As they rounded a truck-borne portacabin outfitted as office space, the eight experts were astonished to see a large wagon with a shaft at the front to which horses would be harnessed. The surprise faded quickly, though, as they realised the sense it made. Engines wouldn't work in the anomaly, but horses would, so long as they had the same magnetic protection as the humans. On the wagon was a large portable generator wrapped in metal mesh and a dozen four gallon cans of diesel oil.
"I don't know how to ride a horse," said Mark Summers doubtfully.
"You don't have to," said Sergeant Boyd-Rochfort, coming forward from where he'd been inspecting another wagon, this one with two long benches facing each other. "You'll be riding in this, also pulled by horses. I and the rest of your military escort will all be on horseback. We estimate we can be in Maricopa by the end of the tomorrow if we leave at the crack of dawn."
"If we go at all," said Duffy under his breath.
"Your magnetic protection harnesses are over here," the Sergeant continued. He led the way to a truck whose rear doors were open. A couple of soldiers were unloading large cardboard boxes which they were dropping carelessly onto the hot tarmac. The Sergeant went over to one, tore it open and removed a harness designed to fit around the upper body. Jeffcott recognised it as the kind used by sportsmen and hikers to carry cameras on their chests so they could record their exploits. Where the camera should have been, though, was a black plastic disc about the size of a hockey puck.
"You can adjust the straps to fit a person of any size,' said the Sergeant as he picked one up, put it on and snapped the buckle closed around his waist. "This contains a powerful permanent magnet." He tapped the hockey puck with his finger. "I'm told the magnetic field it generates is large and powerful enough to protect you from the effects of the anomaly. You must never take it off, not even for a moment. Just a few minutes exposure to the anomaly..." He glanced over at the makeshift hospital. "Well, you've seen."
"Have they been tested on humans?" asked Summers.
"They have," the Sergeant confirmed. "Volunteers have remained inside the anomaly for over an hour while wearing these harnesses and suffered no ill affects. We are confident that they will provide complete protection."
"You have no idea what kind of long term affects your volunteers might still suffer from," the doctor pointed out, though. "Some drugs and chemicals don't start showing adverse side effects until decades after the patient stops taking them."
The Sergeant looked annoyed. He was clearly used to his orders being obeyed without question and looked as though he was restraining himself from giving the doctor a tongue lashing. Instead, after taking a breath, he nodded. "I'm afraid that, with the situation so grave, we don't have the luxury for such considerations," he said. "The anomaly already threatens a city of two million people..."
"A city that is now virtually empty," pointed out Bright. "You want us to risk our lives for empty buildings?"
The Sergeant glared at her as if expecting the ground to open up beneath her and swallow her up. She glared defiantly back at him, though, meeting him eye to eye. The Sergeant's face turned red with anger but again he restrained himself. "If the anomaly continues to grow, eventually we will run out of places to run," he said. "And when we can run no further, we will wish we'd been brave enough to stop it while we could."
"But I'm just a linguist!" the woman protested. Her courage was rapidly evaporating under the force of the Sergeant's anger but she still made herself look him in the eye even as a tear ran down her cheek. "I can understand scientists going in, to figure this thing out, but what am I going to do?" Her voice was rising to a shriek as fear took possession of her. "Demons and aliens! Do you know how insane that sounds?"
Dennings went across and out a hand on her arm. Bright shook it angrily off. Dennings tried again, this time grabbing her arm forcefully. "They say it'll be safe," she said. "They say they've tested it."
"They're not the ones who'll be going in there."
"I will be going in there," said the Sergeant. "I was proud to volunteer."
"We didn't volunteer," pointed out Bright.
"And some of us aren't even American," Duffy reminded them. He glanced across at Jeffcott as if hoping the Englishman would support him, but Jeffcott remained silent. Instead he picked up one of the harnesses and examined it curiously.
Duffy gave him a look of betrayal before turning back to the Sergeant. "If we'd been asked maybe it'd be different but we were dragged here against our will. I want to talk to the Canadian embassy."
