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Excerpt 3
A frame, the size of a door, made of one foot-thick steel, stood in the
distance. Support beams anchored into the ground propped it from
behind. Two men in blue coverall came from the side, carrying an opaque
piece of Plexiglas. The narrator explained that the Plexiglas had been
painted with a coat of tri-nicksium, one-millimeter thick.
Zooming in, the video showed a bowl full of water atop a pedestal just
behind the frame. The men leaned the Plexiglas across the front of the
frame. The camera zoomed out to show an M-1 tank with its gun pointed
fifty feet away at the frame.
The tank shook as it fired a round.
The shell hit the middle of the Plexiglas, violently shaking the frame. The
smoke cleared, as the Plexiglas fell forward in one piece, revealing the
undisturbed water bowl on the pedestal, still filled to the rim.
McNulty pushed a couple of keys, pausing the video.
“You kidding me. Not even shock waves?” Snert blurted.
“Nothing. And there’s more.”
McNulty allowed the video to continue. A man in a long lab coat came on
the screen and read from a teleprompter. He explained that no known
radiation beams or heat from a white-hot element could be registered
across a surface coated with the tri-nicksium compound. When exposed
to concentrated direct heat like a blowtorch, the tri-nicksium absorbed the
heat and became discolored, all without losing any of its rigidity. The
discoloration varied in color from ultra-violet to infrared based on the
temperature of the heat applied.
That would be one way to put lettering or any design on its surface, the
man deduced.
When washed with distilled water, the tri-nicksium compound absorbed a
small amount of the water and no longer reacted to heat.
The man went on to explain that a saline solution would dissolve the
hardened compound, making it malleable again. The tri-nicksium
reconstituted itself and offered the same protections as before, once the
saline solution was extracted.
The video faded out, and the panel slid back across the screen.
“Good Lord!” Snert exhaled. “Have they figured out how the material
developed or how it got there?”
“It’s in the next video. The answer? They don’t have a clue yet.”
“OK. That’s someone else’s job. Not mine. Now, where can I get some?”
“That’s what you are here to do.”
“Here?”
“The soil-analysis satellite has found a mother lode of the stuff on the
island. The lab boys figure there’s enough here to last forever since it can
be recycled. Tons of it. We just can’t let anyone else know about it.”
“I can see why. My Lord! The Armed Forces will be invincible, even to
nuclear attack. Astronauts will be totally protected. No problem with
meteors, space temperatures or radiation. Sweet, Jesus.”
“There’s another video that goes into the applications of the stuff. You’ve
touched on most of them.”
“How about electrical current?”
“No conductivity at all.”
“OK. So where is it and how do we get it?”
“I have copies of the satellite imaging for you,” McNulty said reaching for a
long cylinder leaning against the wall behind him. “The conference room
on this floor will be yours as long as you need it. I expect that you’ll do a
site survey and get your crew prepared. The National Lab will give you the
methodology for mining.”
McNulty pause then looked dour. “There’s more to it.”
Snert sat lower in his chair and rubbed his chin, the anticipation gnawing
inside him..
“Two things,” McNulty said. “One, the job level is ultra-secret. If word gets
out, the government of La Nativite will get offers from all over, Russia and
China and the European countries. Some, like France can even offer to
manage and sell the stuff. If we don’t control this, La Nativite will become
the richest nation on earth, overnight, richer than all the member nations of
OPEC combined. The acosinium might even find its way even into the
hands of terrorist groups or rogue states. We can’t afford that.”
“How do we come in here with mining equipment and keep it secret?”
“In two weeks there will be something like a civil war on the island.”
“I thought this was a fairly peaceful place. How do they get into a civil war
in two weeks? … Oh, Oh. Never mind. Never mind.”
distance. Support beams anchored into the ground propped it from
behind. Two men in blue coverall came from the side, carrying an opaque
piece of Plexiglas. The narrator explained that the Plexiglas had been
painted with a coat of tri-nicksium, one-millimeter thick.
Zooming in, the video showed a bowl full of water atop a pedestal just
behind the frame. The men leaned the Plexiglas across the front of the
frame. The camera zoomed out to show an M-1 tank with its gun pointed
fifty feet away at the frame.
The tank shook as it fired a round.
The shell hit the middle of the Plexiglas, violently shaking the frame. The
smoke cleared, as the Plexiglas fell forward in one piece, revealing the
undisturbed water bowl on the pedestal, still filled to the rim.
McNulty pushed a couple of keys, pausing the video.
“You kidding me. Not even shock waves?” Snert blurted.
“Nothing. And there’s more.”
McNulty allowed the video to continue. A man in a long lab coat came on
the screen and read from a teleprompter. He explained that no known
radiation beams or heat from a white-hot element could be registered
across a surface coated with the tri-nicksium compound. When exposed
to concentrated direct heat like a blowtorch, the tri-nicksium absorbed the
heat and became discolored, all without losing any of its rigidity. The
discoloration varied in color from ultra-violet to infrared based on the
temperature of the heat applied.
That would be one way to put lettering or any design on its surface, the
man deduced.
When washed with distilled water, the tri-nicksium compound absorbed a
small amount of the water and no longer reacted to heat.
The man went on to explain that a saline solution would dissolve the
hardened compound, making it malleable again. The tri-nicksium
reconstituted itself and offered the same protections as before, once the
saline solution was extracted.
The video faded out, and the panel slid back across the screen.
“Good Lord!” Snert exhaled. “Have they figured out how the material
developed or how it got there?”
“It’s in the next video. The answer? They don’t have a clue yet.”
“OK. That’s someone else’s job. Not mine. Now, where can I get some?”
“That’s what you are here to do.”
“Here?”
“The soil-analysis satellite has found a mother lode of the stuff on the
island. The lab boys figure there’s enough here to last forever since it can
be recycled. Tons of it. We just can’t let anyone else know about it.”
“I can see why. My Lord! The Armed Forces will be invincible, even to
nuclear attack. Astronauts will be totally protected. No problem with
meteors, space temperatures or radiation. Sweet, Jesus.”
“There’s another video that goes into the applications of the stuff. You’ve
touched on most of them.”
“How about electrical current?”
“No conductivity at all.”
“OK. So where is it and how do we get it?”
“I have copies of the satellite imaging for you,” McNulty said reaching for a
long cylinder leaning against the wall behind him. “The conference room
on this floor will be yours as long as you need it. I expect that you’ll do a
site survey and get your crew prepared. The National Lab will give you the
methodology for mining.”
McNulty pause then looked dour. “There’s more to it.”
Snert sat lower in his chair and rubbed his chin, the anticipation gnawing
inside him..
“Two things,” McNulty said. “One, the job level is ultra-secret. If word gets
out, the government of La Nativite will get offers from all over, Russia and
China and the European countries. Some, like France can even offer to
manage and sell the stuff. If we don’t control this, La Nativite will become
the richest nation on earth, overnight, richer than all the member nations of
OPEC combined. The acosinium might even find its way even into the
hands of terrorist groups or rogue states. We can’t afford that.”
“How do we come in here with mining equipment and keep it secret?”
“In two weeks there will be something like a civil war on the island.”
“I thought this was a fairly peaceful place. How do they get into a civil war
in two weeks? … Oh, Oh. Never mind. Never mind.”
| |||||||||||
The Excerpts