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eBook Category: Science Fiction Year's Best Science Fiction Selection
eBook Description: A government scientist specializing in optics and material properties has done the impossible: she literally disappeared from the top-security research facility in Reston, VA; her ex-boyfriend is called in to find out how she pulled it off ... and why.

eBook Publisher: Fictionwise.com, Published: SF Age, 1996
Fictionwise Release Date: February 2001

144 Reader Ratings: Great Good OK Poor

Available eBook Formats [MultiFormat - What's this?]: Adobe Acrobat (PDF) [78 KB], eReader (PDB) [33 KB], Palm Doc (PDB) [19 KB], Rocket/REB1100 (RB) [18 KB], Microsoft Reader (LIT) [40 KB] - PocketPC 1.0+ Compatible, Franklin eBookMan (FUB) [89 KB], hiebook (KML) [72 KB], Sony Reader (LRF) [41 KB], iSilo (PDB) [16 KB], Mobipocket (PRC) [20 KB], Kindle Compatible (MOBI) [48 KB], OEBFF Format (IMP) [31 KB]
Words: 5848
Reading time: 16-23 min.
Microsoft Reader (LIT) Format: Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud ENABLED
Adobe Acrobat (PDF) Format:  Printing DISABLED, Read-Aloud DISABLED
All Other formats: Printing DISABLED, Read-aloud DISABLED

"Lois Doberman has disappeared. One week ago. Sit tight, Jerry."

I had started to stand up.

"She didn't just disappear from home, or something like that." He was over at the viewgraph projector and video station used for presentations. "On Tuesday, June 25th, she went to work in the usual way. She was on a project that needed a special environment, and the only suitable place locally is out in Reston. Absolute top security, twenty-four hour human security staff plus continuous machine surveillance. Only one entrance, except for emergency fire exits that show no sign of being disturbed. Anyone who goes into that building has to sign in and sign out, no matter how they are badged. Arrivals and departures are all recorded on tape.

"Sitting on the table in front of you is a photocopy of the sign in/sign out sheet for June 25th. Don't bother to look at it now"--I was reaching out--"take my word for it. Dr. Doberman signed in at 8:22 am, and she never signed out. Not only that, I have here the full set of tapes for arrivals and departures. The video-recorder is motion-activated. If you want to study the record, you can do it later. Here's the bottom line: there's a fine, clear sequence showing her arrival. There's nothing of her leaving."

"Then she must be still inside the building." That thought was terribly disturbing. If Lois had been inside for a full week, she must be dead.

"She's not inside, either dead or alive," he said, as though he had been reading my mind. "This is a fairly new building, and Attwater's office has exact detailed plans. There are no secret cubby-holes or places where someone could hide away. The whole complex has been searched four or five times. She's not in there. She's outside. We don't know how she got out."