Marlene nodded. “We knew that already. Continue!”
“Together with the other atomic bomb over in the warehouse, we have two sub-critical cores. We’ll build a device that lets the two bomb cores slam into each other fast enough to create a supercritical mass.”
“Without an explosive?” asked Marlene. She had difficulty imagining this.
“Exactly!” said Ty. “We’ll take a tube, around thirty feet long, put the plutonium from the first bomb at the bottom and drop the other plutonium from the top. When the mass from the top hits the one at the bottom, we’ll have our atomic explosion!”
He grinned again, as if he’d just discovered the cure for cancer.
Marlene shook her head. “That simple? We let one mass drop onto the other and that’ll result in a nuclear explosion? Didn’t you say the other day that it wasn’t that simple?”
Dr. Dressel shook his head. “That’s just the basic principle. It’s far more complicated in practice. The two subcritical plutonium masses not only have to fuse quickly, they also have to stay together long enough for fission to occur. The height of the fall has to be calculated precisely and I doubt whether thirty feet will be sufficient. We could add some of our remaining C-4 and make a canon, like with a uranium bomb. That way we could make a rudimentary bomb that would be considerably less efficient, but ought to do the job.”
“You keep talking about a uranium bomb. But these are plutonium cores. Doesn’t it make a difference?”
Dr. Dressel shook his head again. “Normally yes, but in this case we’re lucky.” He nodded to Ty. “Show her!”
Ty reached for a yellow box and took out a thick rod connected to a device with a black cable. He pointed the measuring instrument at the bomb core lying in front of him and looked at Marlene. “This is a neutron counter. Do you notice anything?” he asked with a grin.
Marlene felt anger welling up inside her. Ty had no idea how much he got on other people’s nerves with his excessive posturing. “Talk!”
“It’s not ticking,” he said triumphantly. “No neutrons.”
“So?”
Ty looked at her like she hadn’t understood the punch line of a joke.
Dr. Dressel shook his head and Marlene wondered whether he was doing it because of Ty’s behavior or because he thought she was being dense. “Normally plutonium emits far more neutrons than uranium. That’s why plutonium bombs work according to the implosion method and not the gun-type method. The chain reaction would occur too early, because weapon-grade plutonium 239 is usually contaminated with plutonium 240, which is a strong neutron emitter.” He pointed at the bomb core. “This bomb core doesn’t appear to be contaminated with Pu-240. They must have found a new production method.”
Marlene had difficulty following the conversation. She had to trust that the men knew what they were talking about. “And that means . . .?”
“That means we can detonate this plutonium bomb in the same way you would detonate a simple uranium bomb.”
Marlene didn’t know what to make of this information. “What do you mean with ‘simple’?” What will it involve? How long will it take? And above all: what are the chances that your improvised atomic bomb will work?”
Ty hesitated. “Unfortunately, there’s a lot to do. We have to drill a deep hole in the canyon in order to install the device inside it. Because it isn’t a bomb in the conventional sense, but more of an apparatus with the dimensions of a building. The shape of the plutonium core has to be changed. We have to melt it and combine both bomb cores into a hemispherical shape. That’s not so easy, because we can’t do it in an oxygen atmosphere, as it would catch fire. But we have the necessary equipment. Then we have to carry out a few tests to work out the necessary speed of the falling plutonium half. Then we’ll know if we need to also create a booster out of C-4, which would make it all more complicated.”
How much time did the men think they had left? In a few days, the colony might be overrun by those damn monsters. “Anything else?” she asked sharply.
Ty nodded. “The initiator needs to be adapted. With this method it won’t be compressed enough to mix the beryllium with the polonium. But I have an idea of how it could work.”
Marlene sighed. “All I’m hearing is ‘could’, ‘would, ‘might’. How long will it take?”
Ty swayed his head from side to side. “Good question. We might encounter some problems that we haven’t thought of. Five days, maybe?” He looked at Dressel.
Dr. Dressel shook his head again. “I would say a week, if all goes well.”
Marlene laughed. “We don’t even know if we have two days left before the beasts overrun the post. What are the chances that your plan will work?”
Ty looked at his feet. “Fifty percent, maybe?”
“At most!” added Dr. Dressel.
Marlene whistled through her teeth. And that was supposed to be a serious suggestion? She looked at the men in turn. “Gentlemen, we find ourselves in a life-threatening situation. In a few days, perhaps in a few hours, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of starving beasts will storm our settlement, and we won’t stand even a chance of defending ourselves. If we don’t find a failsafe solution we will all die. And you two want to start your private Manhattan project, which might take weeks and which doesn’t have a great chance of success.” She looked at the two men angrily. Then she turned on her heel and marched out.
“What should we do now?” asked Ty.
“Nothing!” called Marlene and slammed the door shut behind her.
Chapter 28
“It’s not looking good,” said Jenny. “It’s not looking good at all!”
