature.
“Go ahead, Aaron,” said Jenna finally. “I’m good now.”
Blake waited a few more seconds and then said, “Okay, Nathan’s discovery is at the crux of what’s happening. I know you have no idea what it is. But it might be helpful if you told me what problems he was working on.”
“As far as I could tell, he was working on everything and nothing. His job was basically to imagine the universe, imagine physics and mathematics that no one had ever imagined before. He soaked up all fields of math and physics like a sponge. And he enjoyed creating math that wasn’t tethered to the real world. Really crazy stuff. I think they call it abstract math. What he created was usually beyond me, even conceptually.”
She reached up and absently touched the smooth steel hoop hanging from her left earlobe once again, still not used to wearing this kind of earring. “Lately, he dabbled a lot in dark matter and dark energy theory. If I were a betting woman, I’d guess the discovery had something to do with this.”
“And you know what these fields are all about?”
“More or less.”
Jenna allowed herself a brief smile. “Mostly less,” she admitted. “I did read several books on cosmology and physics for the lay person, so Nathan could at least discuss his work with me. At least in generalities. And no one could make complicated concepts understandable the way he could.”
“Great. I’m ready to be educated.”
“I really don’t know all that much.”
“Not much is a lot more than I know at this point.”
Jenna smiled. She gathered her thoughts and tried to recall how Nathan had first explained this subject matter to her. “Here’s the gist: up until the 1970s and ‘80s, physicists thought they had a pretty good handle on matter and energy, and knew exactly how to detect these things. For the most part, matter was something visible, something we could see. Even if a hunk of matter was in a dark cave, so we couldn’t see it with our eyes, or if certain matter didn’t radiate in the visible spectrum at all, we could still detect it with other forms of electromagnetic radiation. We could view it with UV light, or bounce radar or radio waves off of it. We could heat it up with microwaves.”
“Are you saying this isn’t the case with dark matter?”
“That’s right. The word dark is a misnomer, since it implies that lack of light is the problem, that if you could just shine a flashlight on dark matter you could see it. But this stuff can’t be detected by our current science. Period. Not by our eyes or any of our instruments. When Harry Potter was under his invisibility cloak, you could still feel him if you ran into him. Not so with dark matter. Like a ghost, it goes right through regular matter. Scientists have set up dark matter detectors deep underground, to minimize interference, but after years there is no definitive proof that they’ve detected even a single particle of it.”
Blake squinted in confusion. “Then how the hell do we even know it exists?”
“Because it still exerts a gravitational force. Apparently, it has a profound influence on the movements of galaxies and galaxy clusters.” She arched an eyebrow. “Any guesses how much of the universe is composed of this stuff? How much of our universe is totally invisible to us?”
Blake shook his head.
“Twenty-five percent. But this number is misleading, because there is something else that physicists discovered, in 1998. Dark energy. Turns out that while dark matter is an attractive force within and between galaxies, dark energy is a repulsive force. We know it’s there because the universe is expanding far faster than it has any right to. The teams who first discovered this won a Nobel Prize for it in 2011. To say that this was an astonishing result is an understatement. Nathan told me it would be like releasing an apple at chest height, expecting it to crash to the ground, only to watch it rise to the ceiling instead. Chalk another one up to the universe for having some good tricks up its sleeve.”
Jenna paused for a moment to let this sink in. “Nathan tells me that dark matter and dark energy are right up there with the most incredible discoveries of the millennium,” she continued. “Most cosmologists agree that dark matter and dark energy make up ninety-five percent of the universe. The parts we can detect, the hundreds of billions of galaxies filled with hundreds of billions of stars and planets, represent only five percent of the total. Five percent!”
“Do scientists have any idea what dark energy is?”
“Two theories are most popular. The first is that it’s a manifestation of something called zero point energy. Long story, but quantum physics has shown there is an energy field that exists everywhere, including the vacuum of space, called the zero point field. The energy produced is too fleeting for us to tap, but it’s there. The problem with this one is that the zero point field has been calculated as being nearly infinite. Dark energy’s affect on the universe is incomprehensibly immense, but if the zero point field were responsible, some scientists believe it would be even stronger.”
“And the second theory?” said Blake, appearing to be genuinely fascinated.
