Philippe was about to put it back inside his coat when he saw something moving over one of the buildings in the distance. The snow was turning in a strange way, almost like a miniature tornado. Lifting the monocular up to his eye again, he turned the focus wheel to account for the greater distance. He frowned, and his mouth opened ever so slightly. He was looking at one of the strangest things he had ever seen. The air above the buildings was indeed spinning with great velocity, sucking the snow into a large funnel cloud. The tip of the cloud bounced around on one of the buildings, perhaps the second one, almost as though it was performing some sort of macabre dance.
Philippe knew immediately that it was not a meteorological anomaly, the odd converging of the various elements of the storm. No, it had something to do with what was going on inside, or more accurately, it had something to do with what was going on beneath the earth.
Hit with a sudden thought, Philippe used the monocular to trace the funnel cloud upwards. It snaked up through the clouds and beyond, perhaps up into the atmosphere itself.
As he prayed over what to do next, Philippe felt something else, a trembling that rose up from the ground and through the concrete structure on which he stood. Was it an earthquake? He had never experienced one before, but that was certainly the way he’d imagine it. But he knew that just as the funnel cloud had nothing to do with weather, neither did the tremor have anything to do with an earthquake. They were both related to the collider.
And then, as Philippe bowed his head to pray, he had a vision that took place in the flash of a second. He saw a face that wasn’t human, but there was a quality to it, a nuance that he had seen somewhere before. The face was so terrifying that it caused his heart to thump wildly in his chest.
But even worse than that was a truth that echoed in his spirit — that the vision would soon turn into reality.
“What on earth is that?” Amanda asked, clearly alarmed that the building had begun to shake. She and Carmen were still standing next to each other against a wall, being watched over by two of Mironov’s men. “It feels like the earth is moving underneath us.”
“It must have something to do with the collider,” replied Carmen. “I just saw an exchange between Mironov and Koehler. They were having a disagreement about something, and it looks like the Russian won out.”
Carmen had to admit that she was beginning to worry about the shaking too. At first she thought there might be some natural explanation, like a minor earthquake, but then realized it must have something to do with whatever Mironov and Koehler had been arguing about. She knew very little about physics and almost nothing about subatomic collisions, but she doubted that the collider was designed to withstand whatever it was being put through. They were obviously pushing it to places it was never meant to go.
“Do they know what they’re doing?” Amanda asked.
“I sincerely doubt it.” Carmen wanted to tell Amanda something to reassure her, but that didn’t seem possible. “We just have to hope that help will come before this gets out of hand.”
“Where are Zane and the others?”
“Hopefully, close by,” she replied in a low tone, mindful of the guards that were standing a few yards away. She placed her lips near Amanda’s ear and said, “Just remember that if something happens, follow my lead. If this place begins to fall apart, it may be our chance to get out of here.”
Amanda nodded, but Carmen could tell that she was still nervous.
“Don’t worry,” the Italian assured her. “Just listen to me, then we’ll both be fine.”
Carmen glanced across the room in an attempt to catalog where everyone was positioned. The only ones she couldn’t locate were Marrese and his disciples. She figured they were likely gathered in one of the massive cubicles. She doubted they’d have to worry about them, unless they were hiding some sort of weaponry under their robes. If they weren’t armed, she doubted they could fight their way out of a teen slumber party.
As the trembling continued, Carmen’s thoughts turned toward what Mironov and Marrese were attempting to do. It was the stuff of science fiction, and the real worry was what might happen if the collider was pushed past its limit.
But despite those practical concerns, the Italian’s mind kept returning to the theory of calling the aliens. Could there be another universe out there? She had to admit she didn’t know enough about physics to rule it out. And if there were multiple universes, were they connected by some portal? Perhaps, but she doubted that the mere collision of subatomic particles could open such a portal.
Yet, that was the very thing VanGelder had been researching, and the topic of the speech that would no longer be given. VanGelder was no fool. He was a man of science. And he apparently thought a parallel universe was as real as the subatomic particles that were whizzing around inside the collider.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Carmen noticed that Mironov was on his radio again. There was a look of concern on his face. Had Zane and the others made some sort of attack? Had the shaking triggered an alarm and alerted local authorities?
She didn’t have long to wait to get her answer: as soon as Mironov had tucked the radio back into his coat, the doors to the control room burst open, and the humanoid Keiko walked in, escorted by an armed guard. The look on the Russian’s face told her that the robot was no longer in his good graces.
Amanda’s eyes also widened as she realized who it was. “Oh my, is that—”
“It is,” answered Carmen.
“She looks… well, almost like one of us.”
“You’re looking at the future, the highest-grade humanoid ever produced. If you see her up close it’s not quite so compelling, but without a doubt she’s a marvel.”
After speaking to the humanoid for a minute or two, Mironov disengaged and walked over to Marrese, who had just come out of the cubicle. The two of them began to speak, with Mironov gesturing toward the robot. Carmen noted that Marrese’s eyes never left Keiko the entire time, and he had a sinister look on his face. It wasn’t hard to tell he was displeased at her arrival.
When the two men finished talking, Mironov spoke in Russian to the guards standing on either side of Keiko. They immediately lifted their guns and pointed them at her. She nodded, and began to walk toward Carmen and Amanda. The robot was a prisoner.
Carmen noticed Amanda watch with wonder as Keiko approached. She remembered her own similar reaction the first time she had seen the robot. It was difficult to imagine that you were seeing a machine and not an actual person.
After Keiko arrived with the three guards, she took her place against the wall right next to Amanda. The American couldn’t help herself, turning her head and studying the robot from head to toe. When the guards stepped away, Keiko said, “Hello, Amanda.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. “How… how did you know my name?”
“I know almost everything about you, including, of course, your appearance.”
There was a slight whine of gears each time Keiko moved. “And how did you learn so much about me?”
“Your father couldn’t stop talking about you. And when people tell me things, I never forget. There is very little about you that I don’t know.”
“I’m just surprised that he could describe me so well that you’d—”
“No, I do not recognize you because of any descriptions he gave. Shortly after I began operation, your father showed me a picture of you, which was followed by twenty-seven more. Some were prints and others electronic images. He told me that you were his greatest joy in life.”