That idea seemed to please McCaul. A hint of a smile suggested she found satisfaction in saying the words "Briggs" and "failure" in the same sentence.
Liz said, "The follow-up teams were never heard from again. The Red Lab he worked in has been quarantined ever since that experiment went wrong. I’m surprised no one spoke to you about this."
Major Gant shifted uneasily. He had felt unsure about this trip to begin with, but mentioning entry team details made him uncomfortable. He started to think Liz was going a little too far. Certainly Borman would hit the roof if and when he found out about this trip, but if he learned how much they had discussed with McCaul he could charge them with insubordination or even revealing classified information.
Dr. McCaul returned to her chair behind the desk and sat down, placing her hands on her head. She seemed to have lost her balance both mentally and physically.
"Then his work is lost. Well, that makes sense. All these years I was just hoping he was wrong with his theory and his search for Higgs. But now it sounds as if he might have been right."
"Let me put it bluntly, Doreen," Liz said and asked, "Can you think of anything that could’ve caused such a situation?"
McCaul did mental battle with her memories.
"I imagine you’re hoping I have one important clue — maybe a secret about the experiment I can divulge. I'm sorry, I don’t. Odds are, his plan to generate enough power to get those lasers going backfired and produced an explosion that wiped his team out. That's my first guess. But there are other concerns, of course. The type of thing you always hear about with these types of science projects. That was back before the Internet, and Tall likes to keep its research out of the public spotlight. But look at how people reacted to the Large Hadron Collider; all sorts of nonsense about creating black holes that would suck up the Earth. Seriously, people spend too much time talking about science they don't understand. Although I suppose it makes for a good story or two."
"So what could’ve gone wrong?" Thunder asked again.
Surprisingly, Gant offered an answer.
"Maybe he found God. Maybe he found this ultimate building block. Maybe he found it and punched through it. I do not understand much of what you are telling us, Dr. McCaul, but I think I am catching on. He could have released a tremendous amount of energy, maybe even hazardous radiation of a type with which we are not familiar."
"What about the other direction?" Thunder took the ball and ran with it. McCaul sat silent, wearing an expression of mild amusement.
"What if his machine actually caused some sort of collapse and he created a micro black hole; something that would simply suck in all the matter and energy around it. That would explain why no one ever came back; as soon as they got into the lab they were caught."
"True," Gant volleyed. "But that would not explain the mental influences at the—" he stopped himself, looked at McCaul, and smiled.
"You know," the older woman said, offering yet another take, "what if there was actually a God who created the universe? What if that singularity at the center of creation was God, and he said 'let there be light' with a single thought? And what if that thought caused the first atoms, the first pieces of matter that would grow and become what we see as existence?"
"God … or, God’s original thought," Gant mused. "I suppose that type of a theory would take a great deal of faith."
McCaul waved toward her shelf of religious images and said, "As you can see, Major, I am a woman of faith, so it is not that far a stretch for me."
He examined the shelf again and said, "You have quite a collection of faiths. Having trouble choosing the best one?"
"Not at all. My faith isn't with any particular religion. Religion, after all, is a man-made phenomenon. But every religion has faith at its core; the belief in something greater than what your eyes can see."
Liz Thunder said, "I'm surprised, Doctor. It has been my experience that scientists tend to stay away from spirituality."
"Some do, certainly," the older woman admitted. "Quantum mechanics, physics on the subatomic level, deals directly with the creation of our world, and let me tell you, it is one messed up, confusing, and frustrating arena of study. Once you get down inside atoms, you find rules, actions, and predictions that contradict the physical laws of the larger universe. It has been said that no one really understands quantum mechanics. Consider that one prominent theory in this field of study is called relational quantum mechanics, which essentially means that the quantum system is dependent on the observer. In other words, the thing you are studying exists only when you are studying it."
Major Gant tried to lighten the mood: "I suppose that answers the age-old question. Apparently if a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear, it does not make a sound."
Dr. McCaul narrowed her eyes and told him, "No, Major. If there is no one around, the tree does not exist."
"That boggles the mind," Gant admitted.
"And that is only one of many theories relating to quantum physics, any number of which could cause a person to question the very nature of existence," McCaul said. "The people I worked with when I was involved in subatomic research tended to drift into one of two camps. Some decided that, having seen the building blocks of existence, they had debunked any notion of a Creator, like knowing the tricks up a magician's sleeve."
"The others?" he asked.
"Others realized that no matter how hard we look, we will never grasp the truth of our existence because one cannot fully understand a system while living inside it. In short, some of us found faith in a force greater than our comprehension. I'm not sure if that is God as the churches describe him or a fantastic natural force too magnificent for our minds, but I am confident there is more to life than what we can see."
"It must be nice," Gant said, "to have that kind of faith."
McCaul looked to him, then back at Liz, then to Gant again. She said, "Oh, now, everyone has faith, major. Especially you."
"Me?"
"Everyone does. Having faith in yourself is the most important, but you also believe in the chain of command. Your orders come down and you follow them — is that not true?"
Major Gant slowly nodded his head. Yes, she was right. He followed orders, even when he disagreed with those orders. McCaul called it faith, he might call it instinct, but the end result was the same. He obeyed.
She turned to Thunder and said, "And you, Colonel? How is your faith these days?"
Liz seemed somewhat transfixed.
McCaul said, "You're different from the major. You don't share his faith, do you?"
The lieutenant colonel's eyes widened and she said, "I'm an officer in the United States military. Yes, I have faith in my superiors."
"No, I'm afraid you don't. You're wearing civilian clothes; your phone call came directly to me, bypassing the proper channels; and you came to me for answers that, it would seem, your superiors did not feel fit to discuss with you. That means you don't trust them leaving you in the dark about Briggs and his work. No, Colonel, you have no faith in the chain of command." She leaned forward and in a voice bordering on a whisper, added, "I hope, dear, that at least you still have faith in yourself. At a place like Red Rock, you will need it."
Liz's mouth opened but no sound came out.
Gant came to her rescue.
"Thank you, Doctor, for all the information.
"If you need me, I’m only a phone call away and I promise to be discreet. I’ll do anything I can to help. Dr. Briggs was an arrogant man, yet somehow he found the funding to pursue even his wildest theories, something the rest of us can only dream of."
Liz stood and stepped toward the door, eager to leave. Major Gant followed.
As they left the office McCaul said, "There’s something I’ve learned as a scientist that you should know, Major Gant. Every time I think I’ve seen it all — every time a theory becomes accepted doctrine — something comes along to take it to a whole new level. Briggs was out there; way out there. He may have taken things to a whole new level."