“Well, there are four fundamental forces in nature that we know of. Electromagnetism, which everyone knows about. The weak nuclear force, which makes possible the fusion that powers the sun. And the strong nuclear force, which basically holds the nuclei of atoms together.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” said Blake dryly.
Jenna winced. “I’m going into too much unneeded detail, aren’t I?” she said. “Sorry. Nathan can make this stuff a lot more interesting than I can.”
“No, no,” said Blake. “You’re doing great. Please go on.”
“Okay. I was going to say that gravity can be considered the fourth fundamental force, although it is something like a trillion trillion times weaker than any of the others.”
“Gravity is the weakest force?”
“Yeah. I was surprised when Nathan first explained this to me, but it’s obvious. We tend to think it’s all powerful because we live on a massive ball of matter, and in a universe filled with enormous quantities of gravity-producing stars and planets. But if you think about it, a one-ounce magnet can lift a paperclip from the ground. Despite the fact that the gravity produced by the entire Earth is trying to hold it down. Six thousand trillion tons of mass being counteracted by a tiny magnet.”
“That’s how much the Earth weighs?”
Jenna nodded.
“Wow. That must have been some scale.”
Jenna smiled. “So let me get back to your question. The second theory is that dark energy is a fifth type of fundamental force. One that was previously unknown. One physicists have dubbed quintessence, a force that exists throughout the universe in something called the quintessence field. I’m not sure how this is different from the zero point field, but it is all-pervasive as well.”
“So the quint in quintessence means five, right? Like quintuplets?”
“Yes. Actually, modern physicists stole the word from the ancient Greeks. The ancients didn’t know about the four fundamental forces we know about, of course. But they believed that everything was made up of a combination of four types of elements, four types of matter: earth, air, fire, and water. And this belief was widespread in a number of different cultures. But the ancients often included a fifth element, which they believed filled the universe beyond Earth. They called this element quintessence. Also called ether in ancient Greece, and akasha in India.”
“And in modern English, of course,” said Blake, “quintessence, and quintessential, means the most perfect example of something. The most pure and essential essence.”
“Exactly,” said Jenna. She was coming to appreciate that Aaron Blake was far more than just a bad-ass commando. Like Nathan, he didn’t feel the need to flaunt his depth and intelligence, but it was there.
“Very interesting stuff,” said Blake.
“Thanks. But I’m afraid that’s all I know.”
They were nearing the mountain and Blake pulled off the road and into a gas station, wanting to fill the tank so they wouldn’t have to bother for the return trip. He bought a large orange Gatorade and Jenna bought a twenty ounce bottle of, fittingly enough, Palomar Mountain Spring Water, and they resumed their journey, and their conversation.
“Could it be that Nathan discovered what dark energy really is?” asked Blake after he swallowed a large mouthful of orange liquid.
“Yes. I guess it’s possible.”
“What if he found a way to harness this energy? That would have to be the holy grail.”
“Absolutely. The energy is everywhere. Finding a way to use it would usher in an absolute revolution. Early man had no concept of electricity and no way to tap it. Think about how much harnessing this previously invisible source of energy changed civilization. This would do the same. And then some.”
“So maybe that’s what’s on your flash drive.”
She shook her head. “Can’t be. Nathan told me he wasn’t sure of the real world uses for his discovery. If he learned how to do this the practical applications would be obvious, and immense. Nathan told me that physicists were making some progress identifying this energy, but he was certain there would never be a way to use it. You could tap in—maybe—but even if you managed this, Nathan’s calculations, and those of others, showed you’d never be able to control it. It would be all or nothing. Drinking from a fire hose. Tap it and the minimum energy you would release would be more than enough to vaporize the Earth, possibly the entire solar system.”
Blake nodded, clearly disappointed, and continued driving in silence, finally beginning the ascent up the mountain.
In Jenna’s opinion, while this had been a necessary exercise, they were right back where they started. Scratching their heads.
“I know you were in the back of a semi,” said Blake finally, changing the subject, “without any windows. But any guesses where your truck left the road?”
“I’d say about fifteen or twenty minutes up the mountain from where we are now.”
