Ham the Fire Starter

By Harvey Douglas Wall

The smartest particle physicist works with a small group of superintelligent scientists in Geneva Switzerland at the CERN Hadron supercollider on research aimed toward discovering the Higgs boson. During the operation of the Hadron supercollider which smashes protons together at nearly the speed of light the small group of scientists find themselves traveling back in time some 60,000 years to Burundi Africa. Join our scientists as they navigate the dimension shifting future.
The time line is 2012 through 2040 but also forty years surrounding 57,000 BC. The location in the present is Geneva Switzerland as well as Bujumbura Burundi Africa and includes some New York City, East Hampton Connecticut, and Houston Texas. The prehistoric setting is almost entirely in Burundi Africa.
The books concept could potentially appeal to sci-fi fans who are drawn to the wildly speculative end of the genre. - BlueInk Review

Time-travel fans will embrace this intriguing story of consciousness, prehistory, and romance. - Clarion Review

Scientists using the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva stumble upon a way to travel back to the prehistoric era in Walls sci-fi debut. - Kirkus Reviews

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jun 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781491836422

Harvey Douglas Wall

Harvey Wall is a retired utility manager who is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at a private college in Connecticut. He and his wife live in Columbia Connecticut. This is his first novel.

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© 2014 Harvey Douglas Wall. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   06/10/2014

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3641-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3643-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-3642-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013921175

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Prologue

Book I The Present

Chapter 1     January 2011 New York

Chapter 2     March 2011 New York

Chapter 3     March 2011 New York

Chapter 4     March 2011 New York

Chapter 5     March 2011 New York

Chapter 6     April 2011 New York City

Chapter 7     May 2011 New Britain And Winsted, Connecticut

Chapter 8     June 2011 New York

Chapter 9     June 2011 Houston Texas

Chapter 10     June 2011 New York And Cape Canaveral Florida

Chapter 11   Washington, D.c. Late June 2011

Chapter 12   July 2011 New York

Chapter 13   Aug 2011 Geneva

Chapter 14   Aug 2011 Geneva

Chapter 15   Aug 2011 Geneva

Chapter 16   Aug 2011 Geneva

Chapter 17   Aug 2011 Geneva

Chapter 18   Aug-Sept 2011 New York

Chapter 19   Sept 2011 Burundi

Chapter 20   Sept 2011 Burundi

Chapter 21   Oct 2011 Geneva

Chapter 22   Nov 2011 Burundi

Chapter 23   Dec 2011 New York

Chapter 24   Jan 2012 Turks And Caicos

Chapter 25   Feb 2012 Geneva

Chapter 26   March 2012 Geneva

Book II The Beginning

Chapter 27   March 2012 Burundi

Chapter 28   March 2012 New York

Chapter 29   June 2012 Geneva

Chapter 30   December 25, 57,983 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 31   June 2012 Burundi

Chapter 32   March 57,988 Bc – Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 33   July 2012 Geneva

Chapter 34   Aug 2012 Geneva

Chapter 35   Sept 2012 Geneva

Book III Building A Civilization

Chapter 36   June 57,979 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 37   June 57,970 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 38   June 57,968 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 39   Dec 57,966 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 40   Dec 57,961 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Chapter 41   March 57,945 Bc Prehistoric Burundi

Book IV Back To The Future

Chapter 42   March 2013 Geneva

Chapter 43   March 2014 Geneva

Chapter 44   March 2018 Geneva

Chapter 45   March 2038 Geneva

Chapter 46   March 2040 Burundi

Book V Back To The Beginning

Chapter 47   March 57,940 Bc Burundi

Epilogue      March 2050 Geneva

Acknowledgements

PROLOGUE

CERN

CERN is a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility in Geneva dedicated to the study of particle physics, and in 2012 scientists were carrying on experiments with space-time bending with a sister facility located in Burundi slightly south of the equator. Some of the scientists working on the experiments were trained in the examination of biological combinations as well as geological compatibility with subatomic particle physics. There were more than 6,000 scientists and technicians working at the facilities on numerous complex endeavors. The Swiss area was complemented by an equally large area in neighboring France with a seventeen mile in diameter collider ring three hundred feet underground.

