The Krone Experiment Read Online Free PDF

when
necessary, pirated from competing efforts. As so often before, he
could see the object of his desires take shape like a gigantic
erector set, each element responding effortlessly to his will. He
basked in the knowledge that he could do it on his own, with the
power he already commanded. The world would bumble along unknowing
until he chose to reveal his supreme accomplishment in its
fullness. He felt the drug wearing off, but had no compulsion to
renew the charge. No artificial aid could give him the feeling that
presently coursed through his veins.
    The view before him was replaced by one of
time, spanning into the future, ten, a hundred, a thousand years —
his name spilling as readily from a schoolchild’s lips as that of
Washington, Lincoln, as that of any resident of this proud city,
Beethoven, Napoleon, Freud, as that of any scientist, Einstein.
    “Paul?” The sleepy voice, muffled by covers
and accent, came from the bed.
    Silently, he continued to face the window,
but his thoughts turned to her. What a delightful find she was. On
top of everything else, what luck to come across this political
fugitive at one of the parties scheduled to fill their evenings.
Not only was she beautiful, a stimulating outlet for his more
physical passions, but a consort guaranteed to tweak the maximum
number of bureaucratic noses. The Russians were still smarting from
her recent escape through Czechoslovakia with three male friends.
He hoped that her promptly taking up with a well-known American
scientist and lavishly sampling the best capitalistic delights
Vienna had to offer would embarrass the hell out of them. As for
his side, they would never be sure she wasn’t a plant, and there
would be shocked speculations about their pillow talk throughout
the western security establishment. He chuckled to himself.
    “Paul, it’s nearly four a.m. Come to bed.”
Her voice was low, sultry, inviting. He heard the rustle of
bedclothes and knew she was looking at him.
    Neither could a woman give him the feeling
that suffused him now, the intense mental orgasm of an
Earth-shattering idea come to fruition, but you can’t make love to
a concept. He thought ahead of the day to come. An hour with her
now, to relax, a couple of hours’ sleep, then a couple more to
continue his calculations over breakfast before the meeting
resumed.
    He turned and walked softly across the dark
room to the bedside. For a long moment he stood looking down at
her, the covers pulled up to her chin, the halo of short black hair
in stark contrast to the pillow. He could not see her face clearly
in the faint city light reflected in the window, but he could
picture the lovely contours of her face, the high Slavic
cheekbones, the sparkling eyes reflecting intelligence, a free
spirit, and, deep within, an irrepressible sadness.
    He reached for the covers near her feet and
slowly drew them down, exposing her nakedness, the bed-warmth of
her body palpable in the darkness. He leaned over and gently
pressed his lips to the sweet angle where breast joins rib...
    The desk before him came back into focus. The
papers strewn across it screamed at him, confirming the feeling
that had been in his gut for months, ignored. It had all gone
wrong, disastrously wrong! Everything his career had stood for was
demolished. Rather than emerging as manlind’s savior, he had
visited an incomprehensible horror on an unsuspecting populace.
That he, of all people, could have made such an error!
    He looked towards the fire flickering in the
grate and lifted the pistol.
    Maria Latvin glanced at her watch as she
pulled the long serrated-blade knife from the drawer. 3:45 a.m. I
can’t keep him from working all night, she thought, but at least I
can keep food in his stomach. She turned to the butcher block
island in the centre of the kitchen and carved two thick slices
from the loaf of pumpernickel. She spread a healthy layer of Dijon
mustard on the bread then carefully stacked interlaced layers