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really. The only problem with that theory is that SHIFT were so thorough, I can't believe they wouldn't have picked up an anomaly like that when comparing the before and after scans. Otherwise—nice theory."

    "Are you saying that John Bruce might have lost a part of his mind during the voyage and somehow that lost part has surfaced within Peter Pendennis?"

    "Was I saying that?" He thought for a while, trying to remember. Sometimes his brain moved so quickly he lost touch with his thoughts once he'd committed them to speech. Or so he liked to think. He always fancied himself as something special, something exceptional. Others were less charitable and said he talked so much drivel it was no wonder his memory was too embarrassed to store it all.

    "It's one possibility," he said, regaining his thread. "One of many, I should think. The voyage might have affected John's higher dimensional abilities—accentuated his telepathic skills, for example. Pendennis might be a receptive, a medium, who can pick up telepathic messages. Or the shift through the dimensions might have ripped at John's mental fabric—maybe dislodged a bubble of memory so strong that it could exist independent of its owner. Who knows?"

    And what fun it would be to find out. He could see months of research opening out before him, maybe even years, maybe even a new branch of science.

    "And if I could get hold of John Bruce's brain scans, there might be something the SHIFT team overlooked."

    "I don't remember hearing about any other SHIFT missions after John's. Couldn't that be proof that something went wrong?"

    "What?" He was half in the room, half racing into the future. "Oh, that. No, that was down to navigation problems. The craft was supposed to slip into the higher dimensions and then return. A short journey just to prove that flight was possible. Trouble was it came back fifty miles away from where it was supposed to. Spectacular sight mind you—one second it was there, hanging in space, a couple of thousand miles above the Earth, then..." He clicked his fingers. "It winked out of existence and reappeared fifty miles to the left."

    "So it did go wrong?"

    "After a fashion. They knew about the navigation error long before John got anywhere near the craft. But it wasn't seen as a problem. You see, they experienced the same magnitude of deflection during the unmanned flights. It was predictable. They didn't know where he was going to reappear but they knew it would be about fifty miles from the start point. And it wasn't as though he was going anywhere. Just nipping into the void and back."

    "Seems one hell of a risk to me."

    "Ah, but you didn't have half of Washington breathing down your neck. SHIFT could have been cancelled if there were any more delays."

    "Still seems a crazy way to run a project."

    "It's a crazy world. Anyway, SHIFT's on hold now until they sort the navigation problem out. No point venturing to the stars if you can't find your way back, is there?" He paused, thinking. Then smiled. "I don't know though. It does have that certain appeal, doesn't it?"

    "So SHIFT was cancelled after all?"

    "No, not cancelled—put on hold. The funds are still there. If and when they crack the navigation problem"

    "So, what do we do?"

    He didn't answer immediately. He stood, staring vacantly out the window, mulling over the possibilities. What was the best plan of action? Rush off to the States and try to persuade John Bruce to submit to a brain scan? What chance was there of that? And what if the whole thing was a fake? An opportunist telepath reading Louise's mind and regurgitating events for . . . for what? Attention? Prestige? Some strange twisted plan that might never be fully understood?

    "Tell you what, I'll get in touch with SHIFT and, in the meantime, let's have a look at Mister Pendennis before Ziegler changes his mind."

    "Do I have to be there?"

    "Definitely. If there is a telepathic link between the two of you, end of story. I