After sorting through the pile of mail that cluttered his desk, tossing the junk, and filing what he thought important, Lee Crane opened his laptop to check the news, as he did every morning when he worked in his office, on the third floor of the Nelson Institute of Marine Research. Usually, it was only a few minutes before his phone rang, and Admiral Nelson's resonant voice thundered happily in his left ear.
"Lee! Your coffee's ready!"
With an exasperated sigh, he remembered that Nelson, absent for the week, had not yet deigned to call, although he had promised to, as soon as he reached his destination. Lee had bid his friend farewell two days ago at the airport, still seething at the thought of not being allowed to accompany him. Seaview was berthed for minor maintenance work that did not require his continued presence, and he knew how much Nelson enjoyed having him at his side when he was on a business trip. This time, however, the admiral had rather curtly made it clear that he did not need an escort. It was so out of character, that Lee had been instantly alarmed, for the admiral was a rather possessive friend, who disliked being apart from him for more than a few days, even if their time together was mostly spent attending endless meetings or listening to boring speeches. Usually, it was he, and not Nelson, who went on secret assignments, and those did not always end well.
As he focused back on the screen, Harriman Nelson's bright blue eyes stared at him, above a list of news websites that displayed the same shocking headline. Lee gasped as if choking on something black and deadly. Nelson, the man he loved and admired more than anyone else since his father's demise, was presumed missing or dead.
Unable to believe it, he wondered if it was a sick joke. The disaster had befallen him without warning, leaving a gaping hole in his life…
Once more…
"Tragedy under Mont Blanc. Admiral Harriman Nelson, the famous oceanographer who opened the bottom of the seas to human endeavor more than any other explorer, has been declared missing, after a tremendous explosion destroyed the world's largest particle accelerator known as Helios-II, and buried it under the Alps. Among the other casualties are two well-known physicists, the French Marc Amont, and the Russian Valery Kozlov… Financed by more than ten countries, and considered a model of international collaboration, the state-of-the-art technology used in Helios-II marked a major advance in particle physics research."
"Breaking news! Admiral Nelson, the last great explorer, dies in a disaster of unknown cause. After an explosion buries the particle accelerator Helios-II under tons of rocks, the scientific community ponders the possibility of sabotage…"
"Suspicious deaths under Mont Blanc: three of the most renowned scientists in the world, including controversial physicist Marc Amont and Nobel laureate Harriman Nelson, are presumed dead in the explosion of a research complex."
"Forbidden experiment or tragic blunder? The disaster that has plunged the scientific community into mourning raises many questions, as do the multiple rumors of secret researches carried out in the gigantic particle accelerator Helios-II. Nobody understands what was keeping the French physicist Marc Amont and two other famous scientists, the Russian Valery Kozlov, and the American Harriman Nelson, inside the facility after the technical staff left for the night. Dr. Amont was notable for his controversial theories on time travel…"
Lee staggered towards the window that overlooked the inner harbor of the Institute, where Seaview lay peacefully. In a split second, his life had been shattered. Too crushed even to weep, he abstractedly paced his office, as if the sight of familiar objects was able to push away the realization of what had just hit him. He could not believe it. It was not the first time he had thought Nelson was lost, but it was so unexpected, so sudden, that he was not prepared for it (provided that someone might ever be prepared for the loss of a loved one). Hoping against all odds that he would find some last-minute refutation, he frantically browsed the Internet again, but every piece of news he gathered added to his desperation: ending his brilliant life in a terrible apotheosis, Nelson had been torn from him, as his father had been some twenty-five years ago.
But even then, he had not felt that empty and forlorn.
Never again would the admiral pass through the door with a warm, friendly smile on his rugged features and a steaming cup of coffee in his hands, always bubbling over with enthusiasm at a new project. Never again would they lean together over the plan of an extraordinary device, or spend the peaceful hours of dusk on Seaview's bridge, enjoying each other's company without even saying a word, their minds working in perfect harmony. Never again would Nelson break into Lee's cabin in the middle of the night, so touchingly vulnerable with his crumpled uniform and mussed hair, after endless feverish hours of rumination, with the unmistakable sparkle of victory in his laughing blue eyes, like a prospector who, at last, sees the glint of gold in a handful of mud…
Lee was aware of the rumors about the Helios project. Nelson and he had talked about them several times in the past, and the admiral had hinted that certain intelligence agencies had become interested in Amont's financial partners as well as in the true purpose of his research. A genius and a dreamer, Marc Amont had, during the last ten years, published essay after essay about what was known as the Grand Unification Theory, with the stated goal of dismissing Einstein and Planck as outdated precursors.
