“No more than sunshine or your reflection in a mirror,” Janet shook her head. “It seems like they absorb light, radar, electrons, whatever we’ve got. I’m becoming convinced that’s how they’ve managed to exist in this dimension in the first place.”
Isaiah straightened. “Thanks.”
He entered the corridor and saw that Tanto had assumed a position behind all the CERN guards. It was almost as if Tanto had taken a post where he would shoot the first man to mutiny. Isaiah simply stood, staring at the barrier.
Isaiah’s mind wandered to when the creature had smashed blow after blow into that submarine hatch. He wasn’t certain but he estimated that that hatch was designed to resist hundreds of thousands of pounds of pressure per square inch, which was probably the only reason it had withstood the onslaught. But that was taking very little from the beast. It had done enough damage to the steel to convince Isaiah that it would have prevailed if it had continued. And with the thought Isaiah tried get a rough estimate of the beast’s limitations.
Yeah, Isaiah calculated quickly enough, it was phenomenally strong, but the fact that it was limited at all meant that it was ultimately vulnerable and ultimately killable. The only question was whether they could survive long enough to take it apart piece by piece. He assessed its main advantages—strength, speed, durability, intelligence, and training. And its determination and emotional character, a combination of ambition, hate, and rage had helped propel it from one galaxy to another so its advantage in sheer will power was quite simply off the map.
But it did have two disadvantages: It was practically alone and it was ultimately vulnerable. So if they could trap it where they could hit it with enough ordinance to bleed it to death drop by drop, then it would fall, in the end. But that brought Isaiah back to the question of whether they could survive long enough to do enough damage fast enough and that was a serious wild card.
Isaiah spoke without looking directly at Tanto, “You guys operate in small teams, don’t you, Tanto?”
With a frown he nodded, “Yep.”
“What do they teach you to do if you’re outmatched in every way?”
“They teach us to run,” Tanto stated with no hesitation. “Or EVAC. Or hide. Or escape. To disappear. To get the hell out of there. Know what I mean?” He shook his head. “We ain’t regular Army, man. We don’t operate at battalion strength. We don’t have artillery. We usually don’t even have air support. So if we’re outmatched, we do what damage we can and then we hit the water, the woods, urban areas or slums, whatever we got. We do a tactical retreat and reposition to fight another day.”
“And if retreat is impossible?”
“Then we set up a defensive ambush.” Tanto shrugged. “An ambush can be a game-changer, but an ambush is a gamble because an ambush can work both ways and usually does. It can put you in a position where you absolutely have to win or you’re gonna die and it makes retreat, if it doesn’t work, a thousand times more difficult.” He regarded Isaiah with a curious gaze. “You’re wondering how we can turn the tables on these bastards because they have every advantage, right?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”
“Good luck with that one,” Tanto laughed harshly. “We can’t retreat. There’s no high ground for an ambush. There’s not even any solid cover. This is what we call a standup fight and it’s gonna be won by whoever has the will to win it.” He shook his head. “Ain’t no school for it. Never was.”
Isaiah paused. “No,” he said. “Never was.”
They stood shoulder to shoulder like two scarred and hardened veterans facing execution. Neither revealed any weakness, fear, nor regret. It was as they had lived their whole lives in this arena by choice or by fate and neither was surprised that it had come to this, nor would they have changed a thing.
Slowly Isaiah nodded, “Yeah.” He paused. “All right. I’ll be in the Observation Room. I’ll let you know if we see anything.”
“Good enough.”
Inside the chamber, Janet was staring with obvious confusion at six monitors as if they were dedicated to a single task. Amanda was behind her, arms crossed, also staring, and they were muttering to one another. Isaiah walked up and watched, but what he saw would have confused anyone with less than a doctorate in physics—it was a truly dazzling display of incomprehensible symbols.
