Read Echo 8 for Free Online Page B

down. “Except I don’t have any.”
    â€œI’ll go down and borrow from the cafeteria,” said Abby, rising. “I’ll update Dr. Bakshi on the way.”
    Tess shot her a pleading look, but Abby was already on her way out the door.
    Ross and Tess stared after her.
    â€œHow do you feel, Dr. Caufield?” he asked without turning.
    Eyeing the slinky nightgown again, she thought about how it had felt to lie pressed against his body. Safe. Warm. Interesting . “I think you might as well call me Tess.”
    â€œHow do you feel, Tess ?”
    â€œMy head hurts. I feel heavy.” She drooped back against the window, sighing. “I feel lucky. How is Jake?”
    Ross sank down at the kitchen table, about as far away from her as he could get in the studio apartment. He stretched his legs underneath, crossing his ankles. She noticed he had long, bony feet, like hers.
    â€œA little twitchy. Wretched about what he did to you. Wretched in general, I think, and really confused. He told me he killed himself, back on his Earth.”
    Tess sat up. Professor Goff’s subjects had died right before the destruction too. It had seemed like too much of a coincidence not to be related somehow to their dislocation.
    â€œAt least I’ll get another chance to talk to him,” she said, rising from the bed and pulling the blanket around her. She scanned the room for her clothes.
    â€œYou’re going now?” asked Ross.
    Her gaze settled again on his face. A little of the old resentment flared, but things had changed now. She owed him her life, and she could no longer so easily dismiss him.
    â€œAfter I shower and have some breakfast.”
    He frowned. “You’re sure you’re up to that?”
    â€œDoes it matter? It’s my job.”
    Her instincts warned her not to let him see her eagerness. He wouldn’t view her near-death experience as the breakthrough she did. Jake had recharged without killing her. It was possible. She had to find out how. And before he faded, they’d have to do it again. It was the first real hope for addressing this crisis.
    Ross moved from the table to the couch and pulled on a pair of well-worn basketball sneakers. He lifted a laptop bag from the coffee table.
    â€œWe’re in agreement you stay outside the lab?” He paused a beat, gripping the shoulder strap. “The agents have orders not to let anyone in.”
    â€œWe’re in agreement,” she replied. For now.
    He nodded. “There’s something I need to do. I won’t be long.”
    â€œRoss,” she said, arresting his movement toward the door, “I want to thank you for getting me out of there. And for…” She couldn’t help glancing at his pillow. “For everything you did to help.”
    â€œYou don’t need to thank me, Doctor. I was assigned to protect you. It’s my job .”
    There was nothing uncivil in his tone, but it dropped the temperature in the room. He left, closing the door behind him.
    She rose on shaking legs and walked to the coffee table, where her clothes lay folded in a neat pile. She carried them to the bathroom, dressed, and washed her face. She was bone-tired, like she’d been down with flu. Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror, she gasped at the stripe of white in her hair. She ran her fingers through it and tucked it behind her ear.
    As she straightened, her eyes moved over Ross’s things—toothbrush, shaver, hair gel.
    She exited the bathroom and headed down to the lab, leaving the shower and breakfast for later. Grateful as she was for what Ross had done, she wanted some time alone with Jake.

 
    W INDOWS
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    According to quantum theory and the many experiments that bear out its predictions, the quantum connection between two particles can persist even if they are on opposite sides of the universe . From the standpoint of their entanglement, notwithstanding the many