Linkage: The Narrows of Time (17 page)

“Yes, ma’am. While there’s no direct proof,
we believe that E-121’s disappearance and the recurring energy
fields are connected in some fashion. The timing of the events—the
similar energy levels—the black powder residue. It can’t just be
coincidence. It’s a good bet they’re related . . . somehow.”

“When you say
related
, do you mean
that E-121’s disappearance caused the energy fields?”

“Yes, one could draw that conclusion. But
that may not be the only—”

“Was your second test sanctioned by the
university, Dr. Ramsay?”

“No, it wasn’t. But—”

“Then would it be correct to assume that if
you had not violated protocols and run the experiment a second
time, we would not be sitting here today?”

“Yes, you could say that—“

“Then by extension, would it be accurate to
conclude that your unauthorized actions led to the murder of
thousands of innocent civilians and billions of dollars’ worth of
damage?”

Lucas didn’t answer right away. He needed
time to think. It was clear she wasn’t there for answers. Her
agenda was obvious—she needed to pin the deaths on somebody and his
name was the only one on the suspect board. Lucas figured he was
screwed no matter what he said. Even so, she
was
right. This
was
his fault. He was the one who disobeyed Kleezebee’s
orders. There was no denying it. He decided not to fight it. What
difference would it make anyway? He looked at Drew who was sitting
quietly, staring down at the table’s edge. Lucas took a deep breath
before answering in a nervous voice. “Yes, it’s my fault all those
people died. My brother had nothing to do with it. I take full
responsibility for what happened.”

Rosenbaum nodded as if she was pleased with
herself. She leaned forward in her chair. “Do you have anything
else to add, Dr. Ramsay?”

He was surprised she opened the floor for
response. “Only that there was an unexplained energy spike in the
reactor’s core just before the material vanished. It may have
overloaded the core, which might explain why the E-121
disappeared.”

“What was the origin of the spike?”

“Unknown.”

“Then how can you be certain there actually
was an energy spike?”

“Our instruments recorded it.”

“Isn’t it possible your equipment may have
malfunctioned and reported a spike when in fact there was
none?”

“No, Dr. Rosenbaum, they were functioning
properly.”

“Who built these instruments?”

“We did. They’re our own design and we spent
months perfecting them.”

Rosenbaum pulled out a sheet of paper from
her folder. “Your logbook reported the spike to be at least six
times 10
³¹
terajoules. Is that correct?”

“Yes, I believe so.”

“Were your instruments designed to handle
that amount of energy?”

Lucas shook his head. “No, they weren’t. But
trust me, my brother ran the calculations and he’s never
wrong.”

“Even if there was a massive energy spike, as
you claim, does that in any way mitigate your responsibility for
running the experiment without permission?”

He wished he could answer yes to her
question, but couldn’t. “No, ma’am, it doesn’t.”

The woman was relentless. Lucas suddenly felt
like the chair he was sitting in was six sizes too large for him.
His blood pressure skyrocketed. He checked to see if the door
behind him was open. It wasn’t.

Rosenbaum closed the folder with added force,
then made eye contact with each of her constituents seated at the
table. “Dr. Ramsay, this council has spent the entire morning
reviewing the available video and scientific evidence with the
President and his advisors. It is our conclusion, as well as that
of the President, that your experiment indeed triggered the energy
vortexes, which are, at this very moment, spreading across our
planet. You were correct earlier when you stated that the facts in
evidence are not merely coincidence. We agree. They’re much too
specific to be random, unrelated events. Your unauthorized E-121
test caused these tragedies.”

Lucas had intended to present the council
with their notebook of theories. But he changed his mind when it
became clear that the old bag’s sole intent was to crucify him. He
decided it would be best if he waited until after the meeting when
he could discuss the notebook privately with Kleezebee. Maybe DL
could reason with her.