He saw that every other physicist was gazing at the same set of screens. Then he noticed Margaret standing on an elevated platform surrounded by a semicircle of monitors blinking with every color of light and exhaustive equations filling page after page only to be replaced by more equations as the last ones blinked out.
Slowly Isaiah mounted the steps and stood beside Margaret to ask, “How’s the math coming?”
Margaret didn’t glance up.
“Oh, it’s just hunky-dory.”
After a pause, staring with unsuccessful calculation at the screen, Isaiah gave up and asked, “What’s your best guess?”
“Of making particles from two separate dimensions collide at the speed of light inside the ATLAS at the same time?” Margaret freely laughed. “Until now we’ve only been able to detect particles from one dimension. But since we know the equation that opened the portal that vomited these things out, we’re back-engineering to see if we can simultaneously open an opposing portal. It’s actually not as complicated as it sounds. That is, mathematically. But there’s no way to confirm my calculations. I can’t guarantee what’s going to happen if we pull the trigger on this.”
Amanda appeared at Isaiah’s side. “Pardon me, but this is insane. And how will any of this … this interdimensional hopscotch … get us out of here?”
“Getting out of here is not the priority, anymore,” Isaiah said quietly. “We have to do something to close this portal or everybody on this planet’s gonna die.” He turned to Amanda. “I’m sorry, Amanda, but I can’t make any promises about Cynthia. I’m going inside the ATLAS to detonate the bomb in their dimension and seal this portal if I can. But if that doesn’t work, you’ll have to destroy the portal from this side. And that means all of you will die, too. Either way, it’s unlikely any of us are getting out of here alive. So, ultimately, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t try. It sure can’t get any worse.”
Amanda’s voice was faint. “Yeah … I know. Cynthia is dead. I’ve accepted that. But this seems like a real bad idea for you.” She paused. “For everybody else, too.”
Margaret sighed and raised her face. “Amanda, I’m sorry about your sister. I knew Cynthia. I really liked her. But bad ideas are all we have left. What will happen when we bring all three dimensions together? Who knows? Each dimension, if everything goes as planned, will be on a subatomic level equal to the level of antimatter particles that existed before this universe was created. What I’m trying to do is calculate the last moment before the Big Bang. And Isaiah, I do believe, plans to alter that moment so that these portals don’t come into existence in any timeline—including this one.” She raised a gaze to Amanda. “In other words Isaiah is going to try and alter the course of every galaxy in existence by altering the chain reaction created by the original Big Bang.”
Isaiah muttered, “It’s got potential.”
“So does suicide,” Margaret said without hesitation. “Do you have any idea what might happen to you if you’re inside that machine when I hit the switch?”
Isaiah’s voice was dull. “A short history of time?”
“You could get yourself dead at the speed of light.” Margaret pointed to numbers on the largest screen. “That equation is the place where these things come from. But we’ve also located another … well, area … that has the opposite readout as this dimension. And if we can smash these diametrically opposite neutrinos together, we might be able to make all three dimensions converge before the Big Bang and then you can set off that bomb, trigger a new Big Bang, and recreate everything that exists. If it wo
rks, you might do away with these creatures completely. You’ll make it so they’ve never existed.” She blinked, a dead stare. “Isaiah, you do know you could also wipe out the Earth, don’t you?”
Isaiah frowned, “I don’t believe timelines are that malleable. Throwing a rock in the Mississippi River isn’t going to change the course of the river.”
“Okay. That’s possible. But have you also considered that you could be beamed into nothing but outer space and die on arrival?”
“You agreed that the idea has potential.”
Margaret placed a hand on her chest. “Why are you listening to me? What do I know? This isn’t physics! This is just a Persian bazaar guessing game and I have no idea what’s going to happen! To put it mildly, you’re truly going where no man has gone before!” She gestured to the screen. “I mean, sure! There’s a chance that the opposite electrical charges and the matter, antimatter collision from these dimensions will open a gateway and then you can destroy this alien dimension with a nuclear weapon but I can’t promise that! You’re talking about smashing one irresistible force into another irresistible force! And now we’re talking real butterfly effects! I’m talking about the kind of butterfly effects that might destroy the matrix of everything that has ever existed anywhere in any galaxy in the history of everything!”
