The Planck Factor

Liz opened her mouth but shut it fast.

“Just put it in an envelope and mail it,” I said. “I know you and they . . . haven’t been close. But please . . . do this for me.”

Liz nodded and took the note.

Once I’d settled back into Liz’s condo, the next step was for me to go out in public. I grabbed my laptop, which a government agent had recovered from the hotel and obligingly delivered, and headed out to the nearest coffee shop. I found my way to Pennsylvania Avenue—D.C.’s version of Main Street as laid out by Pierre Charles L’Enfant. I thought of L’Enfant as I wandered into a coffee shop called Le Pain Quotidien.

I grabbed a large coffee and a chocolate croissant. It was the least I could do for myself if I was going to be kidnapped.

I took a table facing the big picture window. Peering out to the street, I saw no sign of my dynamic bodyguard duo. None that was obvious, anyway.

I set up the laptop and opened the file I’d been working on in the wee hours. Did I want to continue the story or revise what I’d written? I’d been so busy thinking about my imminent capture that worrying about Alexis’ situation seemed almost ridiculous.

Use it. The words floated through my mind. I was in her situation. (Well, except for her dead fiancé showing up, of course.) Who would understand better how she would react? So use it. Tuning out the chatter of customers around me, I plunged into reviewing the latest draft.

Alexis

Daniel gazed back at me, a weak smile on his lips and an apology in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Alexis jumped out of bed and ran over to him, wrapping him in a hug that would make a python proud. She sobbed on his shoulder, heaving with relief and confusion.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.” Daniel’s voice was choked, either from emotion or Alexis’ astonishing grip on him.

Alexis let go, stepped back and looked at him. “All this time. All this time.” She shook her head, unable to go on.

Once disengaged from her hug, Daniel took a deep breath. “They made me promise, Alexis.”

“Who? The NSA?”

He shook his head. “These guys were with Homeland Security.”

“Jesus.” How many agencies were involved?

Daniel drew Alexis to him once again, enveloping her in his arms. “God, how I wanted to tell you. After my accident, I woke up in a hospital bed. They had a guard outside my door, and a man came by to question me.”

Daniel pulled back and looked into Alexis’s eyes. “He told me his name was Benson. Agent Benson showed me a badge and identification. Apparently, he’d been tailing me the night of the crash. Swede and I had both been under surveillance. I didn’t believe him at first. I might even have ignored him, if I hadn’t noticed he was carrying a gun.”

He paused a moment, looking distracted, as if he might have forgotten to turn the stove off. Alexis knew that look. It was a habit that had once annoyed her, but now she ate it up with a spoon.

“After the hospital released me, Benson took me to the federal building in Portland,” he continued. “I was in a room full of people from a whole alphabet soup of agencies. They’d known about the research Swede and I had been doing for a while.

“But they’d always kept their distance. So the people who first contacted us weren’t with them. Apparently, we were right to be suspicious.”

Alexis struggled to take this in from a man she thought had been dead. “So, those people who approached you before that . . . they were terrorists?”

“I guess so. That’s what the Feds say anyhow.”

“And how do we know these guys are the good guys?”

Daniel threw up his hands. “Unless the terrorists have reserved a room in a federal building, I think it’s safe to assume we’re dealing with the real thing.”

Alexis started to question what secret agenda the federal authorities might have and then thought better of it. Whatever their interest, it beats terrorism, right?

“Two questions,” she said. “What on earth were you guys working on? And don’t be evasive. I have a right to know.”

Daniel heaved a sigh. “Okay. Einstein’s theory is what we call a gauge theory--everything is described with reference to the speed of light, which is a universal constant that forms a framework for the theory. Magueijo’s approach removes the speed of light as a constant by making it variable, by making it less of a determinate certainty; and this produces a theory without a stable backdrop--a theory in which events define what space is like, instead of space determining what events happen within it. So our research is about bringing the variability or uncertainty of quantum mechanics into the all-encompassing and relative universe. Or you could say it’s about introducing the curvatures of relative space-time into the atomically flat dimensions of quantum mechanics.”

Alexis shook her head and waved her hands. “Stop, stop, stop. In English, please. The Physics for Dummies version.”