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Chapter 90 - Into the Future

“Excuse me sir,” Tamara said coldly, “we are now just one step away from terminating the interview. I said at the outset of this session that I would not entertain any questions that didn’t pertain to my physics research. I tried to explain in a civil manner why I wouldn’t take that question. The question is out of line. Are we completely clear about that?”

He shrugged as the others glared at him, and the next few questions by others were asked tentatively, making sure they wouldn’t upset her.

Question: “Can you answer questions about your manufacturing facility in Anne Arundel County? Yes? Thank you. It adds to the area’s reputation as a high-tech region, especially considering that many of the government’s research facilities are in the area too. What products are you planning to produce there, if that’s not confidential?”

Tamara: “Sure. That’s an important question. I went into science to help people in the world and, of course as the proverbs say, the best help comes from people helping themselves. Give them better education and freedom from tyrants—the human kind and the economic kind. The major product we’re producing will be used for creating cheap energy and we hope to be able to develop manufacturing processes here that can be used in third-world countries to allow them to establish their own manufacturing and industrial base. So that’s one product: electrical generators. Another is related to robotics. Robotic intelligence for control and handling systems for manufacturing. Another is prosthetics, which uses our robotics developments and adapts them for designing human limb replacements. I’ve mentioned frictionless bearings. And we recently added the coil assemblies for particle accelerators. Those will be by custom order and we’ve had a lot of interest for such a product. Others are either under development or are currently confidential.”

Question: “You were the inventor of the energy storage systems now being set up in parts of England and in the new electric vehicle battery. Are you still involved with those projects?”

Tamara: “I am. Some of my engineers are in Cambridge right now and we have a few engineers from there working on my projects here. Most of our inventions are cross-licensed.”

Question: “I hope this one isn’t out of line but there’s a widespread feeling in the public that you’re this century’s Einstein. You had dismissed that idea at several prior press conferences at Hopkins but how do you feel about it now?”

Tamara: “Yes, that is a personal question but I suppose I need to address it. I can’t change how the public perceives me or my work. If they could be in my shoes, um, they’d need to have small feet... Laughter ... they’d realize how greatly I’ve benefitted from my predecessors in physics and engineering. All of my accomplishments have come from my simply taking their work one step further; that’s how science works, after all. Einstein, like Newton, made absolutely giant steps in advancing scientific knowledge at the time and there’s no way I should be compared to them. I still strongly feel that way.”

Question: “When are you going to tackle gravitation? Isn’t that physics’ holy grail, the unification of relativity theory and quantum physics?”

Tamara: “Wow. Ask me another simple question. Laughter. Seriously, I was actually working on a closely related problem when I got the idea that resulted in the accelerator design. Check back with me on that in, um, maybe ten years? Laughter. No, I mean it. I think that the new accelerator design has the potential for making discoveries in that realm of particle physics, but from the time that an accelerator is conceived to when its detector has captured enough events to be statistically meaningful, a ten-year time frame is very optimistic.”

Question: “There’s an Alexandre Foundation operating in Haiti, according to our international desk. Is that one of your projects?”

Tamara: “No, that’s my mother’s project. She’s an anthropologist at Westphalia and the Columbia Institute of Economics. That foundation is assisting in funding micro-finance research in third-world countries, one of the Columbia Institute’s target priorities.”

Question: “Now that your manufacturing operation is running, will you leave Hopkins and the APL to do commercial research?”

Tamara: “Not at all. I have a highly competent management team at the facility now and they can run things without my meddling. I’m not the type to micro-manage. I prefer to work with people who don’t need me to tell them how to do their jobs.”

There were a lot more questions asked that covered many parts of Tamara’s research and commercial operations, but no one strayed very deeply into her personal beliefs; she stopped several questioners before they had completed the question, when she saw where the person was going with it. After ninety minutes, Tamara closed the session.

“So you know my ground rules now and you can tell them to the organizations you’re representing here. I won’t appear for a video interview. I’ll be happy to answer any followup questions you or your organizations may have; they must be written questions and can be sent to my company’s PR department or to the Hopkins University Relations department. Thanks for coming and especially thanks for your thoughtful and knowledgeable questions too. Have a great rest of the week.”

She got up and walked out, Lisa Farrell following her. Tompkins followed them both out and she told them to follow her to her office.

“Goodness, Tamara,” Tompkins said as she closed the door. “You completely dominated that crowd—you just took over and shut them right down. Just before you came in at first, from their whispered conversations, I thought that they planned to roll right over you and control the interview...”

