A pair of cylindrical lead-lined containers each the size of an ordinary garbage bin sat beside the device. They were warhead capsules—monumentally strong, radiation-proof containers that were used to transport nuclear warheads in safety.
Now, as Weber knew, a conventional nuclear weapon required about 4.5 pounds of plutonium. The Supernova, on the other hand, according to his calculations, would require much less than that, only a quarter of a pound of thyrium.
Which was why now, with the aid of two Cray YMP supercomputers and a high-powered laser beam that could cut to within a thousandth of a millimetre, he was extracting a small cylindrical section of thyrium out of the idol.
Nuclear science had come a long way since J. Robert Oppenheimer's masterwork at Los Alamos in the 1940s.
With the aid of multi-tasking supercomputers like the two Crays, complex mathematical equations regarding the size, mass and force ratios of the radioactive core could be done in minutes. Inert gas purification proton enrichment and alpha-wave augmentation could all be done simultaneously.
And the mathematics of it all the crucial part, the part that had taken Oppenheimer and his band of masterminds six whole years to master with the aid of the most primitive computers-could be done by the YMPs in seconds.
In truth, the hardest part for Weber had been the actual construction of the device itself, Even with the aid of the supercomputers, it had still taken him more than two years to build.
While the laser cut through the stone in accordance with a preset weight-for-volume ratio based on the atomic weight of thyrium, Weber entered complex mathematical formulae on one of the nearby supercomputers.
Moments later, the laser cut the idol's head loudly and reverted to stand-by mode.
It was done.
Weber came over, flicked off the laser Cutter. Then, using a robotic arm—human arms being too inexact for such a task—he extracted the small cylindrical Section of thyrium from the base of the idol,
The section of thyrium was then placed inside a vacuum-sealed chamber and bombarded with uranium atoms and alpha waves, turning the tiny section of thyrium into a subcritical mass of the most potent substance ever to have existed on earth.
Moments later, the robotic arm carried the entire chamber over to the Supernova where with the utmost precision it slid the chamber—with the subcritical mass of thyrium inside it—into the titanium frame that was suspended in between the two thermonuclear warheads.
The Supernova was complete.
The subcritical mass of thyrium now sat horizontally in its vacuum-sealed throne between the two warheads, looking for all the world as if it contained the power of God.
The thing was, it did.
Screens all around the control booth scrolled out massive amounts of data feed. On one screen, under the heading 'DUAL AXIS RADIOGRAPHIC HYDRODYNAMIC FACILITY' a never- ending series of ones and zeroes scrolled downwards.
Weber ignored them, began typing on the computer keyboard that was attached to the front of the Supernova. A prompt appeared on the screen: INSERT ARMING CODE.
Weber did so.
SUPERNOVA ARMED.
Weber typed: INITIALIZE TIMER DETONATION SEQUENCE.
TIMER DETONATION SEQUENCE INITIALIZED. INSERT TIMER DURATION.
Weber typed: 00:30:00.
The screen changed instantly.
YOU NOW HAVE
00:30:00
MINUTES TO ENTER DISARM CODE.
ENTER DISARM CODE HERE
Weber paused as he gazed at the screen, took a slow, deep breath.
Then he slammed his finger down on the 'ENTER' key.
00:29:59 00:29:58 00:29:57
'Where is Unterscharfuhrer Kahr?' Heinrich Anistaze asked nobody in particular as he peered out from the boathouse office at the immense earthen crater outside. 'He should have been back by now.'
Anistaze turned. 'You,” he said, tossing a radio to one of the two lab coat-wearing technicians standing at a computer terminal nearby. 'Go to the pit and see what is taking the Unterscharfihrer so long.'
'Yes, sir.'
Renee and Race slammed into the boat-house wall together.
Only moments earlier, Uli had left them. He had headed off down the side of the massive boat-house in the direction of the crater and the northern cable bridge.
