Blink of an Eye Read Free Page B

head-scratching cases and finding that rare breed who can do the same. We have something in common, you and I.”
    â€œWhich is why you’re interested in convincing an innocent impressionable that pursuing the life of James Bond is far more attractive than sitting in a basement of some laboratory, breaking complex codes,” Seth responded.
    â€œI hadn’t thought of it in those exact terms, but your summary does have a ring to it. Still, solving mathematical challenges has its place. The NSA’s Mathematical Sciences Program is the world’s single largest employer of mathematicians. Cryptology isn’t easy work. The halls down in Fort Meade are lined with some of the world’s brightest.”
    Actually, the thought of possessing the casual confidence of this man who faced him struck Seth as refreshing. Unlike the other sycophant recruiters, Clive seemed more interested in Seth’s psyche than in what he could do for the organization.
    â€œAll I’m suggesting is that you finish here. Get your doctorate in high-energy physics and wow the world with some new discovery. But when you get bored—and the best always do—you think about me.”
    Clive smiled enigmatically, and Seth couldn’t help thinking he just might.
    â€œDo you surf, Clive?”
    The man had chuckled. “Seth the surfer. No, I don’t surf, but I think I understand why you do. I think it’s for the same reasons I do what I do.”
    Clive reappeared every six months or so, just long enough to gift Seth with a few tempting morsels before disappearing into his world of secrecy. Seth never seriously thought he would ever follow the path Clive had taken, but he felt a connection to this man who, despite being no intellectual slouch, applied his brilliance to thrill-seeking. The possibilities were enough to help Seth slog through the months of boredom.
    Seth received his bachelor’s in his second year at Berkeley. He skipped the master’s program and was now in the second year of his doctorate. But four years of this stuff was wearing thin, and he was no longer sure he could stomach all the nonsense required to finish after all.
    If the graduate dean, the very fellow lecturing at this very moment, Gregory Baaron, would allow him to write his dissertation and be done with it, that would be one thing. But Baaron had—
    â€œPerhaps you’d like to tell us, Mr. Border.” Seth blinked and returned his mind to the lecture hall. Baaron was staring over bifocals. “How do you calculate the quantum field between two charged particles?”
    Seth cleared his throat. Baaron was one of the leading lights in the field of particle physics and had taught this basic material a hundred times. Much of his work was based on the equation now written on the board. Unfortunately, the equation was wrong. At least by Seth’s thinking. But because of Baaron’s stake in the matter, the dean would hardly consider, much less accept, the possibility that it was wrong. Even worse, Baaron seemed to have developed a healthy dose of professional jealousy toward Seth.
    â€œWell, that would depend on whether you’re doing it by the textbook,” Seth said. Watch yourself, boy. Tread easy.
    â€œThe textbook will suffice,” Baaron said after a moment, and Seth felt a pang of sympathy for the man.
    He paraphrased from Baaron’s own textbook. “Solve the Lagrangian field equation. That is, apply the principle of least action by defining a quantity called the Lagrangian action, the integral of which is minimized along the actual observed path. The easiest way to set the equation up is to use Feynman diagrams and to insert terms in the action for each of the first-order interactions.” Seth paused. “You studied with Feynman, didn’t you? I read his Nobel-winning papers when I was fifteen. Some interesting thoughts.” He paused, thinking he should stop there. But he