“Jesus Christ,” said Marlene. “I knew that this playing around with nuclear shit was going to end in a disaster. If only I hadn’t gone along with it.”
The door to the infirmary opened and Dr. Lindwall stepped outside. He dabbed the sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
“How’s it going, Doc? How’s the patient?” asked Russell.
The doctor shook his head. “Bad. He keeps passing out. I’ve given him a strong painkiller.”
“A painkiller? Nothing else?” asked Marlene. “There must be something we can do for him.”
Dr. Lindwall shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do for him. He got such a strong dose of neutrons, that everything metallic he was wearing has become radioactive. The cells of his body are already dying. He’ll die within the next twenty-four hours from multiple organ failure.”
“Oh my God!” said Marlene. “We need to tell Ann.”
“I already have,” said Lee.
“She’s with him now,” added Dr. Lindwall.
Marlene nodded. “What about the bomb?”
“What do you mean?” asked Russell.
“I want to know if the bomb is ready for action!” she said. Her eyes had narrowed to slits.
“You really want to continue with this crazy plan?” said Lindwall in amazement.
“Unfortunately we don’t have a choice. So, if the bomb core wasn’t damaged in the experiment, I would like you to get straight back to work!” Her eyes flicked from Russell to John Dressel.
Russell was silent. The shock of what had happened to Ty had hit him hard. He could feel an almost physical resistance inside him to carrying on with this madness – not least since the driving force behind this hellish project was now lying on his deathbed.
“I don’t want anything more to do with this bullshit,” said Dr. Dressel with a blank expression.
Marlene stepped forward and grabbed him by the collar. “Now listen to me! Fifty men, women, and children are lying in the mud down at the observation post waiting for the next wave of monsters. And there is no way we will be able to defeat them this time. Max is down there too. I know how upset you are by Ryan’s death—and what just happened to Ty—but I can’t take your feelings into account here. Apart from Ty, you’re the only one who has any clue how this damn thing works. I want you to complete the job, transport the explosive to the canyon, and save our lives!”
“We don’t know if our bomb is strong enough or if it will even work at all,” said the physicist. He started to cry. First the death of his son, and then Ty. It was too much for him! “Nothing makes sense anymore. We bit off more than we can chew. Look at Ty! I’ll never forget the look in his eyes when he realized that he was going to die.”
Russell laid a hand on his shoulder.
Marlene cuffed the physicist round the ears. “You will pull yourself together and continue with the work. Immediately! We don’t know when the next wave will attack the observation post. Every second counts. And if the whole thing fails on account of you losing your nerve, I will personally throw you to the beasts. Do you understand?”
Dressel was shocked. He stared at Marlene with his mouth agape, and didn’t move.
“Do you understand?”
Finally the physicist nodded.
Marlene turned to Lee. “How far along are you with preparing the cave?”
Lee moved back a step.
Russell had never experienced Marlene like this. It was as if she’d lost control of herself, but he knew she hadn’t. The way she had handled Dressel was cleverly calculated. She knew how she had to treat him to get him to finish the job.
“The bomb construction site is completed. We’re just waiting for the bomb core and the graphite.”
“Then go!” she said. She turned to Russell. “Now take the physicist to the lab, for God’s sake!”
Drew heard shouts outside. Something was going on in the infirmary, and when she stepped inside to look, Russell shuffled past, dragging along Dr. Dressel behind him. Both their faces were like stone, and she knew that something terrible had happened.
“What is it?”
Russell turned round and looked her in the eyes. “There was an accident with the plutonium in the physics laboratory. Ty . . .”
Drew began to tremble and she could feel her legs giving way. Their encounter in Marlene’s office . . . She’d had a terribly guilty conscience, but had been aching to see Ty again. She’d been trying desperately to think up a way of meeting him again in secret. That one kiss had given her back a tiny bit of courage and optimism, and for the first time in years, the future didn’t seem so bleak. She knew that Ty was on the brink of separating from his wife, and she’d been thinking about her own relationship with Ben, and the scales had suddenly fallen from her eyes. She didn’t want to delude herself any longer, or put up with the way Ben treated her. There were other possibilities; there could be a different future. Perhaps even one with Ty.
“What’s up with Ty? Is he okay?”
Russell looked at the ground.
“No, he’s not okay!” answered Dr. Dressel angrily. “He was exposed to a high dose of radiation. He’s dying.”
It took a moment for the words she was hearing to sink in.
Ty is dying!
Instinctively, she wanted to race over to the infirmary to see him. But she knew that his wife would be there, or at least on her way there, together with their children. It wouldn’t be right. If it was true that he was dying, she would never see him again.
At that moment something broke inside her. As if part of her had also died. Any hopes she had had for the future seemed to melt away in the early morning sun like ice in a volcano.
Chapter 42
The workshop was empty. Russell presumed that Albert and his helpers were either working at the bomb-construction cave, or had been sent down to defend the observation post. It was strangely quiet in the settlement, the rumbling of the jeep’s engine echoed from the walls of the huts.
