The Prometheus Project (6 page)

“I just have one more question,” persisted Ryan. “What were you celebrating when we arrived?”

His mom gestured toward the wispy staircase. “Last night we decided to cut out some of these threads to study. It turned out to be far easier said than done. After a number of failed attempts, we finally managed it. We were celebrating our success.”

“Why would it be so difficult just to cut some threads?” asked Regan.

Amanda Resnick smiled. “They’re a lot stronger than they look.”

“
Mom,
I know
that,
” said Regan in a tone that suggested her mother had just questioned her intelligence. It was totally obvious that a collection of threads so thin as to be almost invisible, yet still able to easily support the weight of an adult, had to have some special properties. “But, I mean, just how strong are we talking about here?”

“As strong as anything we’ve ever seen except the force-field,” replied her mom. “Far stronger even than spider silk,” she added, as though this were the ultimate compliment.

“Spider silk?” repeated Ryan in disbelief. “Spider silk isn’t
strong
. You can break a web with no effort at all.”

Mrs. Resnick raised her eyebrows. “I don’t know Ryan, there are a lot of insects who might not agree with you,” she said, an amused smile coming over her face. “Remember that each thread of a spider web is far thinner than a strand of human hair—hundreds of times thinner, in fact. And yet a web can still stop a large, flying bug. A web of equally thin threads—but made of the world’s toughest steel instead of spider silk—wouldn’t be
nearly
as strong. Put another way, if you could make a web out of spider-silk ropes as thick as a pencil, this web would stop a jet airplane.”

“Wow,” said Ryan, truly impressed. “I never thought about it that way.”

“Most people don’t,” said his mom. She pointed to the staircase. “And these threads are
millions
of times stronger even than spider silk. We finally began to appreciate just what we were dealing with when our every attempt to cut out a piece for study failed. Our initial efforts failed to even
scratch
one of these delicate-looking threads. We finally succeeded using a specially made diamond saw, with very fine teeth.”

Regan raised her eyebrows. “A diamond saw?”

“A saw with a blade made out of diamond.”

“Why make a saw out of diamonds?” asked Regan, still confused.

Mrs. Resnick smiled. “Diamonds aren’t just used for jewelry and decoration. They also happen to be the hardest natural material on Earth, so hard they can even scratch glass. So diamonds are used to make the best saws and drills. Luckily for us the saw worked and we were able to get a sample. The secret of these threads alone could revolutionize dozens of fields: architecture, engineering, aviation, space travel—the list goes on and on.”

“And this is only the beginning of what we might learn from the wonders of this place,” added their father. “The force-field. The material in the walking path that makes walking so effortless. Even the light-source for the city, which we haven’t even found yet. All of this, and we’ve been here less than two days!”

“The technology here really is amazing,” agreed Regan. “It almost seems more like magic than science,” she said.

Dr. Harris smiled gently. “If you took someone from two hundred years ago and brought them to the present day, they would think that
our
technology was magic. Think about it. Television, computers, jet airplanes, electricity, cell phones. They wouldn’t have any idea how these things worked. They wouldn’t even know what these things
were.”

A thought struck Regan. “Wouldn’t that also be dangerous for them?” she asked. “What if they stuck a finger in an electrical socket to find out what it was?”

“Excellent point,” said her mom. “That’s one reason we’re trying to be so careful here. We never know when we’re about to stick our finger in the alien equivalent of an innocent looking socket. Prometheus gave a very powerful, but very dangerous, gift to mankind.”

Amanda Resnick frowned deeply. “But without question this city is the most dangerous gift humanity has ever received.”

Chapter 12

Secrets and Peril

The room became eerily silent. Every scientist in the room had long since considered the dangers of tinkering with technology far beyond current human understanding, but Mrs. Resnick’s statement had been a forceful reminder of this point.