Convinced of the value of Amont's studies, the French government had supported his application for the job of general manager of the Helios Project. The team he headed officially worked on the relativistic side effects of near-light speed and extreme conditions in a particle accelerator, but in secret it was said that the true object of their research was the immemorial enigma of time travel.
Nelson had met Amont a few times at conferences and scientific meetings, but they had not gotten along very well. Although he was one of the most gifted scientists of his generation, the French physicist, was an arrogant, belligerent, argumentative man, whose behavior stirred instant dislike from all he met. His first weeks as head of the Helios Project had caused the technical staff to walk out in protest against his utter disregard for their health and safety. The intervention of the French Minister of Research had been needed to convince the governments involved in the venture to give up asking for his resignation.
Lee clenched his fists.
One day or another, he would know the truth; he would find where the guilt lay, and take revenge on the culprits if it was anything more than a tragic accident.
Moving like a sleepwalker, he returned to his desk, and picked up the phone. His grief had to wait. There were an awful lot of things to take care of, people to be told of Nelson's… he pushed away the word "death". Nelson was not dead. He could not be. But he was involved in an event that had already made worldwide headlines, and the Institute would soon be besieged by reporters.
"Security…"
The deep voice of the Chief Security Officer helped Lee to focus on his task. He was Nelson's second in command and heir apparent, and his duty was to take over the running of the Institute until Nelson's return, for he would come back, he had to come back.
Wasn't he a miracle worker?
"Lee Crane speaking. Put the Institute and Seaview on maximum security alert. No strangers on the premises until further notice."
"Aye sir."
"The admiral is missing, John. The news of his… disappearance has already leaked out, and I expect a rush of journalists in the hours to come."
"I'm very sorry to hear that. I…"
"Okay, I'll let you know as soon as I've more news."
Unable to sustain a longer conversation, Lee hung up without waiting for a reply, and speed-dialled Chip Morton's house, knowing that he would find his XO at home. His friend's cheerful greeting revealed his ignorance of what was going on.
"Hello morning bird! Already on the warpath?"
"Chip… I… Can you come to my office at once?"
"What's wrong, Lee? You sound like hell. Should I ring Jamie?"
"No. Come. That's all I need right now. Be quick."
Lee swallowed hard to fight the lump in his throat. His vision began to blur. Not now… Not yet. He heard a door open and close quietly in the nearby office. Angie, Nelson's personal assistant, was there. She had to be told.
As soon as he entered Angie's office, he knew that she had already seen the morning papers. She was crying softly, as she started her computer, going through her daily routine with the stiffness of an automaton. They looked at each other without a word, sharing the pain of their loss. Lee touched her arm, getting some reassurance from the physical contact.
"There is no official confirmation, Angie. We can't lose hope," he said flatly, not believing his own words. "Do you want to take the day off?"
"No, thank you, Lee. All hell will break loose when the press hears about the disaster. I have to be here to answer the calls. Working will help. I can't…"
The phone rang, cutting her off in mid-sentence. She pressed the answer button, and took the call in full secretary mode, her voice cold and composed, as if nothing had happened. With an approving nod, Lee headed back to his office, where his own phone was blinking frantically. Angie's fortitude helped him to hold himself together, at least for the time being.
"Crane…"
"Hello Lee, Johnson speaking."
Lee unconsciously straightened his back.
"Sir…"
"I… I'm so sorry, Lee. I have some very sad news."
Admiral Johnson was his commanding officer when he worked for the Office of Naval Intelligence. Lee slumped into his swivel chair, wondering if he would be able to remain composed and dry-eyed, as Johnson continued.
"Nelson's missing, Lee. I feel awfully bad about this, believe me."