The French name for the organization, Department Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, is the literal translation of the acronym CERN. The facility is supported by twenty nations and has been studying the properties of subatomic particles by smashing protons together at nearly the speed of light and observing the patterns of distribution of approximately two percent of the particles resulting from the collisions. The resulting particles include quarks, muons, leptons and neutrinos. The experiments are conducted at almost absolute zero degrees, -460° Fahrenheit, −273.15° on the Celsius scale and zero on the Kelvin scale 0°K.

The experiments have been conducted since 1954, but the space-time bending research being performed by Dr. Evan Coogan is relatively new and not necessarily condoned as a realistic use of the LHC by the other scientists. CERN is the premiere scientific research location for physicists worldwide. CERN has the first pick of scientific studies and the most notable scientists to work on their projects. The team assembled by Dr. Coogan included several scientific disciplines; the youngest members of the team were college students pursuing advanced degrees. Jill Coogan, Evan’s wife, worked with her own team and only coordinated her activities with his during the running of the collider. The leader of Jill’s team was, Daniel Burzynski, M.D., a medical doctor from Columbia University Biomedical Engineering center. Dr. Burzynski was a first generation Pole who facetiously referred to CERN as my Blockhead Palace.

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Henri Corville, known as Hank, is the most notable scientist at Columbia who is also acting as the US team leader at CERN. Hank’s laboratory at Columbia is state of the art and looks like a NASA control center. He can monitor or conduct remote experiments at CERN in Switzerland or the facility in Burundi. The US government has sponsored a satellite dedicated for use by CERN for scientific experiments under Hank’s authority. Its purpose is to be in geosynchronous orbit and be the third leg of an equilateral triangle between CERN and Burundi. Ntare Cambarantama, Ph.D., heads the facility in Burundi.

Hank believed that most of the people with whom he was working were not in his league or maybe even the same species and frequently felt like the smartest-person-in-the-room, especially when most of the rooms he was in seemed to be filled with sub-humans who could talk. He affectionately termed many of his meetings as being conducted by mouth breathing troglodytes.

The Higgs boson is a particle within the proton theorized by Peter Higgs in 1964. The CERN collider run of July 2012 provided the data for analysis that tentatively confirmed the existence of the Higgs boson in March of 2013. The Higgs boson is part the Standard Model of physics and provides an explanation of why some particles have mass. The description further provides information for the weak force, one of the four forces of nature, having a shorter range than the electromagnetic force. Peter Higgs and François Englert earned the Nobel Prize in Physics for their discovery in 2013. Hank’s research interests cover every area that discovering the Higgs boson might divulge, but his greatest interest is in creating new mass from energy.

Evan was trying to bend time so that one might move through time to the same place or even a parallel location. To prove his research in a peer reviewed setting he was not above enhancing his research findings. Evan was a ladies’ man with a flair for humor and was constantly trying to impresses some girl with his mental prowess, similar to a typical high school jock that was always coming on to all of the pretty girls, which in his case, usually worked.

Jill Connolly Coogan was a particle physicist and microbiologist combining her research in both disciplines at Columbia and CERN under the direction of Hank Corville. Jill believed her research with the Higgs boson would allow her to apply her findings to an individual’s genes and overcome diseased cells or prevent further deterioration of cells that had become damaged. Jill was a gorgeous woman and used her charms relentlessly, but she was unaware of her flirting behavior it had become so second nature to her. The results of her demeanor were consistently favorable.

