"Elemental" - читать интересную книгу автора (Landis Geoffrey A)

"But he does not forbid it."
"This is true, he does not. But tell to me, how is it that you know this thing?"
"My cousin Roberto, who was in the navy, learned it from a sailor who had a brother who went to the university to learn science. This sailor knew many things to do with such charms, but only the one of any usefulness."
"So," said Giuseppe. "This does not sound like the devil's work. Indeed, I will do it. Perhaps my vines too will become as bountiful as yours."
"I wish you luck." Luca looked at his wristwatch. "Time now for us both to be back to work." He walked over to his tractor. "Do you remember well the gesture and the words?"
Giuseppe repeated the words, making the gesture Luca had shown. Luca nodded. "Good. I wish you prosperity, my friend. "
"And you."
As Giuseppe drove the tractor that afternoon he repeated in his mind the words and the gesture. If it worked he would show it to his brother-in-law, who also grew a small plot of grapes behind his fields. And perhaps to his cousin Rafaelle? Yes, he decided. Such
a useful thing should not be kept to oneself, but had to be shared with others.
Ramsey looked down at his stack of notes, licked his lips nervously, looked at his watch, and then knocked at the door. Without waiting for a response, he walked confidently in. Doctor Williamson looked up from her desk computer.
"Ah, yes, Mr. Washington. Right on time. I'll be with you in a moment." She turned back to her qwerty.
Ramsey walked over to one of the plush lounge chairs and sat down. He looked at the expensive glass sculpture on the table next to him, then let his eyes wander over to watch her work. What a woman, he thought. She had light brown hair, almost a shade of blonde, cut fashionably short. Today she wore a light green sweater with a gold and green silk scarf wrapped casually around her neck. Dressed in impeccable taste, as always, he thought. I bet she never falls down in the snow on her way in. She flicked the Save switch on the computer and turned to him.
"That outfit looks very good on you, Dr. Williamson." Ramsey remarked casually.
"Thank you. Mr. Washington," she replied curtly. "Now let's get to work, shall we? I presume you've finished the data analysis on your recent run, right?"
"Well, not exactly," Ramsey said. "I've been having a slight problem with the data in the third and fourth quadrants. Nothing important, I'm lure."
"Let's have a look at it." Doctor Williamson reached out a hand. Ramsey quickly dug out his microdisc and gave
it to her. She popped it into the receptacle on her computer and studied the screen for a moment.
"I see," she said. "What do you think this signifies?"
"I'm not really sure," Ramsey replied. "Maybe some localized anomaly in the Earth's field'?"
"Yes, I suppose that's a possibility. Rather unlikely that no one previously ever mentioned it, though, don't you think? After all, people have mapped the magnetic field for several centuries now."
"Maybe it wasn't there before?"
"Now, that seems rather far-fetched, doesn't it? Just where do you suppose such a change would come from'? It looks to me much more like the characteristic signature of a magnetometer that has not been properly degaussed before the measurement."
"I calibrated and degaussed the equipment every two hours," Ramsey said.
"Well, Mr. Washington, it certainly looks here as if you missed one, doesn't it? Don't be too glum about it-if we didn't make mistakes, we wouldn't learn anything, now would we? It's the kind of simple mistake everybody makes when just starting out in experimental work. You'll learn to be more careful.
"In the meantime, though, it looks like you'll have to re-do the measurement from about here . . . "she touched the screen, " . . . on. The rest of the measurements, excepting of course that part, are simply marvelous. Fine work."
Ramsey smiled ruefully at the compliment. "Thank you."
"I expect that you'll be able to have the whole thing done right by the time
I get back from Rome.'' She walked over to her desk and touched the keypad beside her chair. A calendar appeared on the screen. Looking at it, she said, "I'll expect to see you at 9 A.M. on the sixteenth, a week from Monday. We'll have another little chat then."
She tapped the appointment time onto the computer and it appeared dutifully on the calendar.
"Thank you for taking time to see me, Dr. Williamson." Ramsey tried to smile pleasantly. Two weeks of work down the pipes. "Have a good conference."
"1 intend to," she said cheerfully. "I'll send you a postcard."
Ramsey walked out and shut the door behind him. Damn, but she'd laid it on him good. He shook his head in dismay. Still, he couldn't help thinking about how she'd looked today. She certainly was one roxy fox! And cool as well. Cooler than a cryostat. Now, if she ever warmed up toward him, even a little . . . . But that wasn't about to happen. Better get back to thinking about what to do next.
He knew damn well his data was right. Wasn't it? He flipped quickly through his lab notebook. As he'd thought, he had carefully degaussed the magnetometer, checked for residual magnetism, and recorded it carefully in the notebook.
Maybe the magnetometer itself was faulty? Ramsey walked back deep in thought.
Susan sipped her coffee slowly and looked across at him. "Your main difficulty comes in subtracting out the Earth's magnetic field?"
"Yeah," said Ramsey. "My results don't agree with what everybody else gets. "
"Can I see?"
"Why not?" Ramsey handed her the stack of hardcopy. She paged through it silently, sipping her coffee. She stopped at a map of Italy. Superimposed on the map in deep red were a series of concentric circles.
"Very pretty," she commented. "I tell you what. I'll be passing over that area Thursday. If I see any giant red circles painted on the ground, I'll be sure to give you a call."
"Huh? You're going to Italy'?"
"Yep. "
.. Whys"
"Just passing through." She smiled, and her eyes glowed. "I'm going to Venus." _
"Venus?" he said in surprise. "How come?"
"I've pretty much done all I can here," she- said. "I'm studying the Earth elemental-the magical force incarnate in the core of a planet. Very little is actually known about it. It normally takes an earthquake or a volcano to manifest it with any power. It's hard to get permission to create earthquakes, even small ones, though."
"You actually create earthquakes?"
"Well, tiny ones, anyway. Not big enough to measure without extremely sensitive equipment, but big enough to manifest the elemental."
"So how come you're going to Venus, if you're studying the Earth?"
"Hans and I think that we could learn a lot more about the nature of the elemental by invoking the elemental of another planet for comparison. He's
managed to talk the NSF out of enough funds to send me to Venus to try it."