“Bernie, you don’t know about the rep that Tamara has as a professor, I guess,” Farrell interrupted. “I’ve heard some stories.”

“Yeah, and that I eat cheaters for dinner,” Tamara joked. “I don’t like people who take advantage.”

“Seriously, that stare you have gave me chills and I wasn’t the target,” Tompkins told her. “Every move, gesture, and glance you did asserted your authority in there. Can you teach that? It would be an awesome skill to have when cross-examining a witness.”

“I guess I’ve been told that I can be scary at times,” Tamara admitted. “I have a visceral reaction to people who attempt to bully others and I sensed that feeling in the group when I entered the room. And I was annoyed when my security person told me that some of them defied my instructions about audio and video. So I took the hard-ball approach. Teach it? I think that it’s just self-confidence. If you believe fully in yourself, other people will sense that. But that’s easily said and hard to do, ‘cause even a tiny amount of self-doubt can interfere. But you can’t come off as cocky either. That makes you look like you’re arrogant and people push back at that. It’s a tricky balance.”

“Hmm. Good advice,” Tompkins said. “So you’ll note that I didn’t need to interrupt you at all about saying anything about your personal life, Tamara, except when you were asked that Einstein question. Your answer was just fine; it was humble without being dismissive. You got excellent advice from Mr Richardson about your public versus private persona. The guy who asked the nudist question, we had vetted him, and he’s from Clearsound Radio—they operate over a thousand religious radio stations nationally—and in his being here, he represented a large number of conservative religious blogs too. It appeared that he was trying to get you to say something that could be used against you, but you stopped that question firmly.”

Tamara nodded, “Thanks. Mason... um, Mr Richardson did alert me to a possible attack on my reputation, I told you that. But how do you think that guy knew about my personal life?”

“I’m sure that was a loaded question tactic,” Tompkins replied. “Your foundation bought the school site; it’s to be a nudist school and next to a nudist resort; therefore you’re a nudist, the rationale would go. He was hoping to provoke a denial or some kind of prevarication. Instead of giving any answer, you shut down the topic completely, showing no reaction, even by body language, that the question affected you in any way. Masking your reactions like that is a good skill.

“Well, that’s all I have on this topic. I did want to update you on your Haitian factory project. I’m very impressed by your Haitian law firm on how well they’ve been handling both the contractors and some bad government actors. They just stopped a kickback scheme and got one of the subcontractors fired for trying it. And last month, you’ll recall that they reported some attempted extortion by a lower-level official in the National Land Registry Office who claimed that he’d reverse some permits unless he got paid off.”

“Yep. I actually got a phone call on that one. From Pelex Leblanc, the law firm partner who’s managing my affairs locally. Damn, politics there sure are ugly—one of the options he offered about that code-office guy was to ‘eliminate’ the problem. I suggested that the person would be a better fit in a different job where he’d have no contact with the public. Leblanc told me that he would make that happen.

“I also have several private info channels there,” Tamara went on. “My dad’s distant cousin, Henri Benoit, is a kind of factotum for me on arranging for the right materials and people as the project goes on. I appointed him as the troubleshooter for the general contractor because Henri has great contacts all over the country. Also, a number of manbos, who my mom’s organized into a little intelligence group to keep her up to date on social matters, also provide info on how well my project is going—from how the locals perceive it. It’s a great perspective to have, ‘cause the locals are very sensitive to knowing when something’s going off the rails.”

“That’s quite true,” Tompkins agreed. “You’ve got a good intelligence network; that should help protect your investments.”

They spent the next few minutes on the new manufacturing facility and then Tamara left with Farrell. On the way back to the Alwin facility, Tamara told Farrell how to respond to further media contacts.

Four weeks later

Tamara heard about the start of a campaign to discredit her at the beginning of May. Several weeks prior, some attempted picketing had been tried near the school construction site but because of its remote location, narrow access roads, and private property, the picketing that could be done was completely ineffective. Even the local media ignored the demonstration. So her opponents changed their tactics to mount an attack to discredit her. Tamara heard about the start of a smear attempt from one of her physics students during her office hours.

“Hi Dr Alexandre,” the student said as she entered the office. “This isn’t about classes. Last night my folks called me and asked if you were a professor for one of my classes. I had mentioned your name to them once, I guess. Anyway, they said that their church pastor did a sermon denouncing child sex trafficking and said that it was happening right here in Baltimore and that you yourself were keeping a child as a slave. The pastor puts his sermons on line; it’s a big church with maybe six thousand members. I looked for the sermon and found it... it’s awful. I thought you should know. Here’s the web address.”

