| |
MONTANA COLLEGE, BOZEMAN:
David Conway feels his cellphone vibrate in his front pants pocket and pulls it out to look at the caller ID. The text message is short and simple. ‘Come to my office. Marcia.’ What’s this about? Maybe she heard from Alex.
He smiles and runs down the hallway, then bursts into her office. “Did Alex call?”
Marcia Story holds out a small package. “No, but he sent this by special courier.”
David tears at the padded envelope, but it refuses to yield its contents. “Why do they have to make it so difficult to open?” He glances over at Marcia, and she’s smiling and holding the scissors. He grins back and takes them from her hand. “Thanks.”
He cuts the end of the envelope, looks inside, then reaches in and brings out a small glass vial and a hand-written note. He tosses the envelope into the trash, sets the vial on Marcia’s desk, and looks at the note.
“This isn’t from Alex. It’s from that girl he was talking about. Listen to this. My name is Lisa Harding, and I’m working with our friend Alex Cave onboard the research vessel, Mystic. He told me you have a mass spectrometer and you will be able to determine the composition of the material in the vial. It was collected during our attempt to drill down to a cylindrical object of unknown origin. We know the black material is a type of carbon, but my equipment on the Mystic cannot break it down into a smaller atomic structure. We would appreciate your help and here is Alex’s satellite phone number. Please call us with your findings. Thank you. Lisa Harding.”
He picks up the vial and studies the contents in the light from the window. When he rolls it around, the material inside looks like a fine black powder.
Marcia notices David appears apprehensive as he studies the material. “Is there something wrong, David?”
David looks down at her. “The last time we did a test for Alex, it was during the Dead Energy situation. That was an unknown material, too. You remember the results of that test. It nearly destroyed part of the science building.”
“I remember. Just be careful.”
“Right.” He turns and walks out of Marcia’s office with the sample.