Deep Storm (49 page)

McPherson stirred again, seemed to come to a private decision. He glanced over at Crane once more. Thats not whats bothering me.

Then what is?

McPherson gestured at the screen. You heard Flyte. Its a weapons dump, he said. A burial spot, off-limits, never to be broached again.

Yes.

McPherson reached for the keyboard, typed in a command. The video rewound, characters moving furiously backward across the screen. With another command, he restarted the playback. Crane listened to the taped conversation: two black holes in very tight orbit around each otherat a furious rateone matter, one antimatterif the force that held them in orbit was removed, the resulting explosion would destroy the solar system

McPherson stopped the playback. He plucked a tissue from a box on his desk, wiped his eyes. We have dumping grounds for our old nuclear weapons, too, he said in a low voice.

Like Ocotillo Mountain. Asher was researching the site. Thats how we

But you see, Dr. Crane, McPherson interrupted, heres what keeps me up at night. Before we dump our old weapons, we disarm them.

Crane stared silently at McPherson for a moment, processing what hed just said.

You dont think Hui began. Then she fell silent.

Whats buried down there, beneath the Moho? McPherson asked. Oh, yes. Thousands of devices. Active devices. Unimaginable weapons, black holes locked together in rapid orbits. To de-arm the weapon, youd simply decouple each pair so they could never touch. Right? He leaned across his desk. So if this is just a dumping ground, why wasnt that done?

Because Crane found that his mouth had suddenly gone dry. Because they havent been decommissioned.

McPherson nodded very slowly, Maybe Im wrong. But I dont think its a dump.

You think its an active storage facility, Crane said slowly.

Hidden away on a useless planet, McPherson replied. Until He didnt finish the sentence. He didnt need to.

Slowly, Crane and Ping walked through the echoing hangar. They passed the wreckage that had once been the Facility, heading for the security exit in the far wall. As they walked, Crane found his mind drawn irresistibly to the eyewitness account left behind six hundred years before by Jon Albarn, the Danish fisherman: A hole appeared in the heavens. And through that hole shewed a giant Eye, wreathed in white flame

They navigated the security exit and stepped out onto the tarmac, into pitiless light. The sun was a ball of fire in a field of perfect cerulean. And as Crane glanced up toward the sky, he wondered if he would ever be able to look at it in quite the same way again.

<<== THE END ==>>

ALSO BY LINCOLN CHILD

DEATH MATCH

UTOPIA

WITH DOUGLAS PRESTON

THE BOOK OF THE DEAD

DANCE OF DEATH

BRIMSTONE

STILL LIFE WITH CROWS

THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES

THE ICE LIMIT

THUNDERHEAD

RIPTIDE

RELIQUARY

MOUNT DRAGON

RELIC

PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY

Copyright S 2007 by Lincoln Child

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States by Doubleday, an imprint of The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Child, Lincoln.

Deep storm : a novel / Lincoln Child.1st ed.

p. cm.

1. Atlantis Fiction. 2. Geographical myths Fiction. 3. Lost

continents Fiction. I. Title.

PS3553.H4839D44 2006

813'.54 dc22

2006021093

eISBN: 978-0-385-52149-9

v1.0 -

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