“Which means. ?”
“A tachyon is a hypothetical subatomic particle that moves faster than the speed of light.”
“Again,” Raine said. “‘Which means. ?’”
Nadia sighed heavily. She had little patience for people on a slower wavelength than her. “Scientists have for years been trying to prove that tachyons exist. They are an elemental aspect to theoretical physics, and to many they have become a…” she shrugged. “A holy grail to physicists.” She paused and her face seemed to darken. “Including my father.”
Raine knew little about Nadia’s early years, only rumours and gossip he had heard on the expedition. One of those rumours was that her father had been executed for feeding potentially dangerous information to terrorists.
“I won’t bore you with all the details,” she said curtly, “however one unusual aspect of tachyons is that as their speed increases, their energy decreases. Therefore, theoretically, the longer a tachyon exists, the faster it travels and the more energy it bleeds as Cherenkov radiation. This is well known.”
“Yeah, who didn’t know that,” Raine quipped.
“My father, however, dedicated most of his adult life to proving that tachyons are real. After decades of research, he succeeded in constructing a device which captured a single tachyon for one billionth of a second.”
“A billionth of a second?” Raine asked, incredulous.
“What he detected was an enormous amount of energy, travelling at the speed of light. The particle also emitted a type of radiation which conventional Geiger counters could not detect.”
“Tachyon radiation,” Sid confirmed.
“That’s right. And that’s why my initial scans failed to indicate any radioactive material. Because the radiation that does exist is unlike any previously detected, except by my father.”
“So what does this mean for us?” Sid asked, trepidation in her voice. “Can it not be treated?”
“On the contrary,” Nadia replied. “It can be treated in much the same way as conventional radiation sickness, if caught in time.”
Raine saw the relief wash over Sid’s face. King tightened his grip on her shoulders, reassuringly.
“I still cannot explain why the two of you are showing no symptoms, however,” she said to Raine and King. “Theoretically, as you both had direct contact with the mask, you should both be dead.”
“That’s reassuring,” Raine smiled. He glanced at King. He had remained quiet through most of Nadia’s explanation, absorbing all the details. He knew what the archaeologist was thinking, beyond the immediate implications of the Russian’s discovery.
The tachyon radiation proved that the Curse of the Moon Mask was real. The deaths of the slavers, the legends of the flesh eating Evil Spirit of Sarisariñama. It was further validation to his work.
“My theory is that your immunity, Ben,” she directed her words at King, “might possibly stem from your ancestral roots.”
“It makes sense,” Sid agreed. “The Bouda supposedly developed an immunity to the ‘curse’, at least to a point. And if the curse is radiation, its stands to reason that, somehow, they were protected from it in order for them to use the mask. That immunity must have been passed down through your ancestors.”
“Then what about me?” Raine asked.
Nadia eyed him curiously. “You, Mister Raine, I believe are nothing but a defect of nature.”
King steered the conversation back to Nadia’s original concern. “Why would anyone lie about this?” he asked. “I mean, if they had just told us we were suffering from radiation poisoning—”
“Because the Americans want the Moon Mask,” Nadia cut him off.
“What? Why?” Sid exclaimed. Raine watched the interaction, glancing around the tent to ensure no one was listening in.
“My father was killed because he was accused of selling tachyon technology to the Shariat Jamaat, a separatist organisation in Dagestan,” the Russian woman explained.
“Why would they care about a bunch of hypothetical particles that haven’t even been proven to exist?” Sid asked.
“Why would Moscow care?” Raine added, intrigued.
“Because of the enormous amounts of energy created by tachyons,” Nadia explained. “They’ve been linked to Zero Point Energy, which is, in your layman’s terms,” she directed this at Raine, “a hypothetical well of infinite energy. If tachyons could be proven to exist and then harnessed, whoever controlled that power would theoretically have an unlimited energy source. My father’s most grandiose claim was that if he could develop a way to emit tachyons, he would have solved all of humankind’s energy problems. He would have saved the world.”
It was all falling into place for Raine now.
“So the Russian authorities didn’t want rebels controlling this power source,” Sid realised, but Raine knew it was much more than that.
“It wasn’t about the power to create,” he said, glancing at Nadia for confirmation. “It was about the power to destroy.”
Her beautiful blue eyes were swept by a pang of sadness and shame. She nodded slowly. Raine could see realisation dawn on King and Sid also. The enormity of what they suddenly faced had begun to take hold.
“A bomb,” Raine voiced their fears.
Nadia allowed the icy moment to linger a little more.
The thunderous pounding of the storm against the canvass became a distant, womb-like echo in Raine’s ears. He felt his heartbeat quicken.
“A tachyon bomb,” Nadia said at last, “would have the potential for unlimited destructive power. It would make the highest yield nuclear warhead look like a water pistol.”
“So, if the Moon Mask is emitting tachyon radiation,” Sid said cautiously, “then I assume—”
“It is also emitting tachyons themselves,” Nadia confirmed, cutting her off. “The radiation is merely an unfortunate by-product.”
“And, if the Americans get the mask and harness the tachyons, they’ll be able to build one of these bombs?” King asked.
“In time, yes.”
“Then I have some good and some bad news for you all,” Raine cut in. He pulled aside the tent flap a fraction and glanced out at the armed guards posted around the mess tent. The remaining personnel were sweeping through the camp, ignoring the sick and dying scientists. Searching for something.
“Those aren’t American soldiers,” he said. “They’re Chinese.”
9:
Fatal Distractions
“Chinese?”
King, Sid and Nadia all said the word at the same time, shocked. Raine briefly described how he had noticed the soldiers’ equipment. QBZ-95 assault rifles, Harbin Z-9 helicopters. Only one of them had spoken, and even then Raine had detected the hint of a Far Eastern accent. Their faces were masked by their NBC suits and while the lack of markings and insignia was not uncommon for Special Forces teams, he would have expected some official identification as they were acting on behalf of the U.N.
All in all, he knew that their plan was simple. Most civilians wouldn’t know a QBZ-95 from a BB gun, especially a bunch of nerdy scientists working on a remote mountain top. But Raine had been trained to identify weapons and aircraft and recognise threats. From the moment the troops had landed, he had felt that training slip back to the forefront of his mind. As he had been marched through the camp, he had been building a mental map in his head, pinpointing the location of the helicopters and the sentries as they were posted.