Dangerous Minds (Knight and Moon #2)(44)

Spiro looked relieved that he was only fired. The penalty could have been much worse.

“Why would this have to be destroyed?” Spiro asked.

“Knight has money, and he knows powerful people,” the director said. “He also has a blog that’s read by thousands. If he learns enough and goes public with it, we’ll have all sorts of idiots crawling all over this facility. We won’t be able to kill them fast enough. Everyone from conspiracy theorists to Sunday hikers to political watchdogs will be here. Our plans will be savaged, and our technology will be discovered and stolen.”

Spiro shook his head. “It will take a year to dismantle.”

“On the contrary, one well-placed tactical nuclear device detonated in the underground lava lake beneath the dome should do the trick. The entire area will be buried under fifty feet of magma in no more than a day.”

Spiro went pale. “It would destabilize the entire super-volcano. The entire park, not just the dome, could be buried under fifty feet of magma. If that happened, it could kill millions.”

Tin Man smiled. “I knew there was a silver lining. I almost hope we don’t find Knight and Moon.”

The director turned to Tin Man. “Always the optimist. From here on out, you’re in charge of Yellowstone. If you don’t find Knight and Moon in a week, or if there’s even a whisper about Sour Creek Dome on his blog, detonate the nuke.”

The little Penning trap beeped and the green light on its side changed from blinking to solid.

“The transfer is done,” Spiro said. “I’ll get someone to help us move it to the transport.”

Tin Man watched Spiro leave the warehouse. “You’re not taking him with us?”

“He’s leaving with us, but he won’t be walking off the plane in Hawaii. You know how I hate loose ends.”





NINETEEN




EMERSON AND RILEY WATCHED FROM THEIR hiding place until the guards left with the portable Penning trap and the room was empty.

“Wow,” Riley said. “What do you think they’ve got in that thing?”

Emerson opened the warehouse’s back door a crack and peeked out. There was still a guard hanging around. “I don’t know. The concept of a Penning trap has been around since 1923.”

“You don’t know enough to leave red buttons alone, but you know what year the Penning trap was invented.”

“Hans Dehmelt won the Nobel Prize in Physics for its invention in 1989. It made a major impact in my life.”

“You wanted to be a physicist?”

“No, I wanted to be Captain Kirk. The Penning trap is basically a vacuum environment capable of containing charged antimatter in a magnetic prison. Antimatter is what makes warp speed possible, without which the starship Enterprise could never have explored strange new worlds.”

“Could they be harvesting antimatter?”

Emerson shook his head. “The universe is composed of nearly fifty percent antimatter. If you wanted to get your hands on some you wouldn’t have to tap into the earth’s core. Besides, a Penning trap that size wouldn’t hold enough to destroy this compound, let alone a continent.”

“What else can a Penning trap hold?”

“Plasmas.”

“Let’s pretend I don’t know anything about physics or Star Trek.”

“There are four types of ordinary matter—solids, liquids, gasses, and plasmas. Plasmas are the only type of matter that doesn’t naturally exist on the earth under normal surface conditions. They’re basically created from neutral gasses, like hydrogen, by ionizing them and giving them an electrical charge. Lightning, neon signs, television screens, and the aurora borealis are all examples.”

“So are plasmas rare? Could that be what they’re collecting?” Riley asked.

Emerson peeked out the door again. The guard was gone.

“Plasmas are the most common type of ordinary matter in existence,” Emerson said. “The sun and stars are all basically superheated balls of plasma. Plasmas are kind of the building blocks of the universe.”

Riley and Emerson walked out into the cold night air and skirted around the perimeter of the compound. There was a lot of activity, but all the attention was focused on the transport and Humvee idling in front of the warehouse.

“This is it,” Emerson said. “We’re not going to find a better time than this to make our escape.”

They sprinted to the surrounding woods, and Riley breathed a sigh of relief when they were hidden from sight. “How far do you think it is back the gatehouse?”

“Not far. Maybe a mile or two. It’s going to be slow going in the dark, though. I saw a lot of thermal features on the way in. I don’t want to accidentally fall into any pools of boiling water.”

They trudged along the Jeep trail in silence for several minutes.

“You know, Emerson, something you said back in the compound reminds me of something Professor White told us back at George Mason University.”

“What’s that?”

“That plasmas formed the building blocks of the universe,” Riley said. “Didn’t the professor say that mantle plumes contained trace amounts of cosmic leftovers—the same materials that formed the stars before the earth was created? She said they were a clue to the forces of creation.”