Ntare Cambarantama, Nate, was a Burundian Ph.D. in particle physics and head of the physics department at the University of Burundi. Ntare wanted to make Burundi at a minimum an emerging nation and elevate it from being the poorest country in Africa. Nate would need to craft an environment where the citizens of his country could become educated and stop fighting one another. He believed his research with Hank could help create a new Burundi with an economy based on scientific research. He was always trying to demonstrate his value to Hank to ensure Hank would continue to rely on him for managing the Burundi facility. Hank knew Nate’s game but supposed it was useful to have such a sycophant watching his back in his absence. Nate looked like Chris Rock and tried to be a comedian by stealing his routines.

BURUNDI

Present day Burundi has had the majority of its arable land converted to farming that has caused serious erosion. The Hutus tend to be the blue collar and agricultural sector of the people. The Tutsis are the wealthier and better educated portion of the society. A pigmy people, the Twa, are the smallest segment of the people, but probably the descendants of the first inhabitants. Belgium had been a colonizer of Burundi and French is an official language along with a Bantu dialect, Kirundi. English is taught in most schools, therefore; most school age children are trilingual.

The Hutus and Tutsis have been warring for generations and maintain an uneasy truce. The Tutsis are the traditional cattle ranchers. They were thought to drink more milk than Hutus, who are farmers. So a Tutsi might tease a Hutu coworker who selects a glass of milk during a tea-break: Now the Hutus want to drink all the milk.

BUJUMBURA, BURUNDI

Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, is positioned on the northeastern tip of Lake Tanganyika and has a population of 500,000. Burundi’s neighbors are Rwanda, Tanzania, and the Congo. The country is on a plateau in central east Africa where the average altitude goes from 2,500 feet at Lake Tanganyika in the west to 8,700 feet at the highest point, Mount Heha. The country borders the Great Rift Valley where the first signs of human existence have been discovered. The location of the capital resembles Geneva with a large lake surrounded by foothills enjoying a temperate climate.

The Hutus have been the dominant ethnic group for all of the country’s recorded history comprising about 85% of the total populous. The Tutsis, the largest minority are 14% of the historic community, and are the aristocracy and wealthy educated class. The Twa remain hunter-gatherers as they have for millennia. The Homo sapiens of Africa began to emigrate and populate the rest of the world approximately 60,000 years ago from the Great Rift Valley. The other hominid groups became extinct probably because Homo sapiens fucked them into oblivion with a stronger gene pool.

Hank felt that the Burundian people were industrious, family oriented and enjoyed life. He, therefore, was amazed that those of wealth and power with whom he had to deal was a gathering of repeat-offender, depraved psychos, but realized it was just an observation that could apply to the US too.

BOOK I

The Present

CHAPTER 1

JANUARY 2011 NEW YORK

HANK

The CEO of the US CERN team was my functional unpaid title. As Henri Hank Corville, CEO of the CERN US team, I was assembling the primary research projects for the US team to take to CERN in Geneva, Switzerland for the coming year. I have my own interest in primary particle physics and believed it might be possible to engineer any atom, although it was likely only the smallest would be possible in my lifetime. I could not see firing up the super collider to build a pot of gold. It would cost more than the gold was worth.

I also had sole direction of a sister facility being built in Burundi, in east Africa. In addition I am the NASA contact for a geosynchronous satellite (stationary location above the earth) financed primarily by the US Defense Department, but available for CERN’s projects. Ntare Cambarantama is my contact in Burundi and is hard to take sometimes, but he is smart and efficient and will do whatever I say, so I believe that he is probably the best I could hope for in such a backward country. Ntare also thinks he is royalty, which I get a kick out of, and I always call him Your Royal Highness which everyone else has bastardized to His Royal Heine, but not in his presence.

Jill Coogan had applied for a Ph.D. in my department at Columbia under my guidance and encouragement, and I thought she would be a great addition to the team. Her research topic could fit in well with my projects and the team as a whole could be enhanced by her membership. Her problem was she was married to Evan Coogan another Ph.D. with a much more limited background and no research topic that I believed could be attached to the CERN team’s project list. She was very devoted to her family and would not want to spend too much time away from them. Evan was probably unlikely to be able to find sufficient research or a teaching position in Switzerland. Jill knew the project team was being put together by me and was very inquisitive. She was very ambitious toward getting her research in cellular biology to become part of the whole CERN research project group. She also hinted that Evan had interests that could be a part of the CERN project group dealing with time bending theoretical physics. She put on her best sexy flirting act touching me and shaking her hair around near my face, but in ten years of our professional relationship neither of us has ever made an overt move toward the other.

