Engineering Infinity by Jonathan Strahan Read Free Book Online Page B

Republics.”
    “So, let me get this straight,”
said Gennady heavily. “Poor Ambrose is being chased by Soviet agents. He ran to
the U.N. rather than the FBI, and to keep him safe you decided to transport him
to the one place in the world that is free of Soviet influence. Which is
Russia.”
    “Exactly,” said Frankl brightly. “And
you’re escorting him because your contract is taking you there anyway. No other
reason.”
    “No, no, it’s fine. Just tell me
what the hell I’m supposed to be looking for at SNOPB. The place was a
God-damned anthrax factory. I’m a radiation specialist.”
    He heard Frankl take a deep
breath, and then she said, “Two years ago, an unknown person or persons hacked
into a Los Alamos server and stole the formula for an experimental metastable
explosive. Now we have a paper trail and emails that have convinced us that a
metastable bomb is being built. You know what this means?”
    Gennady leaned against the wall
of the hotel, suddenly feeling sick. “The genie is finally out of the bottle.”
    “If it’s true, Gennady, then
everything we’ve worked for has come to naught. Because as of now, anybody in
the world who wants a nuclear bomb, can make one.”
    He didn’t know what to say, so he
just stared out at the steppe, thinking about a world where hydrogen bombs were
as easy to get as TNT. His whole life’s work would be rendered pointless - and
all arms treaties, the painstaking work of generations to put the nuclear genie
back in its bottle. The nuclear threat had been containable when it was limited
to governments and terrorists, but now the threat was from everybody ...
    Eleanor’s distant voice snapped
him back to attention. “Here’s the thing, Gennady: we don’t know very much
about this group that’s building the metastable weapon. By luck we’ve managed
to decrypt a few emails from one party, so we know a tiny bit - a minimal bit -
about the design of the bomb. It seems to be based on one of the biggest of the
weapons ever tested at Semipalatinsk - its code name was the Tsarina .”
    “The Tsarina ?”
Gennady whistled softly. “That was a major, major test. Underground, done in
1968. Ten megatonnes; lifted the whole prairie two meters and dropped it.
Killed about a thousand cattle from the ground shock. Scared the hell out of
the Americans, too.”
    “Yes, and we’ve discovered that
some of the Tsarina’ s components were made at the
Stepnogorsk Scientific Experimental and Production Base. In Building 242.”
    “But SNOPB was a biological
facility, not nuclear. How can this possibly be connected?”
    “We don’t know how, yet. Listen,
Gennady, I know it’s a thin lead. After you’re done at the SNOPB, I want you to
drive out to Semipalatinsk and investigate the Tsarina site.”
    “Hmmph.” Part of Gennady was
deeply annoyed. Part was relieved that he wouldn’t be dealing with any IAEA or
Russian nuclear staff in the near future. Truth to tell, stalking around the
Kazaks grasslands was a lot more appealing than dealing with the political
shit-storm that would hit when this all went public.
    But speaking of people... He
glanced up at the hotel’s one lighted window. With a grimace he pocketed his
augmented reality glasses and went up to the room.
    Ambrose was sprawled on one of
the narrow beds. He had the TV on and was watching a Siberian ski-adventure
infomercial. “Well?” he said as Gennady sat on the other bed and dragged his
shoes off.
    “Tour of secret Soviet anthrax
factory. Tomorrow, after egg McMuffins.”
    “Yay,” said Ambrose with apparent
feeling. “Do I get to wear a hazmat suit?”
    “Not this time.” Gennady lay
back, then saw that Ambrose was staring at him with an alarmed look on his
face. “Is fine,” he said, waggling one hand at the boy. “Only one underground
bunker we’re interested in, and they probably never used it. The place never
went into full production, you know.”
    “Meaning it only made a few
hundred pounds