Janet had stepped into the room with the last words. She focused on Isaiah. “You’re taking the bomb with you inside the ATLAS?”
Isaiah cast a glance. “I’m setting off the bomb and closing the portal from the other side if I can. Maybe it will even destroy that dimension.”
Janet: “What about this dimension? What about this timeline?”
“If Margaret is right, the explosion will be contained in the moment that existed before the Big Bang. And if you want to get theoretical about it, this has all happened before and what we’re doing is just another repeat of the event that created the Big Bang in the first place. It’s like a time loop.” He paused. “Safe to say we’re in uncharted waters.”
“Without a paddle,” muttered Margaret.
Janet turned and walked from the Observation Room.
Margaret slowly turned in her chair, gazing up with a fatal stare. “Isaiah? You know, of course, that anybody who pretends to understand this time paradox is a fool? And that includes me.” Her lips tightened. “And what you are proposing has never been imagined by the craziest science fiction writer that ever lived. It has—for certain—never been calculated by any physicist because this is beyond the place where the map ends! In this event we are lost at sea with no stars, no sky, no sun and no moon to show us the way home. All we’ve got is dead reckoning in the darkest night. This is The Unknown.” A pause. “Here, there be dragons. And you’re going to land right in its mouth.”
***
A wall panel soundlessly opened.
Roy gazed up the white, spiraling stairs leading toward the surface and turned to Janet who had suddenly arrived, breathless and staring up.
“You stay here,” Roy stated sternly. “I’m going up to grab this French fry. Then I’ll get back with him and the laser.”
“Wait a minute!” Janet gasped, grabbing his arm. “Did you know that Isaiah is taking the bomb with him into the ATLAS?”
“Yeah,” Roy nodded curtly. “We talked about it. Why not?”
“Because he could blow us all up!”
“We’re gonna get blown up, anyway, if we don’t do something!” Roy stared as Janet lowered her gaze. Then he added more quietly, “It’ll be all right. Just stay here. I’m going up. C’mon, guys. On me.”
“You might need me up there!” stated Janet.
“They’ve got more problems down here than I’ll have up there,” Roy muttered. “I can handle this psychopath. And these boys can carry this laser, or whatever it is, down here. But you’ve got to help Margaret and Amanda keep an eye on those monitors.” He paused, staring back. “Can you do that for me?”
Janet blinked, “Yeah. Okay.”
Roy nodded.
“See you on the range.”
***
Leaning back, Margaret muttered, “Ya know, when you asked me if a human being could survive being inside the ATLAS with particles from three dimensions colliding at the same time … I mean, it was so crazy, I didn’t really take you seriously.” Her gaze was empty. “But, seriously, are you serious?”
Isaiah mumbled, “You sure make it sound like I’m serious.”
“Yeah,” she nodded, “I’ve thought of suicide once or twice myself. But I want to say that your survival, even if you can beat that explosion out the gateway of this demonic dimension or whatever it is, is very unlikely. Now, I honestly don’t believe there’s a crippling level of radiation inside the ATLAS, but we don’t know what unknown radiation these alternate dimensions are made of.”
Isaiah stated precisely, “I just want to know if you can you keep the portal open long enough for me to detonate the bomb inside that dimension and escape the blast by retreating into this dimension.”
Briefly nodding, Margaret said, “If the power isn’t interrupted. If the collider can handle more than a hundred trillion volts of electricity for that long. If some twenty-dollar chip doesn’t burn up and the whole thing melts. On balance … I’d say the odds are eighty-twenty.”
“Eighty that I make it?”
“The opposite.”
Isaiah gazed at the ceiling. “I already know this is probably a one-way trip, so just do what you can and I’ll do what I can to beat the explosion out the door.” He was quiet. “At this point I don’t think it’s up to you and me.”
