The Doomsday Box Read Free

high-frequency electromagnetic fields can be used to bend space-time. Once you bend space-time, you can step to a distant location instantly. Or a distant time.”
    â€œAnd they’re doing this at Montauk?” Michael asked.
    Mr. Carradine gave a small, dry laugh. “Not anymore,” he said. “They started to run into problems around 1988. The project was super secret, as you might imagine, but there were signs that the cover might be blown. This was during the Cold War—the Berlin Wall hadn’t come down, and the Soviet Union was still intact. There was a dissident named Enrico Chekov who defected to America and showed the CIA Russian satellite photos of a strange phenomenon. Fortunately the Russians didn’t know what it was, but our people did: it was a huge bubble in space-time centered on the Montauk site. Chekov sold his copies of the photographs to a reporter from the New York Times , and we had to steal them back.”
    We? Opal thought. Had Mr. Carradine been personally involved? He was with the CIA, so he might well have been. Aloud she said, “But the reporter saw them. Wouldn’t he want to investigate further?”
    â€œWe shot him,” Carradine said coolly. They stared at him, wondering if he was joking.
    After a moment, Danny asked, “What about Chekov?”
    â€œHim too,” Carradine said. He straightened his jacket. “We kept the lid on that one, but it was a close call, and shortly afterward there was a major accident that killed seven of our best scientists and nearly eighty military personnel.”
    â€œWhat happened?” Danny asked.
    â€œThat information is on a need-to-know basis. You don’t need to know.”
    Danny shrugged. “Fine.”
    â€œAfter the accident, Project Rainbow was closed down for the second time—this time by presidential order. It was one of the last things Ronald Reagan did before he left office. Except . . .” He pursed his lips. “And this is the part that goes beyond top secret, so please bear in mind it is not to be discussed with anyone outside this room, whatever their security clearance. The scientists found they couldn’t close down the space-time distortion they’d created.”
    â€œI don’t understand,” Michael said.
    Opal’s father broke in again. “They created a rift in space-time using ultrahigh-powered magnetic fields. They assumed that when they shut the power down, the rift would disappear. But it didn’t. Apparently when you tear space-time, it stays torn.”
    â€œYou mean there’s a time tunnel at Montauk?” Fuchsia asked. She looked delighted.
    Mr. Carradine shrugged. “Actually tunnel gives the wrong idea. A tunnel goes in a straight line from one place to another. This is a rift in space-time. While we had the magnets on, we could control where it went. Now that they’re off, it could lead anywhere.”
    â€œOr any when,” Fuchsia added.
    â€œOr anywhen,” Carradine confirmed.
    â€œWhat did they do about the presidential order?” Danny asked.
    â€œThey set up a very sophisticated alarm system that would trigger if the rift was activated. From the other side, so to speak. Very unlikely, of course, since you need high-tech equipment, but nobody wanted to take chances. Then they sealed the chamber under seven thousand tons of reinforced concrete.”
    â€œSo Mr. Reagan left office happy.” Danny grinned.
    â€œI should think so,” Carradine said. “I’m not sure anybody actually told him about the little difficulty.”
    Opal said, “Mr. Carradine, why are you sending us to Montauk?”
    â€œAh,” said Carradine. He looked across at Sir Roland.
    Sir Roland said flatly, “The idiots are opening up the rift chamber again.”
    â€œWell, I wouldn’t necessarily call them idiots,” Carradine said. “There’s a great deal of scientific