The Alejandra Variations Read Online Free

had everything there was to know at the tips of its metaphorical fingers. All the nasty facts a modern nation needed to keep up to date in a world of terrorism and advanced technologies were stored in the microcircuits of Mnemos Nine: profiles of political leaders, past revolutions and current revolutions and sites of possible future revolutions, movements of troops, the status of various countries' fluctuating economies, world stock-market patterns—even the price of peanuts in Guatemala City. Mnemos Nine had it all, and assimilated more data every minute.
    But only by the input of emotional responses to all that vital data could Mnemos Nine come alive. Years ago Nicholas Tejada had interviewed with CIA and Pentagon officials at the University of California at San Diego, at their request. Then a test dream-extrapolation with the then-current Mnemos Eight computer at the Project Foresee's recruitment center got him out of the university's philosophy department and into the world of nonreality. It was a much better place.
    But that was all a long time ago. His latest little excursion into a computer-created world had almost cost him his sanity, and now he was worried about his future with the Project. He'd never collapsed emotionally before, either in-system or out.
    Melissa Salazar had pulled a newspaper from a drawer in the bedside table. She handed it to him.
    Nicholas unfolded the previous day's paper. The headlines told it all: "TERRORIST ATTACK FOILED—INDIAN PRIME MINISTER SAVED."
    As Nick scanned the article, the nightmare started coming true all over again, only this time there was an important difference in the facts.
    In the real world there had been no panic at the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. No sirens went off. Chowpatty Beach did not give birth to a superbomb nosing out of the surf on rubberized treads. There hadn't been an explosion of any kind.
    But there could've been.
    The Prime Minister of India and his entire cabinet were scheduled to be in the area that day, but information provided by an unnamed source—which Nicholas knew was Project Foresee, through the State Department—suggested that a terrorist attack of unknown proportions might come from the direction of the sea should the Prime Minister choose to attend the festivities. Local authorities had rushed the Indian leader out of the vicinity at about the same time they had discovered that a small, barely seaworthy boat several hundred yards offshore was bringing in a Libyan-made atomic bomb.
    Only Mnemos Nine and Nicholas Tejada had figured that the attack might come from the sea, and not from the air—or the land, as had been attempted only the previous month in Milan by the infamous Red Brigade.
    What came as a genuine surprise to Nicholas was the disclosure in the newspaper that it had been a "dirty" bomb. The American naval authorities who dismantled it discovered that, had it exploded, whole chunks of radioactive plutonium would have scattered into the sea and onto the land—making the area uninhabitable for hundreds of years.
    Naturally, Libya denied any role in the incident, saying that the disruption of any kind of religious ceremony was a sacrilege and a slur upon the sacred name of God. But the article pointed out that a few miles to the north of Chowpatty Beach were docked three American destroyers. Several months earlier they had seized a Libyan freighter that was ferrying reactor waste material from Russia—presumably for the clandestine construction of nuclear weapons.
    Nicholas put the paper down and stared at the Director of Project Foresee. A pall of sorts fell about Melissa Salazar.
    She rubbed her hands together nervously. Dr. Massingale was at the door, speaking with a nurse.
    "Unfortunately, some other complications have arisen while you were out," Salazar said.
    "Like what?"
    "Our Santa Barbara center has been destroyed. Completely."
    "What?"
    Melissa nodded.
    Nicholas's stomach heaved. The West Coast was littered with