The Zero Game

“Atomic number seventeen,” Minsky says. “Atomic weight 35.453(2)… nonmetallic classification… yellowish- green color… halogen group. You’ve heard of it, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, years back, in one of the original neutrino detectors, they filled a hundred-thousand-gallon tank with it. The smell was horrific.”

“Like a dry cleaner’s,” Viv says.

“Exactly,” Minsky says, pleasantly surprised. “Now remember, you only see neutrinos when they collide with other atoms — that’s the magic moment. So when the neutrinos plowed into a chlorine atom just right, the physicists suddenly started finding…” Minsky points down to the periodic table, pressing his paperclip against the box next to chlorine. Atomic number eighteen.

17-18

Cl-Ar

“Argon,” Viv says.

“Argon,” he repeats. “Atomic symbol Ar. Seventeen to eighteen. One additional proton. One box to the right on the periodic table.”

“Wait, so you’re saying when the neutrino collided with the chlorine atoms, they all changed to argon?” I ask.

“All? We should be so lucky… No, no, no — this was one little argon atom. One. Every four days. It’s an amazing moment — and completely random, God bless chaos. The neutrino hits, and right there, seventeen becomes eighteen… Jekyll becomes Hyde.”

“And this is happening right now in the air around us?” Viv asks. “I mean, didn’t you say neutrinos are everywhere?”

“You couldn’t possibly see the reactions with all the current interference. But when it’s isolated in an accelerator… and the accelerator is shielded deep enough below the ground… and you aim a beam of neutrinos just right… well, no one’s come close yet, but think about what would happen if you could control it. You pick the element you want to work with; you bump it one box to the right on the periodic table. If you could do that…”

My stomach twists. “… you could turn lead to gold.”

Minsky shakes his head — and then again starts laughing. “Gold?” he asks. “Why would you ever make gold?”

“I thought Midas…”

“Midas is a children’s story. Think of reality. Gold costs what? Three hundred… four hundred dollars an ounce? Go buy a necklace and a charm bracelet, I’m sure it’ll be very nice — nice and shortsighted.”

“I’m not sure I-”

“Forget the mythology. If you truly had the power to transmute, you’d be a fool to make gold. In today’s world, there are far more valuable elements out there. For instance…” Minsky again stabs the periodic table with his paperclip. Atomic symbol Np.

93

Np

“That’s not nitrogen, is it?” I ask.

“Neptunium.”

“Neptunium?”

“Named after the planet Neptune,” Minsky explains, forever the teacher.

“What is it?” I ask, cutting him off.

“Ah, but you’re missing the point,” Minsky says. “The concern isn’t what is it? The concern is what it could be...” With one final jab, Minsky moves his paperclip to the nearest element on the right.

93-94

Np-Pu

“Pu?”

“Plutonium,” Minsky says, his laugh long gone. “In today’s world, it’s arguably the most valuable element on the chart.” He looks up at us to make sure we get it. “Say hello to the new Midas touch.”

67

Scrubbing his hands in the fourth-floor men’s room, Lowell stared diagonally down at the front page of the Washington Post Style section that lay flat across the tile floor and peeked out from the side of the closest stall. It was nothing new — every morning, a still-unidentified coworker started the day with the Style section, then left it behind for everyone else to share.

For Lowell, who usually never read anything but the newspaper clips his staff prepared, it was a ritual that stumbled headfirst across the fine line that separated convenience from bad hygiene. That’s why, even though the paper was right there, he never reached down to pick it up. Not once. He knew what others were doing when they read it. And where their hands had been. Disgusting, he’d long ago decided.

Of course, some things took precedence. Like checking the Post’s infamous gossip column, The Reliable Source, to make sure his name wasn’t in it. He’d meant to look this morning, but time got away from him. It had been barely three days since he last saw Harris. He’d counted at least four reporters in the restaurant that night. So far, everything was quiet, but any one of them could’ve tattled about the meeting between him and Harris. For that alone, it was worth taking a peek.

Using the tip of his shoe to pin down the top corner of the paper, Lowell slid the section out from under the stall. The back page was wet, making it stick slightly as he tried to pull it toward him. Lowell tried not to think about it, focusing instead on using the side of his foot to wedge open the front page. But just as he nudged his foot inside, the door to the bathroom swung open, smashing into the wall. Lowell spun around, pretending to be busy by the hand dryer. Behind him, his assistant darted inside, barely able to catch his breath.

“William, what’s-?”

“You need to read this,” he insisted, shoving the red file folder toward Lowell.

Watching his assistant carefully, Lowell wiped his hands against his slacks, reached for the folder, and flipped it open. It took a moment to scan the official cover sheet. Lowell ’s eyes went wide — and within thirty seconds, the gossip column didn’t matter anymore.

68

“Hold on,” I say. “You’re telling me people could smash some neutrinos against some…”

“Neptunium…” Minsky says.

“… neptunium, and suddenly create a batch of plutonium?”

“I’m not saying they’ve done it — at least not yet — but I wouldn’t be surprised if someone was working along those lines… at least on paper.”

He’s speaking with the calmness of someone who thinks it’s still theoretical. Viv and I know better. We saw it with our own eyes. The sphere… the accelerator… even the tetrachloroethylene… That’s what Wendell’s building down there — that’s why they wanted to keep it so quiet. If word got out they were trying to create plutonium…