Finally, Dr. Harris cleared his throat to break the tension in the room and said, “I think it’s time to come back to the issue at hand. What do we do now that these kids know about the Prometheus Project?” He paused and rubbed his chin in thought. After almost a minute had passed he finally shook his head and said, “I’m afraid I don’t have a ready answer.” He turned toward the security chief. “Carl,” he said, “you’re the expert in these matters and most qualified to make this decision. I’ll stand behind whatever you decide.”

Carl nodded solemnly.

“It goes without saying,” said Ben Resnick, his brown eyes now locked onto Carl’s in a cool, unblinking gaze, “that you’re not just deciding what to do about two kids, but what to do about me and Amanda as well.”

Carl nodded unhappily. “Yes. I do realize that. This is truly a horrible situation with no easy answers. This does not involve criminals, spies from other nations, saboteurs, or terrorists. That would be easy. No, this involves innocent kids who are the children of two of our key scientists. Not to mention that Ben here just made an incalculable contribution to this project. Yet the importance of keeping this project absolutely secret could not be greater.”

“We won’t tell anyone,” pleaded Regan. “We swear.”

Ryan vigorously nodded his agreement beside her.

Carl pursed his lips but said nothing. He considered the two young intruders in silence for an agonizingly long time, his mind obviously running through a number of possibilities. No one in the room spoke or even seemed to breathe. “Although I believe it is a great risk,” he said at last, “it may very well be that trusting you to keep this absolutely secret is the best option we have.”

“But kids are terrible at keeping secrets—even if their intentions are good,” said a plump woman with glasses who, like most of the scientists in the room, had remained silent until this point.

The same is true of most adults,
thought Carl, but aloud he said, “We don’t have a choice. Not a real one, anyway.”

The head of security sighed and turned toward the kids with a very serious, and very troubled, expression. “Listen very closely,” he said. “I need for you to understand just what is at stake here. This city could easily change the world’s balance of power. Even though we don’t intend to apply what we learn here to create weapons—the world has plenty of these already—there are many governments that would never believe us. If they knew this city was in our hands they would panic. It’s not a stretch to say that this panic could ultimately lead to World-War Three.”

Ryan and Regan gulped.

“Are you with me so far?” said Carl.

They both nodded. Every word was etched in their minds.

“This is one possible nightmarish consequence of this secret getting out. But there are many others. What if terrorist groups got wind of this? What would they be willing to do to try to get this city under their control? The technology here could make them unstoppable.” He paused. “I could go on for hours, but I trust you get the point.”

“Absolutely,” croaked Ryan while Regan nodded beside him.

“Good. The stakes could not be higher. Because of this we have considerable power to protect this secret. If you keep this a secret, everything will be just fine. But if we ever learn you discussed this project, or joked about it, or talked in your sleep at a campout about it, we’ll be all out of pleasant options.”

He turned toward Ben and Amanda Resnick and gave an apologetic look. “And your parents will be affected as well. What options am I talking about? Imprisonment. Planting evidence that your entire family has a history of mental illness leading you all to rant about aliens and spies and ray-guns. Probably both. And if you fail to keep this secret, don’t think for a moment that we won’t find out. We will.”

Carl leaned in as he finished, looming over his far smaller listeners to add even more menace to his words. “Now—have I made myself perfectly clear?”

“Perfectly,” they both whispered at the same time.

“Amanda? Ben?”

“Understood,” said Mr. Resnick. “Given the circumstances, this is a very fair solution. I know my kids. They will keep this a secret.”

“Kids,” said Dr. Harris gently. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am that this has happened and how sorry I am that the seriousness of this situation had to be spelled out in this way. If we could undo things so you would never discover this city we would. We have truly placed a great and terrible responsibility on your young shoulders.” He nodded solemnly at them. “But given the initiative, guts, and cleverness you displayed finding your way here, I’m confident that you’re up to it.”

“We won’t let you down, Dr. Harris,” Ryan assured him. He took a deep breath and mustered his courage. “Now that this is settled . . .” he began. “Now that this is settled . . . can we . . . well, can we help you explore this city?”

