Project J by Sean Brandywine Read Free Book Online

wall space was available, and a white board was covered with equations, erased and rewritten over and over.   The desk was likewise covered with papers where there was room between two computer monitors and keyboards.   The doctor himself was sort of a mess too.   Late thirties or early forties, slender, with wispy blonde hair and a couple days’ growth of barely visible beard.   His pale blue eyes looked out from behind glasses on a face that would not have been out of place on an accountant.   Tamara expected to see a plastic pocket protector with an assortment of pens and pencils.
     
    His voice, however, was deep, not at all like his appearance.
     
    “Hello!   I guess you’re that DOD auditor I’ve heard about,” he said by way of greeting.
     
    Tamara was introduced by Stryker, who then got right down to business.   “What are you hiding?” he asked firmly.
     
    A pen almost fell from Fielding’s hand.   “Hiding...?” he stammered, looking bewildered.   Or maybe shocked.
     
    “Your project has been using the Machine and not logging it.   What have you been doing?   Some kind of secret research?”
     
    Fielding sat back down, looking as though he was going to be sick.   “Research...   You could say that,” he said weakly.   Taking a deep breath, he seemed to regain his composure when he added, “I guess it had to come out eventually.”
     
    “What kind of research, Dr. Fielding?” Tamara prompted.
     
    “Let me get Juliette in here,” he said.   “She’s been wanting to tell you from the start.”   He looked to Stryker and frowned.   “We didn’t think that we would get approval for it.   So we sort of snuck it in.”
     
    “What in?” demanded Stryker.
     
    Fielding lifted one finger in the air, and then touched a button on the intercom.   “Juliette, would you please come into my office.”
     
    Juliette O’Neill was the exact opposite of Fielding; a tall woman of solid build, late thirties, tanned, looking as though she just came in off the tennis courts, and with bright green eyes that went very well with her wavy red hair.   A lot of Ireland was in her genes.   She smiled a little uncertainly when she saw the Project Director and a stranger standing there, looking more than a little nervous.
     
    “What is it, Conrad?” she asked of her boss.
     
    “The excrement is about to hit the air circulation device,” he told her with a weak smile at the old slang term.   “It’s time to tell them about our little secret.”
     
    “Oh, shit!” she said, looking much like a person who has just been told her whole career was about to be flushed down the toilet.   Perhaps it was.
     
    “Let’s go to the conference room.   We can talk better there,” Fielding suggested.
     
    The conference room also served as a storage area with more filing cabinets along one wall and two computer terminals sitting along another.   At least there was a nice view out over the green mountains.
     
    “Okay, let’s have it,” Stryker said as he sat down next to Tamara.   “What is it that I would not approve of?”
     
    Taking in a deep breath, Fielding began.
     
    “You are aware of the successes Brown has been having in fetching live animals, the dodo and Smilodon and such.   Well, we, Dr. O’Neill and myself, got to thinking that, since the Machine works for animals, it might be possible to fetch a human.”
     
    There was a stunned silence in the room for several long seconds before Fielding went on, “A lot of reprogramming had to be done, and some other changes.   A human is much more complex than any lower form of life, but the principles are the same.”
     
    “A human?” Stryker said with disbelief rapidly shading towards anger.   “A human!”
     
    “We suspected that you would not approve,” O’Neill cut in.   “But think of the possibilities!   There is so much we have been learning about the past from artifacts.   How much more could we learn from a