"No you don't," said Jeffcott. "You want to go in there, just as much as I do. You just want to score points first."
"How dare you..."
Jeffcott shushed him to silence. "We're physicists," he said. "We're naturally curious people. We could have done any number of other things with our lives. Made a ton of money as lawyers, perhaps. Instead, we devoted our lives to unravelling the mysteries of the universe, a profession that doesn't exactly pay well. These days, though, progress is slow. You need gigantic machines costing billions of pounds to make new discoveries, but now there's this." He gestured towards the anomaly, still with its line of soldiers keeping curious members of the public at bay. "Something utterly mysterious. New physics, new answers, just waiting to be discovered. When they came for me, I almost dragged them behind me in my eagerness to get here. If they hadn't chosen me, I would have threatened and bribed whoever I could in an attempt to get a place on this expedition. I know it's the same for you. We've known each other too long, so ditch the fake outrage and clam up."
"He speaks for me too," said Robinson. Jeffcott looked at her, their eyes met and she smiled. Jeffcott's heart leapt with hope and he looked away hurriedly before she could see it.
"Is that right?" the Sergeant asked Duffy.
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"It is," said Jeffcott firmly. "The next time he complains, just offer to grant his wish. Tell him he's free to go." Duffy glared at him and Jeffcott smiled back. The glare deepened, but then Duffy looked away, looking embarrassed.
"And what about you?" Dennings asked Bright. "Do you really want to go home, or do you want the chance to see something completely new? Experience something no-one has ever experienced before. Something to tell you grandchildren about."
"If I live to have any," the linguist replied.
Dennings turned to the Sergeant. "If she's really that afraid, maybe it would be a mistake to force her to go with us," she said. "She could freak out, endanger the mission..."
"I'm not going to freak out!" Bright replied indignantly. "If I was going to be doing something useful I'd have no problem going in. I just don't see the point of risking my life for no reason."
"What if you turn out to be essential to the mission?" Dennings asked. "What if this really is something supernatural?"
"There's no such thing as supernatural..." Jeffcott began. Dennings shot him a look and he shut up.
"Aliens, then," she said to Bright. "What if Mister Duffy's right and this is caused by alien technology? What if the only way to save the world is by communicating with them?"
"You don't actually believe that," Bright replied. "It's a stupid man-made experiment gone wrong. Nothing more than that. I know nothing about science. I can't even name the planets."
"Doesn't matter," said Dennings. "We've got science covered. Your job, and mine, will be to fill the gaps in their expertise. The human side of the equation. Powerful people, the most powerful people in the world, think that you are one of the eight most qualified people to help save the world. Are you going to tell them they're wrong?"
Bright stared at the other woman, then glanced at the Sergeant, who was waiting patiently for her to make up her mind. Bright sighed. "Fine," she said at last. "I guess I'm in, then."
"So if that's finally settled," said the Sergeant impatiently. "Perhaps we can get on." He reached back into the cardboard box and took out a white cloak. He beckoned to a Private, who walked across to him. The Sergeant handed him the cloak and the Private put it on. Jeffcott thought it made him look like an Arab about to climb onto a camel.
"The cloak should help you keep cool," he said. "It reflects the sun away and allows air to circulate underneath it. How does that feel, Parkin?"
"Fine, sir," the Private replied. "Shame this bloody anomaly didn't appear in Idaho."
"Indeed," the Sergeant replied humourlessly as the Private took off the harness. We have them in a variety of sizes. Pick out one that fits you."
He gestured to another private, who handed down a box about the size of a toaster. The Sergeant opened it and removed what looked like an old style ship's signalling lamp sitting in a wire cage. The cage would carry an electric current, Jeffcott guessed, whose magnetic field would allow it to work in the anomaly.
The Sergeant turned back to the experts. "Radio communications don't work in the anomaly, as you know, but we've figured out another way to communicate with you. This is a Polaris Ultrabright signalling torch. The brightest portable signalling light in the world capable of emitting over a million lumens of light. Do not look at it while it's on. The cowl around the LEDs will protect your eyesight so long as you're to the side of it, but the light will burn your skin on contact. You'll need to hook it up to the generator to use it. Just aim it directly at the ecliptic overhead and a satellite in geostationary orbit will be able to see it, even in daytime. You will then be able to send morse code messages to us. I and my men will normally be using it. We'll give you a brief tutorial just in case... You know."
