Pulse: When Gravity Fails (Pulse Science Fiction Series Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

loaded up after the fire was doused and returned to the house. Back when Sean was married, he never talked to Tabby about the tough days. Now that he was dating Jenny, he tried not be closed off. She encouraged him to share and even vent when he needed. He wasn’t sure he was ready to share this experience – whatever it was. He sensed beginning to lie now was a mistake, but he felt pulled by his fear.
    Sean glanced at Carter who nodded at him and Sean looked away again.
    As they entered the firehouse and unloaded, someone shouted. “What happened here?”
    The other guys walked up and stared. Their trunks were overturned and busted open. Two bunks were tilted against the walls. Cabinets were open and the plates spilled on the floor. The skillet was across the room and the cold noodles ran down the wall in a greasy mess.
    Lt. Foster came up last and said, “It wasn’t like this when we left, right?”
    “No, sir,” Carter said. “Looks like that quake we felt wasn’t from the building collapsing.”
    Foster said, “I told you Stroganoff for breakfast was a mistake, Grayson.”
    Sean swallowed and thought about the experience of flying through the fire. “Yes, sir.”
    The alarm sounded again and all the men groaned.
    Foster shouted. “Replace oxygen tanks in a hurry and suit up. If you aren’t broken, get ready to go.”
     
     
     

5
     
    Dr. Paulo Restrepo – Marlo-Pitts Observatory, Colombia
     
    Dr. Paulo Restrepo leaned closer to the computer screen and scrolled between the images from the Australian observatory. He shook his head. He identified five in the middle of the sequence that were not even from the right year much less the correct time of year. Paulo wondered if they were testing him or were actively trying to sabotage his research. If it was a mistake, it was a spectacular one and he did not want to believe he was coordinating with people that were that incompetent.
    He sent the message pointing out the slides that were mistakenly included and asked to be given the correct images for those time stamps.
    Paulo was stopped in his tracks until he had the complete data. He leaned back in his chair and scratched at the gray in his beard. He stood and walked to the office window. The array for the telescope spread in a massive, reflective valley at the hollowed out top of the mountain several meters above him. Below he could see the outskirts of the village.
    The university and larger sections of the city were around the highway on the far side of the mountain. Too much light over there , Paulo thought. On this side, the village was on a strict blackout order from the government at night. Just the other night, a floodlight had been installed by one of the villagers. An entire night of data was lost from a team of visiting German scientists. The month’s schedule was completely off. One more delay and Dr. Restrepo’s session would be cut short next. His grant would be at risk.
    Paulo knew the spot where the light had been erected. He could see the tin roof and the bare pole where troops had cut down the light and detained the man. The Marlo-Pitts Observatory Array was big funding for the university and the Colombian government. They all took their funding seriously.
    Likewise, they took success and failure seriously and Paulo needed his data.
    He turned away from the window and scanned through public journal databases. He skipped past the abstract and even the data references to the raw data files. Most of it would be uncompiled and unusable for his purposes, but he was desperate. If he could imply some level of potential embarrassment for the Australians by simply appearing to be cross-referencing their findings, then maybe he could speed their reply with the information he really needed.
    He leaned on his hand and his eyes drooped as he scanned through mountains of information that was largely unpublishable.
    Paulo spotted some key image files from the reference points he needed uploaded from an