of Science Digest.'
There was a knock at the panel that served as a door. Unhurriedly bin Hamish walked over and spoke through a narrow crack. Lang could not make out the words. Shutting the panel again, bin Hamish returned with a tray bearing what looked like the same tea service and bowls.
'A little refreshment?'
This time Lang accepted a small cup of bitter tea while the professor continued. 'Those other pictures are of copper utensils from ancient Sumer. They had been electroplated with silver. Then there are more pictures of your 'vacuum tube' at other places.'
Lang almost expected his host to next produce Egyptian tomb drawings of a pharaoh watching a TV set, or one of his wives or concubines using a hair dryer. Either the man and those like him were lunatics or the current view of ancient world history needed serious revision.
He was inclined to the latter possibility.
What he had just heard and seen, though, was the stuff of fantasy, Lovecraft, Vonnegut, and H. G. Wells. He could not have been more dumbfounded had Grumps suddenly quoted Shakespeare.
He took a sip of tea and set the cup down. 'Assuming all this is true, what is the significance of the Ark being a superconductor?'
'When fueled by orbitally rearranged monatomic elements, such as the pure gold mentioned in your papers-'
Lang held up his hands in surrender. 'Try to keep it simple, Professor, something a mere English major might understand.'
Bin Hamish thought for a moment. 'Simply put, or oversimplifying, actually, once a superconductor is fueled, it keeps on doing whatever task is set for it, sort of a perpetual-motion machine. The way the Ark is constructed is to transport energy over any distance for any length of time. Basically, when fueled by pure gold, the manna of your papers, that energy could well take the form of unimaginable power directed at a specific target.'
'Like Jericho.'
'Like Jericho.'
Lang reached toward the box. 'All from a box like-'
'No!' Ben Hamish knocked Lang's hand away. 'You would die instantly, like those mentioned in your papers. Let me show you something.'
Stepping down from his perch on the stool, bin Hamish placed a rubber mat under his feet. 'They had no rubber in biblical times, but the Ark's handlers washed and thoroughly dried their feet, thereby removing moisture or anything else that might act as a conventional conductor. Their clothes would have been of the finest cloth, so as to generate as little static electricity as possible.'
He pulled on a pair of rubber gloves and then moved the golden box slightly before walking across the room and opening a cabinet.
He removed a piece of metal and tossed it to Lang. 'Slug iron.'
Lang looked at the heavy ingot in his hand. 'So?'
'Place it at the end of the counter, if you please.'
Lang did as instructed.
Bin Hamish returned to stand by Lang and adjusted the box.
What happened next wasn't quite clear. A bolt of light, the brightest Lang had ever seen, seemed to leap from the box and disappear faster than lightning, so fast Lang wasn't sure he had seen it at all. There was no sound. The slug of metal was gone. Not melted, not transformed, but gone without fragments or a wisp of smoke.
'Shit!'
Bin Hamish was peeling off his gloves. 'Exactly so.'
'But what happened to the metal?'
Bin Hamish shrugged. 'There are any number of theories, including transportation to a parallel dimension.'
'Yeah, Dr. Shaffer mentioned that. Can you bring it back?'
'So far, no.'
Lang inhaled deeply, still not completely sure he wasn't dealing with a madman or a talented trickster. 'I'd guess a lot of governments would like to have that in their arsenal.'
Bin Hamish chuckled. 'What makes you think they do not?' He raised a hand to stifle Lang's next question. 'Let me tell you a brief story: In 1976 near Phoenix in the state of Arizona, there was a cotton farmer named David Hudson. In that area, the soil has a high sodium content, a condition Mr. Hudson attempted to lessen with high amounts of sulfuric acid. Do you understand?'
Lang nodded. 'Using an acid to dilute a base, right?'
'Just so. Now, after one such treatment, Mr. Hudson Sent soil samples for analysis. When dried by the hot Arizona sun, some particulate in that soil sample would burst into flames and totally disappear. Do I have your attention?'
Lang helped himself to a pastry, a sugary substance that literally melted in his mouth, leaving a pleasant but unidentifiable flavor. 'You do.'
'Mr. Hudson had more analyses done over a period of years. Each time the substance tested as different elements at different temperatures____________________
'
Lang remembered what the professor at Georgia Tech, Werbel, had told him and Detective Morse. 'Let me guess…' He related as best as he could recall.
'Precisely. You have already had this… this manna subjected to tests. But Mr. Hudson's story is not yet ended. He spent a fortune trying to develop this marvelous material into an energy source by use of superconductors. The sudden flame, the weightlessness, all had tremendous potential. First he was denied a building permit for a plant in which to work, and then fault was found with every plan he submitted. Then came zoning delays. Then came an unexplained explosion that leaked tons of toxic material. Your government people, environmental, employee safety…'
'OSHA,' Lang supplied.
'Whoever they were, they imposed fines and other penalties. Then your military appeared and closed the man's research on superconductivity on grounds of national security. Frankly, Mr. Reilly, I was surprised your much-touted democratic government could act in such an arbitrary manner.'
Lang wasn't. Once a motivated coalition of bureaucracy and military was formed, law, Constitution, and individual rights might not be suspended, but they could be made so expensive that only the wealthiest could afford them.
'You're saying the military intervened?'
Bin Hamish nodded. 'Just so.'
'So, they were interested in the weapon's potential,' Lang mused.
'Not potential,' bin Hamish corrected. 'Very real.'
'Real?'
'Mr. Reilly, surely you remember your President Reagan's Star Wars proposal, the idea of building a series of killer satellites that would knock Soviet missiles out of the sky? You will recall it was never built, but the mere threat caused such a surge in Russian defense spending that within a year or two the communists went broke.'
Lang remembered clearly. It was the collapse of the Evil Empire that had precipitated his departure from the Agency. 'You're telling me that Star Wars was actually a version of this… this whatever it is. Superconductor?'
Bin Hamish smiled and gave a slight bow. 'Precisely. The talk of killer satellites was just a red fish.'
'Red herring.'
'A ruse by any name.'
'So, the United Sates, at least, has this technology?'
'I am fairly certain, yes.'
'Who else?'
Bin Hamish shrugged. 'Who would know? Only the few physicists who are aware of the unique powers of the