She passed over a note and Tamara thanked her.

Tamara checked the URL and indeed, there was the sermon and it was filled with fabrications about her. Somehow the pastor had found out that she had been involved in the takedown of the human trafficking rings and he had painted her as a participant. He had learned about Winnie’s guardianship and had turned that into her slavery. He even claimed that the Nobel Prizes were obtained fraudulently and that other people had actually done the work. Tamara called Sam for advice and left a message; Sam was in court.

Sam called back that evening; she had reviewed the sermon. Tamara had emailed her the link when she had made her original call.

“Hello Sam, it’s Tamara.”

“So I got your message and watched that prig doing the sermon,” Sam told her. “He’s not only a prig, he’s plain evil. That rot he spouted shows definite malice. First thing I did was to call him; he refused to speak to me and referred me to his lawyer. That whole law firm is dodgy; they cater to the less wholesome clients. I spoke to the lawyer twit—don’t know how he ever passed the bar—and he said it was protected religious speech...”

“One sec... Winnie just came in and she’s upset,” Tamara said.

“Yeah I am,” Winnie growled. “There’s this asshole making false claims about you and he named me too, saying I’m your slave!”

“I’m talking to Sam about that right now, sweetie. Let me turn on the speaker. You heard Winnie, Sam?”

“I did. Yeah, Winnie’s still a minor too, right? That’s what I told the twit. I told him that the sermon was a straight defamation case, that you were not a public figure and certainly Winnie wasn’t. I told him that each day the sermon was on line was a separate infraction. I told him that he’d better get his client to take it down because we would be preparing a major lawsuit. He just laughed and told me to have fun wasting my time. I did file a cease and desist petition with the district court to shut down the site, but that could take a week to be acted on, maybe more.”

“How do we get it shut down faster?” Tamara asked.

“Legal stuff tends to move slowly,” Sam told her. “Things like this don’t get handled very fast.”

“We’ll see about that crap,” Winnie grumbled. “One of the kids in school told me about that shit. She asked if I really was a sex slave. And the garbage he said about you, Tamara! He’s dead meat.”

“What do you mean?” Sam asked.

“One of my teammates has an older brother. He knows how to crack into websites. I’m gonna see if he can crash this one. And I’m thinking of other stuff too.”

“Don’t do anything illegal, now,” Sam cautioned.

“Won’t get caught,” Winnie growled and stalked into her room.

“I need your go-ahead to get a case started,” Sam told Tamara.

“Sure. Go for the kill, too. Try to go for all his assets,” Tamara replied.

They disconnected and Tamara went to talk to Winnie. She didn’t want to discuss the defamation and told Tamara that she’d think some more about what to do.

Two days later, Tamara was in her Hopkins office after a class and saw a message on her phone. It was Winnie’s school reporting that as of the first period, she hadn’t been in classes. She called Winnie and the call went to voice mail so she called the school. It was almost noon now. The office person told Tamara that they’d contact her when Winnie showed up; then Tamara recalled the phone’s location app on Winnie’s phone so she activated her own copy. The app showed Winnie traveling and it appeared that she was approaching her school. Fifteen minutes later, Tamara’s phone rang. It was Winnie.

“Sweetie, you scared me,” Tamara admonished her when she answered. “Why did you skip school this morning?”

“Doing my civic duty; getting rid of the garbage,” Winnie chuckled. “I gotta check in at the office now but I’ll see you after school. There’s no problem and everything will be fine now,” she said cryptically.

Tamara was waiting when Winnie got home.

“Well? Tell me what this is all about.” Tamara demanded.

“I took care of the pastor and the sermon problem,” Winnie told her. “I’ll bet that there’s a story on the local news later. The pastor was calling the TV station as I was leaving him.”

“Okay, so that means that he’s not dead or I assume, too badly disabled,” Tamara replied grimly.

“No, I wanted to kill him, but this is better. Yesterday I made an appointment to see him for this morning. I had told him that I had heard his sermon and had some additional info about Tamara that he really would like to have, juicy stuff. That hooked him like a big, fat, evil fish. When I got to his office—shit, it was decorated like a palace—and he saw me, I sensed that he thought he could seduce me. Ugh, what an ugly soul he has. I guess he figured that I was no threat to him so he sent this guy who was there with him away; I think it was his personal security. That was perfect.