I knew I was making a dumb move when I told Jill to have Evan contact me to see if his research would fit with the overall project. Jill seemed thrilled and for the first time gave me an embrace, not just a hug tap. I knew then that I was heading down a one way rabbit hole with no escape route. In all of my years of scientific research, I had never compromised my research findings connected to any of my research. I was not above outright lying to obtain funding, but that was just business.

Evan Coogan heard Jill’s news and started gathering his research papers. Jill helped him get prepared and started delving into his thesis and started to see inconsistencies in many areas. She knew if she caught them that quickly certainly I would. She asked Evan about all of the faults that she found, and he admitted enhancing data in a few places and eliminating what contradicted his primary theory. She helped him organize his research so that by the time she finished reviewing everything and making alterations she felt funny about all of his work. In her entire career she had never altered her research to prove a particular thesis, but had developed the thesis from the analysis of the data. After several days of work, she thought she had a good enough outline for Evan to present to me as long as I did not want to go back and see the primary data. She sat with Evan for hours making him go through the interview process Evan and I would be having. She was uncomfortable with this whole action, but they both wanted to be included in the team, which probably wouldn’t result in their participation for another year or two.

I met with Evan the following week and went over his material. I thought Evan had all the right answers and suspected that he had all the right answers because Jill had coached him as the answers all seemed to be similar to the thought processes that I had witnessed in her over the decade we had been working together. I told him I needed to review the research and that I would schedule another meeting sometime in the future as it became necessary to start picking the team. I waited a while so that when I reviewed his paperwork I would not be reading into it what answers Evan had already given me or what Jill had given Evan to say to me.

The next two weeks were full of Congressional hearings and numerous committee meetings with high level federal government officials. Most of the answers Congress looks for are cost associated, time related or what applications could be useful to the defense area. My usual responses on the defense application question were that I could see none until far into the future maybe decades. The follow up was always Well what good is spending all this money if it would not be helpful for years? I always compared it to the space program at NASA and to list the many ancillary scientific finds and minor applications, i.e., Teflon. The other point that I always tried to emphasize to US politicians and career bureaucrats was the multinational makeup of the whole CERN projects team. So far we have twenty countries involved as owners (not the US) and almost all countries have some scientific representation. Therefore, it is unlikely we could develop some defense weapon without approval of the member nations as well as then sharing of the research results. Then the line of reasoning was what would we need to do to create our own supercollider project, and I would reply that the US had started down that path in Texas and closed the effort down back in the 1990s due to the immense cost. The cost questions were not only about our funding, but also what has been our proportional cost share versus our analytical results used or received by the US. I would explain that everyone gets the use of the results. The US is often the prime mover in choosing the direction of the research, therefore; we should receive a greater benefit from the project’s experiments.

Meeting with individuals or groups of less than five, especially from possible corporate sponsors, I would get questions directed to me oriented toward my divulging the real scoop that I would not reveal in large recorded settings. I always tried to be consistent, but would phrase things that I had said in a little more explicit detail so that the meeting participants would believe that I had shared more classified information with them. I was always looking for specific shortcuts to obtaining some quick results that could be applied so that I could demonstrate to funding sponsors some useful results. The origins of the universe like the breaking down of the human genome are similarly promising types of research. The experiments tend to be like climbing a ladder to higher floors, but being unable to see what’s on the higher floors. We just hope that our research efforts will show some promising results that we find on the lowest floors, like picking the low hanging fruit.

