The Far Side Read Online Free PDF

desk.
    “Okay, what I did was this -- I made a list of stuff we should take with us at first.”  Andie ran through the list with Kris.
    “The way I figure it, this is about forty pounds total, not counting the rifle for me and a pistol for you.  Twenty pounds is a piece of cake.”
    Kris agreed and added, “My dad has a gizmo in his office at home.  It’s a laser range finder he uses on a set at first, measuring everything.  It’s accurate to a small fraction of an inch over a mile.”
    “How much does it weigh?  And why do we care?”
    “About five pounds.  And we care because this is a cave, Andie.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to get lost in a maze.  We can use it to map things.  It’s got a measuring ring you can use to measure angles.  We run a map as we go.”
    “What, no string?” Andie asked, sarcastically.
    “No string.  Maybe a couple of pieces of chalk to mark on the cave walls.”
    They spent a half hour getting things ready, including a quick walk for Kris to go home, get the laser and return.
    A few minutes before Andie started the machine up again, she put the battery from her old phone near the machine.  She popped her head through the blue door and pulled it back again after thirty seconds or so.
    “There still is a happy face, still no sign of light.  Now there’s a perceptible breeze coming from the door, going into the cave, but it’s not much.  At a guess, the air pressure is different today either here or there or both.  More than yesterday.”
    She shut it down and they walked into bedroom and Andie put the battery into her old phone.  “Deader than a doornail,” Andie said.  “Shit, shit, shit!”
    “You don’t have any idea?” Kris asked.
    “Well, I suppose it could be neutrons.  But if it is, we’re in big trouble, because anything that would kill a battery is going to kill us too.  Except I have three different neutron detectors in the closet and not one of them is letting out a peep.  In theory this method shouldn’t produce any.”
    “I thought fusion produced neutrons?”
    “Helium fusion does.  This is fusing a boron-12 atom with a simple hydrogen atom, which fuse together to make an excited carbon-12 atom -- then you get three alphas when the excited carbon-12 breaks down.  All the alphas are stopped inside the reaction chamber and converted almost directly to electricity.  There are a few losses along the way, mostly it’s excitation of any remaining gas in the reactor -- it makes it glow blue.”
    Right then the front door bell went off.
    Andie looked at Kris.  “Sorry, I just about always have something on order.  I gotta take this.”
    Kris followed her out and stood behind Andie when she opened the door.
    Andie spoke almost instantly.  “Gimme the fuckin’ package.  I’m busy.”
    The young man, about twenty-five, blinked.
    Kris laughed.  “Andie, meet Kit, Christopher Richards.  Kit, this is my friend, Andie.  Andie, Kit works for my dad.”  Kris recognized the camera case in the young man’s hands.
    “My dad said he was going to bring a camera home I could borrow.”
    Kit nodded.  “Yes, Miss Boyle.  Mr. Boyle found out I was going up to the Valley and he asked me if I would drop off your phone and the camera.  He gave me this address.”
    “Who the fuck is ‘Miss Boyle?’” Andie barked.
    Kris laughed.  “Kit, Andie has a favorite word.  You get three guesses what it is, but you’re only going to need one.”
    The young man laughed and lofted the case.  “You want this, it’s yours.  You don’t even have to sign for it.”
    “Are there spare batteries?”
    “Sure, three and three chargers.  They’re only good for about two hours apiece.”  He reached into his shirt pocket and produced Kris’ cell phone.  “The battery on this was dead.  It happens.”
    “What, you some fuckin’ expert on phone batteries?” Andie asked, sounding angry.
    Kit laughed.  “We use them in phones,