Planesrunner (Everness Book One) Read Online Free

behaving…uncharacteristically, recently?”
    Everett pictured Tejendra in his mind, flicking through moments, memories, Saturday afternoons, Sunday mornings like snapshots. The moments on the Skype calls when Everett found himself talking to dead air, Tejendra distracted, somewhere else. The time on the stand at White Hart Lane when he completely missed a sweet Danny Rose goal because he'd been frowning at a message on his iPhone. The time he'd pedalled straight past Everett outside the Tate Modern when they went to the opening night of the Rothko exhibition. Moments, memories, little snapshots when Tejendra seemed in another world entirely. A common thread held all those moments of strange together.
    “You know the double-slit thing?”
    “What? The experiment?”
    “The classic experiment. That's what Dad said. The classic experiment that shows that reality is quantum. It starts just asking what light is made of, is it a particle or is it wave, and it's so simple, just light and shadows. But when you get really close in, really up tight and detailed, it's not one or the other. It's both and. Both and neither. He really wanted me to get it, to see how it worked. He'd explain it to me again and again. It's not the particle going through two slits at the same time; it goes through one slit in this universe, and through the other in another universe.”
    “When was this, Everett?” Paul McCabe held his mug in two hands, watching Everett over the top of it like a clever bird. He took a sip of tea.
    “Back just after school started again. I mean, we always talked about physics and stuff, but just all of a sudden he really needed me to understand it. Maybe it was going into year ten. And you know something? I did understand it. I saw how it worked, I knew what it meant. I understood the Many Worlds Theory.”
    “Now you know what Richard Feynman said, Everett.”
    “'I think I can safely say that no one understands quantum mechanics.'” Everett held Paul McCabe's gaze. The scientist looked away. Nothing was ever direct with Paul McCabe. Everett had been to the department enough times to see how he worked with his staff: a suggestion here, a hint there, a glance. “But what if I do?”
    “You'd be the greatest physicist of your generation,” Paul McCabe said. “Or any generation, I think.” He set the tea mug down on the table without so much as rippling the surface. He slapped his hands decisively on his thighs. “Well, I'd best be going. Just to say, this is a dreadful time, dreadful, and everyone at the department wishes you all the best, the very best. It's not knowing, that's the worst bit. The worst. I'm sure it'll all work out all right, Everett.” He stood up, straightened the coat he had not taken off. “Thank you, Laura. If there's anything any of us can do to help…”
    Paul McCabe turned at the front door. Behind him the rain slashed in silver horizontals. The evening's evil weather had deepened.
    “Oh yes, Everett one last thing. Your dad, did he give you anything recently?”
    “Like what?”
    “Like a memory stick, or a data DVD, or even a file transfer?”
    “I don't think so.”
    “Are you sure?”
    “I'm sure.” Everett felt Laura behind him. The cold wind from the street got under the Christmas cards, lifted them, sent them fluttering to the ground.
    “Well, as long as you're sure.” Paul McCabe turned up the collar of his coat. “Oof. Dirty old night. Everett, if you do get something from your father, would you be so good as to let me know? It may not make any sense to you, but it might to us. It could help. You will let me know, won't you? Thanks. Good night, Laura.”
    He pulled the door hard against the wind.
    “Well, what was that about?” Laura asked. “I always thought he was a strange little man.”
    That's what that was about, Everett thought. Those last two questions. The rest was just polite games.
    The visitor had left almost all his tea.

 
    H ow Everett had missed