"I've read the news on the Internet, sir. Do you know what happened, and what the admiral was doing there?"
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Lee remembered that Admiral Johnson was a good friend of Nelson's, in spite of their long-running dispute over his involvement with ONI.
"Nelson was on an official mission, Lee… There have been rumors for years, but things have become more serious of late. People working by night, and not clocking in, a lot of coming and going, incidents kept under wraps, and an outsized nuclear reactor, even for the biggest accelerator in the world… We suspected that Marc Amont, and his Russian colleague, Kozlov, had an agenda of their own, and we decided to investigate discreetly. Nelson knew Amont well enough, and we thought he was the right man for the job."
"Who sent him? Why are you and ONI involved?"
"I can't answer, Lee. It's classified, even for someone with your clearance."
"What do you think happened there? A particle accelerator does not explode."
"It might not be the accelerator itself, but the reactor. Yet, no radioactive pollution has been observed so far. The explosion was detected by all the seismometers in Europe around 2300 local time, and the tremor was felt as far as Geneva. Nobody knows about the condition of the installations inside, the access tunnels have caved in, and all the communications with the Control Center are down."
Johnson sighed audibly.
"I'm sorry, Lee. If there are survivors, we have no hope of reaching them in time. Clearing one of the tunnels would take months, and the main concern is about the status of the reactor. I think the French government will want to seal the site."
"Are we sure that Harry… the admiral was inside when it happened?"
"Yes, Lee. His rental car is still in the parking lot, along with Amont's, Kozlov's, and a few others. You are Nelson's legal heir, Lee, and a skilled operative. I want you to go to Chamonix, and retrieve his papers before the French police mess around with the evidence. Only you can tell us if there is something in his hotel room that may provide some clues to what was going on before the explosion."
Lee stifled the pain that was screaming in his whole body.
"You'll have your orders around 1400. I know what I'm asking, Lee, and I'm truly sorry to do this to you, but you are the only one… the most qualified."
Johnson's voice faded to a whisper, and Lee heard the rustle of papers, followed by the sound of somebody blowing his nose.
"Good luck, Lee. Keep me posted. If I can do anything, let me know."
"Thank you, sir. Good bye, sir."
The line went dead. Lee remained motionless, staring in the void, as memories flooded him like a tidal wave. Nelson standing proudly on the dock, the day Seaview was launched, his flaming hair ruffled by the wind, almost dancing with joy, as the majestic boat, his dream come true, glided slowly in the water… Nelson's bursts of temper, always followed by an apologetic and self-mocking smile. Nelson's healing hands brushing his skin to ease a pain, under the sceptical eyes of doctor Jamieson, Seaview's Chief Medical Officer. Nelson's affectionate presence at his bedside, when he lay in sickbay, after a gruelling mission for ONI…
The door opened, and Chip walked in, pale and distraught.
"Oh Lee! Angie told me. I'm so sorry…"
If I hear someone say "I'm sorry" again, I'm going to explode, Lee thought, before standing to greet his friend. As Chip's strong arms enfolded him, Lee gave in to his grief, and allowed himself to cry, at last…
The previous night
To gain access to the sensitive areas of Helios-II, Nelson and his two colleagues were stopped by a watchman armed to the teeth, who made them stand in front of a camera, as their images were run through criminal and terrorist databases. Nelson showed his credentials, and was invited to put his hand on a palm-reader, as Amont and Kozlov talked quietly with the security guard. After a few seconds, a green light blinked above their heads, and the massive iron doors glided silently open to reveal a large tunnel lined with powerful lights that turned on automatically when their presence was detected by radar.
Nelson followed the two scientists into the automated guided car that was waiting in a bay alongside half a dozen similar ones. After a two-minute ride, during which the three men eyed each other without saying a word, the small vehicle stopped in the middle of a circular room with doors all around it. One of them, painted in fire-engine red, opened as soon as Mark Amont stepped out of the AGC, revealing the elevator that would take them down to the heart of the facility. After a breathtakingly fast descent, the elevator came to a gentle halt, and the door opened again, with a soft hiss. They had reached the deepest level, and Nelson wondered about the nuclear reactor that provided the energy needed for the operating of the accelerator.
