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

"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."
"But isn't it rather dangerous?"
"Manifesting the elemental'? Yes, 1 suppose it is, but I've been working with
it for years, and there are a lot of controls built in. Actually, it's pretty
well confined to the Earth's core. I don't expect any trouble."
"No, no-I mean Venus. Isn't Venus rather dangerous?"
She laughed. "You've been watching too many drama tapes. Venus is about as
safe as Earth. Maybe safer. Same technology as your little snow-spell, but a
whole lot more reliable, keeps the heat and atmosphere out.