Algorithm - Book 1 - The Medallion

Chapter 14

Percy slid a card through a reader at the door. "Technical support and spin-offs. We come up with ways to measure things that have never been measured before.  That's the support part.  And these efforts lead to new discoveries, spin-offs, inventions which find themselves useful for a variety of purposes."

They walked to the middle of a long center hallway and stopped in front of another set of double doors. Percy pointed to a metal box inset into the wall. "If you have any magnetic objects like watches, jewelry and so on, please drop them in the container."

Adam threw him a concerned frown. 

"Don't worry, they will be safe here."

They emptied their pockets of loose change, cell phones, a gold rod and an old Luger.

When Percy's eyes locked in on the gun, Adam said, "It's a long story." Percy nodded as if he understood. Adam added his laptop to the box.

The double doors swung open as Percy inserted a card into a slot at the side.

"This is my lab. The TMS lab."

Adam read the placard above the doors:  TRANSCRANIAL MAGNETIC STIMULATION. The lab was filled with a variety of what looked to Adam like conventional MRI instruments—Magnetic Resonance Imaging, the kind that hospitals use to help visualize soft tissues. They gave the impression of cylindrical half-coffins to Adam, with large round heads designed to rotate around one end of a patient's body. Magnetic resonance imaging had come into vogue since it surpassed standard x-ray imaging in detailing internal organs.  Based on detecting protons in different environments, and not on absorbing x-rays, MRIs were a great deal safer as well.

            They seated themselves at a workbench on one side of the lab. Percy pushed up his eyeglasses, looked at Adam and asked, "Can I see your medallion?"

Adam reached into his shirt and detached the medallion from its chain. "But isn't it dangerous to have this medallion in your lab because of all the magnets in here?"

With the artifact in his hand, Percy held it up to the fluorescent lab lighting, pausing long enough to turn it a full 360 degrees. "Gold is essentially nonmagnetic. So there's no danger as you put it. Hmmm, George tells me you found it in a piece of coal, and that it contains microscopic particles of carbon-13. Is that right?"

So much for keeping secrets.

Adam responded, "Er … Yes.  And it's the carbon-13 that has us stumped.  It appears that these C-13 particles are arranged in some order and they may be of different sizes."

Adam pulled out a mangled sheaf of photos from his lap top case. "George was able to obtain these photomicrographs of the object.  You can see the carbon-13 particles there." 

Percy nodded and craned his head for a closer look.

Adam added, "Tell me.  How can you help us?"

"I assume you are familiar with the workings of an MRI?"