"Burstein, Michael A - Broken Symmetry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Burstein Michael A)

Kristin glanced around the room again, like she wanted to avoid eye contact.
"Ray, I think the beams are just disappearing somehow."
"Disappearing," he echoed.
"That's right. It would explain why the equipment checks out, and why we're not
seeing any collisions. Before the beams have a chance to collide in the
detector, they -- they go away."
"You're joking, right?" he asked, staring straight at her and frowning.
She glanced away, and quietly said, "No. I'm not."
Ray sat down again. "Kristin, the only reason I'm not laughing in your face is
because I respect your work too much to dismiss your ideas immediately. But you
have to admit that this is a ridiculous thing to suggest."
"I know. I already said that."
"True, you did." He smiled. "And, in point of fact, your idea does seem to fit
the data. Perhaps we ought to investigate it, just so we can eliminate it as
absurd. It's not as if we've got anything else to work on here."
Kristin stood up to leave. "Thanks, Ray. With your permission, I'll go have
people start moving detectors around the ring. Maybe we'll be able to localize
exactly where those beams are when they vanish."
"Fine, I'll authorize it. Just one thing before you go."
She stopped. "Yes?"
"If those beams are disappearing, where are they going?"
She shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine."
#


2. Spin Down
Roy Schwitters looked out over the site of the latest explosion. With his
handkerchief, he mopped his bald head and rubbed the perspiration out of his
beard. The hot sun beat down on him and Sheriff Kingsley, making Roy wish he
could return to his air-conditioned office at Harvard. The flat grassland, which
stretched all around for many miles, had been torn up in this one spot. Dirt and
metal fragments mixed together, scattered about in a nearly perfect circle,
twenty meters in diameter.
Roy studied the area for a few minutes. He walked around the circumference of
the debris, occasionally squatting down to pick up a piece of metal or a handful
of sand. When he finished, he brushed off his pants, positioned himself so the
sun shone behind him, and turned towards Kingsley.
"You're right," he said. He spoke, as always, in a soft unaccented tenor
monotone. "It does look like there was an explosion inside the old SSC tunnel."
"That's what we figured when we found the first four holes, but we weren't quite
sure," said Sheriff Kingsley. "Jack Levinson's story confirmed it."
"I see only one problem," Roy said. "There's nothing we did that would cause
explosions to emanate from the tunnel. We never even had a chance to run one
beam." He gazed wistfully around him.
"We know," said Kingsley, "but this was the fifth explosion, and they've all
only happened only around the ring where you scientists were going to do your
experiments. That's why I called you, Dr. Schwitters; frankly, I was a little
surprised that you were willing to come back, after all that happened. But I am
grateful."
Roy winced at the memories triggered by the sheriff's comments, but he let them