Dinosaur Thunder by James F. David

Author:James F. David
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Forge Books
Published: 2012-12-24T06:00:00+00:00

28

Rescue Team

According to Einstein’s special theory of relativity, our lives pass more slowly if we travel close to the speed of light. He has also shown that we live longer if we go and live in an intense gravitational field. Einstein has thus opened up the future and shown that it is possible to slow down time.

—John Baruch

Present Day

Lake County, Florida

John Roberts waited impatiently in the lobby of the University of Florida, Physics Extension. After showing his badge to a receptionist, an office manager, a faculty member, a division chair, and a unit supervisor, John was asked to wait. John was just about done waiting. Nick Paulson had disappeared; Elizabeth Hawthorne, was gone, as well as others; Visitors were appearing and disappearing; and the damn earth was shaking. The world did not have time for John to be standing in a waiting room.

“This way, Mr. Roberts,” a young woman said.

Dressed in a lab coat, the short-haired blonde had a noticeable Southern drawl. Her name tag identified her as Dr. Webb, but she looked like a teenager. Controlling his temper, John followed her to an elevator, where she used a key to take them down three floors. When the door opened, she motioned him forward but remained in the elevator. Stepping out, John found his hand feeling along his belt for the sidearm that wasn’t there. Dr. Webb smiled as the doors closed, leaving John alone.

White material lined the hallway, floor, ceiling, and walls. Shiny and smooth, it looked like plastic but felt like rock. Canister lights, recessed into the ceiling, lit the corridor intermittently. A door at the far end was open. More curious than angry now, John walked the length of the corridor, passing four side doors made of the same white material. None of the doors had handles or visible locks. The door at the end opened into a domed room, where even the bins lining the wall lacked sharp angles or edges. Everything looked like it was molded out of plastic. Workstations filled the center of the room, each piece of equipment connected to a computer. Hanging from the ceiling near one section of the curving wall was a large monitor. Under the monitor, sitting on a white desk, was Emmett Puglisi.

Friends since Nick Paulson sent them on a mission through time and space, John and Rosa had helped Emmett stop a Mayan priest from cutting Emmett’s wife’s heart out. A white scar still marked Carrollee Chen-Slater-Puglisi’s chest where the priest had made an incision.

“Shouldn’t you be in Hawaii?” John asked, not as surprised at seeing Emmett as he should be.

“Carrollee and her mother are watching the kids,” Emmett said. “I’m on temporary loan to the OSS.”

There was some gray in Emmett’s brown beard and on his temples, his scalp well into male-pattern baldness. He was middle-aged pudgy, average in height, with brown eyes and a kind-looking face, almost cherubic. With a little less hair, he would look right at home in monk’s robes.

“Carrollee let you work for Nick again?” John asked.

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