Time bending is an Einstein theory from the early 1900s that light does not necessarily travel in a straight line. It could be possible to bend a beam of light far enough so you could bend it before the time that it was generated. There has been no reasonable way to bend it forward so if one was to move backward in time that would presumably be a one way trip. The way in which Einstein theorized the possible bending occurring was to move the mass of a solid object at almost the speed of light.

He would direct the beam in the direction of choice by the experiment using any energy source out in space away from the earth’s gravitational pull or any results from its atmosphere. Evan’s theories were about breaking subatomic particles in a supercollider and turning them into energy and then directing that energy to where and what timeline one chose to reassemble them. Breaking subatomic particles into energy is extraordinarily costly, difficult and complex just to analyze because the experiments happen at 1/10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of a second, that’s 22 zeros, 23 integers. Evan asserts that the same process that is used to smash the subatomic particles into one another at absolute zero degrees creating energy was at the same time using the energy to put them back together again where and when a project scientist needed. That’s the part of Evan’s theory that I cannot wrap my mind around. We are not sure how we are creating the best results to break the particles apart to create massive energy, so it’s hard for me to see how to direct this infinitesimally small period and material to a place of our choosing. My almost photographic memory usually serves me well when reading research papers so that if I see something that is later contradicted by other data or analysis I can usually see the actual writing in my mind just as it was written in the document.

The part of Evan’s research that could be of assistance to the whole team is in the area of time-travel to be funded by the Defense Department. The pentagon folks could think we could someday achieve time-travel so that then the days of the Terminator could be real. I did not see any answers to my concerns in Evan’s material that I had read. Evan understood that I would have those concerns so he started providing answers that would send the reader in a circular loop where you repeatedly asked the how question, but would get different answers. The part that could be useful is the real timeline from where one exists in space-time and how far in the future one might be able to test these theories. Sometimes I am not the brightest person in the room, and the CERN project has the best and brightest around the world and Evan would not get too far before someone, other than me, started asking the same questions.

Jill seems to be eager to get me to accept Evan, and I know she is head-over-heels infatuated with the idea of participating in the project with me and her research interests. I am well aware of all of her educational work over her college career and she has never bent the rules by massaging her data into results and analysis that lead to a certain conclusion when they don’t. So is she pushing so hard to get Evan included in the project so that she can be chosen or is she so sure that she could not continue unless her family is held together wherever she or Evan are working? I suppose it is both, but I’m surprised that it is the first time, I knew of, she has compromised her own previously high standards. I want her to be part of the team as well, and I realize that Evan is also a part of a comprehensive project. Do I want to compromise my own principles to get her on the team and is it entirely professional? The answer is somewhat emotional and personal. The question for me now is what would I do to get what I want, and the same goes for Evan and Jill? I phoned Evan and told him I had some questions to go over with him but that I would not be available for at least a two weeks, and then I would like to meet again. Evan seemed nervous, but he said he was anxious to move forward with whatever he needed to provide to me for resolving any of my outstanding concerns. I told him I’d contact him the first week in February.

I saw Jill a couple of times at work on our mutual research. I did not mention Evan and neither did she. On Friday afternoon, I asked if she wanted to go for a drink before heading home. She smiled and said, yes and we walked to the bar nearest our office. We talked about school and her research for a few minutes, but after polishing off a couple of glasses of wine the subject changed to personal matters; family, theater, novels and we were becoming very comfortable or at least I was. She was occasionally rubbing her foot on my calf under my pant leg and above my sock. The move could be considered inadvertent even though I knew it was not, and our eyes stayed locked during the contact and she had a sexy smile on the whole time. Finally on the third glass of wine or maybe the beginning of the fourth she asked about Evan’s research and membership on the team.

She looked more piercingly into my eyes where I knew she could read me pretty well and said, Are you seriously considering Evan’s research or are you humoring him because of me?

I did not answer her directly, but said the problems that I thought I would have pushing it forward would be with our funding directors as well as the other fellow scientists. We are all chasing the same dollars and the time on the equipment as well as the use of the analysts to help determine what the data proves or not.

