new facility, part of which they turned into a school.”
“A training program that taught a sixteen-year-old how to make bombs?” Selene felt sick at the idea.
“Fuck.” Oscar popped his head around from the kitchen. “So an extremist terrorist organization, not just a cult.”
“Terrorist…” Luca looked away.
Selene cleared her throat. “Next question. Where’s your data? The math to back it all up?” They’d talked through the top-level details while Oscar cooked breakfast, but now it was time to get into the fine-grained details.
Luca’s lost, remote look faded as he focused on her, his eyes bright and intelligent. “Ah, I did it on a non-networked computer and paper and then threw both away. I knew what I was doing was dangerous, and I didn’t want anyone to find it.”
“But you had the schematic to build it on your tablet.”
“I had the schematic for an easily disabled version on my tablet. There is no unaltered version any longer.”
“Why actually create it?” Oscar asked as he walked out of the kitchen. “Why not just put a bunch of random shit on a piece of paper and tell them you made a bomb.”
“I wasn’t the only person in that particular training program.”
“Your work was checked by other members who would have known how to read the schematic,” Selene said.
“Yes.”
“But bomb making and nuclear physics are distinctly different. Did they teach you atomic physics? Nuclear weapons training?” she asked.
Luca shifted in his seat, looking uncomfortable. She and Oscar shared a glance.
Selene was hard to surprise but that had done it. “How? I mean, where did you get that kind of information from a very small and regulated academic discipline?”
“Er…your TED talks,” Luca muttered.
Beside her, Oscar started to laugh so hard, he began to wheeze. She hit him with a pillow. “Shut up, Oscar.”
“Super…villain…” He dissolved into gales of laughter.
It didn’t help that Selene was fairly sure she was blushing.
“Ignore him. He thinks I’m going to go nuts and become a supervillain.”
Luca nodded solemnly, then paused, seeming to consider his words before saying. “You would make an excellent villain.”
She threw the other pillow at Luca.
When the boys had settled down, she pointed at Luca. “I want to talk specifics. Why neptunium?”
One by one, she asked Luca the questions that she hadn’t been able to answer for herself when all she’d had to look at was the bomb design. They discussed how and why he’d selected that particular heavy atom. The answer—because it wasn’t as tightly regulated as uranium and plutonium—is what she’d guessed, but it was good to have confirmation.
The next question was how he’d planned to create a particle accelerator that was both portable and able to generate the needed speed. The answer—responsive nanotech pathways—theoretically sounded possible. However, she would need to investigate more thoroughly as she didn’t know much about nanotech.
And her final, and most important question. “How did you exponentially increase the output from existing known levels given that amount of base material?”
Luca talked her through it. They passed the envelope back and forth until both sides were covered in squiggles. Luca was brilliant, and if he’d had a different life, he would be an incredible and innovative scientist, rather than the manager of a small, private forensic explosives lab.
But, the more they talked, the more she began to suspect that his calculations were, quite simply, wrong.
Selene frowned down at the envelope. “I don’t think this is possible.”
“I did the math.” Luca took the paper, looking it over. “I should not have destroyed my original calculations.”
“Does that mean the bomb doesn’t work?” Oscar asked.
“I’m certain it will explode, but not, perhaps…” Selene closed her eyes, eliminating the visual stimulation so she could focus on running and re-running the calculations in her head. “I need to get back to my lab.”
“Blizzard.” Oscar was up and pacing.
Luca was staring down at their notes. “If I’m wrong, then it doesn’t matter. We can release the plans.” He swallowed hard. “But it also means…”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Oscar warned.
“We need to know for sure what the bomb output would be. I need someone with access to Pleiades.”
Oscar whirled around. “We know someone with access to Pleiades?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, can I get access to Pleiades?”
“What’s Pleiades?” Luca asked.
“NASA’s fucking sexy super computer.” Oscar was all but purring.
Selene was already on the phone. A quick call to Sebastian got her Preston Kim’s number, and ten minutes later she was on the phone with him. He’d done some consulting work with