On the way back to the lab, Russell made a quick stop at his hut to get more medication. His legs trembled as he got out of the jeep and staggered the few steps to the door. As he entered the hut he bumped straight into Ellen, who was just about to leave. She had put on her old army combat uniform which still fit her perfectly. Over all the years, she had managed to stay in great shape.
She hugged him. “I heard about Ty. How is he?”
“Bad. He probably won’t survive the day.”
She groaned. “That bad?” she whispered.
“He got a full dose of radiation in the accident.”
“What about you? How do you feel?”
“I was with John in front of the door. Luckily we didn’t get any of the radiation.” He touched her backpack. “Are you going down to the observation post?”
“I’m no use here. If we have to fight for our lives, then I’m not going to stand back and watch.”
“Where are the kids?”
“Greg is with Julia Stetson and the other young kids. Jim and Grace have been at the observation post since morning. I couldn’t stop them, so I’m going too.”
Russell nodded. He wasn’t happy that his family was on the front line against these beasts, but what could he do? He knew that everyone who could fight was needed. And he also knew that Jim and Grace wouldn’t try and hide somewhere in a situation like this.
“I’d rather be with you down at the observation post than monitoring this crazy nuclear project I don’t even understand.”
Ellen took his hand. “I know you’d rather fight. But the bomb is our only chance. It will make me feel a lot better knowing that you are supervising the work. And as you found out today, it’s just as dangerous to be working on the bomb as being down at the observation post.”
Russell shrugged. “We’re about to take the plutonium and the other nuclear material down to the canyon. I’m not sure how long it will take to set it all up. A few hours, maybe.”
“I hope we c
an defend the pass for that long.”
“And I hope that this damn plutonium doesn’t just turn out to be a dud.”
Ellen kissed him tenderly. “I’m convinced everything will work out okay.” She smiled.
He returned her smile, but he had lost his optimism. Ty lay dying in the infirmary and John Dressel was a physical wreck. And there was still so much that could go wrong.
Ellen let go of his hand reluctantly. “I have to go. We’ll see each other when it’s all over.”
“Take care of the children!” he said quietly. That should have been his job. It made him feel sick!
His face dark and brooding, he watched Ellen disappear around the corner of the hut. Would he ever see his family again?
“Damn it!” he swore aloud. He hobbled over to the shelf, found some pills and put them in his pocket.
Dr. Dressel was already waiting at the entrance to the lab container. Wordlessly, Russell helped the physicist load the jeep. They put the plutonium cores of the bomb in two lead boxes on the back seat, together with the measuring devices. The container with the graphite blocks lay on the truck bed and a little box containing the initiator was on the physicist’s lap as Russell started the jeep.
Only once they had left the settlement behind them did Russell speak. “Will it work?”
Dressel’s face was expressionless. “I have no idea.”
Damn it! This had also been his idea!
“Come on, John. You’re a physicist. For the last few days you’ve done nothing except prepare for the detonation.”
“I’m not a nuclear engineer. Nor is Ty. We did everything that we could. But I have no idea whether or not we overlooked something. I’ve tried to estimate the explosive force of our construction, but I don’t have enough knowledge of the substance. In Los Alamos, they used computer codes for something as complicated as that. I can only make rough estimates. Just one or two neutron generations too few and it won’t be enough! It’s nothing more than an experiment!”
Russell veered around a pothole only to land in the next one. The boxes on the truck bed bounced. “Unfortunately it’s an experiment on which all our lives depend.”
Chapter 43
“Ben, I need to know where . . .”
But Ben wasn’t listening. Among the vehicles that had just arrived, he had spotted his wife. “I’ll be right back.”
He hurried over the dusty track, along the rows of barbed wire, which they had raised to a height of six feet. Albert’s workshop had hardly been able to keep up with the production.
“Ben, shall we use the time to raise up the earth wall a bit higher?” called Sammy.
“Ask Marlene!” he replied gruffly and carried on without even looking at Sammy.
After a few seconds he had reached his wife, who was just pulling her backpack out of the jeep. Beside her stood Ellen, Manuel, and Andrea, who had come down with her.
He grabbed his wife roughly by the arm and pulled her to the side.
“What are you doing here, dammit!”
She didn’t seem surprised. Ben was irritated. There was a spark in her eyes that he hadn’t seen for many years: defiance!
“I will fight here for our children and our future. Along with everyone else!”
Ben’s voice became louder. “I told you to go to Julia and to look after the other children with her! You will drive back to the settlement with the next jeep.”
With a quick movement she shook off his arm. “It’s over, Ben! I won’t let you order me around anymore.”
“Excuse me?” His lips trembled. Somebody must have incited her. Probably it had been his daughter. He would give her a talking to when all this was over.
“I’m trying to defend the colony here, and you stab me in the back like that? Have you gone mad?” he hissed. “I wanted you to stay in the settlement for your own safety. But once again, you were too stupid to realize that.”
“From now on, I make my own decisions. If you don’t like it, that’s your problem. And if you ever dare to hit me again, I will leave you!” She turned around and stalked off, without waiting for an answer.