She said, What if I assist him in putting everything together? I’m better at presenting information to the non-technical or scientific bureaucrats. As she stopped talking and waited for me to respond her toes rested against my leg and stopped moving, and she just held them there.

I looked more intensely into her gorgeous green eyes and moved a little closer over the table and said the Defense Department was probably the key to approval. I said, Shape the research experiments to reflect time-traveling either to get something such as a rocket to a location through time before the opposing force creates a critically dangerous situation or action. She smiled broadly and started rubbing my leg again until I smiled back. As she leaned into me across the table she lightly kissed me and said, Thanks Hank we’ll do exactly as you’ve suggested, and I will get it done immediately. The Bee Gees Night Fever was playing.

I put my hand gently on top of hers on the table and asked if she wanted another glass of wine. She smiled broadly and said with a girly laugh in her voice We better get out of her before the posse comes looking for us and while I can still navigate the subway accurately. John Travolta and Olivia Newton John sang You’re the One That I Want as I paid the bill, and we walked out together with her left hand and arm through my right arm. When we got to the first subway stairs, we said our good-byes and again she kissed me lightly and gave me another strong hug. She said, Thank you Hank, we’ll make this work, and it will be satisfactory for all of us you’ll see.

I hugged her back and initiated another light kiss on the lips that she returned. I said, This is not a done deal by any means. If I can find the flaws in his research even after you’ve helped him dress it up how is he going to pass a peer review? If we do then do we both want to manufacture research data that may create a blemish on the entire CERN project or ourselves?

I’ve had too much wine to be rational right now, but I’ll do some heavy lifting with him and make sure we’re going not only in a believable track, but toward an actual provable scientific end point. She kissed me again and said, Thanks Hank I’ll be able to make this good for everybody, I promise I won’t get you in trouble. She hugged me and ran down the subway stairs.

All I that was on my mind was how she smelled, tasted, felt and made me feel in her presence. She was acting as if she was making the presentation, which troubled me even more. Mostly I just wanted her. Once I got home I still couldn’t get her out of my mind. I felt like if I was an undergraduate. All week long I kept thinking about her but hadn’t seen her at work. I did not know how I felt and decided I was just acting as a love sick teenager. Finally, Friday of the third week of February Evan called me and scheduled a meeting between the two of us, he did not mention Jill.

We met on March first he came into my office like a lion, but was soon tongue-tied and wasn’t sure how to guide the conversation the way I assumed Jill had coached him. I asked Is there something you could suggest for a defense application that wouldn’t seem like something from the movies, but that could be explained to lay people as well as a peer review group? That seemed to stump him, how could he baffle a bunch of lawyers and then have his analysis or prospective experiments and their results stand up to peer review. He mumbled something and just sat there staring at the desk like a buffoon.

Evan eventually loosened up and started talking to me on the whole range of his research areas. He seemed to understand the need for courting the Department of Defense and to come up with some demonstration project. The plan could be impressive when viewed by everyone and done in a fairly short period of time. I said, Go back and work on this as a presentation to both types of listeners and let’s meet again on March 15.

Jill took up all of my idle thoughts for the next two weeks. Toward the end of the second week, I saw her in the hall, and she suggested another after work drink same time same place. When we got to the bar she immediately started in on Evan’s presentation and how she thought we should present it to both the bureaucrats as well as a peer review of scientists. I could see that she had done much work on the project and was obviously more comfortable with it than Evan. She was generously touching and flirting with me again maybe more than last time. Our eyes were almost always focused on each other. Do you want me to accompany Evan and you to make the presentations?

I would definitely like you there with Evan, but I worry about his presentation abilities or the worst case would be his answers to questions being outside what he can prove, and says something that gets him in trouble later. I was beginning to wonder if she was the one pushing him to be included in the CERN project and be on one of the teams. Are you preparing him so that you can bring him with you wherever we go or does he want this as much as you do or even I do?