Amont led them to the engineers' canteen, empty at this hour of the night. He made a beeline to the coffee machine, pressed a button, and a gurgle was heard, as the delightful smell of fresh mocha spread out in the air. In order to reduce the stress caused by the lack of natural light, the designers of the project had spared no expense to create a pleasant working space. Inside the huge complex, beverages and sandwiches were free and of gourmet quality, and a clever use of lighting and color helped eliminate the feeling of being underground.
The French physicist put two steaming cups on a table, and invited Nelson to make himself at home, as he sat down, his small, bony hands folded in front of him. Standing in the background, Kozlov stared at them with fixed, inscrutable eyes.
Nelson fished a pack of cigarettes from his breast pocket.
"May I?"
"It's usually forbidden, but I don't think a single cigarette will set off the fire alarm," Amont replied with a tight smile. "So… What do you want to know?"
The unobtrusive humming of the ventilation filled the space with an almost supernatural intensity. In that world buried several hundred meters below the surface, the only audible sounds were those produced by the machinery that kept Helios-II alive, and allowed the scientists to work safely. The ambiance was not very different from that of a submarine, and Nelson did not feel disturbed by the idea of the Alps above his head.
Yet, he knew that something did not add up. The two scientists had been too cooperative from the beginning.
"Let's start with the Control Room," Amont said quietly. "I assume that, being a submariner, you're immune to claustrophobia…"
"I am."
The Control Room was a kind of glazed cage, cluttered with instruments and computer screens, at the core of a labyrinth-like structure, of which a layman would struggle to understand the purpose. Kilometers of electric cables and sheathings of different colors ran along the galleries that plunged into the entrails of the earth. A tiny electrical vehicle was parked on a platform, beside a heap of supply boxes. The air reeked of hot plastic, resin, sweat and disinfectant.
"Here is the heart of Helios-II," Amont said, with a smug smile. "Here we track God's creative thought in its last retrenchments, supposing that He exists… Here, we're able to penetrate the secrets of space and time. Do you want to see how it works?"
Nelson wondered if he would live out the night, but an overwhelming curiosity obliterated his judgement, and he nodded his agreement. Amont entered some instructions into a terminal, and invited his companions to follow him into the main gallery. Unbeknownst to the admiral, the unsleeping eye of the surveillance camera shut down as soon as they exited the Control Room...
"The reactor is behind this door, at the end of a tunnel more than one kilometer long, built specially to sustain the effects of a major dysfunction. If it exploded, the whole utility would disappear under thousands of tons of debris, but nothing would leak outside. The mountain itself would not even be affected. Only the mastery of nuclear fusion has allowed us to design Helios-II, and carry on the experiments that were so encouraging with Helios-I. You know that the phenomena that occur in the reactor are the same as those that make the Sun and all the stars shine."
"I know. I'm a nuclear physicist myself and…"
"…a not so skilled spy, aren't you? Thanks to our use of the most innovative cooling techniques, Helios-II is able to reach the highest levels of energy conceivable on earth."
The French man was quickly warming up to his subject, and his French accent deepened dramatically, as his hands danced in the air. The feeling of his own power filled him with enthusiasm, and Nelson's sense of foreboding grew in proportion.
"In this accelerator, we have succeeded in reversing the course of time. Initially, the relativistic effects were only annoying by-products of the research. People outside Helios-I were reporting unexpected incidents, explosions, some odd apparitions, and so on. We were soon able to establish a link between the complaints of the neighboring population and the most energetic experiments. The problem was that the effects always happened BEFORE the tests, and we understood that we were on the verge of a major breakthrough. When a secretary found the newspaper of the following day on her desk, we knew that we had to be more careful."
Nelson tried to suppress the cold shiver that ran down his spine.
"What happened to the secretary?" he asked, although he guessed the answer.
