“How long do you think this thing’s going to keep going?” Tom asked.
“I don’t know. Alexis said the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has a total circumference of seventeen miles, and this was meant to be a lot larger. Without a reference, we’d never know.”
“Can you speed her up anymore?”
“I think so,” Sam said. “I don’t know how much this thing can take, but I’ll give it a try.”
He pushed the lever completely forward until the tunnel cart zipped through the quad rail tracks at jarring speeds like some horrific rollercoaster. Twenty minutes later, the ride came to a sudden halt as a series of magnetic slow down points forced it to stop.
Sam opened his eyes. The tunnel cart was inside a large work station. The lights were on and the entire cavern could be seen clearly. Computer monitors and diagnostic machines lined the walls. Computer screens displayed images of a number of security cameras inside the Massive Hadron Collider. A second tunnel could be seen descending in a perpendicular direction. An egg-shaped tunnel vehicle, like the one he and Tom were in, was stationary at what appeared to be the start of a separate track, built with quad tubular tracks, but yellow instead of blue.
Two workers stepped into the room.
They were both struggling to carry a single large canister, and were seemingly oblivious to Tom and Sam's arrival. Sam reached for the door. It didn’t open. He hadn’t thought to see how the door opened after closing it.
“Quick, we have to catch them!” Sam whispered in frustration.
The workers spotted them and lowered the canister. The one closest to the tunnel vehicle shook his head and said, “Leave it. We’ve got to go. We have enough!”
“Quick!” Sam said.
Tom pressed a green button he spotted at the base of the door and it released with a loud hiss as the pressure equalized. “Go!”
Sam climbed out the door. He aimed the Uzi at them. “Stop!
Both men had already climbed inside the tunnel vehicle. The smaller of the two men closed the door and the craft leapt forward. Sam squeezed the trigger, sending several bursts into the back of the tunnel vehicle before it descended sharply and disappeared.
Sam raced to the edge of the tunnel. He took aim to fire again and stopped — the railway tracks ran into a subterranean river and all that remained of the tunnel vehicle were the ripples where it had struck the water.
“Damnit!” Sam swore. He took a deep breath. The air was salty. He felt the yellow rounded material used to make the quad rails. It was tough as steel but flexible as rubber. He tried to pry at it with his knife, but it didn’t move. “This thing must be designed with flexibility in mind to accommodate the small amount of movement as the height of the water changes.”
“Don’t worry about it. We stopped them from leaving with the canister.” Tom’s nostrils flared as he breathed deeply. “Is that seawater?”
“It would appear so.”
Tom smiled. “Which means, we just worked out how they were getting in here for the past twenty years without anyone noticing.”
Sam grinned. “And it also means we know where the Island must be hiding.”
“We do?”
Sam pointed to the map on the wall which showed the directions and destinations of the tunnels. It showed exactly where the seawater-filled tunnel opened to the sea. He placed an asterisk with a pen on the map. “It’s over here. If they were moving canisters out, it means the Island must be somewhere near this point.”
“What do you think’s inside the canister?”
Sam looked at the device. There were several in the alcove behind it. A thermometer gave the precise temperature as absolute zero. Sam shook his head. “Forget about the canisters. We have to find that island before the Cassidy Project goes into effect.”
Tom stopped him. “What did you find in the canister?”
“This.” Sam opened his computer tablet and pressed on an icon. He showed it to Tom — the image exactly matched the canister he was looking at.
Tom shook his head. “Where did you get this image?”
“Alexis sent it to me. It was her theoretical design to store and transport individual subatomic particles without letting them break apart or degrade over time.” Sam swore. “I don’t know how they convinced her to do it, but it appears they already have her technology to transport the God Particle. And that means Robert Cassidy is now in possession of the ability to play God.”
Chapter Seventy-Three
Sam took a photograph of the map of the tunnels. He and Tom were approximately two thirds of the way through the circuit. If they continued along the same tunnel tracks they’d reach the first ice tunnel where they’d entered and could return to the elevator. Sam still didn’t have a clue how to access the elevator, though. He studied the map to see if there was another way to the surface, but he never got the chance to find one.
The blue quad tracks began vibrating with the hum of an oncoming tunnel vehicle. Sam moved into the alcove with Tom. His Uzi was loaded with a new magazine of 32 rounds and ready to fire. Three tunnel vehicles came to a sudden stop following the series of magnetic speed reduction devices. Several people began climbing out, each with weapons in their hands.
Sam didn’t wait to talk. There was no doubt about their purpose here. Unlike the workers he had seen before, these were dressed in military snow attire, and were clearly trained soldiers. Most likely, mercenaries or security guards. Either way, he didn’t wait to find out. He fired a small burst of bullets into the first three.
Tom aimed the Remington 12 gauge shotgun at the second tunnel vehicle as it slowed to a stop. He fired and it blew a hole in the windshield. He then pumped the shotgun again and fired a second shot — killing everyone inside.
More tunnel vehicles arrived.
Tom fired another two rounds of 50 caliber, 12 gauge shotgun shells. “Let’s not stay around to see who our next guests are.”
Sam climbed into the front seat of their tunnel vehicle. He leaned out and sprayed the entrance to the workstation and loaded another magazine of thirty two rounds into his Uzi with a click. “Time to go.”
Tom climbed in and closed the hatch. Sam didn’t wait for the air pressure to equalize before he pushed the lever all the way forward. The egg shaped rollercoaster lurched ahead, hurling their backs hard against the seats.
Tom looked behind. Two mercenaries climbed into the stationary tunnel vehicle used by the first three unwanted guests to arrive. He heard the sound of gunfire as one of them destroyed the glass door. “We’ve got company!”
“Nothing we can do about it!” Sam yelled.
“We’ll see about that,” Tom yelled back. Three bullets raked the rear windshield, sending large cracks through the reinforced glass. Tom shoved the Remington Twelve Gauge shotgun through the crack and fired.
Tom missed.
Tom pumped the shotgun and fired again. The spray of shotgun pellets showered the front windshield of their attacker’s tunnel vehicle. There was damage but not enough to break the glass completely.
Tom carefully aimed at the machine following and squeezed the trigger. The shot fired wide and missed by miles — as Tom felt his guts suddenly wrenched from his insides as the tunnel vehicle dropped down a steep decline, and he fell hard into Sam.
“You okay?” Sam asked.
“Never better,” Tom replied. “You?”
“Fine, but you’d better hold on,” Sam said. “I can see our destination up ahead. I’m going to slam on the brakes, but you and I will only have seconds to get out before the guys behind slam into us.”
“Go for it.”