"Geoffrey A. Landis - Elemental (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Landis Geoffrey A)

"Yes. Ramsey, this data makes sense only if the Earth elemental has left the
center of the Earth and is rising slowly toward Italy, dragging a portion of
the Earth's magnetic field with it. Somehow, by someone, it's been summoned.
Not merely manifested, like we do here for to study it, but fully awakened and
called. Of course, I can't say for certain, but t can't see any other way to
interpret this. "
"Then we gotta do something. Stop it! Warn people!"
Professor Kirschmeyer put his hand on Ramsey's shoulder. "Hold on a moment, my
young friend. Let's get some better data before we start rushing around like
fools, eh? Who stirs up a hornet's nest had best be prepared for the stings.
"First, we can connect up your magnetometer to one of my spells invoking the
elemental, which will give it a lot better sensitivity for this application.
Next, activity on the part of the Earth elemental will be mirrored in the
other elementals, particularly ocean and fire. We can set up some kind of
monitor on that. Also, it should be possible to triangulate on the Earth
elemental using your technique. Then we can find out for sure whether the
elemental is actually surfacing."
"How much time do we have? Shouldn't we get a warning out as soon as
possible?"
"That's the first thing we need to find out. I'm hoping we can figure that out
when we triangulate. The elemental is rising from the core toward Vesuvius; we
need to know how deep it is and how fast it's moving. Until we can give a
definite time and estimate how bid the eruption will be, it's worse than
useless to try to make anyone heed a warning. If they evacuate prematurely on
the basis of a quick guess, people will come back to their homes after a day
or so when they see nothing happening. Then when the real warning comes,
they'll ignore it. We'd do more harm than good. "
"So let's get to work!"
"Doch, doch, we shall. I just wish . . . I wish we had Susan here. This is
really her field, not mine."
"Not your field? Aren't you her advisor'?"
"Oh, yes, her advisor 1 am. But Susie's work is really pioneering. There are
very few people who understand the Earth elemental, and 1 don't doubt that
Susie's the best of them. Certainly she has the `feel' for it. Myself, I can
work with it when 1 need to. My real skill, though, is with the water
elementals ocean, lake, rivers, that sort of thing.
"But our Earth elemental expert is merrily on her way to Venus, so I guess
we'll just have to muddle through the best we can."
"No," said Ramsey. "I don't think
she is on her way to Venus. She couldn't be. "
"Do you know something I don't know? She left two days ago."
"No she didn't. The spaceport's shut down, remember? No flights."
"That's right. So she must be stuck in Naples. But wait . . . if she didn't
leave, I know she would have called me. "
"Maybe she did. You don't answer your calls, right'?"
"Stimmt. Right. She would have left a message with the computer. And I didn't
check my office this morning. Let's go. No, you stay here and start
programming. I'll go up and see if there's a message from Susie. No, better
yet, you go up and see if there's a message, I'll stay here and start
working-'