Rosenbaum continued with a stern voice.
“Based on our projections, if this phenomenon continues at its
current pace, the entire surface of our planet will be leveled in a
little over two weeks. Thanks to you two, the human race is on the
verge of extinction.” She took a sip from a half-empty water
bottle. “The press is all over this with their doomsday
predictions. We’re hearing reports of riots, looting, religious
hysteria, and mass suicide in every major city around the world. As
this phenomenon spreads, power grids are beginning to fail, along
with key transportation and communication systems. We have foreign
heads of state promising retaliation for what they believe is a
biological attack. Our society is on the brink of social and
spiritual anarchy . . .”

Jesus, lady, dial back the drama a bit, Lucas
thought.

There was a knock at the door. The door
opened partway and Mary Stinger stuck her head inside. “Excuse me.
I have an urgent report to deliver to Dr. Kleezebee.”

“Come in,” Rosenbaum said, “but make it
quick.”

Mary walked around the far side of the table
and handed the report to Dr. Kleezebee. Her hair swayed from side
to side, as she walked quickly back to the door. She smiled and
winked at Lucas.

Now
she notices me? he thought.

Kleezebee spent half a minute reading the
contents of the folder before addressing Rosenbaum. “Dr. Rosenbaum,
this is a preliminary DNA report for the human remains left behind
on Campbell Avenue. Thus far, we have positively identified a
hundred and five victims. There appears to be twenty-two additional
DNA samples, which we have yet to identify.”

Kleezebee handed the folder to her. “I
caution you, there are some rather graphic photos attached to the
back of the report.”

Rosenbaum opened the folder and spent a few
minutes reviewing it. She seemed to be unaffected by its contents.
She turned the folder sideways to look at the photos attached in
the back.

“Dr. Rosenbaum, if you don’t mind, I would
like to see that report next,” Larson said, leaning forward in his
chair.

She closed the folder and slid it across the
table to Larson, right into his outstretched hand. “Dr. Kleezebee,
may I have a word with you in private?” she asked.

Kleezebee stood up and the two of them moved
to the far corner of the room. Lucas could not hear what they were
saying to each other.

Meanwhile, Larson was slowly scanning the
report with his right index finger. When Larson’s finger stopped
moving, he pulled out his cell phone and tried to use it.

“It’s not going to work down here, you dumb
ass,” Lucas mumbled quietly.

Larson closed his cell and reached for the
house phone sitting in front of Dr. Suki. He dragged it closer to
him by the wall cord before picking up the receiver. “Do I need to
dial nine first to get an outside line?” he asked Suki. Suki
nodded. Larson dialed the phone, and a few moments later, he began
a conversation. “I need to speak to Rafael, is he available? . . .
This is his brother-in-law, Randy . . . I need to get a message to
him . . . Tell him I’m sorry to report that he was correct all
along. He’ll know what it means.”

Larson hung up the phone and walked past
Lucas on his way out of the conference room.

Drew leaned over and whispered into Lucas’
ear, “See if you can get a copy of that DNA report. I‘d like to
know if Abby’s name is on the list.”

Before Lucas could respond, he heard a faint
rumble above him that got progressively louder. Moments later, his
fingertips felt an uneven vibration in the conference room table.
At first, Lucas thought NASA was firing up one of their underground
tests, but he soon realized he was wrong when the intensity of the
quake increased dramatically. The tremor was far beyond anything he
had ever experienced before.

Kleezebee and Rosenbaum, who were still
engaged in a private conversation along the wall, both fell over
and landed on the floor.

Lucas was shaken out of his seat and landed
next to Drew’s wheelchair. He reached up for his brother’s arm, and
pulled Drew down beside him. They crawled under the mahogany
conference table together for safety.

One of the padded ceiling tiles came crashing
down and landed on Drew’s wheelchair. The corner of the tile landed
point first, tearing a penny-sized hole in the wheelchair’s seat. A
teleconference screen broke free from the wall and smashed into the
floor. Glass lenses from two of the video cameras shattered into
pieces after the cameras shook loose from their ceiling mounts and
hit the floor.

Lawnmower-sized chunks of cement rained down
from the floor above, splintering into dozens of pieces when the
hit, sending streams of cement dust into the air. It was getting
hard to breathe.