I know he wants to be part of the team and he would want that even if you and I are not involved. I’m not as sure about his personal goals as measured in intensity against yours or mine.

Then would you still want to be part of the CERN project and team if Evan does not make it?

She looked me in the eyes with concern and said, No, I cannot see us maintaining some long distance relationship with three elementary school age kids that have a hard enough time with the hours we put in at school and work now. If we both get on the team, the kids will travel with us.

So if I don’t get him into the project I lose you too?

I’m afraid so. She was biting her bottom lip.

Does he realize you’re in, and if he’s going to be on the project he just can’t get in because of you, he’ll have to keep continuing to prove himself as long as he’s there?

I’m sure he doesn’t know whether he’ll be included or not and I didn’t know I was until you told me just now.

I need to talk to him and ensure he understands the position you and I are going to be in by getting him into the project.

What are you going to say and should I be there?

I don’t think you should be there so I can be frank with him.

And you’re going to tell him we’ll be carrying him.

We already are, and we haven’t started yet and he doesn’t understand how much you are a factor concerning his professional future.

You don’t know him or what our relationship is.

Just an observation from someone who has known you as long as he has. And cared about your future the entire time.

So you’re saying my part in this project is personal between us?

Of course our relationship has always been somewhat personal, but your participation in the project would be just as valuable if I had never met you. You’re one of a kind, and I’ve never met anyone that can match your intellect, has been more compatible with my professional career and research goals as well as being enjoyable company.

So you are saying we have a relationship?

"We’re something more than business acquaintances don’t you think?

But is that how you judge my participation in school and research?

I don’t know, what do you think?

I’m not sure what to think because it sure sounds like Evan’s future is dependent on our personal relationship.

If you were not a participant I am convinced Evan would not be either.

You don’t think he has the intellectual capacity or his research interests are not compatible with the projects goals?

No, I don’t or yes to both, I guess.

But you are willing to include him because you want me with you?

You collectively, because you are the you I’ve gotten to know and developed a close loyal personal relationship with over ten years as my friend, but also because I can’t think of another prodigy like you who would bring as much to the project.

What are you going to say to Evan?

I’m going to find out how much he knows about your support for him. I’m going to determine if there is any more juice left in his brain that he is not trying to extract. If we continue to support him in the manner that we are right now, I might as well just adopt him and get him a job teaching somewhere.

That’s pretty brutal.

I toned it down for you for him it will be much worse.

He’ll hate you.

Better now than down the road when he fucks up badly.

What if he says no he’s given all he can or wants to?

Then you and I have some further decisions to make, tough ones.

Okay, I better go. Goodnight.

Jill left quickly with no affectionate salutation.

CHAPTER 2

MARCH 2011 NEW YORK

EVAN

Jill got home and found Evan preparing for his meeting with Hank the next day. He told her Hank had just called and wanted to see him. What does he want me to do now? he said with a miserable countenance.

I’m not sure, but he is still very skeptical of your research and doesn’t think it will pass the test of the bureaucrats never mind a peer review.

So what does he want me to do, quit?

I don’t know, but that would be the easiest for him.

So why doesn’t he just say that he doesn’t want me on the team.

Because of me, he knows I won’t leave you to work in another country or two and be away from our family for extended periods.

How does he know that you won’t?

Because he already asked me, and that’s what I told him.

Great, so now I’ll be traveling on your coattails if I can even do that.

You just need to get accepted no matter what it takes and then prove yourself. I know you have the ability.

I feel like Hank has never given me any serious consideration.

He is extremely focused and works around the clock, although he says he doesn’t judge others against his own standards, I know he does.

That’s why he likes you because you’re just like him.

Jill replied, So what are we going to do?

I’m going to provide whatever I have to do to get selected for the project.

The next morning Evan prepared all of his paperwork, tablet and flash drives and headed to his office to check all his materials and rehearse his prepared dialog for the noon meeting with Hank.

