Ball Lightning(97)

A swath of empty land lay between the fusion point and the office building. They could see someone running across that space from the tent holding the acceleration bridges. As he got closer, they could make out the lieutenant colonel who had gone with Lin Yun to the fusion point. Closer still, and they saw that his left hand was clutched to his shoulder, and his right held a gun. When he reached the office building, they could see the blood running down and dripping off the barrel of his gun.

The lieutenant colonel pushed aside someone who tried to treat his wound and went straight up to General Du. In a hoarse voice, he said, “Major Lin Yun...?she’s going to conduct the macro-fusion test by force!”

Time froze. They looked across at the fusion point, and for a moment, everywhere else in the world vanished from sight, leaving only the huge tent towering alone.

“Who fired?”

“I did. There were too many of them. If I didn’t shoot first, it would have been too late.” The lieutenant colonel set down his bloody gun and sat down heavily.

“Any other casualties?” Colonel Xu asked.

“I definitely hit one of them. A captain, I think. Injured or dead, I don’t know.”

“And Lin Yun?” General Du said.

“Unharmed.”

“How many of them are there?”

“Six, including Lin Yun. Three of the others are three majors and two are captains.”

“So many people are on her side?” General Du said, eyeing Colonel Xu.

“Lin Yun had considerable appeal to some of the more nationalistically inclined young people on base.”

“And the atomic nuclei for the fusion test?”

“The two strings are already on the bridges.”

Every eye drew back from the tent in the distance to focus on General Du Yulun.

“Order base security to attack and occupy the fusion point immediately,” General Du instructed the guard commander who had just run up.

“Sir, I’m afraid that’s impossible!” said the deputy director of the special leading group, a senior colonel named Shi Jian, as he walked quickly over to General Du. “The strings are already on the bridge. Fusion might take place at any time. We need to take more decisive action.”

“Carry out the order,” Du Yulun said, without expression.

Senior Colonel Shi stared at him in anxiety verging on panic, but ultimately said nothing.

“Professor Ding, we ought to go and dissuade her,” Colonel Xu said.

Ding Yi shook his head. “I won’t go. It wouldn’t do any good. Besides, I understand her.” His frankness drew odd looks from the others. He added, “I might be the only one here who understands her.”

“Let’s go!” Colonel Xu said, and, without a second look at Ding Yi, he hurried off with the guard commander.

“Don’t shoot rashly,” General Du called after them as they left. The guard commander turned back with a hasty, “Yes, sir.”

“It’s no use. Trying to persuade her won’t work. I still don’t understand her...,” General Du murmured to himself. He looked like he had aged considerably in the blink of an eye, perhaps blaming himself for allowing emotion to trump reason, for it was clear to all now that Lin Yun had been his most prized student.

The security force quickly surrounded the fusion point and began drawing their line tighter around the tent. They moved in silence, neither side opening fire. When the line reached the tent, Colonel Xu shouted through a megaphone, but he was clearly no longer thinking straight. His attempts at persuasion were jumbled and unconvincing, nothing more than entreaties to “calm down,” and “think of the consequences.”

As if in answer, the sharp electric hum of a thunderball gun was heard in the tent, followed immediately by a whistling string of cool blue ball lightning, which whipped over the line like a gale. The soldiers reflexively hit the ground. The ball lightning exploded just behind them in a short bang, and a few stands of tamarisks and two nearby piles of crates turned instantly to ash, producing no flame, but giving off black tendrils of smoke. The ball lightning had released its energy into wood and vegetation.

“That was a warning. Your last warning.” From the tent, Lin Yun’s voice came over a megaphone, calm as water.

“Lin Yun, you...?you’d really try to kill your comrades in arms?” Colonel Xu shouted in despair.

There was no answer.

“Pull the forces back at once,” General Du said.

“We should immediately carry out a ball lightning attack on the tent, sir. We can’t delay any longer!” Senior Colonel Shi said.

“No,” a base officer said. “Lin Yun’s group is using the latest-model thunderball gun. It has a built-in EM shield system that will deflect all ball lightning shot by other thunderball guns at fifty meters.”

General Du thought for a few seconds, then picked up a phone and dialed the number for Lin Yun’s father, General Lin Feng.

“Sir, this is Du Yulun. I’m calling you from the Project B436 base. When the special leading group was about to take over the base, there was an unexpected incident. Lin Yun and five other young officers forcibly occupied the fusion test point, and are now going to carry out the macro-fusion test by force. The two atomic nuclei are in the accelerators, and fusion could take place at any time. They are armed with a thunderball gun. Would you...”