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can’t do anythingto disrupt the properties of these atoms.” She took a sip from her coffee and shook her head. “It’s like this thing has molecules that were designed to resist nearly every possible disruption. I have no idea how that’s possible. There is some pretty interesting atomic behavior here, but–” She stopped, noticing my blank expression. “Nobody’s told you.”
    I shook my head.
    She smiled and passed me her tablet. I studied it for a moment, glad to have the distraction.
    It was readout of some magnetic dipole moments for atoms before and after a vibration. I smiled a bit, imagining Alice nuking the side of our tunneling microscope like a mad–scientist. It was interesting because before and after the vibration, the magnetic field of the artifact’s atoms remained exactly the same, perfectly maintaining their alignment. Alice was excited because the directions in which atoms spin are typically so delicate, that the tiniest disruptions from the outside world can screw up the sensitive dimensions of these atoms. For some reason, they were acting like the quantum equivalent of irrational. “That’s pretty weird.”
    “Come on, Lance – that’s beyond weird. I mean, we need to start ripping this thing apart immediately–”
    “Joseph picked me up from the hospital earlier,” I said suddenly.
    “Joseph?” The grin on her face slipped away, replaced by a grim line of concern. I couldn’t pin the expression down, but it gave me pause. There was a hint of understanding, but it disappeared as soon as I noticed it.
    “He told me that something happened after the accident – that the stone somehow regressed to its original state. He said something about needing an algorithm.” I accepted that bringing this up was a gamble. Up until that moment, I wasn’t sure that anything I knew about the artifact was entirely accurate, including my earlier meeting with Joseph and Patrick – especially the details leading up to our climactic departure. I had as much memory of the algorithm sitting with Alice as I did in the car. This was a litmus test, in a way, to gauge just exactly how screwed up I was by her response.
    “Alice.” I leaned forward and set down the readout. “I need to know what happened in that room.”
    “Yes…” She pulled her glasses off and tossed them onto the desk. “Lance, I want you to know that I’m sorry. I meant to be the one to pick you up when you were discharged. I knew you were being let out, but…” She leaned back in her chair and took another sip from her coffee. “Well, but nothing. I should have been there.”
    I remembered her floating around my room like a ghost during those intermittent moments within that long dream.
    “I don’t know.” The memory of Patrick blasting Joseph’s head through the side window was still very fresh. “Maybe you not being there was a good thing.”
    She waited for me to continue, but I didn’t. I didn’t know where to start. So we both sat there, quietly sipping our coffee.
    I couldn’t decide at what point in the conversation would be appropriate, so I just said it, “in a few moments something weird is going to happen.”
    Alice frowned. “What do you mean?”
    “I’m not sure how to explain it – but I know that if we wait long enough, something very weird is going to happen. I don’t know if I’ll be the only one who notices it, so it might just seem weird to me.”
    “Weird…?”
    “Very weird.”
    “I have to say that the direction this conversation has taken is pretty weird.”
    “Yeah,” I sighed, leaning deeper into my chair. “I’m sorry…”
    “I mean, can you give me an example?”
    “Well, for example, I don’t know how I got here.”
    “…To the lab?”
    “Yeah, to the lab. I can’t remember. I don’t even remember deciding to come here. One moment I was in my bedroom, and the next I was here. There was no time between,” I sighed and studied the lines on the back of my hand.