Ark by K.B. Kofoed Read Free Book Online Page B

rewarding.”
    “You ought to know.” Kas said with a grin.
    Lou feigned being struck by a bullet and tumbled onto the floor.
    Dan laughed and slapped Jim’s knee. “I can see you still have the same interesting and entertaining friends, Jim.”
    “Yeah,” replied Jim, glaring at Kas. “I even married one of them.”
    Lou remained down on the carpet. He squinted at Kas’s knees. “Gee, Kas. A no-panties day, I see.”
    Kas shrieked and left the room, leaving Lou to awkwardly explain that he was kidding and it was only a lucky guess.
    Dan and Gene roared with laughter, but Jim stared coldly at Lou. “They should have drowned you with the rest of the litter.”
    “I was just too cute and cuddly,” replied Lou, getting up and seating himself on the sofa. “I guess I should go find Kas and apologize.”
    “Good luck,” said Jim.
    While Lou and Kas were out of the room, Gene asked Dan some technical details about microwaves. Most of it was over Jim’s head. Finally he said, “In English, please?”
    “Well,” said Gene, “my program, the simulation I ran, was based on two frequencies. One was the equivalent of twenty-seven inches and the other was thirty-three. That’s in the FM band. So assuming the Egyptian royal cubit was the standard, and not the Babylonian cubit, then the wavelength was ...” Gene looked at a sheet of paper in his lap. “About .8 meters at 32.5 inches. And at 52.5 inches the frequency is around 1.3 meters.”
    “Did you try it to the size everyone else seems to think it was?” asked Jim.
    Gene looked down at the paper again. “Yes, at 27 inches it’s .7 meters, or at 44 inches it’s a little over 1 meter.
    “We have two scales to examine for each variation, one based on width and the other by depth. That’s why we need the computers to model this thing.”
    Lou reentered the room, looking depressed. Jim was sure Kas had lit into him. He was about to say something comforting, but Lou had heard what Gene was saying about the uncertainty of the sizes.
    “That’s why I think you’re barking up a dead tree,” said Lou, perking up a bit. “You’re talking mythology here. It’s like you’re trying to figure out what size pants Zeus wore.”
    “Come on, Lou,” said Jim.
    “No, you come on, Jim. I’ve heard enough, thanks. See you at the studio tomorrow.” Lou grabbed his coat and left.
    “What’s he going to do?” asked Gene. “He doesn’t have a car.”
    “There’s a bus. He takes it all the time when Claire has the car.”
    “He’s your best friend, Jim. Aren’t you going to find out why he got so angry?” asked Dan.
    “I know why,” said Jim. “It has nothing to do with the ark. He embarrassed himself with Kas.”

    #

    The next day, Gene went to New York and Dan left to visit some family in California. For a few days Lou and Jim didn’t mention the ark and things got back to normal. A large project had come in that involved them both. On Friday they were in Jim’s car, headed for Harrisburg to tour the famous Three Mile Island facility. With the subject of radiation not far from their minds, the conversation inevitably led back to the ark.
    “So you’re sticking with this ark thing?” asked Lou.
    “No need for you to be concerned about it, Lou,”
    “No need to be nasty, Jim,” retorted Lou. He chewed on his lip for a moment, then added, “I don’t know why but I feel threatened by this ark thing. I guess I have a bad feeling about it.”
    “It doesn’t have anything to do with you, Lou. This is my gig!”
    “If it brings you down, then it’s OUR problem.”
    “Brings me down?” said Jim. “What are you afraid of? This is just a research project. Hell, I’m just assisting Gene. This is his gig. So what’s the danger?”
    Lou stared glumly at the white lines on the highway. “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s just a feeling that won’t go away.”

THOU SHALT ...
    In the weeks that followed Gene’s visit Jim continued his research