As he got deeper into the research, though, David came across things that didn’t seem quite as outlandish.Dr.Ramsey identified as-yet unnamed structures in dog brains responsible for a number of interactions between the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex that veterinary neuroscientists still didn’t understand.His science actually seemed sound, at least from the medical side.The existence of the structures he identified—which he called telepathic nodes—couldexplain those brainwave patterns and those patternscouldexplain behavior thatcouldbe interpreted as telepathic.
As David looked deeper into it, though, he learned there wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy a rigorous empirical examination.The structures Ramsey identified did exist, but when others tried to replicate his research, they were unable to do so.It appeared that the opinion of most of Ramsey’s contemporaries was that he was a brilliant man who had fallen down the rabbit holes in his own mind.A regrettable but all-too-common fate of geniuses.
Still, it was intriguing.Perhaps to someone who thought it might be useful to weaponize telepathy, it would be more than intriguing.The US government had a history of throwing money at pseudoscience with dubiousactualscience to back it up.The most famous of those experiments, MKUltra, saw the CIA force feed a lot of people hallucinogenic drugs in an attempt to “unlock” clairvoyant abilities.Needless to say, that had been a colossal failure and perhaps the most embarrassing moment in the CIA’s history.
But anecdotes existed that suggested it wasn’t a complete failure.Conspiracy theorists the nation over insisted that MKUltra had succeeded, and the CIA simply allowed the general public to believe it had failed.So, he began to look for anecdotes that suggested Martin Ramsey might have been onto something.
And that was when his day stopped being productive.There was nothing.Not a single record of a dog ever exhibiting telepathy or a human being ever successfully communicating a command to a dog telepathically.It seemed that Ramsey was exactly the crackpot he seemed to be.
But…
He had seen it.No matter how much he tried to explain it away, he knew what he had seen.Whitaker had stared at Sierra, and Sierra had looked away.Whitaker had made Sierra look at her, and as soon as their eyes made contact, Sierra flinched, then locked in robotically to Whitaker’s voice.
And she had remained robotic.Worse than robotic.Like an AI trying to act like a dog.To the untrained eye, Sierra might appear normal, but David had made a career out of working with dogs, and he knew that nothing he’d seen in either of his examinations of Sierra was normal.
The question was, what did he do about this?
His phone buzzed.Faith.
His heart leaped as it always did when he heard from Faith, but immediately on the heels of that excitement was wariness.If she found out that he was still researching this, she would be livid.He could try to lie, but it was clear now that he was terrible at that.She’d hear in his tone that he was lying.
He could let the phone go to voicemail, but if he didn’t answer, what would she think?Would she grow worried enough to call Rogers and Hammerton?Would she go further than that?
Finally, he sighed and picked up the phone.He was trying to make too many things work out.He just had to do the best he could and accept whatever came with that.
“Hey, Faith.”
“Hey, baby,” she replied.“How are you?”
He frowned.He expected to be the one hiding something, but the brittleness of Faith’s fake cheer screamed,there’s something I’m not telling you.The fact that she couldn’t hide it was even more concerning.
“A little frustrated, to be honest,” he replied, whichwas, in fact, honest.“I get why you wanted Rogers and Hammerton to shadow me, but I feel a little bit like an unruly kid.”
“Well, youhavebeen an unruly kid,” Faith reminded him.
“I suppose so,” he replied reluctantly.“But the authorities have the case now, and they’re actually going to do something about it.Theyaregoing to do something about it, right?”
“Yes,” Faith said firmly, and that sounded genuine.“Yes, they are definitely getting involved.The important thing is that you’renotgetting involved.I love you, sweetie, but this is too big for you.”
David’s hands tightened around the phone.“So, I’ve heard.Many times.”
“Well, it’s the truth, and it’s important that you understand that, so you’re going tokeephearing it many times.But also, I love you, and I want to know how you’re doing.”
“A little frustrated,” he repeated.“I feel like you know more than you’re telling me.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes, I know I’m being hypocritical.I absolutely get that.But…” He sighed.“Is there any chance that maybe we can work together on this?I hate feeling like we’re dancing around each other unsure what to say.”
“You haven’t stopped looking into this, have you?”
He blinked.How had she made that leap?How had she figured that out?
“Why, um… I…”
She sighed.“Damn it, David.”
She didn’t sound angry, just tired and very worried.David felt a stab of guilt and rubbed his temples.“I can’t, okay?I tried.I really did, but I can’t.I keep thinking what if it was Turk?You know, we’d both want someone to pursue this and not give up.We’re it.We’re the ones who can pursue this.Youandme.I can’t walk away.It’s just not right.”
