Vision Impossible Read Free Page A

me a doubtful look when I’d walked in. Oh, yeah . . . I’m a badass psychic, people . . . uh-huh.
    “I’m quite impressed,” he said, and I relished the few knowing glances exchanged around the table before the professor motioned to Agent Tanner, and she clicked forward again . . . and again . . . and again. In every slide was the picture of another person wearing a different set of colors, varying in degrees of intensity and vibrancy. I knew why they were showing me the photos. “You’ve documented that each one is unique to the person,” I said. “Like a fingerprint.”
    Professor Steckworth spoke again. “Indeed.” He then seemed to want to talk at length and looked to Tanner, who nodded. “You see, twenty years ago I had the most astonishing encounter with a woman who claimed to be a psychic. I was working on my PhD at the time, and her abilities so impressed me that I made her the focus of my thesis.
    “This woman was also an artist, and for a mere pittance she would paint your portrait and include your individual aura. Of the hundreds of portraits I viewed from her hand, no two were alike, and that began my quest to see if I could prove that auras really existed.
    “What I discovered was that each and every human being emits a certain electromagnetic frequency made up of individual wave patterns that is unique to that person—no two frequency patterns are alike, not even with identical twins. I then worked with the psychic to match colors to each wavelength and was able to develop digital photography software that captured the frequencies and translated them into a signature color pattern. I called the system Intuit.”
    “Awesome,” I whispered, completely fascinated by the photos and the professor’s story.
    The professor took a sip of water and continued. “As my research and applications turned increasingly promising, the air force learned of Intuit and became intrigued, requesting several demonstrations. They wanted to purchase my patent, but I didn’t want to sell it outright. Still, when I needed funding to continue Intuit’s development, they offered me a partnership and provided me all I needed in return for the exclusive use of the system. Even then I could see the far-reaching benefits of my research, and as a former marine, I readily agreed.
    “Along the way, I made several key discoveries using the software, which could prove most useful to our national security. What my research team and I discovered was that when we scanned in a still photograph of test subjects, our software was unable to detect or produce an aura image; however, when we scanned in a video image, the software was able to capture the aura.” The next slide showed a short clip of an infamous terrorist and it left me stunned. The United States’ public enemy number one was surrounded by a bubble of color—mostly brown, black, and dark red—and then my own intuitive radar began to put the pieces together and it filled me with dread.
    “The drone was carrying Intuit,” I said softly.
    In answer there was a click and the next slide revealed an aerial view of that same air base from before and on the ground were little blobs of vivid color.
    I gasped.
    “Holy shit!” Dutch hissed under his breath.
    “The drone was carrying the only prototype of the technology,” said Professor Steckworth. “We dubbed the prototype Intuit Tron, and it had reached its final testing phase on the morning it disappeared, which was right before it was set to be deployed. This is the last image it recorded, in fact.”
    The professor fell silent and in the room you could have heard a pin drop, but then Tanner clicked the remote again and a clip of the president’s last State of the Union address began playing. Two seconds in I saw the man I’d voted for and fully supported, surrounded by a huge bubble of brilliant sky blue, emerald green, and deep purple. In that moment I believe my heart skipped several beats and my stomach felt