“I’ll skip to what I did. First, I made him tell me about all the illegal and immoral stuff he’s done. Then I made him put all of that in his own handwriting and confess that he maliciously made up everything about you and me in order to discredit you. When I asked about where he got his info about us, he told me that he got it from this one state representative so I had him write that too. That representative had gotten access to confidential family court files and state police records through his official committee membership and gave that info to the pastor. And, you know, he told me about several scams that the two of them are working too.

“He also confessed his infidelity—he’s got several mistresses on the side. He also wrote that he’s been embezzling church funds for at least eight years. And finally, he regularly abuses the kids in his youth congregation. I got him to write all of that stuff down and then get in front of his web camera and deliver what he wrote as his confession, making it like a sermon. Then I had him do the same thing about retracting his first sermon, saying that they were all made-up lies. I watched him as he uploaded the two videos and take down the lying one. Last, I changed the password to the site and he no longer has access to it. Before I left, I gave him a compulsion to call the local TV station to tell them that he has to make an important statement to them about a major problem he discovered in his church. I thought of your stories too, what you did to annoying people, so he’ll also get nausea whenever he hears or thinks of your name.

“Oh yeah. I had him make photocopies of his confessions and he signed them. I had him address some envelopes to a few TV stations and the newspaper, stick the copies in, and seal them. And here’s his original copy. You think what I did will help your slander case?”

Tamara had been looking at her, speechless, as Winnie revealed what she had done.

Then she recovered and responded to Winnie’s direct question. “Damn, sweetie, you did kill him. He’s a dead man walking. Help the lawsuit? Listen, Winnie, if there’s any sign of coercion or even that you had any contact with him, his lawyers can get the confession tossed. If...”

“Um, wait, thought of that stuff, Tamara. I didn’t tell you any of the details. First, I used one of your burner phones to make the appointment. Next, when I got to the church, I noticed cameras in the halls. I asked him about them and he told me they were motion-activated so I got him to erase the parts that show me. I also made the bodyguard forget that I was there before he left the room. I got the pastor to delete my appointment from his calendar—I used a fake name anyway. And in his video confession, he says that he postal-mailed copies of his written confessions to the press and to you. There’s actually a copy coming by mail—I put all those envelopes in a drop box next to the church so you’ll have a postmarked envelope to show how you came to have it. You have a perfect alibi; you were teaching classes all morning. They’ll never think to look at my whereabouts, but if they do, my phone will show that I spent the morning wandering around the zoo. I hired a Uber driver to take my phone there and use it to take some photos there and then meet me at 11:55 at the zoo entrance to bring me to school. I told him I was playing a trick on my boyfriend.”

“You planned this like a military campaign, sounds like. Right down to the smallest detail,” Tamara said, admiringly. “The local news is at six. What station did he call?”

Winnie told her and then Tamara called Sam and left a voice mail.

“Hey Sam. On the lawsuit front, earlier today I heard a rumor from someone who knows about a probable TV interview today of a certain pastor. I plan to watch; I wonder what that jerk’s gonna say about me now.”

Tamara told her the station to watch.

The station covered the pastor’s confession and also had video of the police leading the handcuffed pastor to a patrol car; then they mentioned the retraction and confession videos on the church’s website. As she expected, Tamara’s phone rang after the coverage ended.

“Blimey, Tamara, did you know... meh. Dumb question. Of course you knew...”

“Hello, Sam,” Tamara interrupted. “What do you say I knew?”

“People like that don’t just come out and spill their guts, girl. Don’t you know coercing someone spoils their confession?”

“Hey. I was teaching just about all morning, you know. I coerced no one,” Tamara replied.

“What about Winnie? She said something about making the pastor dead meat. Was she in school?”

“Actually she said it was a nice day, so she decided to play hooky at the zoo. She showed me some cute animal shots from there,” Tamara said.

“Huh. Well, if the defense can’t show coercion, we’ve got an ironclad case. I saw the video retraction too. He said he mailed something written?”