Evan arrived a little early and Hank was alone. The building his office was in looked like the White House with a Doric portico in front, bay windows on the side and bordered by shrubbery.

Hank told him right up front neither his résumé nor his research project match the standards necessary for him to be accepted to the US CERN team. Hank said, Do you intend to make your living doing this? Then he told Evan that the only reason he would consider him and his project was because of Jill and even then she as well as he would probably have to lug him too.

Then the knife in Evan’s belly, Hank said, If I’m going to select you and then have to cart you with Jill’s help I want a personal relationship with her alone without you around, but with your consent. It will be infrequent, maybe monthly, and you will not punish her in any way by your hurt feelings. Otherwise, you’re out, she’s in if she wants to be, but I don’t think she’ll take the position without you.

Are you saying that you want to sleep with my wife once a month for as long as we’re on the project? What, every 15th of the month like a car payment?

I didn’t say that, I said a personal relationship with her and the car payment is a good analogy for you to think so that it doesn’t bother you so much.

No, the answer is: no! No way! No how! not now not ever. And I would not even ask her.

Evan got up and stormed out. He took a taxi home as fast as he could. He called Jill and told her to come home it was an emergency.

What is it? What’s the emergency?

He wants to fuck you, but only once a month, if I want to get my research approved.

He said that? He wants to fuck me.

More or less, he wants a personal relationship with you as long as you and he have to support my research efforts.

What did you say?

I said no way.

CHAPTER 3

MARCH 2011 NEW YORK

JILL

Jill was furious with Hank all the way to the University. She didn’t even remember the ride in or walking to Hank’s office with a less than merry look.

How nice to see you Jill, he said with a somewhat pensive grin.

How dare you, you conceited son of a bitch.

She moved over to his window and her eyes formed tears, but she fought them back and was determined not to cry or show any emotion except anger. He put his hands on her shoulders.

Don’t touch me you asshole, she shouted at him.

He dropped his hands immediately but didn’t move back.

Did you tell him the only way he could be part of the project is if he gives you permission to fuck me?

I think I told Evan ‘relationship, personal relationship’ were my exact words. He said rather apologetically.

Why, Hank? You’ve changed everything in our lives and maybe ruined us all. I thought maybe you might have feelings for me.

You know I care about, you know I always have. You are so much more of a personality than Evan. I put your presence in the middle because it would have been there sooner or later. You are the future superstar, the possible leader of CERN, maybe the next scientific leader of the world community.

So if we sleep together we’ll let him tag along with us while we conquer the scientific world? Or is it worse, do you want to humiliate him out of the picture so you can have me as your protégé in every sense of the word.

I didn’t think of the possibilities for any of our long-term futures. I challenged him to take control of his future and all three of ours and become the best he can be as we do every day. He may have the knowledge, but he isn’t grasping the big picture, and he isn’t showing that he has any hankering to play in our shark tank. Putting you on the line is likely the worst possible choice I could imagine him having to make. I’m glad he said no, because anything less would have meant that he has no understanding how important you are to his life and professional success.

What now are we going to it on your desk right now or are we going to a sleazy motel? She spit out.

Jill leaned back against him and couldn’t hold back her tears. His arms held her gently. Hank said, I’m sorry Jill.

Jill held his hands as he held hers. How long have you felt this way?

Since the first time I laid eyes on you.

So you’ve wanted me for almost ten years? Why didn’t you say something then? I was single and not exactly choosy with whom I was sleeping. You’ve never given me the slightest hint that you wanted me.

Since I’ve known you one or the other of us has always been married or in a committed relationship, and I thought my life was complicated enough.

Where do we go from here? Are we done on the project or are we still going to be able to work together on my dissertation?

I’m not ruling out Evan being able to bring his level of energy up.

So what if I say I still want to be on the project, and I want Evan with us and I’m still willing to work with you in any way you want, including a ‘personal relationship’ as you have termed it, but leave Evan out of that part of it?

"Not exactly, I want you with me in whatever I do for as long as I can still muster