Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(43)

“Um, maybe. I mean, I am your amanuensis. Are you considering a relationship with me?”

“It’s crossed my mind,” Emerson said.

“Is it because you saw me naked?”

“Not entirely, but I think about it a lot.”

“In a good way?”

“Sort of in a Vernon way,” Emerson said.

“Vernon is a horndog.”

“I might also be one.”

Riley had no idea where to go with this. She supposed she was happy Emerson was attracted to her, but she didn’t know about him being a horndog. “Horndog” didn’t exactly describe the man of her dreams.

“We should get on with it,” Riley said.

Emerson nodded. “My exact thought.”

He walked the perimeter of the pit. It was almost as big as the warehouse itself.

“It’s a platinum swimming pool filled with lava,” Emerson said. “There’s even an intake pipe where the lava gets pumped in, presumably from the drills outside, and an outtake. I’m guessing it eventually gets returned to flow underground.”

Riley thought that made sense. There wasn’t any evidence in the area of lava being dumped aboveground.

“Why aren’t the glass tiles melting?” she asked.

Emerson got down on his knees and examined the floor. “It’s not glass. It’s some kind of a transparent ceramic. It’s an excellent insulator, so it protects us from the heat, and obviously it won’t melt unless temperatures reach well above five thousand degrees.”

“Is transparent ceramic a real thing?” Riley asked.

“It’s a technology used in products ranging from clear orthodontic braces to armored car windows. I’ve never heard of anybody using it for a swimming pool cover. Of course, I’ve never heard of a swimming pool filled with lava either.”

One of the larger machines on the other side of the room lit up, and a steady stream of magma filled its transparent ceramic enclosure. The robotic arms inside went into operation, pushing the lava through a filter and separating it into different portions. The smaller portion was transferred to another enclosure, where robotic arms again went to work. The larger portion was flushed underground where it gurgled as it moved through the plumbing, eventually flowing outside and away from the warehouse.

Riley watched the robotic arms busy at work. “They’re looking for something in the lava, aren’t they?”

Emerson nodded. “Definitely. Something much more valuable than money. Something worth killing over. Something that the government’s been protecting and keeping secret for more than a century.”

They heard the sound of voices outside the warehouse, and the front entrance clicked open. Emerson pushed the red button, and the magma swimming pool disappeared behind the milky white floor. He grabbed Riley by the wrist and yanked her to a dark corner of the warehouse where a large tarp covered an unused piece of heavy machinery.

Riley and Emerson hid under the tarp and listened as the door opened and the voices filled the room.

Riley peered out from under the tarp. Tin Man, Eugene Spiro, and Bart Young were standing next to the large metal donut in the center of the room.

Bart Young pointed at the smaller version of the donut. “Move everything into the portable Penning trap.”

Spiro attached the smaller trap to the larger one using a coupling. “You’re taking all of it? Where?”

“We have a parallel program in Hawaii,” the director said. “We can’t find Knight, and I’m not risking leaving any loose ends in light of how close we are to finishing. After today, it’s none of your concern.”

Spiro went to one of the workstations and sat down in front of one of the computers. He typed in some instructions, and the smaller Penning trap powered up. “It will take a couple minutes for the transfer to be complete,” he said to the director. “How are you going to get it safely to Hawaii? You know how a Penning trap works, don’t you? It uses a magnetic field to store and isolate charged matter.”

“Your point being?” the director said.

“The point being that if you get a little unlucky and there’s a power interruption, then there’s no more magnetic field.”

“And?” Tin Man asked.

“No more magnetic field means that what’s inside isn’t isolated from the matter outside this canister,” Spiro said. “And, if that happens we’re all in a world of pain.”

“Again, no longer your concern,” the director said.

“I’ve spent ten years of my life developing this program,” Spiro said. “I don’t want to see it fail.”

“This is not your program,” the director said. “You are an employee. And you should be very careful, because I’m not impressed with your performance. Ten years have passed, and you’ve only managed to collect a couple ounces.”

“That’s enough to obliterate a continent. How much more do you need?”

The director shrugged. “More.”

“Collection is difficult. It takes time,” Spiro said.

“You are no longer credible,” the director said. “It was your call to leave Knight alone. If I had listened to Tin Man in the first place, I wouldn’t be thinking about destroying a two-trillion-dollar facility and you wouldn’t be out of a job.”