Exodus 2022 by Kenneth G. Bennett Read Free Book Online

Phelps narrated as the brain segments came into focus. He might have been addressing a group of graduate students: 
    “Temporal lobes, corpus callosum, parietal lobes, occipital lobe,” he said. “Also known as the visual cortex.”
    He stepped closer to the anomaly and ticked off the structures surrounding the fluorescing mass: “Thalamus, pineal gland, hypothalamus. Down here: the amygdala, hippocampus, basal ganglia…the brain stem. And…” He paused. “This…whatever it is”—he tapped the mysterious orange mass with the tip of the pen—“wedged between the caudate nucleus and the occipital lobe.”
    “Well,” said Kate, “is it a tumor or something?”
    “Or something.” Phelps laughed and shook his head. “The identical tumor in three individuals? In exactly the same position?” He checked Stahl’s scans again, then Galbreth’s. “Not likely.”
    Brandon presented different views of the anomaly and Phelps continued his analysis. “No sign of perifocal brain edema. Not a meningioma. Not like any I’ve seen, anyhow.” To Beck, he said, “I’d like to see the pathology reports.”
    “Of course.”
    “And you mentioned thought captures…” 
    Beck nodded at Brandon, and fresh images populated the screens surrounding the freeze-frame of Andy Stahl.
    The screens showed a little girl, age five or six. A girl with pale white skin and brown hair, standing in a field, the only person in the scene. The sky behind the girl was dark, brooding. The perimeter of each image blurred, indistinct.
    “Meet Lorna Gwin,” said Beck. “As perceived by Erebus diver Andy Stahl.”
    “The mystery kid,” said Kate, almost to herself.
    “Yes,” said Beck. “The one they’re all screaming about. Except—“
    “These are thought captures?” Edelstein sounded amazed. “I’ve read about the technology, of course. But I mean … How did you—“
    “Stahl was dying,” said Beck. “In the ICU on our hospital ship. We wanted to know what was going on. So we wired him for capture, just like we do with detainees. And we asked him straight-out. ‘Who are you yelling about? Who is Lorna Gwin?’”
    Beck nodded toward the screens. “These are the pictures he had in his head.”
    The images had a painterly, ghostlike quality.
    “The other diver,” said Kate. “He was in intensive care, too.”
    “Yes,” Beck replied, as images of another girl populated the screens around the freeze-frame of John Galbreth. This girl was approximately the same age as the first child, but completely different in appearance.
    The first girl was white. This girl was black, like Galbreth himself, with curly hair and a sweet, cherubic face.
    “Meet Lorna Gwin number two,” said Beck, as perceived by Erebus diver John Galbreth.”
    “I don’t understand,” said Kate.
    “There’s more,” said Beck. He signaled to Brandon again and new images filled the screens around the freeze-frame of gillnetter Brad Whittaker.
    “And this is Mr. Whittaker’s Lorna Gwin,” said Beck.
    This girl was at a playground. Laughing. Spinning on a merry-go-round. She was about the same age as the first two girls, but this child was petite, with blonde hair, delicate features, and glasses.
    They stared in silence for a long time.
    “So they all screamed the same name,” Phelps said at last. “All hallucinated about a kid. A dead girl named Lorna Gwin…But when you dig into their thoughts you find that there are actually three Lorna Gwins. Unique individuals. Which makes sense if each of these guys believes he lost a daughter.” He sounded like he was trying to puzzle it out as he spoke.
    “So are these real kids?” Edelstein asked.
    “We don’t think so,” said Beck. “None of these guys had kids. None of their friends or family knew anything about kids that fit these descriptions.”
    Edelstein said, “So…despite how freaked out these guys all were, no kids actually died?”
    “I didn’t say that,” said Beck, and he nodded