She opened the driver’s door and got behind the wheel. She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. It didn’t require any psychic talent to read her mind.

“Okay, I get it,” he said. He climbed into the passenger seat and closed the door. “Dumbass?”

“I didn’t say you were a dumbass. I said it would be a dumbass experiment. A subtle but clear distinction.”

“Subtle. Right.” He exhaled slowly and studied the device, feeling for the vibe. “You have to admit it’s an interesting artifact.”

“Yes, it is.”

“Huh. I wonder what this button does.” He pulsed a little energy through the crystal.

“Uh, Harlan, I don’t think—”

A small window illuminated and displayed a murky, ghostly green image of a tiny section of the logging road directly in front of the SUV.

“Looks like an old-fashioned radar screen,” he said.

“Let me see.” Olivia leaned over to look at the window. “That’s the logging road,” she said. “It’s showing us the view of what is directly in front of us. Just a few feet, though.”

“We’d have to move slowly, but—”

“Dumbass idea.”

As they watched, the vague outline of the road wavered wildly and briefly vanished altogether. A few seconds later it reappeared, but the image faded in and out. When it was visible it was distorted, as if they were looking at it through heavy currents of water. A few seconds later it disappeared again.

“It’s not strong enough to hold a clear image in this fog,” Harlan said. “But the fact that it works at all is amazing. The Foundation lab people are going to love this gadget. If the mechanism can be replicated, they may be able to fine-tune it—”

“What’s that?” Olivia said.

Alarmed, she pointed to a flashing green dot in the lower corner of the screen. He took a closer look.

“Interesting,” he said.

Olivia sat back quickly. “Maybe it’s going to explode. You’d better toss it out the window.”

“I don’t think it’s volatile. It feels like it’s reacting to a signal of some kind.”

Experimentally he turned the device in various directions. The dot continued to flash.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

“Where are you going?”

“To check out a theory.”

“This is no time to be testing theories.”

“Don’t worry.”

He opened the door and climbed out of the vehicle. Slowly he walked around the SUV. When he reached the cargo bay door the green dot brightened.

He crouched and waved the artifact under the fender. A faint buzz of energy whispered across his senses. He groped for the object that was sending the signal, found it, pulled it free.

Olivia hopped out of the front seat and came to the back of the car to see what was going on.

“What is it?” she asked.