The Krone Experiment

'Where is it then?'

'Sergeant Ruiz said someone from the bomb squad picked it up.'

'The bomb squad!'

'Well, yes, I suppose they were concerned about letter bombs, that sort of thing.'

'Letter bombs are anonymous. Not likely that the Colonel would drop by in his official lime to deliver one. Tell them to get that note up here. On the double!'

'Yes, sir!'

Isaacs waved his arms at the ceiling in a gesture of desperation. 'What a world,' he exclaimed.

'So what kind of picture do we have here?' he asked rhetorically, addressing Saris. 'Krone Industries set up this lab to do research on contract to Los Alamos. They've done work on particle beams and lasers, particularly using them to implode material to high density and temperatures, just as Zicek said. That could be directly relevant.'

'It's not just Krone Industries,' said Earls. 'I've been reading quarterly reports the lab submitted to Los Alamos. Krone himself is chief man on the spot, devoting himself one hundred per cent to the effort.

'And not just his time,' Saris continued. 'Out of curiosity, I got a list of the companies in Krone Industries and looked up their financial reports.' He betted one of the folders he had selected. 'That lab is not just running on its consulting contract with Los Alamos. Every one of these companies under Krone's thumb has diverted significant portions of their resources to the lab. There's an immense effort going on there. Far more than required by the government contract.'

Isaacs leaned back in his chair to digest this information and looked up at a rap on the door. Kathleen opened it and ushered in an energetic young man with close-cropped hair. In his hand he clutched a mangled envelope.

'Mark Burley, sir. From counteractivity. This is the note delivered to you half an hour ago. We processed it as quickly as we could.' He banded over the envelope.

Isaacs took it and raised a sceptical eyebrow. The envelope was crudely ripped open and both the envelope and the portion of the enclosed note, which was exposed through the ragged flap, were wrinkled.

'You opened it?'

'Yes, sir,' Burley replied with deep sincerity. 'We deter— named it was not a letter bomb by certan physical tests, but we wanted to check the contents for contaminants. Contact poisons. If we'd had time we could've opened it so you'd never have noticed.' A small, proud smile came and went quickly. 'As it was, we did the most thorough job we could, in the shortest time.'

'I'm sure you did.' If Burley noticed Isaacs's facetious tone, he gave no sign.

'Thank you, Mr Burley. I appreciate the fast work.'

'Anytime, sir. That's our job.' The young man spun smartly on his heel and marched out. Isaacs exchanged an amused, wry smile with Bans.

'Boy Scout. Place is crawling with them,' said Bans.

Isaacs's smile faded as he extracted and read the hand— scrawled note. It was very brief.

I know. I have to tell them. You must hurry.

Isaacs had briefed Baris on his interchange with Korolev. He banded the piece of rough, light brown Russian paper to Earls.

'Know?' he asked. 'Know what?'

'I'm afraid damn near everything we do,' Isaacs replied. He thumbed the intercom.

'Yes?'

'Kathleen, get me Martinelli.'

Isaacs put a hand on the phone in anticipation and looked at Bans.

'At the very least Korolev knows everything we did when Pat and I first went to talk to Jason because of the synopsis I sent him. There's a very good chance he followed the same line of reasoning as Runyan. As wild an idea as a black hole is, it has a certain inevitability in hindsight. Korolev didn't have direct access to our physical evidence from Nagasaki and Dallas , but he had his own from the Novorossiisk.'

The phone buzzed and Isaacs jerked the receiver to his ear.

'Vince? I want to know about Soviet ship deployment. Particularly along thirty-two degrees forty-seven minutes, both north and south longitude.' He listened for a moment. 'Anytime in the last six weeks. I'd rather have that now and fresh stuff when you can get it.' He listened again. 'That's just the ticket. Thanks, Vince.'

He hung up and looked intently at Baris. 'We have to assume Korolev also guessed we were dealing with a black hole. I sent him my memo in late June. He's had six weeks to ponder it and move to do something about it. I also tipped off Zamyatin to watch Nagasaki. We can also assume they have at least a rough idea what went on there. If they have penetrated the Japanese with any efficiency, they probably have the full report. Korolev could pick up quickly on the parallels between the holes drilled in Nagasaki , and those in the Novorossiisk. For that matter, they may know about Dallas.

'In any case,' Isaacs continued, 'we lost three weeks sitting on our duffs waiting for Dallas to happen, three more before we got back to Jason, and Gantt got the real dope. That's six weeks when Korolev could have been pushing for some monitoring programme in Russia. The trajectory doesn't pass through Russia , so they'd have to mobilize somewhere else. It makes most sense to me to use their Navy. We would have moved faster if ours hadn't been so recalcitrant.

'I don't know what their response time would be, but I certainly got the idea from Zamyatin that Korolev has clout at high levels in the Kremlin. If they put properly instrumented ships on the trajectory, they could learn everything we have.'

'I see what you mean,' Baris said. 'If Korolev suspected a black hole, he'd have a gravimeter put on board to measure the mass.'

'Seems obvious enough,' Isaacs agreed. 'Gantt considered a shipboard experiment, but elected to put his apparatus on dry land to make it as stable as possible. We know now it wouldn't have made much difference. They'd have to be a bit careful, but an inertially mounted device, isolated from the worst pitching of the ship, would do the job.'

'Accurate timing would be easy,' Isaacs continued. 'With sonar monitors and some regular data acquisition they would know how long the thing hovered above sea level and could figure out the altitude to which it rose, just as we did.'

'So they'd look along the trajectory at that altitude, just as we did,' said Saris following the logic.

'And they would find this lab,' Isaacs slapped his palm on the stack of folders in front of them, 'just as we did. I think that must be what Korolev's note means. He's found Krone's lab, and, having raised a ruckus, he has to report his findings to the boys at the top.'

The phone rang and Isaacs jerked it up.

'Yes? Right.'

He reached for a pad and scribbled some numbers.

'Yes. Yes. Got that.' He listened, then spoke again. 'How far is that? Yes, dammit, no question. They're onto it. Sure, when they come in, but this is just what we needed. Thanks for the quick work. Great. Right.'

He hung up and relayed the message from Martinelli to Baris.

'There are five small flotillas in the Pacific, three along thirty-two degrees forty-seven minutes north, two south. Each has a research vessel, a tender, and a destroyer. They're spaced 1170 miles apart, sailing steadily westward, about 190 miles per day.'

'So they're tracking it,' Earls summarized.

'They're tracking it,' Isaacs confirmed.

'How long?' Saris inquired.

'Seven to ten days. Some got on station earlier.'

'That's plenty of time to collect a good timing record,' said Baris.

'I think there's no doubt now that Korolev has followed the same path that Runyan led us on,' Isaacs said. 'We've got to get to that lab and find out what's going on.'

'And damn quickly,' Saris said. 'If you've got this right and Korolev reports to the top brass in the Kremlin that a black hole was made and released at a secret US government lab, oh, boy.' Saris leaned back in his chair. 'Can you imagine what the chest-medal crowd will do with that? We'll be right back to square one when they thought we'd zapped their carrier. Damned if they weren't right!'