Free The Lead Cloak (The Lattice Trilogy Book 1) by Erik Hanberg Page A

two particles that were bound up with each other—entangled with each other. In all ways, one will always be the opposite of the other one, no matter what. If one is charged positive, the other will be negative, if one spins clockwise, the other one spins counter-clockwise, and so on.”
    “OK.”
    “Now let’s separate them. We’ll put them across the room from each other, and then let’s change the spin of one. The other one will change. Instantaneously.”
    “Somehow it knows what the other one is doing, even though it’s across the room?”
    “Or across the continent. Not only does it know what the other one is doing, but it knows it faster than the speed of light. It knows immediately . It’s as if the two entangled particles are really just one particle, but split into two different places. Every computer from the last, oh, forty years or so, is based on the concept.”
    “So that’s particles. We’re talking about a glass sphere, though. That’s got to be a different thing entirely.”
    “It is. And that’s the amazing thing. Using entangled particles, the most we can do is send information—we give one particle a certain spin, and the other particle changes. But we’ve never, never been able to transport anything. That’s just been speculation. Until now.”
    “Someone’s figured out how to do it.”
    Ellie nodded, slowly chewing over her salad. “That’s the only thing I can figure.”
    “The hovercraft, and the spheres … I just can’t believe that whoever developed them is using them to try to destroy the Lattice. Those are both trillion dollar products and this is all someone can think to use them for?”
    “That just gave me an idea, By. Let’s assume for a second that you can’t track the spheres. But someone invented them and passed up all that money. If you want to find the spheres, find their origin. Find their inventor.”
    “Why would that be easier?”
    “These spheres are a major scientific breakthrough, years ahead of any known research. Only a handful of people have the education needed to even know where to start researching and developing something like that. Figure out who they are, and one of them will be your mastermind.”
    Shaw laughed. “It’s brilliant. You’re brilliant. Braybrook was right. You hear that, everyone!” Shaw shouted into the air, the silent jumpers watching. “My wife is brilliant and I love her!”
    “My husband is acting like an idiot!” Ellie shouted.
    “But you love me.”
    “Maybe. But I’m not a shout-it-from-the-rooftop kind of gal.”
    “So where do I start looking for the inventor?” Shaw asked.
    “I’d start with the universities. You have to assume the inventor probably has a Ph.D. or a Sc.D. in quantum mechanics or theoretical physics. So start at the top. MIT, Harvard … Sydney, Heidelberg, SupOptique in Paris. The Hefei National Laboratory.”
    Shaw glanced at his wrap, which showed him a similar list of top universities. “How do you know that stuff without using your wrap?”
    “I remember things. Oh! Look for graduates who have private labs on a reservation. I’m thinking of something like the research park on the Flathead reservation. They’re notoriously hands-off about what their scientists are researching, even things that are against U.S. laws.”
    Shaw nodded. “I should ask at the Geneva Lattice, too. They still have a bunch of quantum mechanics researchers there from when they ran the LHC. Maybe one of them has been doing some private research.”
    Ellie was quiet, thinking. She’d grown somber. “There’s something else. And I hate to say it. You won’t be able to do this from home.”
    “I can talk to people in chat rooms without leaving home.”
    “No, you need to meet in person. You know what it’s like talking avatar-to-avatar. They’ll brush you off and move to the next chat room or they’ll be so distracted with other things, you won’t know if they actually could have been helpful.