Read Online African Pursuit by David Alric - Free Book Online

from the truck, little realizing he was about to receive the worst news he had ever heard in his life.
    * The “animanet” is the name given by Lucy to a worldwide animal communication network that reminds her of the internet.

7
Oresome Developments
    P eter Flint, Senior Lecturer in Geology at Sabedoria University, looked in dismay at the e-mail he had just opened. It was from Detective Inspector Colarinho of the Manaus department in the Amazon. The news it contained threatened to bring an end to the most promising research project of his career and would, he knew, come as a bitter disappointment to his fiancée Lucinda. He dreaded the thought of telling her.
    Hi Peter Flint,
    Thanks for your query about the location of the crater which we recently visited in an attempt to locate the data stolen from your department by Professor Strahlung (currently in hospital awaiting interrogation). I’m afraid that we have been informed that the crater has been declared a site of exceptional national interest under the auspices of the UN and its location must remain secret. We have, furthermore, been informed that, at the request of the UN, the crater is under continuous satellite surveillance and we are to investigate immediately any attempt to land an aircraft in or near the site. These instructions have been conveyed to us from the highest government levels and I can only conclude that the crater must contain something of great importance relating to national security. I am aware of the  fact that the rocks in the crater are of great interest to your scientific endeavours but regret to say that there is nothing further I can do to help you. If the cloak of secrecy surrounding this place is ever lifted I will, of course, let you know immediately.
    With kind regards
    Manuel Colarinho
    Detective Inspector.
    P.S. I hope you are managing to cope with the situation concerning Lucinda Angstrom.
    Peter leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head and wondered how to break the news to Lucinda. His mind inevitably, went back over the events of the last few months. For years the geology department had been a quiet and uneventful corner of the university. As the vice-chancellor had once remarked, with completely unconscious irony,
    ‘We never expect anything ground-breaking to happen in Geology.’
    That had all changed earlier that year, however, when a charter pilot had asked Peter to look at some rock samples he had found in a remote crater, deep in the Amazon jungle. He had flown to the crater to rescue some stranded explorers and picked up the rocks as ballast for his small plane. After noticing that the rocks appeared at times to glow he thought they might contain a valuable radioactive ore such as uranium and had taken them to the university for analysis. Peter had discovered that the rocks were not radioactive but that they contained a previously unknown metamaterial which seemed to have the power to distort beams of light. He had given the rocks to his then girlfriend (now fiancée), an expert on light,who worked in the physics department, and she had given the name “photogyraspar” to the ore. The new metamaterial had proved to be of crucial scientific importance for it had enabled her to create the world’s first invisibility robe. When her head of department, Professor Lucius Strahlung, learned of her amazing breakthrough he had immediately recognized the criminal potential of her discovery, stolen her research data and attempted to murder her. He was, however, unaware of the fact that Lucinda had actually survived and the police inspector who had investigated her case had advised her to remain in hiding in case the professor discovered she was alive and made another attempt on her life.
    Lucinda, staying in secret with her sister, had continued her invisibility research at her sister’s home, in collaboration with Peter who was her contact at the university. They had by now used up all the original samples of ore