“If he mailed it today, I won’t get it for a day or two, I guess.”

~~~~

Several days later, Sam called again.

“Just got off the phone with the twit lawyer. He’s offering five grand if we don’t file. If we do, he says, he’ll prove coercion. I asked him for evidence that coercion was used and he said that it was obvious; nobody would ever destroy themselves like that. I laughed and reminded him that this was a man of religion and must have been overcome by his conscience. He obviously had a ‘come to Jesus’ moment and saw that unless he confessed, he was destined for hell. I suggested a settlement of $40 million but if it went to a suit, we’d ask for $200 million in damages and punitive penalties. That’s almost the church’s net worth. The church is also responsible because their media was used for the defamation and the pastor, as the head of the church corporation, officially knew about the malicious intent of the sermon.”

[About a year later, the case came to trial. The defense subpoenaed Tamara’s and Winnie’s phone records which showed nothing to help their case. They did get phone location data for the phones which showed that neither came anywhere near the church. The defense could not show that any coercion occurred. The defense tried to argue that Tamara was a public figure but the judge rejected that assertion; besides, there was actual intentional malice admitted to by the defendant. The church corporation was held partially responsible. The verdict and penalty voted by the jury was $125 million because of the egregiousness and deliberate intent of the defamation. The pastor was also awaiting trials for his criminal activities, which included embezzlement, tax fraud, misappropriation of funds, and criminal sexual activity with minors. The state representative was arrested and charged with improper use of confidential information and tax fraud. He was expelled from the state legislature.

[Tamara used all of the lawsuit proceeds to have that church reorganized under a mainstream religious movement instead of the independent one that the pastor had created and she helped its new directors recruit a respected minister for its religious leadership. Then she donated the remainder back to the church. For her work in doing that, she became beloved by the entire region’s religious community.]

Beginning of June

The double wedding day was here and the couples had kept their guest lists limited; they had also figured that the idea that it was a nudist ceremony would discourage a certain number of people from attending and that proved to be the case. It was true especially for Terence’s family. Except for his siblings, none of his family came. His sisters even agreed to be in the bridal party, having become great friends with Barbara. The fact that the bridesmaids’ attire was limited to an ivory sheer lace cape, forearm-length lace gloves, and floral headpiece, was no deterrent. Denise, Amelia, and Lynette also agreed to be bridesmaids and Peter’s cousins Janice, JoAnne, and Audrey finished the complement.

Kevin, Jeremy, and Tomas served as groomsmen together with cousins Mike, Frank, and Ernie. Peter had become fast friends with Tommy in their joint project, so he became one; Cindy was fine just watching. And Terence had two close postdoctoral friends from the University of Maryland’s Department of Astronomy whom he chose to round out the group. They would wear a fancy collar with a black bow-tie, white cuffs, and white gloves.

~~~~

Although Winnie was the choice for both brides as the maid of honor, Peter and Terence had a difficult time deciding on their choices for best man. Back when they were first planning their wedding, they had been discussing their choices.

“It should be someone I respect, who’s supported me when I’ve needed it,” Peter told Terence. “You’d be my choice if this weren’t a double wedding.”

“And Ah’d pick y’all for mine, buddy,” Terence agreed. “Ah’ve got no one here who’s been like that for me—at my home too—except y’all’s pappas. Ah wish my pappas were like them...”

“You know? Hey, let’s ask Gramps and Grandpa. I’m sure that they’d be delighted.”

Terence agreed and the two men were indeed delighted, although they thought the choice was completely unconventional.

Werner asked Peter, “You’re sure there’s no one closer to your age?”

“No one who I respect and admire more, Gramps,” Peter responded.