The room suddenly went dark. Drew immediately
latched onto Lucas’ right arm. Ten seconds later, the dim emergency
lighting kicked in. Lucas looked behind him to see if everyone was
okay. He saw Kleezebee and Rosenbaum kneeling together under the
table. They were next to Hudson Rapp, who appeared to be unharmed,
though his face was covered in a film of white dust, making him
look like a mime.

Lucas didn’t see Dr. Suki, not at first. Then
he spotted a bloody hand sticking out from under a pile of cement
rubble. Since every one else was accounted for, the arm must have
belonged to Suki. But Suki’s hand and fingers were not moving—he
was either dead or unconscious.

Lucas could feel the cement floor moving
beneath him as the tremor’s violence increased. As far as he knew,
they were on the bottommost floor, with nothing but bedrock
underneath them. However, if something manmade were down there,
they could fall through.

Drew tapped him on the shoulder and tried to
tell him something. But Lucas could not hear him due to an intense
brain-splitting squeal that suddenly filled the room. A second
later, Drew blacked out and fell on his side. Soon after, Kleezebee
and Rosenbaum also lay unconscious. Director Rapp was awake, but
his left ear was bleeding.

Another volley of debris fell onto the table
above him. It sounded like it may have landed on one of the TV
screens built into the tabletop, shattering its screen. The
conference room doors swung open, allowing Lucas to see Larson
lying on the ground outside.

The tremor stopped and so did the squeal.

Lucas poked his head out from under the table
and looked around, hoping another piece of concrete wouldn’t shake
loose above him. A heavy bundle of cables had fallen down through
one of the gaps in the ceiling. There was cement and other debris
spread over the conference table and across the floor.

Drew woke up slowly, as did Kleezebee and
Rosenbaum. Larson was still lying motionless on the floor outside
the conference room.

Chapter
14

Ascension

Lucas helped Drew back into his wheelchair.
The chair’s leather seat held Drew’s weight despite the puncture
near the middle. They were lucky the falling debris didn’t cause
more damage. “You in one piece, brother?”

“I’m fine. Was that another energy field
attack?”

“I think so. It sounded like it was right
above us.”

“Do you think it damaged the science
lab?”

“Yep. You can kiss our experiment goodbye,”
Lucas said, before coughing twice. The air was filled with dust. “I
can’t believe it affected us twenty floors underground. I thought
we would’ve been safe down here. Boy was I wrong.”

“Gives you an indication of its destructive
power,” Kleezebee replied.

“Professor, your leg!” Lucas said, seeing his
boss walking with a severe limp. Blood had soaked through the cuff
on the same pant leg.

“The video screen landed on my ankle and I
heard it snap. It hurts like hell, but I’ll live. Everyone else
okay?”

“I’m not injured,” Rosenbaum said, dusting
herself off with her wrinkled hands. Sprinkles of debris had been
trapped in her beehive hairdo, much like in a spider’s web.

“Dr. Suki’s in pretty rough shape,” Rapp
said, removing hunks of the cement that had buried Suki. A two-foot
section of rebar was sticking out of the upper right quadrant of
Suki’s chest. He checked Suki’s pulse. “He’s alive, barely. He’s
going to need medical attention, and soon.”

Kleezebee picked up the receiver to the house
phone and listened. “No dial tone. Switch must be down. Someone’s
going to have to go get help.”

“I’ll go,” Lucas said, looking up and seeing
an open gap in the ceiling tiles. Dust was trickling down through
it in a swirling pattern.

Larson walked gingerly into the conference
room. “How? The power’s out and I doubt the elevator is
working.”

NASA Director Rapp pulled out an ultra-thin
computer from a leather bag he had sitting underneath the table. He
powered up the unit. “This facility is self-contained and has its
own nuclear power plant and air-filtration system. We shouldn’t be
on emergency lighting right now. Something’s wrong.”

“Did you say nuclear?” Larson asked.

“Yes. Something must have caused the reactor
to go offline.”

“There wasn’t a meltdown, was there?” Larson
asked.

“If there was, we wouldn’t be having this
conversation right now,” Rapp snapped.

“Do you know the location of the reactor?”
Kleezebee asked, hopping closer to the NASA director.