Marlene and Jenny were sitting at a long table in the mess room together with Russell, Dr. Cashmore, and Ben. The biologist had asked to have a meeting and Marlene had rounded up the team. Jenny projected an image onto the wall using her computer—one of the few that still worked—and the last projector they still had. In the early days they had used the projector for movie evenings, but after the penultimate bulb had broken ten years ago, they had stopped using it for recreational purposes.
Russell tried to interpret the image. The background was black. A white outline presumably indicated the boundary of the lowlands. A blue point far in the south marked the observation post and the beginning of the pass. Green, yellow, and red structures were dotted around the lowlands. They looked like bubbles in a bubble bath. In the north-east they merged into a thick, scarlet stripe. Almost like a work of art, thought Russell.
Jenny stood up, took a stick and pointed at the scarlet area. Above it everything was black.
“These pictures were taken with our drone and infrared optics. The red area is the main wave of animals running away from the flood. Black indicates the extent of the flooding, which is gradually moving inland. It’s black because there’s nothing living there anymore.”
Marlene nodded. “Of course. And the bubbles below it?”
“That’s the most interesting part. At the edges of these bubbles large number of animals are gathered. I presume they indicate the boundaries between different hunting grounds. That’s where fighting is taking place.”
Marlene gave Russell a sideways glance. The area was no more than twenty miles from the observation post, he thought. Marlene turned back to the biologist. “We reckoned with that. What’s new about it?”
Jenny pointed the stick at the red line. “Two things are new. One is that we can now roughly work out when the main wave of animals will reach the observation post. That will happen in six to seven days. Meaning shortly before the flood. Originally, I thought that it would happen earlier—particularly after the expedition to the oil springs where we saw how aggressive and panicked the animals were. But there’s less pressure on the wotan territory than we thought, and that gives us the chance of holding out for longer. Still, we need to reckon with massive attacks on the post every time a territory collapses.”
Russell wasn’t sure what to make of Jenny’s
presentation. On the one hand, the biologist was telling them that they had more time than they had expected; on the other hand, she was suggesting that the observation post was already in danger. It was hard to know what to make of this information. It just looked prettier with the colored areas on the map.
“Good. Thanks, Jenny,” said Marlene. “What’s next on the agenda. Oh yes, Russell. Did you find a planet that we could possibly escape to?”
Russell nodded. “Yes, it looks good. The environment is pleasant and there are even animals there that don’t immediately attack, like here on New California. But I can’t say if the soil is fertile or if the fruit we found is edible.” He looked at the chemist.
Cashmore cleared his throat. “I’ve analyzed the specimens that Russell and Christian brought back. The atmosphere is clean and the soil contains all the nutrients necessary for growing plants, although of course I can’t guarantee whether the climatic conditions are ideal. The fruits are edible. Interestingly, they even contain pro vitamins, which our bodies can utilize. The trace elements that we require are also all contained in the fruit. However, they lack any kind of protein. If we think about evacuating to this planet, we will need to take foods like soya and potatoes with us.”
“The soya is almost all gone, but we still have a lot of potatoes,” said Marlene.
“It could also be that the animals on the planet are good sources of protein.” The chemist looked at Russell reproachfully. “It’s a shame that you didn’t bring me a specimen of the horse-like animal with you.”
“What were we supposed to do?”
“Well, shoot it and bring it with you. At least a piece of it. With all due respect to Holbrook’s love of animals, but this is extremely important! If we have to evacuate in such a short space of time, it is vital to know what resources we have there.”
“So we could live on this planet?”
Cashmore tilted his head to one side. “Well, I didn’t find anything in the specimens that speak against it. But to make a decision like that based on one single visit would be very risky.”
“Ultimately we don’t have a choice. We can’t stay here,” said Marlene. She turned to Ben. “How long do we need for the evacuation?”
Ben pulled some papers out of a folder. “I worked out a schedule. I based it on the assumption that I would have half of the colony available as a workforce, while the other half would be defending the post.” He looked at Marlene. It hadn’t escaped Russell’s notice that Ben hated having to have his plans approved by Marlene. For somebody who always demanded obedience, he had an alarming problem with authority.
“Yes, good. Continue!”
“I sorted the work according to priority. The most important thing is a basic supply of food, weapons, tents, medical supplies and equipment. That could be done in a day, if I can get three jeeps for the job. On the second day we’ll start dismantling the lab containers and other infrastructure. And we’ll take apart one jeep that we’ll take with us to the other planet. At the same time, we’ll transport other supplies such as benzine and kerosene as well as weapons, so that on the fourth day our whole camp is there. Finally, the other jeeps and the weapons that we still have here for defending the observation post. The evacuation will take a week.”
“A week!” groaned Marlene. “That’s very tight.”
“And we need more information about the target planet. We need to find out more about the plants and animals and check out the wider area around the transporter,” said Jenny.