“And y’all have been there for me when Ah needed reliable advice,” Terence assured them.

~~~~

The bridesmaids were enamored with the idea of a dance-step processional and liked the choreography of the march when Tamara sent a video of her demonstrating the steps to them; the men, not so much, but they did admit that it looked very cool indeed. At the rehearsal, Kevin even added to the romance of the march by suggesting that at its end, each man would twirl his partner in a waltz loop spin as she moved into her station, lined up along the center aisle. Then he had to demonstrate it with Denise and everyone loved it. They rehearsed the processional several times until everyone felt secure that they could do it.

Tamara and Barbara had a special role for Emma, since they knew that Terence’s parents wouldn’t come. Emma and Andrew were asked to act in their stead and Emma was touched by the request; she had become very fond of Terence. The two grooms, Peter’s parents, and Emma and Andrew, would use a modified version of the dance step as they came down the aisle, three abreast, groom in the center. Then Tamara’s parents would enter with Winnie between them. The best men and officiant, a retired judge who was a resort member, would be waiting under a large floral arch where the wedding party would gather, when the processional began.

At the end of every other row of chairs along the center aisle, a floral stand was placed. Each bridesmaid and groomsman would station themselves next to that stand when they were lined up at the sides of the aisle. Each floral stand held a six-foot-long slightly curved pole festooned with vines and flowers. When all the bridal party members were in place, the music would change and they would take their floral pole out of its holder stand and hold it up toward their partner opposite them to make a row of floral arches. As they did this, the brides would exit the little tent where they had been waiting out of view and, side by side, would use the dance-step march to travel down the aisle, passing under the arches.

During the final rehearsal, the few miscues got cleared up and when the ceremony began, the spectacle of the choreography looked impressive and the audience gasped when the row of arches appeared. The other Haitian elements of the ceremony were also appreciated by the viewers. The resort’s photographer was very discreet in his photographs; the resort had designated a seating area for people who didn’t want to be in a photo and for those who didn’t want to be in photos were given colored wristbands to show their desire not to be photographed. There was a videographer too and she was careful to shoot only the processional and the ceremony itself.

At the following reception, all the talk was about was the ceremony and how unique and creative it was. The “dancing” processional was particularly commented on, and when told that some form of dance processional like that was a Haitian custom, people were intrigued.

So Tamara and Peter were wed, as were Barbara and Terence.

In the following years

Soon after the wedding, Winnie graduated high school with top marks and was honored as the classes’ valedictorian. She went on to college at Johns Hopkins and joined their volleyball team.

In the fall, the nudist school opened with 63 children and classes were held at the resort until the school building itself was completed, which occurred during the following spring. Also that spring, ground was broken for the planned nudist community and the first twenty-five houses to get under contract were being built.

In the commercial area, the Alwin Systems Corporation began producing the component parts for free-standing power generators in four capacity sizes for sale to small to medium-sized communities. Those parts were shipped to Haiti, where a pilot manufacturing facility was now operating. The Universite GOC was graduating technicians now and there was meaningful work for them to do. Nadine’s several projects, the micro-finance and the manbo-managed early education programs, had begun and early reports were favorable. Nadine had worked with a core of trusted manbos and taught them about using the truth sense; she had also convinced a number of government officials that having counseling sessions with clerical ministers like manbos would help morale and improve office procedures. Of course, that helped in locating any dishonest workers, who could be watched and dealt with if any problems arose.

Gerston, no longer U.S. president but now president of the Columbia Institute, frequently entertained the Alexandres as dinner guests; both he and Tamara jointly agreed that their challenge had been met by both sides, since the changes Gerston had made in the State Department about aid to foreign countries had been maintained by his successor in office, and the change was paying off in the political areas of a number of countries.

In science, Tamara was still being productive in developing her mathematics that described the dark matter and energy domain of the universe. That is what she decided to call it: not a dimension but a domain. Mathematically it behaved like a dimension but was entangled with the three-dimensional world through gravitation; therefore this intersection made it seem closer than a dimensional designation seemed to be. Work on the particle accelerator was progressing well and the work at CERN would provide the needed assemblies at the proper time. In her engineering-physicist role, she had gotten the insight that the G-force affected hydrogen molecules—H₂ gas molecules—differently from protons and was working on a way to use the G-coils in a tokamak-like design array to confine the hydrogen gas and use the coils’ high repulsive forces to contain and compress the molecules tightly enough to initiate a fusion reaction.

Peter’s and Tommy’s work on prosthetic muscles had developed to the point where they were ready for clinical trials but they were unhappy with the training methods being used by the related direct-nerve implantation techniques. Peter was discussing this problem with Tamara at dinner one evening when Winnie, who was now studying nervous system physiology as part of her neuroscience program, suggested that perhaps the Haitian manbos, with their latent empathic abilities, could be taught to be trainers for prosthetic nerve activation in people who would receive the artificial limbs. Tamara thought that was an outstanding suggestion and soon Nadine had another project for her manbo cadre. Eventually this was to develop into a major industry for Haiti, a training site for people to learn to use their new artificial limbs.

In Tamara’s spiritual life, she found that she no longer needed to commune with the lwa; it seemed to her now that they had become part of her psyche. Whenever she needed an attribute that was ascribed to one of them, she seemed to acquire that ability or sense, in a limited and very human way. She couldn’t do anything supernatural, of course. And Peter was acquiring many of the same abilities. But he never got the knack of languages, which irritated him greatly.

They never got their mind-speak abilities to work better than it had when they first discovered the ability and Tamara was still testing the ability to see if it could be taught. She was considering going back to the fMRI lab to see her brain in action when she was doing it, but was too busy to take the time to go off on that tangent.

Two years later, Tamara received the Nobel Prize in Physics for her work in discovering the nature of dark matter and energy, and the following year, received it again for her invention of the G-force particle accelerator. And a decade later, she was honored again for developing a device to produce energy by using fusion.

Emma had been correct. Tamara was in fact revolutionizing science.

The End

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