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Paul Trout had decided to forgo the flirtatious holographic ier communicated with the co room in the corner of the data center He had set up a sie The keyboard communicated with an oversize monitor that took up any table where they faced the screen were Gamay; Dr Adler, the wave scientist; and Al Hibbet, the NUMA expert on electronetism

Trout thanked everyone for co and explained that Austin and Zavala had been called away Then he tapped the keyboard A photo of a thin-faced ray eyes appeared on the screen

"I'd like you to ht us here today," Trout said "Here you see Lazlo Kovacs, the brilliant Hungarian electrical engineer This photo was taken in the late thirties, about the tinetism theories And this is what can happen when scientific brilliance is perverted"

Trout changed the picture to a split screen that displayed two satellite photos On the left was the photo of the freak waves that sank the Southern Belle The other side showed the giant whirlpool, as viewed from space

He let the significance of the pictures sink in

"We in this roonetic transmissions based on the Kovacs Theorems to cause these disturbances As you know, Gamay and I went to Los Alamos and talked to an authority on Kovacs's work He confirested the type of electro could cause a polar reversal"

"I assunetic poles," Adler said

"I wish that were so," Gaic polar reversal where the earth's crust actually moves over its core"

"I'ist," Adler said, "but that sounds like a recipe for a catastrophe"

"Actually," Gamay said with a s about doomsday"

A heavy silence followed her pronouncement Adler cleared his throat "I heard the word 'le room"

"I'd be happy if I could wiggle out of this situation entirely," Gaiven ourselves room for doubt We don't kno reliable our Los Alamos source is, so Paul has come up with a way to test the Kovacs Theorems"

"How could you do that?" Adler said

"By using a simulation," Trout said, "much the sa a laboratory wave machine or computer model"

Hibbet said, "Kovacs only wrote of his theories in a general way He left out some of the specifics"