“It never was,” muttered Margaret. “But what if the bomb doesn’t even affect that dimension? What if they’re just, like, spirits that can’t be destroyed by force?”
“Then you blow the collider from this side.”
Margaret brushed her hair back. “I knew I should have taken that job at the South Pole. At least it would have been boring.”
Isaiah stated, “I just want to be perfectly clear. You said that once I’m inside the collider, and these particles smash into each other, everything inside that ATLAS will be outside space and time? I won’t be on Earth, right? I’ll be at whatever existed a few moments before the Big Bang?”
Margaret closed her eyes before replying steadily, “As far as I calculate, that is mathematically correct. You will be outside space and time. You will be in the heart of the power that created everything that exists and there is not a time when it was not. You will supposedly be at the heart of the Big Bang a few moments before it went boom.” She shook her head as if to shake off fog. “Good lord. You could be right. For all we know, this has already happened. This might be the event that triggered the Big Bang in the first place.”
Isaiah hesitated a moment, and his voice was fatal. “How much longer do you need to check your numbers?”
“I just have to double-check things.”
“Be careful to keep the collider down until we need it. Then program what you did when Cynthia was taken.”
“Isaiah? One more thing you should think about.”
“Yeah?”
“Have you thought of the possibility that they might be waiting for you on the other side? I mean, you’re here. You’re prepared, yeah. But what about them? They might be prepared, too, and they’re ready to kick your ass on arrival.”
Isaiah sniffed. “Have you also considered that whatever I do on the other side is just going to bring me back here again? Have you considered that you and I are destined to do this over and over until the end of time?”
Margaret’s dismal stare revealed her mind.
“I try not to consider everything.”
***
Antonio Francois gasped as Roy’s hand tightened on his throat.
The Delta commando had lifted the larger Frenchman from the ground with
a single arm to slam him against the wall and leaned close.
“Where’s the laser?”
Francois’s face twisted as he gasped, “What laser!” He grabbed Roy’s wrist to no effect. “We don’t have a laser!”
Roy dropped him to the floor, enunciating each word as he drew his pistol. “Then I ain’t got no use for you.”
“Wait!” Francois plaintively lifted both hands. “Wait a second! Why do you need a laser?”
“To cut a hole in the titanium.”
“Who told you we could do that?”
“One of your people.” Roy thumbed back the hammer on the forty-five. “You’d better produce something or you’re a dead man.”
“We do have something that they use for cutting titanium!” Francois retorted. “But I don’t know what it is! All I know is that maintenance uses it! It’s in the closet down the hall!”
Roy half-turned his head and the ten security team members that had been dispatched by Tony, who had become a very loyal supporter of this endeavor, were out the door. As they exited, Roy shoved the director into the hall and, when they reached the closet, found it was locked with a code module.
“What’s the code?” asked Roy.
“How would I know?” sputtered Francois. “I’m not in maintenance! I just run the facility!”
“Fire in the hole,” Roy said as he pulled out a small block from his belt and slammed it against the lock. He turned aside as he pushed a detonator and the explosion shredded the lock, frame, and wall so that the door freely swung open.
Behind it were three steel canisters connected by multicolored tubes.
Roy looked at Francois and the physicist’s eyes widened with apparent alarm as he gestured wildly, “Don’t ask me!”
A security guard stepped forward, then bent and seemed to gaze along the gauges and dials. He turned to Roy. “I think it’s a plasma arc welder, major.”
Roy squinted. “What’s that?”
“It’s a welding machine, sir. It’s similar to oxy-acetylene welders used by high-steel workers. But this thing uses ionized gas, electrodes, and a plasma arc that heats up to fifty-thousand degrees Fahrenheit.” The guard stared at the machine. “This thing, when it’s lit, it does look like a laser beam so I understand their confusion. But it’s not a laser beam. It’s just ionized gas.”
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