Ben shook his head. What had he got himself into with this woman? Not long after the start of their relationship she had become rebellious. She simply wasn’t able to grasp the fact that in a family, only one person could make the decisions. When the children came along, she had seemed to come to her senses and become more compliant. But now that Catherine was growing up, his wife was also becoming increasingly stubborn. Once or twice he had thought about simply throwing her out of the house, but he didn’t want people gossiping and thinking he couldn’t handle his wife. But when this thing was over, she had a nasty surprise coming. He had dealt with worse.
On the other hand: if this ridiculous plan with the atomic bomb failed, which he was sure it would, then he wouldn’t need to think about this or any other problem anymore, so for the time being he was concentrating on his work.
Earlier in the day he had been rejoicing. He was the commander-in-chief; he was leading the sixty men and women into battle. Finally he had gotten what he had always wanted to achieve on Earth: his own command.
But then Marlene had turned up and taken over. Yet again he had been demoted to deputy. He hoped that soon she would hightail it back to the bomb-construction site—or to the settlement, where she belonged. On the other hand . . . perhaps she would be the first to fall at the start of the battle. He wouldn’t be sorry.
He grimaced when he heard her querulous voice somewhere behind him. “Ben!”
He turned around and forced himself to give a friendly wave. Marlene was standing next to Jenny Baldwin in front of the entrance to the barrack, calling him over like a lowly henchman.
He strolled over to her with a deliberate air of nonchalance. “What’s up?”
“Jenny has new data from the last scouting reconnaissance flight of the drone. I wanted you to hear this, too.”
The biologist pointed at an infrared photo that she transferred onto her tablet. There was a broad red line to be seen on it. “The ocean has moved another six miles inland. The creatures are fleeing in panic. We have about one more hour.”
Marlene looked at the long red line. “How many? How many are coming?”
Jenny looked up grimly.
“All of them!”
Chapter 44
“Here they come with the bomb parts from hell,” said Albert caustically, as Russell and Dr. Dressel, each holding one box, entered the cave.
“Save yourself the comments and help me,” grunted Russell. “This stuff is heavy.”
Although he was ten years older than Russell, Albert Bridgeman took the containers from his arms and carried them over to a wooden table with ease. The plutonium and the lead containers weighed around forty-five pounds combined, but the weight didn’t seem to bother the former military pilot. He had always been physically fit and had done everything necessary to stay that way as he got older.
Russell leaned against the cave wall and coughed.
“You should take care of yourself, Russell,” said Lee, who was standing next to the borehole.
With difficulty, Russell pushed himself away from the wall and limped over to the engineer. With his threadbare jeans and his pointed brown boots, he reminded Russell of a young Clint Eastwood.
“So this is it,” said Russell. He was looking down into a deep hole with a diameter of about eight inches. The end of a steel pipe stuck out of the top. Wooden struts held it exactly in the middle of the hole in the ground.
Lee nodded. “It’s all ready, we were just waiting for you.”
Dr. Dressel opened the container and waved to Max Lindwall, who was standing at the entrance of the cave. “At the back of the jeep there’s another box containing graphite and a few measuring instruments, and on the passenger seat there’s another case. Can you get them, please?”
Max nodded, grabbed Peter Richards by the arm and pulled him outside with him. Russell watched Lee, who was
adjusting something on a bracket above the hole. Wires led from the contraption up to a winch on the ceiling. “What is that, Lee?”
Lee answered without looking up. “We need to somehow lower the bottom half of the bomb into the hole. I’m attaching a thin hemisphere out of steel to the winch, which will be suspended from the wires. The plutonium half will go inside it. At the bottom of the borehole is a strut which will center it precisely.”
“And here comes the first half of the plutonium,” said Dr. Dressel impassively. He carried the bomb material to the borehole. He was wearing thick gloves.
“Good, just put it in the bracket,” said Lee, who was holding on tight to the steel cable under the winch, so that it didn’t sway back and forth.
“We need to be careful that we don’t damage the nickel layer on the plutonium,” said the physicist and let the bomb material glide into the hemisphere like a raw egg. “There, that’s done.”
“What now?” asked Russell, as he watched the men at work.
“Now we wait for the boys and the initiator,” said Dr. Dressel.
“Coming,” called Max from the tunnel. He ran into the cave and almost stumbled.
“Careful!” shouted the physicist and hurried over to the boys. “The initiator is impact-sensitive.” He ripped the little case out of Maxwell’s hand.
“Cool it, man,” said the young Lindwall. “It’s okay.”
“I should have brought in the initiator myself,” said the scientist crossly.
Russell shook his head in despair. This was all ridiculously unprofessional. It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work!
Dr. Dressel took the little sphere out of the case with trembling hands and placed it in the cavity on the plutonium half. Then he took a syringe out of his bag, with which he squirted a little liquid into the narrow gap between the plutonium and the initiator. “I’m putting a bit of fluoride-containing nitric acid into the gap. That will adhere the initiator to the plutonium.”
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