"Unfortunately, she died in a car accident. The stakes were too high to let her babble on what she had seen. Never mind… What you have to understand is that everything is a matter of scale. Einstein did not invalidate Euclid's laws; he merely proved that Euclidean geometry does not apply on the larger scale of the universe. Explaining the observational results of modern astronomy required a change of paradigm. To explore the infinitely big as well as the infinitesimally small, we had to resort to new models. Einstein and Planck provided these models. Because the laws of classical physics do not always apply to the atomic and near-atomic level, the industry had to internalize the concepts of quantum mechanics. That's why your mobile phone and your laptop are so small. But that's not the end of it. We are on the brink of another revolution."
Amont touched the keyboard of the nearest computer with an almost amorous gesture.
"Helios-I was not enough, we needed more energy, and more computing power, but in a time of economic crisis, funds were not easy to find. So we disclosed some of our knowledge to the governments involved in anti-terrorist struggle, underlining the advantage of being able to act before the attacks were carried out. It looks like science-fiction, but we got the funds, and Helios-II was built in record time, but to keep it running, we needed more money. You're aware that the power does not reside in the hands of a lot of politicians whose hands are tied. We had to find who really calls the shots, and go where the big money and the true power are. Those people are not interested in the progress of knowledge, but only in acquiring more control. Our research is an asset they could not overlook, and they decided to help us, provided we agreed to pledge allegiance to their leaders."
"Whom do you work for? Al Qaida?"
Amont guffawed.
"Humor me, admiral! Don't try to make me believe you're that naïve! They are only the visible part of a bigger design, the bringers of chaos and eventually change. In the end, they, too, will have to disappear, as well as all the rabble-rousers of their kind who create the conditions for the advent of a new world, ruled by an intelligent elite, unaffected by the weaknesses that ruined our so-called democratic countries. The power is in the vaults of the banks and in the hands of those who own the banks."
Nelson looked around him, wondering how he would get out of the trap he had fallen into. He had been naïve, indeed, to think that he was dealing with mere scientists. Amont pointed to a device that looked like a space capsule, connected to a thick web of pipes and wires.
"It's in that container that we confine the experimental subjects: objects or animals. The time shift has never exceeded a few days, but theoretically we could send a man two or three thousand years in the past, if we wished. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to track him down, and validate the experiment. A nice way of getting rid of nosy people, don't you think?"
Nelson averted his eyes, pondering his next move. Amont, short and somewhat frail would not be a problem, but Kozlov, who was careful to stay out of reach, was built like a prize fighter, and probably armed.
"We have discovered that space-time is not only curved, but somehow folded on itself like puff pastry. The problem was to create shortcuts between the layers, like the 'wormholes' the physicists speculated about in the thirties. Everything is caught in a kind of moving network, and all we have to do is to tear the framework apart to move from one level to another. It requires a huge discharge of energy, and very complex calculations, not to mention the question of the retrieval of the chrononaut, once his mission is completed. We've brought back rabbits from short trips, but we still have to experiment with a man on more remote destinations."
While speaking, he ran his hands on a tactile screen. Systems were awakening; warning lights were blinking, as the sleeping monster came into life with a soft purr.
"Look…"
In spite of his chilling fear, Nelson obeyed, and stared at the screen where a map had appeared. He recognized the familiar outlines of the Egyptian coast, and the course of the Nile. A pointer moved on the map, highlighting the places where he remembered having visited some spectacular monuments, with Edith and Lee some years ago. Amont briefly put his forefinger on the screen.
"Thebes…" he said. "The capital of the Ramesside dynasty… Have you ever dreamed of meeting a Pharaoh? Of solving the mystery of the pyramids? We are connected to hundreds of databases throughout the world. If you want, I can show you Athens or Rome… I can send a time traveller to one of these places. I've already tried with rats, but of course I have no means to know if they arrived safely. No feedback possible with a rat. The energy is not as big a problem as the accuracy and precision of the navigation. What I'm offering to you is an unprecedented insight into the most fascinating civilization of human history…"
From the corner of his eye, Nelson caught a swift movement, and readied himself for the assault, but it was too late. Kozlov's right fist, as hard as a sledgehammer, opened a gash in his cheekbone, and as he tried to duck under the second blow, a blinding pain exploded in his head. His knees buckled under him, and overwhelmed by a terrible feeling of fatality, he saw the ground rushing up to meet him. He had the time to think that Lee would not come to save the day, before darkness closed on him.