Fear the Future (The Fear Saga Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

getting used to the whole ‘materializing out of nothing’ thing.’
    Neal: ‘yes, it is strange, isn’t it. if it makes you feel any better, most people will not be able to creep up on you like i can in here. but membership has its access privileges, if you know what i mean.’
    It was a geek joke, and it found its audience here, a virtual ripple of laughter following among the three lifelong academics.
    William: ‘hello, neal.’
    Neal: ‘william. ¿how goes it?’
    William: ‘i think it is safe to say moira here is … and i hope you don’t mind me blowing your cover on this, moira … still a little freaked out.’
    Moira did not mind at all. In fact, she wished everyone would say it, and that it would impact even a little the high expectations they all seemed to have for her. Neal was understanding, sympathetic even. That said, he was long past being willing to wait for anyone, no matter what their level of freakedoutedness, or whatever they chose to call the reticence of those who seemed to think any of this was an option.
    He tempered whatever frustration he may have felt, however, recognizing that this young woman was not the real source of his anger, and instead answered calmly, if a little patronizingly.
    Neal: ‘no, no. that is totally understandable, moira. and indeed even encouraged. i can tell you that birgit was equally nervous when she first initiated one of the fusion cores. but you have started small, just as she did. and i hear from madeline that she has reviewed the core turnover and tritium breeding rates and is very comfortable with your level of skill. high praise indeed, coming from her!’
    Moira blushed, and her control over her virtual self was so embryonic that the emotion bled through. But it was an endearing sight and Neal’s mood softened a little to match his patrician tone.
    Neal: ‘truth be told, i understand from birgit that she was not prepared for the sensation herself, even with her knowledge of the process.’
    It was true, and Birgit had said as much in her conversations with Moira via their syrupy-slow laser link to Terminus Station.
    Neal: ‘but she has also told me you are ready. as ready as anyone can be. and if there is anyone whose opinion i take seriously here it is hers. more even than your own sense of how prepared you are. now, william and mynd here assure me that you will be being actively monitored in real-time, and madeline will be online as well, with a team of control specialists back at District Three. they will get you through it, and help you should you get in trouble.’
    Neal wished Madeline or one of her longer-term team members could handle this themselves, but Madeline had been clear that this was not a question of the broad scientific method she brought to her leadership role, but of a precise and detailed knowledge of the incredibly complex process in question. Whoever was in control needed to understand the forces at play at the muscle-memory level.
    Moira managed a nod, and put on a simulacrum of a brave face, and Neal smiled in response.
    Neal: ‘i am sure you will do fine, moira. i mean that. i would not give you charge of this if i did not believe in you, and if madeline and birgit did not believe in you as well.’
    OK. Enough of this pandering, thought Neal, and his right brain filled with purpose once more and Mynd reacted, initiating systems and sending protocol starts out across the island and to TASC’s distant districts, like neurons pulsing around the globe-spanning enterprise.
    William quickly sensed by the new flow of information starting to cloy at his senses that Neal was done here. William was being called elsewhere, called by the very man standing in front of him smiling.
    William: ‘err, ok. Moira, we are going to pick this up again later. if you want to continue running simulations with mynd and madeline, i think neal wants me to quickly catch him up on some other tasks.’
    Neal did. And with shared smiles and some final