“Okay, but let’s both start searching for it in five or ten minutes, just to be sure.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be able to find it on my own. You can keep your eyes on the road. Believe me, when an eighteen-wheeler becomes a toboggan, the aftermath is impossible to miss.”
Fifteen minutes later they heard the unmistakable sound of chainsaws ripping through the otherwise still air. Blake turned to Jenna and raised an eyebrow. “That’s interesting.”
As they came closer to the source of the intermittent roar, Jenna continued to study the downward sloping side of the road, while Blake’s eyes were constantly on the move.
Moments later his eyes stopped moving and focused on the physical pavement ahead. His instincts told him something wasn’t right, but it took a few seconds for him to put his finger on what: the approaching section of road appeared just the slightest shade lighter than the rest of the pavement they had been traversing.
Someone had scrubbed it. And for this to be even a little bit noticeable they must have used industrial strength power washers, obliterating any skid marks from any semis that may have braked so hard their cargo compartments had fishtailed into the woods.
Blake slowed as he approached this stretch of road and followed Jenna’s line of sight. Six men appeared on the slope below. Four of the men were hustling about—one with a rake, several with chain saws, and one shoving brush into a heavy nylon sack—while two of the men appeared to be taking a break, their eyes turned up toward the road.
A large swath of the forest, from the roadside down to where these men were positioned, had been laid bare, with several of the felled trees still in evidence. Each man wore a bright yellow shirt and white hard-hat, and they had patches on their arms, green-bordered shields with the silhouette of a pine tree and the words Forest Service, US Department of Agriculture stitched inside.
“No!” shrieked Jenna as they passed. “This is where we went off the road. It has to be. I swear to you, every word I told you was the truth. But these bastards just destroyed the evidence I was going to show you.”
“These bastards are all the evidence I need,” said Blake as the men receded behind them. “Just incredible!” he added in awe. “They scrubbed the road, airlifted a Hostess truck out of here, and cleared the area since last night. I thought I might have overblown the situation with Greg, but now I don’t think so. What in the world are we dealing with?”
Blake saw the despondent look on Jenna’s face and winced. “Sorry. Not trying to make this situation worse. But like I said in my apart—office—anyone capable of sanitizing the scene you described would have to be absolute magicians. They must wield enormous resources.”
“So you don’t think those guys are really with the Forest Service?”
“The two who were watching the road definitely aren’t. The others may be legitimate, but I think the odds are good they’re military. Or at least they were—not sure who they’re working for now. The military trains all kinds of specialists. Men who can construct floating bridges in a single night half a football field long, strong enough for heavy artillery to cross. Men who can build tunnels, or even underground facilities, faster than you’d believe possible. And men who can clear woodlands.”
“So this is about the worst development we could ever hope for,” said Jenna.
Just as she said this, Blake spotted one of the periodic turnouts in the road, which he was rapidly approaching. “Maybe,” he said as he began braking. “But maybe not. If I play my cards right,” he added with determination, “this might turn out to be a blessing in disguise.”
13
Blake pulled onto the turnout and killed the ignition. “Wait here,” he said to Jenna. “Face away from the road and appear to be, you know . . . communing with nature. I’ll try to be back within an hour.”
“An hour?” repeated Jenna worriedly.
Blake nodded. “My guess is that I can get to a vantage point that looks out on the men we saw in fifteen to twenty minutes,” he said. “I’ll take a video of them and snap some photos. I have a friend who can run their faces through a database.”
“Aren’t you going to need a really good telephoto camera for that?”
Blake laughed. He reached well over onto her side of the car and popped open the glove compartment. He removed a small but mighty Nikon telephoto camera that reeked of expense and sophisticated electronics.
He returned his arms and torso to his side of the car and gripped the door handle, preparing to exit. “As far as I know,” he said, “this camera can only film cheating spouses screwing co-workers or hookers. But I’ve always theorized it might be able to film people who still have their clothes on.” He raised his eyebrows. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”
Jenna’s face wrinkled up in disgust. “Ewww,” she said as she thought further about this seamy aspect of a private detective’s life.
“Yeah,” he said in agreement. “Ewww is right.” He paused. “So my plan is to get the shots I need and then remain in place for fifteen or twenty minutes in the hope I get lucky.”
“Lucky how?”
