CHAPTER 26

The technicians worked all night trying to set up the remote lab at the top of the hill. Located in a small building on the edge of the estate, it was normally reserved for the storage of hazardous materials, a spot safely away from the rest of the estate. The building was constructed in the remote spot to protect the main facilities in case of an accidental spill or explosion. Engineers had designed the structure so it partially fit into the side of the mountain behind it, making it appear as though the building was part of a cave. A large berm, a protective mound of earth, sheltered the immediate area around the structure.

To get to the remote laboratory, the technicians had to take a small weaving pathway through a thick wooded area. Dense branches covered the top of the trail. At certain times of the year the sun was blocked by the trees, shrouding the pathway in darkness.

The technicians were rushing to set up a camera that would broadcast the experiment to the large screen monitors located in the main laboratory. The movement of equipment through the small path was slow, but not because the technicians were remiss in their efforts. They had to share the path.

The building was a beehive of activity. Lab assistants were going back and forth, negotiating the narrow path with their all-terrain vehicles, stepping aside in order of necessity as they towed the small equipment-filled carts to the remote structure.

They were close to finishing when Todd walked to the main laboratory. Several times he had to hop to the side as the equipment zipped past him. He was almost run over when one of the men turned around to adjust the apparatus on his tow cart, not seeing the ski instructor, causing him to leap out of the way, just missing him. Todd stopped to ask one of the men loading equipment where Claudia was, when he spotted her speaking with several scientists.

An excited Todd tapped her from behind.

“Hey, where have you been?”

Claudia smiled, seeing Todd.

“Give me a second.” She turned back and finished her conversation with the scientists, handing them several documents. The men left Claudia and walked into the main laboratory entrance.

“I’ll be along in a minute,” said Claudia.

Todd was almost out of breath. “Hey, I lined up the ski equipment. John said that we could use the Jeep. I loaded the equipment in the back. If we hurry, we can still make the –”

Claudia gestured at the buzz of activity. “Look around us. Sorry, but you’re going to have to go without me…” She gave him a quick smile. “Or give me a rain check?”

“What’s going on?”

“We decided to move up our schedule,” said Claudia. “We will be conducting a major series of experiments today.”

Before he could protest, she jumped up and pecked her lover on the cheek. “Gotta go.” She turned and ran to catch up with the others.

“Wait!”

“Can’t!” said Claudia, waving to Todd as she caught up with the group of scientists and entered the building.

***

The warehouse door was closed and the barren structure unoccupied, except for the caravan of three SUV vehicles and a cache of weapons that were strategically placed throughout the building. The windows were blacked out, and the bare concrete walls illuminated by overhead fluorescent lighting. There were half a dozen men in the run-down building, but none of them from the original group that had tried to capture Claudia. Each wore a flack vest. Three of the men wore a different style of combat knife on their vests, and all of them had their pockets filled with extra ammunition. Automatic weapons were lined against the wall, kept in place by a makeshift wood rack.

A large olive-skinned man named Hector, with a long ponytail and handlebar mustache, sat on a wooden crate and scraped a six-inch blade across a sharpening stone. He paused to run his thumb across the edge. Satisfied with its sharpness, he slammed the knife into the crate. The man next to him, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, appeared bored as he played a game of solitaire.

The rest of the men were lounging about the area when an excited Lucien burst in. Every eye watched as he rushed to Hamid. The electronic message he was waiting for had arrived.

Hamid spoke first.

“What is it, Sir?”

“Things are happening,” said Lucien. “Get everything ready.”

“Right away, Sir.”

The group of men came to attention. They rushed about the warehouse, assembling their weapons and gear.

Lucien ran back into the office and gathered up all of his notes. He folded up a plastic encased map containing markings – given to him by his “source” - that gave detailed instructions on where his target was located.

Hamid jumped into action, barking orders as he jumped in line with the group of mercenaries. They all worked quickly, loading weapons and ammunition boxes into the three SUVs.

***

Claudia and the Committee scientists were huddled in the underground laboratory. Blackstone was making last minute notes on a pad while Professor Thomas did checks on the electromagnetic power supply they had linked to the remote lab. The purpose of the experiment was to see if they could both produce and control the energy output, using the same reaction that had levitated the two-ton containment device.

Professor Thomas ran through a systems check that had been set up days earlier, to accurately verify their electrical feed. They measured how much and how long the power was to be fed into the remote lab, and double checked the emergency shut off.

At the same time, Professor Means adjusted the pattern on two large flat screen televisions that the technicians recently installed on a far wall of the laboratory. One camera provided a view of the outside entrance, while the second feed came from a camera inside the lab, giving the scientists a panoramic view of the interior.

Two technicians, grad school volunteers, were inside the remote laboratory building. They waved to the television monitor and spoke to the room through a speakerphone link to the lab. The graduate students made adjustments on the interior camera until Professor Means gave his approval. The clarity of the broadcast was perfect.

Professor Means loaded two discs into several adjacent backup computers, tied to a separate power supply, an arrangement designed to monitor and record every aspect of the experiment, independent of any other power source. The recording device tested perfect when Means played back a short video segment. Everything seemed flawless. Redundancy was the standard they adhered to, assuring themselves that every aspect of the experiment was fail safe.

Claudia could feel the excitement in the room. This was a turning point, she realized, for Blackstone and the Committee. But she was still apprehensive about the limits of the experiment and what would happen if something went wrong. Four separate calculations came to her at once, strings of formulae that measured different contingencies of the experiment variables. She smiled, remembering reading that simultaneous calculations were something her great grandfather Albert Einstein often experienced.

The primary concern for everyone was the safety of the experiment. There were many aspects that could not be measured. Claudia was not comfortable with the rush the rest of the Committee members had insisted upon. She could not quantify her apprehension, so she gave in to them, comfortable to some extent with the redundant shut down procedures.

After making last minute notes on her laptop computer, Claudia reviewed a tablet of her handwritten notes and calculations.

She tapped Professor Means on the shoulder.

“Is the antimatter grounding device in place?”

Means smiled. “For the fifth time, yes.”

“Look –”

“Young lady, you’re preaching to the choir. Like you, I am concerned about this procedure. And, like you, I don’t share my colleagues’ effervescence. Nobody wants a runaway chain reaction.”

“Just make sure those grad students know how to ground it.”

Professor Means was about to respond, but bit his tongue before he mentioned to Claudia that the two students had progressed further in grad school than she had.

“I was up there early this morning. The worst result will be a neutralization of the reaction.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Claudia. She turned her attention back to her notes and experiment checklist.

Failure, she knew, was not an option. Antimatter was an unknown, and the contingencies she had considered and tried to measure were as complex as life itself.

She prayed it would remain stable.