I Am Titanium (Pax Black Book 1) Read Free

that until seeing solid proof that he could understand , he wasn’t going to buy into some kid’s fantasy world.
    Pax had only a few more minutes before he met with Terry again.
    Pax’s nostrils flared. His fingers and wrists ached. He cracked his joints absently and then typed furiously.
    “Since when has understanding been essential to science? Science is littered with perfectly rational explanations for everything from the aether to phrenology to phlogiston, none of which were true. Whereas we have no real idea how gravity works or why water behaves as it does. This hardly stops us from studying their behavior or from developing new technology using what we observe. But, more importantly, since when has your understanding been essential to anything? I mean, what do you know about anything, except how to leave sarcastic comments on a website?”
    His mouse pointer hovered over the Post button, but he didn’t click it.
    If things didn’t work out with Terry today, it might be the last thing he ever posted: a flaming response to a troll. He didn’t want his memory to be marred with such pettiness, but it was hard when confronted by idiots like this.
    If there were any justice in the world, he’d be able to post the comment and get a round of applause. If there were any justice in the world, he’d be able to say it to the guy’s face at a conference. If there were any justice in the world, he’d live a full life and not only be able to teach people about the astral plane, but learn how to use it to stop all earthly life from burning itself up. He was finding out more every day. Sharks…naked mole rats…sequoias…cypress trees…ancient quahogs…the hydra species Turritopsis dohrnii …
    The secrets of immortality—or at least to the lifespan they all should be having, which he estimated to be around five hundred years minimum—were there to be discovered. Give him another fifty years, and he would crack it.
    But there wasn’t any justice in the world.
    He deleted the comment.
    He was going to die. Soon. The rate of calcification on his heart muscles had increased, triggering more and more heart attacks, which drained his energy, burning him up faster than before.
    Pax almost always felt tired, but now he felt exhausted, drained of the willpower he would need to convince this idiot to consider Pax’s ideas fairly. It was doubtful, even if he had the energy, that he could. According to his research, most people imprinted on one perspective on life—one paradigm—based on their early life experiences, and locked themselves into those beliefs for the rest of their lives. It took enormous effort to change this, and most people didn’t bother. Even those who did bother could only do it once, perhaps twice, in the best of cases. The universe was vastly mysterious but the human brain couldn’t function with that many unknowns. Something human beings would have to change if they wanted to unlock the secrets of longevity. But that was a problem for another day.
    He started to type something else, but his lungs clamped down on him, not even able to pull in enough air to gasp. He closed his eyes and waited for the spasm to pass.
    It had to pass. He still had a chance if it passed.
    Last night he’d received a message from Terry that he’d had another idea—a risky one, but one that might save Pax’s life. Having hope was hard. Hope exhausted him even more quickly than normal. And when the hope came to nothing—as it so often did—he’d waste the energy he did have on anger and regret.
    He was supposed to travel to the astral plane to meet Terry at three o’clock.
    It was two fifty-eight now.
    Pax’s lungs crushed in tighter. He could feel his body shutting down. Two more minutes was all he needed, if he could just have it.
    He’d sent a jumbled message to Scarlett this morning, saying he’d be traveling to meet Terry at four so she wouldn’t distract him when he had to go. Now he regretted the deception.