The Third Day Read Online Free Page A

pursue it.  MIT, as you know, is as open to backing new scientific concepts as any of our institutions, but we knew that we could never get anything like this through the grant review committees.  Normal university channels were therefore closed to us.” 
    “So you went looking for suckers,” said Markowitz. 
    “I wouldn’t refer to your father in those terms, Mr. Markowitz.  He wasn’t the only person on Wall Street to fall for that particular delusion.” 
    “Call me Ray.” 
    “OK, Ray.  What happened was this:  with his initial investment, we developed the technology to the point where the central processing unit was the size of a typical laptop.  We found that we could use this to transmit a two dimensional object, such as a letter or a fax.” 
    “How did you know it worked?” I asked.  “Surely you would have wanted to test it before you wired money.” 
    “We had some fun with Alicia up front.  We’d send a seemingly urgent fax back to the previous hour, and then we’d ask why she hadn’t informed us immediately of its arrival.  The poor girl became quite befuddled.” 
    Markowitz finally laughed.  “So once you proved it up, you sent the order back for Wal-Mart?” 
    She nodded.  “At that point, our biggest challenge was finding a bank that had stayed both solvent and in one location for the past 35 years.  That took a couple of months.” 
    “How did you send back the initial investment?” I asked.  “You started with $10,000 as I recall.” 
    “Henry remembered that his father had a savings account that he left untouched for years, so we sort of borrowed it for a while.  We had a lawyer draw up all the documents; then we printed them on a font commonly used in the 1970s and sent them to the bank’s trust department.  The documents contained specific instructions for the disposition of our account, as well as the return of his money, with interest and a substantial return for his trouble.” 
    “When did you know it worked?” 
    “Last fall, Henry sent the papers while I logged in to our account.  A few seconds later, our bank’s web site showed the totals change.  It was quite thrilling.” 
    Incredible. 
    “So you finished the rest of the project with your own money?” Markowitz asked. 
    “We didn’t feel like we could go back to your father for more funds without disclosing what we had achieved.  Once we confirmed our initial hypothesis, it was merely a matter of expanding on our previous work.” 
    I laughed.  “Merely?” 
    She smiled.  “It may have been a bit more complicated than that.  After a few more months of work, we eventually succeeded in transporting a three dimensional object, using the mechanism you saw below.” 
    “Nothing living could survive that level of cold,” said Markowitz. 
    “No.  The transport facility is immediately above the quantum processor.  I’ll show it to you later, when everyone has gone home.  Only one other member of our staff knows that it exists.” 
    Markowitz closed his eyes as he stretched his hands over his head; then he turned to me.  “I’m still not sure I believe this.” 
    I wasn’t sure what to believe, either.  All I could muster in reply was that her explanation seemed to square with the facts as we knew them. 
    I did have a question, though.  “You keep using the word ‘we.’  Can you tell us where your other half is now?” 
    Juliet didn’t answer.  Instead, she flipped open her phone and tapped a quick text message before turning to a side door that I had not noticed earlier. 
    “Excuse me, gentlemen.  I need to check on something in the lab.  I’ll be right back. 

Chapter 5
     
    Juliet returned a few minutes later and beckoned us to follow her into the facility’s conference room.  She had furnished it, like her office, with good quality second hand stuff, but that wasn’t what drew my attention. 
    I had thought the lab kept itself out of the public eye,