Reconception: The Fall by Deborah Greenspan Read Free Book Online

pretty
woman, Teller thought, more than pretty, with golden hair and soft
brown eyes, but so disconnected somehow. Evie did not know life,
the woman realized, but wanted to know it. Understanding liberated
Teller as she let go the unreasoning anger she'd felt since
spotting the van an hour ago. Her dark eyes glowed with maternal
compassion, and she stepped over to Evie and took her hand.
    "None of us is to blame for what our ancestors did.
Eye of Eagle is right, and perhaps, we should not judge you so
harshly."
    Evie studied Teller's dark eyes. She was not a
pretty woman, not in any sense that Evie had been trained to
appreciate, but she had a presence. Her features were strong,
angled, sharp. She did not look soft or vulnerable in any way but
savage and beautiful, as if she could wield a knife as readily as
she could suckle a babe. She was primal, a mother-goddess,
definitely of Earth, and everything that Evelyn knew she was not.
Evie moved toward her; reaching out, she took Teller’s hands.
Teller started to withdraw, but then, looking into Evie’s eyes, let
go the last of her fear, and they hugged each other, woman to woman
across the gulf between worlds.
     
    East USA Habitat: 2128
     
    John Morgan had made a startling discovery. His
research in atmospherics had virtually come to a halt, and when
questioned, his answer was that he was hoping to reach a
breakthrough at any time. Scientists require a lot of time for
thinking and no one could know that the thoughts on Morgan's mind
were of destruction, not creation, or that his data bank research
was not in biology but in politics and nuclear proliferation
treaties.
    He was looking for warheads, nuclear weapons,
missiles with directional capability, and, it had taken some time,
but he'd found several. A bomb, strategically placed would begin
the job he had decided to do. The next one would finish it. A
couple bombs aimed one after another at the New Mexican desert
would open up one unholy can of worms.
    Stretching his arms over his head, Morgan punched a
few more buttons on his computer and got the exact coordinates of
the missile base. Although these warheads had supposedly been
disarmed in the early 21st century, Morgan's dedicated research and
careful manipulations of certain people had broken into classified
material. It was within this databank that he'd made his discovery.
Ripley, the computer whiz, had been right.
    Ripley was not a new scientist. He was just
interested in computers, nothing else, and no amount of persuasion
could get him to study anything else. He could get into any
databank, break any code, sidestep any firewall. He liked to do it;
he liked the challenge. Ripley essentially got off on only one
thing: solving puzzles. He had only two emotions, confusion and
completion, and he bounced back and forth between these two
parameters like a ball in a rubber room, never suspecting that
there might be anything outside.
    When Morgan wanted to study classified material, it
had been an easy matter to get Ripley to break the codes. He'd
simply said, "Ripley, I have a problem and I need your help. I need
to get into old classified military documents." Ripley did not ask
why. The puzzle was interesting. The solution was elegant.
    The bomb was well within range of the land vehicle
that had been constructed to travel to Southeast sector, and upon
its return, Morgan intended to use it. He had hoped to be able to
launch the missile electronically, without leaving the safety of
East USA, but there were certain mechanical operations that had to
be initiated before the warhead could function. He intended to take
Jersey Lipton with him, and as he sat before his computer console
working out the details, he thought about the tactics he would use
to convince Jersey to help him.
    Jersey was a brilliant man, a physicist. Although he
was qualified as a New Scientist, he wasn't really at ease with
anything that didn't have the clarity and precision of mathematics.
He thought in