Free Seen And Not Seen (The Veil Book 1) by William Bowden Page A

Robert.
    A display shows him what is going on. A schematic of the spire and the column within it, the base labeled ‘cannon.’ The cannon leads to the spire tip and its target. The target separates into segments that arrange themselves around the outside of the cannon.
    “Retrieving subcritical mass for disassembly,” says the console. The segments descend down the cannon.
    “How long?” demands Robert.
    “Twenty-five seconds to complete retrieval.” The console countdown clock is at twenty-one seconds. Robert looks up into the spire interior in horror, then down at his hands. A message reads ‘Remove palms to abort.’
    Toor bounds along the gantry, both syringe guns in hand. Ahead, the segments appear high above Robert—large orange blocks arranged in a ring around the metal column of the cannon, slowly descending. The sight brings her to an abrupt halt.
    Some distance behind Toor, Landelle also comes to a halt, “Sharanjit!”
    Robert whirls around from the console, his palms still firmly planted.
    “Go back! It’s not safe yet!”
    Toor is frozen to the spot. The clock reaches zero. The cannon fires.
    A brilliant flash of bright, blue-white light.
    High above them in the biome the spire’s ovoid tip shatters, fragments ripping through foliage.
    * * *
    Toor sifts through Trinity’s log files at a console in the medical center. Robert attends to Landelle, giving her a shot from a medication gun.
    “The Thin Man?” asks Landelle.
    “The coalition required a means of assured destruction should any the Trinity experiments get out of hand,” Robert says.
    He cups his hand, “Subcritical mass.” He points the medical gun at his palm, “Uranium pellet,” He squeezes the trigger, splattering his palm with medication. “The two combine. Criticality. Boom.” He explodes his fingers.
    “From the Manhattan Project? Century-old technology?” says Landelle.
    “Cheap as chips and easy to build without the UN getting wind.” He spreads his fingers apart, “Maintenance program unpacks the subcritical mass for inspection…” He fires the medication gun again, its liquid passing through his fingers, “Criticality not reached. Just a brief burst of radiation. No worse than a dose of chemo. A private loophole in the system.”
    Landelle looks at him with disbelief. He smiles back weakly, “Expect flu-like symptoms in about twenty-four hours.”
    “Something we did tripped the bomb?” she asks.
    “There are no traps. The self-destruct sequence has to be initiated—”
    “We’re being watched?” she says. “I thought you said Trinity was blind automation. No member state has access. They shouldn’t be able to see us.”
    Robert puts a ‘shush’ finger to his lips and attends to Toor. She silently shows him something she has found.
    Landelle’s attention snaps to the Messiah vials on the table. Both are turning black.
    “Bob!”
    Robert snatches up the vials to inspect them, “Dammit. The radiation.”
    * * *
    Garr is with Lucius and Felton. A grim Robert briefs them via video link from the VTOL; still at the Trinity facility.
    “Looks like they used the garden Embies to load up a drone freight shuttle. One of the Embies logged it leaving for Las Vegas. It ties in with an unscheduled shipment from San Francisco to New York. Traced that to Manhattan, dock side. No trace of it after that so it could still be there.”
    “We’ll arrange a full-scale search. Can’t hide this anymore,” says Garr.
    “It’ll take us an hour to get back to the Afrika facility, so New York inside of eight hours. We can move on it then,” says Robert.
    “We can’t wait,” she says, “Not now the samples have been destroyed.”
    It’s not what Robert wants to hear, “Alka…”
    Garr observes Robert’s frustration, but she has no choice. “Get back here as soon as you can.” She ends the call.
    Robert kicks out at an equipment box, “Dammit!”
    A moment staring out at the desert before turning to an equally