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Authors: Lorne L. Bentley
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hurriedly picked it up. On the other end was Jim. “Fred, I’ve got some news for you.”
“Donna’s been caught!” Fred uttered optimistically.
“No, unfortunately nothing like that, but I just talked to the warden in the prison where she was held for the past four years. I thought you might want to get in touch with her to obtain more information for your investigation. I’ll give you her number. I suggest you arrange to see her.”
“Sounds good, I’ll go there as soon as I can, but first I want to talk to Mr. Dodd at AU to obtain a greater insight into Donna’s capabilities. Maybe with an expanded understanding of her and how she functions, the better I’ll be able to defeat her.”
“Okay, Fred. By the way, I never told you about this but that night at your house when Donna escaped I almost caught her but she disappeared when I was less than fifteen feet from her. I couldn’t figure it out. I checked everywhere in that yard where she had escaped to, but she was simply not there. That still troubles the hell out of me, but I know we’ll catch her somehow, Fred.”
* * *
Fred wanted to see Dodd because he felt that, with Dodd’s scientific background and his past dealings with Donna, he might offer an objective viewpoint of what made her function. When Fred called, Dodd agreed to meet with him immediately.
They met in Dodd’s office seated across from each other at a small conference table. On the cream colored wall above the table was a framed quote, “ Quantum mechanics— the dream stuff is made from .” In the middle of the table was an ashtray with the company’s logo on it. But there were no dark nicotine residue nor hints of past ashes in the tray.
Then Fred noticed that Dodd was “smoking” an electronic cigarette. “Does that really work?” Fred asked.
“I don’t really know yet, it’s only been three days. I was smoking three packs a day; and as a scientific type of person I knew my odds of getting some major disease as the end result of my foolishness was only a matter of time. I can even quote you the odds on what type of malady I would likely incur.”
“But there’s no nicotine in that thing, is there?” Fred asked.
“None at all. But we smokers become conditioned to having something in our mouths, and this false cigarette is a tactile substitute for that. It also provides the illusion of smoke being exited from the end –a visual substitute. As you can see the end actually lights up—another visual aid. All of these substitutes for the real thing help reinforce in my mind that what I have in my mouth is a legitimate cigarette—in form, and to a degree in function. Of course what’s missing is the almost narcotic hold that cigarettes have on me. But I had to try something, and right now this is it.”
Fred didn’t want to belabor Dodd’s need for a substitute for smoking any longer. “Ok, let’s get to the ESP device. How does it work, and what additional power will Donna have if it’s implanted?”
As Dodd slowly glazed at the ceiling to help organize his thoughts, artificial smoke in the form of water vapor rose from his cigarette and followed the same gradual upward path as his eyes. It bumped softly against the ceiling tiles and dissipated leaving droplets of moisture in its wake.
Finally, Dodd spoke. To Fred, his speech was almost as emotional and eloquent as a young enthusiastic Baptist preacher’s first sermon. “Fred, I see ESP as a natural type of evolution of the brain. When I look at the human brain I perceive much more than four pounds of gray, gelatin matter, water, electrical impulses and chemicals. What I see is the amazing progression of millions of years of development. If you look at the brain stem, at one time in the evolution of vertebrates, it comprised the total brain.”
Fred asked, “That would have had to be very basic, very primitive?”
“Sure, it was and still is. Most of our instinctive and automatic
“Donna’s been caught!” Fred uttered optimistically.
“No, unfortunately nothing like that, but I just talked to the warden in the prison where she was held for the past four years. I thought you might want to get in touch with her to obtain more information for your investigation. I’ll give you her number. I suggest you arrange to see her.”
“Sounds good, I’ll go there as soon as I can, but first I want to talk to Mr. Dodd at AU to obtain a greater insight into Donna’s capabilities. Maybe with an expanded understanding of her and how she functions, the better I’ll be able to defeat her.”
“Okay, Fred. By the way, I never told you about this but that night at your house when Donna escaped I almost caught her but she disappeared when I was less than fifteen feet from her. I couldn’t figure it out. I checked everywhere in that yard where she had escaped to, but she was simply not there. That still troubles the hell out of me, but I know we’ll catch her somehow, Fred.”
* * *
Fred wanted to see Dodd because he felt that, with Dodd’s scientific background and his past dealings with Donna, he might offer an objective viewpoint of what made her function. When Fred called, Dodd agreed to meet with him immediately.
They met in Dodd’s office seated across from each other at a small conference table. On the cream colored wall above the table was a framed quote, “ Quantum mechanics— the dream stuff is made from .” In the middle of the table was an ashtray with the company’s logo on it. But there were no dark nicotine residue nor hints of past ashes in the tray.
Then Fred noticed that Dodd was “smoking” an electronic cigarette. “Does that really work?” Fred asked.
“I don’t really know yet, it’s only been three days. I was smoking three packs a day; and as a scientific type of person I knew my odds of getting some major disease as the end result of my foolishness was only a matter of time. I can even quote you the odds on what type of malady I would likely incur.”
“But there’s no nicotine in that thing, is there?” Fred asked.
“None at all. But we smokers become conditioned to having something in our mouths, and this false cigarette is a tactile substitute for that. It also provides the illusion of smoke being exited from the end –a visual substitute. As you can see the end actually lights up—another visual aid. All of these substitutes for the real thing help reinforce in my mind that what I have in my mouth is a legitimate cigarette—in form, and to a degree in function. Of course what’s missing is the almost narcotic hold that cigarettes have on me. But I had to try something, and right now this is it.”
Fred didn’t want to belabor Dodd’s need for a substitute for smoking any longer. “Ok, let’s get to the ESP device. How does it work, and what additional power will Donna have if it’s implanted?”
As Dodd slowly glazed at the ceiling to help organize his thoughts, artificial smoke in the form of water vapor rose from his cigarette and followed the same gradual upward path as his eyes. It bumped softly against the ceiling tiles and dissipated leaving droplets of moisture in its wake.
Finally, Dodd spoke. To Fred, his speech was almost as emotional and eloquent as a young enthusiastic Baptist preacher’s first sermon. “Fred, I see ESP as a natural type of evolution of the brain. When I look at the human brain I perceive much more than four pounds of gray, gelatin matter, water, electrical impulses and chemicals. What I see is the amazing progression of millions of years of development. If you look at the brain stem, at one time in the evolution of vertebrates, it comprised the total brain.”
Fred asked, “That would have had to be very basic, very primitive?”
“Sure, it was and still is. Most of our instinctive and automatic
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