“And what’s that?”
“I fear you shall have to inspect it in the dead room. And then it must be sealed in a geolocked hard case.”
“Understandable.”
Understandable?! And what was a fucking dead room? We were getting a bomb. No question about it, it had to be a bomb. Nobody talked about not-bombs like this. Or maybe some kind of chemical weapon. I thought she was just bummed out, but nope, she’s off her tits. She’s going to murder a building full of people. I realized I didn’t actually care and that calmed me down a little, but what if it went off accidentally? My human meats weren’t built for that sort of thing. Did she know how people bodies worked?
We walked through an entryway, the door behind us shutting. Bright UV lights came on and massive turbines pushed wind through the room at high speed. My hair started to hurt about the time it shut off. The far door opened and we stepped inside.
The room was stark white except for the aluminum table in the middle and a few cabinets and refrigerators along the walls. The table held a small, dark metal box. The lid was off and leaned against the side.
The Earle arrived at it first, pulling out a small device. A black globe, entirely unassuming looking. It had prongs on the end of a short cord that were shaped like a wall plug.
“So, was Graver entirely correct in his assumptions?”
Marine took the device from The Earle and examined it closely. “It looks like he was, but I’ll confirm it so there’s no unfortunate misunderstandings. This is a blotto box?”
A grin spread over The Earle’s face. His eyes practically sparkled.
“It very much is. The finest ever made.”
Blotto boxes were basically a myth. Or were room-sized devices that no one had tried using for years. They were definitely not a baseball with a plug on it. Marine seemed to share my skepticism.
“You know I’m going at Vircore.”
“I know. And so I have given you my best piece. It has a thirty-second delay—”
“What’s the output, Earle?”
His grin became a toothy smile. Immaculate teeth, really. He really took care of those things.
“Three hundred megawatts at capacity. And I can make my guarantee to you that it will run for at least the full of a day.” He took a small bow as if expecting applause. “As utility figures for the Vircore skyscraper put them at just over two hundred megawatts of draw a peak, I should expect it meets your requirements.”
Marine stared at the device in her hand. She was likely coming to the same conclusion I was. There was a fusion generator inside. It was a bomb. A directed one, assuming it fucking worked. Instead of letting its energy go, the box shunted the energy forcibly back into the grid of a building. Normal home wiring would go up like an oil rag.
I couldn’t let the question slide. “The wall plug’s a joke, right? It’ll burn out the socket.”
“My pride simply cannot accept such a suggestion. There is a controller inside which subverts any flow controls. So long as there is a valid circuit, it will find a way through. It congests the line and should destroy connected equipment without burning out the line. Should. However…” He took the ball from Marine, pointing to small fins around the ball. “Vents. A necessary compromise, I fear. The waste heat has to go somewhere, and venting proved the only solution at size. I’ve tried to keep it under a half megawatt at the worst. It ought not to take a large room much past a few hundred degrees. Still, I cannot strongly enough recommend plugging the box in outdoors if it is possible.” He put the device into the box and lifted up the lid to put it on. “Is that all within expectation?”
Marine nodded. “Assuming it doesn’t explode, yes.”
The Earle put the lid on the box and an actuator inside whirred, sounding metal clicks at each edge of the box. “It will only lock within ten yards of Graver owned properties.” He handed the box to Marine. “I doubt he would ever admit such a thing, but he was quite ecstatic with your choice of target. He says they have taken something from you.”
Marine was about to say something when my stomach growled. It was a loud one. I’m pretty sure it echoed. I was being stared at again.
Marine looked back at The Earle, who looked as though he was going to titter gaily and maybe do a wee dance.
“We should go.” To get food. That’s what she meant. I hoped.
Chapter
SIXTEEN
The Earle had handed me a card with his contact information on it as we were leaving. I took it because I didn’t want him to eat my skin, which was something I was fairly confident he might be into. Marine was laughing in the car when I had gotten into it. She’d spent the bulk of the rest of the trip examining the blotto box. I helped as best I could, but it was nearly impossible to see anything inside the vents. There was a fairly complex series of channels leading to the nuclear core to direct the force of the radiant energy, or that was what we decided by poking at the thing. Closer inspection also showed the wall plug to be modified. It would lock itself into the wall, keeping it from being pulled out without considerable effort.
She’d put it back into the box and closed it up when the car had come to a stop. It let us out in our neighborhood, not far from Marine’s shop. When the car was well out of range, I turned to Marine.
“So what do you think that thing’s worth?”
She wiggled the box around, considering it. “Few hundred thousand, maybe. At least.”
“Yeesh. So maybe we just sell it and get ourselves a little house in the woods and get married.”
“Part of that sounds pretty good.”
“I know which part.”
She started
