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.The twolanes in the southbound tube bound forBrooklyn still had too many abandoned vehicles clogging them.Two large trucks trailing the procession stopped before the others did.Teamsfrom each truck got out and prepared to build decontamination barriers acrossthe width of the tunnel.Power was on here, too, although there hadn't been much need for it recently.The existing Battery Tunnel lights reduced the need to bring in additionalartificial lighting, and the fans would help to keep the air breathable, atleast until, and if, the crew was near to breaching the barrier to theoutside.Matt listened to the metallic whine of tires as the noise bouncedback from the tunnel walls.The lead truck pulled to a halt in the right lane, fifty feet from the blackseal at the end of the tunnel.Paramedic teams had removed the victims leftbehind when the tunnel was severed, but the last twenty or thirty feet ofroadbed still bore the dark stains of blood and oil.To Matt the black material blocking the tunnel looked just like the stuff atthe end of the subway tunnel.He walked the final meters to the wall and puthis fingers against it.It had the feel of wrought iron.The surface tiltedaway from him, so it was maybe forty-five degrees from vertical.He pulled afingernail down the surface, and felt the roughness.When he scratchedsideways, he could feel a series of tiny ridges."Can I borrow a hammer?" he asked Rudy.Rudy set a small toolbox on the stained concrete and withdrew a ball-peenhammer.Matt swung the hammer against the black surface.Wrought iron would haveabsorbed more of the energy.Against this surface, the hammer snapped back asthough Matt had hit a cubicmeter of stainless steel."Doesn't sound encouraging, does it?"Page 50ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html"Not really," Rudy said.Six more people from Rudy's organization approachedthe wall and started their own investigations."How did this layer get here?" Matt asked as even more people formed severalsmaller groups to attack the surface with a variety of techniques.Rudy shrugged."We don't know really.No one reported seeing any materialbrought down, and I'm sure it isn't a simple layer of melted rock.Quite afew people reported hearing a series of explosions like you heard.Onepossibility proposed by metallurgists is that the aliens shot a huge number ofexplosive pellets into the cut formed by the lasers.If the pellets containedmaterial that sprang into its original shape and fused together, what we couldhave is a huge cone underneath the city.""Sounds a little strange to me," Matt said."This whole business is a little strange.One of the things the metallurgicalfolks found is that the material is magnetized, and that the directioncorresponds to the direction the magnetic flux would have been oriented onEarth.That's one reason they think that for at least a short time, a lot ofthe barrier material was fluid, so the magnetic dipoles could move freely andalign themselves with the strongest magnetic field present.""So, if that theory's true, even if we can't get through this section, there'sa possibility of a gap at the very bottom of the cone.All we'd need to do istunnel down who knows how far through solid granite.""Simple, eh?" Rudy grinned."And we should be able to figure out how deepwe'd have to go.We can measure this angle--" he pointed to the black barrier"--and we can measure the angles in other locations.My guess is the holethey cut is at least a kilometer deep in the center."#Julie Kravine put her ID back in her pocket and walked deeper into the tunnel.Ahead were flashing yellow lights of city maintenance vehicles parked in theright lane of the tunnel.She turned on her minivid and started recording as a matter of habit.A pinpoint of brilliant light turned on in the distance ahead, and a shower ofsparks flew to one side.The sparks fell to the ground so slowly, the displayseemed more like faraway fireworks.Rudy Sanchez sat on the back bumper of a city electrical truck.He lookedtired.Julie got within a couple of yards of him before he looked up andsmiled as though he were glad to see her.Too many people looked away whenreporters arrived."Hi," he said."Hi, yourself.How's it going?""Slow.Very very slow.Or not at all, depending on your point of view."The sparks were still flying in the air near the barrier ahead."Don't youthink you're gonna' be able to cut through it?""I just don't know.Isn't that the kind of answer reporters hate?""Not when it's honest.""It's honest.We've tried acid, diamond-tipped blades, torches--" he jerkedhis thumb toward the sparks "--welding equipment.Nothing.""Why keep trying if you're sure it's impossible?""'Cause I'm not sure.Different materials have different weaknesses.Maybewe'll find a weak link.""Sounds like wishful thinking to me."Rudy was silent for a moment."Maybe so.But you remember paper newspapersfrom when you were a kid?""Sure.""You ever try to tear out an article on part of a page? If you did, youprobably noticed that tearing the page vertically was easy.But tearingacross the page was damn near impossible to do, at least in a straight line.""Yeah.So?""So the paper was stronger in one direction than the other, because of the wayPage 51ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlthe fibers lined up.Other materials are like that, too.Some of them youcan pull on the ends really hard and they can support thousands of pounds oftension, but bend them in two and they snap just like a little piece of wood.We need to figure out how to snap this stuff.""You know you did that very well?" Julie said.Rudy looked puzzled, so shewent on."When I talk to technical people, most of them either don't try toexplain very well because they want to feel superior, or they really do try toexplain, but they sound like they're reciting their doctoral thesis--theydon't know how to explain things to people who don't talk their jargon.""Well, thanks.You do your job well, too [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]