“Alright,” answered Marlene. “You and Cashmore will go tomorrow with the first evacuation team. Russell will accompany you. I can’t spare any more people. Ben, you take over command of the observation post. One of the civilians can lead the evacuation mission.” She thought for a moment. “I’ll ask Sammy: he’s already mastered quite a few logistical challenges.”
Ben nodded. He was visibly relieved to be freed from this task.
“Shouldn’t we wait for the research results before we begin the evacuation?” asked the chemist.
“We don’t have any time for that, unfortunately,” said Marlene. “The countdown has begun. We have one week left—if we’re lucky.”
Chapter 29
“What are you doing?”
Drew had just started to pack her backpack when Ben appeared behind her. She winced at the sound of his voice. She had thought he was already on his way down to the observation post in the valley. Perhaps he had forgotten something.
She stood up and turned to face her husband. “Russell has asked me to accompany him on the reconnaissance mission to the other planet,” she mumbled with a lowered head. “He reckons it wouldn’t be a bad thing to find out something about the geology there.”
“Russell . . .” Ben nodded slowly. “Is that so?”
“Yes, I’m sure I could find out where the ground-water level—”
Ben made a lightning-fast movement and his hand was on her throat. Drew gagged. She couldn’t get any air. “Ben, please . . .” she croaked.
“Are you fucking with me? You were waiting for me to disappear, and now you’re plotting against me with that motherfucker behind my back?”
“Ben, please . . .”
He squeezed a little harder until she saw stars in front of her eyes. Her feet dragged across the floor until she felt the wall against her back. She tried to get out of Ben’s grip but didn’t stand a chance. She was close to losing consciousness when he finally let go. She dropped to her knees and retched.
“I’ll teach you respect! By God, if you ever try to go behind my back again, you’ll see my true colors!” he said in an icy tone of voice.
What did I do? I just wanted to help!
Drew sobbed. “I’m sorry. You’ve got so much going on. I didn’t want to upset you.”
“Well you’ve managed to do just that!” He left her lying on the ground and turned around. He rummaged around in the cupboard and took out a night vision device. As Drew began to pick herself up, he turned to face her again. “I want you to stay here and not move from the spot until I come back.”
“But I already said I’d go,” cried Drew in despair.
Benn stepped closer. His eyes glinted and he raised his right hand. “What did you say?”
Go to hell, Ben! Who gave you the right to treat me like a slave?
This brief flash of defiance disappeared as quickly as it had come. She didn’t stand a chance, anyway. He would grab her and strangle her again until she said what he wanted to hear.
Drew looked at the floor. “Nothing.”
“What will you do?”
She sobbed. “I’ll stay here.”
Ben nodded. “That was the right answer. I’ll talk to Russell myself. And I want to—”
“What’s going on?”
Catherine had appeared in the doorway unnoticed.
“Leave us, it’s none of your business!” hissed Ben.
“Why can’t you leave Mom alone?”
“Ask your mom! If nobody around here has any respect anymore, I’ll just have to demand it.”
“You won’t get any respect by shouting. All you’re doing is making Mom afraid of you.”
“Good. That will stop her from doing any more stupid things.” Ben looked at the backpack that his daughter was carrying. “And where do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to Jim’s. We’re helping Sammy to load the supplies into the sphere.”
“Didn’t I tell you that you should stay away from Jim Harris?”
She put her hands on her hips. “I’m eighteen! I can decide for myself who I spend my time with!”
Ben pointed an accusatory finger at her. “As long as you live under my roof you’ll do what I say, young lady!”
Cathy snorted. “Then it’s about time I left your house. It isn’t a home anymore, anyway. Take a look at yourself. Do you think your regime of terror makes it fun for anyone to live with you?”
“Watch what you say, or you’ll be sorry.�
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“If you ever dare to hit me, you’ll never see me in this house again!”
Ben turned around to Drew. “It’s all your fault. See how you brought up your daughter? It’s all your fault.”
He picked up the night vision device and stormed out of the house.
Cathy ran over to her mother and took her in her arms.
“I’m sorry. It is my fault,” sobbed Drew.
“No it’s not,” said Catherine and stroked her hair. “It’s not your fault. It’s his fault. He shouldn’t treat you like that.”
“I just can’t seem to do right by him.”
“That’s not your job,” whispered Cathy. “If he can’t stand himself, that’s his problem. I don’t understand how you can stick it out with him.”
Drew was silent.
“If I were you, I’d think about leaving him.”
Drew wiped the tears out of her face with her sleeve. She’d thought about it herself from time to time. But she also knew that she didn’t have the strength to do it.
Chapter 30
“What’s with the rice?” Sammy Yang, small and slightly overweight, stared at Russell through the thick lenses of his glasses.
Russell kneeled on the driver’s seat and fished around for the checklist that was on the truck bed. “Twenty sacks. That’s all that we had left in storage.”
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