Wormhole (The Rho Agenda #3)(69)

Dr. Dubois’s eyes widened as if he’d been slapped in the face.

“Face it, Louis,” Stephenson continued. “No need to search for more standard-physics-model validation. That model is dead.”

With that dismissal, Dr. Stephenson turned to yell more instructions at the foreman. Behind him, Dr. Louis Dubois stood frozen in place. As he stared up at the beautiful, intricate machine that was ATLAS, his eyes misted over. Stephenson was right. Like Louis, in the blink of an eye, it had become a dinosaur.





Dr. Rodger Dalbert slid into the indicated seat in the small breakout room adjacent to the White House Situation Room. President Jackson was seated in the opposite chair, Cory Mayfield, the director of national intelligence, sat to his right, and James Nobles, the National Security Advisor, sat on the president’s left. The arrangement had Rodger seated with his back to the door, a position that left him feeling exposed and vulnerable.

The breakout room was normally used for occasions when the president wanted to pull a couple of key staff members out of the Situation Room for a private side discussion, while the rest of the staff cooled their heels and waited for the president’s return. To be brought here directly, while the Situation Room sat empty next door, raised Rodger’s hackles, making him feel like closing himself inside one of the nearby high-security Plexiglas phone tubes.

“Rodger. Glad to see you,” the president said.

“Always a pleasure, Mr. President.”

“I imagine you’re curious as to why I had you brought down here.”

“The question came to mind.”

President Jackson leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head. “You understand that what we are about to discuss is top-secret SCI?”

Rodger nodded.

“You’re not to discuss anything we talk about with anyone but me. Is that clear?”

Once again Rodger felt the uncomfortable tensing of muscles between his shoulder blades. The president did tend to repeat himself. “Yes sir.”

The president smiled that broad smile that had eased his ascension into the political stratosphere, and leaned forward to rest his forearms on the table. “Good. Then let’s get right to the meat of it. You know Jim Nobles and Cory Mayfield. They have come to me with a proposal that impacts the construction being done at the ATLAS site. As chairman of my council on science and technology, and since you were the first American to be briefed on the November Anomaly, I wanted to get your opinion before I make a final decision.”

Rodger glanced at Cory Mayfield, but the intel man’s gray eyes betrayed no hint of emotion. But James Nobles’s mouth held a tension that matched Rodger’s.

“I’m listening.”

“Go ahead, Cory.”

“I’ve recommended to the president that, through our ties with the Geneva-based construction company Dietrich and Hoechner, we install some tactical nuclear weapons within some of the prefabricated supports destined for installation in the ATLAS cavern.”

Rodger’s jaw dropped as he struggled to parse the words he’d just heard.

Regaining his voice, Rodger consciously released the pressure in his clenched fists. “Mr. President, that’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Motioning for the other two to remain silent, the president looked directly into his eyes. “OK, Rodger, make your case.”

Rodger struggled to bring his thoughts to bear on the problem. It boggled his mind that the president of the United States had even entertained the proposal, much less give it enough credence to warranted Rodger’s debunking it. He inhaled deeply.

“Mr. President, I assume the purpose of these devices would be to form some sort of backup plan whereby they would be triggered in order to destroy the nascent black hole?”

“That is correct.”

“That’s just wrong. As I already briefed you and the entire staff, the anomaly exists at an inflection point and is gradually tilting into a state where it is likely to become a black hole. We’re struggling to slow that process by surrounding it in as perfect a low-temperature vacuum as can be created on Earth, all in an attempt to keep the thing from absorbing additional matter and energy, just trying to give the November Anomaly Project time to build the Stephenson device. Any explosive addition of energy to the anomaly will greatly accelerate its progress in becoming a black hole. If you set off a nuclear explosion, you’ll be destroying the Earth as surely as if the sun went supernova.”

“You’re certain of that.”

“As sure as I’m sitting here.”

“Cory?”

“I understand Dr. Dalbert’s scientific analysis. But Mr. President, the fact remains that something might go wrong with Dr. Stephenson’s device. It might not work as his theory predicts or it might not get done in time. There’s also the side issue of how much we trust Dr. Stephenson. There’s no doubt he’s a genius, but our sources say he’s rolling out theoretical applications that he never revealed to others at Los Alamos or to the rest of the government team. If something goes badly wrong, we can’t afford to go without a fallback plan.”

“Fallback plan?” Rodger sputtered. “Didn’t you hear anything I just said? If you nuke it you get an instant black hole. No need to add water or stir.”

“And if we do nothing, we get a black hole anyway. Isn’t that right, Dr. Dalbert?”