"Will they be able to send messages back to us?" asked Rahul Bhatt.
"Yes," the Sergeant replied. "There is another satellite equipped with a signalling light. Not in geostationary orbit, but we'll have a look-up table telling us where in the sky it is at any time. You won't really need the table, though. If you see a flashing light in the sky, that's what it'll be."
"Why would a satellite have a signalling light?" asked Dennis Gruber curiously. "What's it normally used for?"
"A laser weapon," said Jeffcott, suddenly sure of it. "Right? For destroying other satellites."
"That's classified," the Sergeant replied, but the look on his face confirmed it.
"So they'll be aiming a weapon at us?" said Duffy, chuckling nervously.
"A weapon designed for use in space," Jeffcott replied. "The atmosphere will scatter the beam. Right? It'll just be a bright light in the sky."
"I can neither confirm nor deny the nature of the satellite," said the Sergeant, "but I've been assured that it will be harmless to us on the ground." This time they all chuckled nervously. The Sergeant ignored it. "The important thing is that we will be able to communicate with our superiors outside the anomaly so long as the magnetic cages protecting the torch and the generator remain intact. Our mission will be to reach Kensington Labs in Maricopa, assess the situation there and determine whether the machine that we assume created the anomaly can be used to terminate it. If the machine, whatever they called it..."
"The Furnace," Jeffcott offered helpfully.
The Sergeant acknowledged with a nod. "If we find The Furnace turned off, the generator will hopefully provide enough power to restart it, after you've made whatever adjustments it needs. We're all hoping it won't take you too long to figure it out." He looked at Jeffcott and Duffy expectantly.
"We have some idea what they were doing from their published papers and certain correspondences we've had with them," Jeffcott replied. "The trouble is we researchers don't like to publish until we're sure of our facts. There's no knowing what discoveries and alterations Bergman may have made since he made his last submission to Physical Review. It may take us a long time."
"Let's hope not," said the Sergeant flatly. "Now, we're not expecting you to find anything alive in there, but just in case something or someone has wandered in further around the periphery, mutated and delirious, you will all be armed with spears." The Private still standing in the back of the truck handed one down to him.
"Guns don't work with those wire cages around them?" asked Bright.
"No, they don't," the Sergeant replied. "We've tried, even when protecting them with magnetic fields a thousand times more powerful than you'll be using for protection."
"The detonation of explosives must be more susceptible to the effects of the anomaly than biological processes," said Robinson thoughtfully. "Maybe because it's a more energy intensive process."
"No doubt," said the Sergeant. He twirled the spear around in his hand like a cheerleader's baton, then stood it upright on its end beside him. "This is the United M48 Talon Survival Spear. Eight inch blade, forty four inches overall length. Fibreglass reinforced nylon handle. Seven ounces weight. Easy to use, even for a civilian." He was looking at Bright when he said it, and they all mentally filled in what he'd really wanted to say. Easy to use even for a woman.
He twirled the weapon again to show how light and manoeuverable it was. "Used for stabbing your enemy," he said. "Not, I repeat not, for throwing. The thickening in the shaft just behind the blade will keep an enemy you've just stuck with it from sliding down the shaft towards you, thereby enabling you to hold him at arms length until an ally arrives to help you finish him off. You don't want to leave it stuck in your enemy if you can help it, though. The correct way to use it is to jab with it, the tip going no deeper than two or three inches into the enemy's body, aiming for major arteries. Then you pull it out and jab again, as many times as needed."
"Like a demented sewing machine," said Duffy with a nervous grin.
"Indeed," said the Sergeant, looking annoyed by the frivolous comparison. He glanced to the side, where more soldiers were hanging sacks of straw from wooden stands, then smiled wickedly and fixed Duffy with his eyes. "So. Who wants to be the first to try it out?"