Dr. Harris shook his head as if he had heard wrong. “What?” The entire group looked just as shocked. “Are you
kidding
?”

“Ah . . . no,” said Ryan timidly. Then, far more firmly added, “Why not? It’s a huge city and you have a very small team. We would stay out of your way and I know that we could help.”

“Ryan’s right,” added Regan. “We
could
help. You could think of us as assistants. We could do whatever you told us to do.”

“We promise not to cause any trouble,” insisted   Ryan.

“I’m afraid it’s totally out of the question,” said Dr. Harris. “You heard your mother. This city is likely to be the most dangerous place on Earth.”

“I don’t know, Harry,” said a tall, bald-headed scientist. “Maybe the kids have a point. We could use all the help we can get. And we’re being extremely careful to limit the danger. I know it would be unusual, but I think adding a couple of bright kids to the team could prove very valuable. I think they could turn out to make unexpected contributions. Kids aren’t afraid to think of ideas that adults would consider crazy. We need that here.”

“You do have to admit that any kids able to get past our security the way they did might just come up with a few clever ideas, at that,” added another of the scientists.

“I’ve already acknowledged that these kids are very impressive,” said Dr. Harris. He paused for several long seconds in thought, but finally a frown crept over his face and he shook his head. “But the answer is still no. I believe that—”

“Mom!” shouted Ryan in horror. “Look out!”

A bolt holding a heavy portable generator to the pole above Mrs. Resnick had worked its way lose. Ryan had caught it out of the corner of his eye as it popped free and the generator began its fall—straight down toward his mother’s head.

Ryan watched the generator fall in horror, knowing that his warning had been too late to save his mom.

Chapter 13

Bug Attack!

Just as Mrs. Resnick was beginning to react to her son’s warning the generator completed its fall, smashing into the top of her head with a sickening thud. “No!” screamed Ryan frantically.

His mom sprawled to the floor, unconscious. Blood was pouring from her head.

The scientists reacted immediately, surrounding her.

Tears came to Mr. Resnick’s eyes at the sight of his badly injured wife. He tore his shirt from his body and wrapped it around her head like a turban to help staunch the flow of blood, and then gently cradled her head in his arms. Ryan knelt beside him, horrified, while Regan looked on in total shock.

Dr. Harris gave her a quick examination. He didn’t even need to say anything; the look on his face was enough. She was in trouble.

“Is she going to make it?” whispered Ben Resnick.

“It doesn’t look good,” said Dr. Harris grimly. “But if we can get her to a hospital in time she has a small chance.”

“Let’s move then,” said their father, fighting to hold himself together. “Kids, I need you to run as fast as you can back to the elevator. Take it to the top and then send it back down so it’ll be waiting for us. Call 9-1-1 and have an ambulance meet us at the main building.” He didn’t wait for a response. “Go!” he commanded.

The Resnick siblings dashed off, leaving the group by the stairs. But just as they passed into the next room on the way to the outside they were stopped in their tracks by a blood-curdling scream.

They turned back toward the room and were greeted by a sight straight out of a horror movie. An infestation of insects was pouring out of the floor, completely surrounding the group of scientists and their mom. They were pitch black and were the size of very large ants. They had six perfectly identical body segments, and each segment had a pair of both legs and pincers that seemed to be in constant motion. There must have been millions of them; a living sea of relentless alien insects so dense that they were stacked on top of each other, several inches deep. Large chunks of rock had appeared as well, maybe from under the floor, and as the insects swarmed over them on their way to the group of scientists the rocks completely dissolved, like ice-cubes in a pot of boiling water.

The scientists were frantically searching for a way around the swarm, but there wasn’t one. They were completely encircled and were even cut off from the staircase.

Both kids froze in horror as they watched. Their father spotted them out of the corner of his eye. “Go!” he shouted from the middle of the sea of hungry insects. “Get out of here!”

“We won’t just leave you!” cried Regan.