The Last Dragon Chronicles: Fire World: Fire World Read Online Free PDF Page B

“Goodness, is that David?”
    Harlan stopped the film at once. A younger man, a little overweight for his height,  but  with  an  open,  pleasant disposition, was standing just inside the office door. He was dressed in black
    trousers and a plain white shirt. His name
    was   Bernard   Brotherton,   Harlan’s
    tech:nical assistant.
    “I’m sorry, Professor, should I leave?” He had guessed from the look on Harlan’s face that he had walked in on something quite private.
    Harlan shook his head. “No, Bernard.

    Come in. I want to show you something.” He ran both films again.
    Bernard was practically speechless. “That’s   extraordinary,”   he   said,   sostunned by what he’d seen that he’d onlymanaged to place a knee on the seat of thechair next to his boss.
    Harlan said, “I need to be sure I cantrust you, Bernard.”
    Bernard shook his head in slightconfusion. The blue of the com:puter’shelegas screen glinted off the bald patchspreading through his hair. “Trust?” hequeried.
    “I know it’s a concept we’ve largelyforgotten about. But this is not the kind ofthing you see every day. David’s beenexperiencing severe sleep problems. He’sbeen diagnosed ec:centric. His counsellor

    has   sent  him  to   a   librarium  for observation. Outside of official sources, I don’t want this known.”
    “But they’ve given you the films?”
    Harlan explained what he’d been asked to do. “I want to run this through SETH.”
    Bernard rubbed his chin for a moment, taking off several flakes of skin. He reached for the com:puter’s neural pad and advanced the film, pausing it when the rift appeared. “That certainly looks like a spatial enigma. But isn’t it equally possible that David has imagineered all of this, even the facial changes? We’ve all heard stories about how potent the dream state can be.” Before Harlan could offer a
    reply, Bernard let the film run on for twenty secs and pointed to the screen to support his argument. “It’s the firebirds

    that make me think it’s a construct. Why would they come and fix everything? We all love them and have our fanciful theories about them, but there isn’t a single piece of research that points to them having the level of intelligence necessary to seal a rift like that.”
    “But  to   some   degree   that’s   the problem,” said Harlan. “The definition of ec:centricity is the ability to imagineer outside the framework of the Higher’s Grand Design. The very fact that David visualises firebirds rescuing him from an unknown threat indicates he’s reaching way beyond the limits of the Co:pern:ican Stencilla. I want to believe you’re right, Bernard, because if you’re not, what we’re seeing on these films is real.” He swung his chair sideways and spoke a few

    words of command to the com:puter. Several strings of code ran out across the screen. “These files were recorded by David’s counsellor. They contain the pro:dimensional co:ordinates of what you saw in the films. I want you to load them into the SETH program, using every probability filter available. It might be several days before we have a result, but I’m pretty sure SETH will confirm that what we’re investigating is a time horizon.”
    Bernard closed his eyes momentarily. His face, in this state, resembled the full moon. He sat back and placed one hand behind his head, clutching at hairs that were no longer present. “And then?”
    A :com light flickered on the wall in front of them. A video message from Eliza

    Merriman. Harlan placed it on hold. “We’ll deal with that when we know.” He
    handed  Bernard  the   encrypted  pen. “Everything you need is on there.”
    Bernard nodded. “I’ll get onto it right away.”
    “Good man,” said Harlan, and clapped him on the shoulder. The tech:nician left the room.
    “Eliza,”   Harlan   said.   Her