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Berta looked surprised. “That’s right. The world we know is composed of normal matter, but at the earth’s core there are small bits of exotic matter leftover from the early universe.”
“Like strange matter.”
Berta nodded. “Correct.”
“So why hasn’t the earth been destroyed long ago?”
“Most of the strange matter we find is no bigger than the size of a light nucleus. They’re called strangelets, and they don’t seem to have the mass to do any significant damage. Every once in a couple hundred thousand years, a larger mass is extruded, and the results can be devastating.”
“Destroy-an-entire-continent devastating?”
Berta shrugged. “You’ve heard of the lost continent of Atlantis? We also suspect strange matter is the catalyst responsible for the past couple magnitude-eight eruptions at Yellowstone.”
“And you’ve discovered a way to collect strange matter?” Riley asked.
“Strangelet by strangelet. It’s been a painstakingly slow process. Even after ten years all we’ve managed to put together is the size of a tennis ball.”
“Is that enough to destroy a continent?”
“It’s enough to destroy the earth and turn it into a little dense ball floating through space. The little field experiment you witnessed was mostly plasma. The actual strange matter was less than a single drop, and it would have destroyed all of Mauna Kea if it wasn’t contained within a magnetic field.”
Riley looked around the room. She needed to find a way to escape before Berta decided to conduct another field experiment on her.
“Why doesn’t it destroy the earth’s core?” Riley asked.
“We don’t know yet. There’s a powerful magnetic field at the core. Maybe it’s the intense heat or pressure. Maybe something happens to change its charge from positive to negative when it reaches the surface. For whatever reason, it’s not until it reaches the surface that it seems to react with normal matter.”
“It seems to me that you’re a scientist, not a killer.”
“Your life means no more to me than a lab rat’s. If the director wants me to experiment with human subjects, I have no problem with that. If he wants me to build him a super-weapon, that’s just fine with me too.”
“Why?” Riley asked. “What’s in it for you?”
“Just a little thing called France. It’s the bonus I’ve been promised once Director Young conquers the
world.”
“A friend of mine recently told me that greed leads to suffering,” Riley said.
“I guess I’d rather suffer as a rich empress than be a happy, dead scientist like Spiro,” Berta said. “You and your friends picked the wrong fight.”
Riley jiggled her chains and glared at Berta. “Funny, I was just about to say the same to you.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
The unmistakable wup, wup, wup of a hovering helicopter filtered through the windows of Mysterioso Ranch.
“Ride’s here,” Emerson said, springing out of his chair, gathering up his backpack, and going to the door.
Vernon, Alani, and Wayan Bagus joined him on the front lanai. A six-seat Airbus Eco-Star helicopter was landing in the pasture behind the house, stirring up the grasses in the process.
Vernon looked at the chopper and groaned. “Tell me you didn’t,” he said to Emerson. “There must be a thousand helicopter pilots in Hawaii and you chose Mr. Yakomura, Alani’s dad, didn’t you?”
“It was the only helicopter I could find at short notice, and who would fly us around at night, no questions asked.”
Yakomura hopped out of the Eco-Star and walked over to them. He gave Alani a hug, then saw Vernon and shook his head.
“Good evening, Mr. Yakomura,” Vernon said. “I reckon it’s been a while.”
