Parallelities Read Online Free PDF Page B

and you will reciprocate by providing me with national exposure. Handed that, people can make up their own minds.” He nodded at the recorder. “By the way, I don’t mind that you’re recording this.”
    Max looked down at the compact device in mock surprise. “Oh, sorry. I guess I must have turned this on while we weretalking.” He smiled wanly. “Reflex action. I meant to ask you if it was all right.”
    Boles’s grin returned. “No you didn’t, but it’s okay. I
want
our meeting recorded. Like everyone else on the planet I am at least passingly familiar with the tabloid style. I know that you probably intended from the start to embellish the consequences of this interview, but that doesn’t bother me either. After what I have to show you, you’ll find it won’t be necessary.”
    Ignoring his host’s observation, Max pressed on with a question. “I’m a little confused by something you said earlier. I was told by my source that you held some kind of radical scientific theories. But you say you’re not a scientist.”
    “That’s right. I don’t have the patience for theoretical work. I’m more of an inventor. A scientist would care deeply
why
something works. I just care that it works.”
    “That what works?” Max’s gaze kept straying to the vacant eye sockets of the fossilized theropod skull. It seemed to be staring back at him. Four-inch-long scimitar-like teeth wore dark stains. The colors of random mineralization, he told himself. Not blood. He found himself struggling to avoid looking at the coffee table. It persisted in looking back, across the floor as well as across the eons.
    Boles rose abruptly from his chair, his own eyes bright and alert. “My new dragon board, for one thing. But you didn’t come out here to go night surfing.” He turned to his right and winked. “Come with me and I’ll show you something. As I said, you’ve chosen a propitious time to pay a visit.”
    Max stood, holding the recorder out in front of him as he followed his enthusiastic host through a portal and down a hall lined with costly, beautifully framed signed and numbered prints of sea life and African big cats.
    “So you think it’s all right to share your secrets with me?”
    Boles looked back over his shoulder. “You had enough imagination to get past the road guard without an appointment. Anyone without imagination isn’t ready for what I’m about to show you.”
    They halted at the end of the hall and Max waited while Boles unlocked a door. A door, he noted, that had been fashioned from heavy steel. Recalling the maid’s comment about strange noises, he hesitated. Boles talked and acted as straight as a county lifeguard. But then, Hannibal Lecter had been a practicing psychiatrist.
    He wasn’t reassured when the open doorway revealed stairs leading down into darkness. “A basement? You’ve got a basement? In Southern California?”
    “It’s an architectural anomaly I’m rather proud of.” Boles started down. “Please close the door behind you.”
    Uh-huh. Max lingered at the top of the stairs. The hallway, the invitingly open den that now lay some distance behind him, and his car all beckoned. But there was no story in any of them. Any story lay ahead, and down. With a shrug he pulled the massive door shut behind him, surprised at how well balanced it was and how easily it moved. In his young career he’d already found himself in much worse places and confrontedby far more candidly unstable types. He felt confident he could deal with any surprises Barrington Boles might spring.
    Well, reasonably confident.
    The basement was enormous, much more extensive than he had expected. Relieved to see that it was not done up in contemporary dungeon, he allowed his initial wariness to give way to something like reluctant astonishment. His feeling that he had made the right choice was enhanced, if not completely confirmed, by the numerous diplomas and awards, all seemingly genuine, that decorated the