Chapter 1

Roy Baines sat on the bank casting his line into the glassy, still waters of the lake. His mind wasn't really on fishing, and he would probably have lost the fish if it did strike. He had bought the three acres on the lake as his hide-away, a place to think. That's what the reason was for his weekend at the lake this time. He had a lot to think about. The decision that he had to make would effect the direction of rest of his life; probably his decision would have a major impact on the future of mankind.

He looked out over the lake, drinking in the magnificent silence. Most of the people that had cabins or houses on this side of the lake were like him; they built here to get away from people. He had put a manufactured doublewide on the property, a spot that gave him the best view of the lake and the surrounding mountains. A diesel generator provided power to the house. Solar panels and a small wind turbine provided enough electricity to run a low-wattage electric heater to kept the house from freezing when he was not using it, but just barely. He had pulled out the cheap insulation the manufacturer had installed and had foam insulation pumped in. The foam insulation insolated the house from the cold. The worthless windows that came with the house had been replaced with triple glazed windows. He had composting toilets installed so that he wouldn't pollute the lake and a gray water filtration system insured against gray water pollution of the lake. It had all been expensive, because of the remoteness of the property, but it was worth it. Earlier in the season, he had wired the generator to run and charge the batteries if the wind turbine and solar panels couldn't keep them fully charged. A friend in town owned a feed and grain store that also provided the locals with fuel oil, and kept the diesel tank topped off and kept an eye on the house.

His mother and father knew about his get-away place, but had never seen it. They were both retired and their focus in life now was to see how many golf courses around the world that they could play before they died. Both of Roy's parents had been college professors and he had inherited their genes. He graduated from college with a dual major in chemistry and biology. The government had recruited him and sent him back to college where he earned a master's in both chemistry and biology. He became fascinated with physics and started pursuing a degree in that discipline also. He found that he had a real aptitude for physics and went on to get his doctorate in physics by the age of twenty-six. It was after this that he went to work for the Department of Defense in their top-secret weapons program. This program was the reason that he needed to have some time to himself. He needed to think this out.

The Four-Star General in charge of the weapons program had called him into his office for a luncheon meeting. Roy arrived at the office wondering what the reason for this meeting was. He was wrapping up a successful weapon development assignment, trying to put all of the paperwork in order so that the Defense Department could present it to Congress for funding. He knew that he would be given another assignment when Congress approved the weapons system. He would have to be available for a while in case he had to testify before the Armed Services Committee. It was hard talking to a bunch of idiots whose only concern was getting re-elected. Rarely did they have the intelligence or inclination to discuss high tech weapons.

As he walked down the hall to the General's office he was thinking about the new weapons system that he had been highly instrumental in developing. It was the next generation "smart" bomb. The bomb was so accurate that so-called "collateral damage" would be almost eliminated and it had the ability to "shape" the detonation to direct the explosion away from civilians. If the mission was aborted or if the bomb malfunctioned the bomb's detonator could be defuse remotely. The electronics, in that case, would fry themselves to avoid the possibility of falling into enemy hands. If there was still a possibility of the bomb causing collateral damage, it could be guided to an unpopulated area and detonated. The brass at the Pentagon were no overly thrilled about the "collateral damage" aspect of the weapon, they loved the accuracy. It could be launched from a much greater distance than before and had stealth design.

The luncheon with the General had started off well, with a lot of compliments on his achievements in the past few years. Roy had been working for the government for nine years. When the General got to the reason for the meeting, the tone of it changed. The Pentagon wanted Roy's entire staff to be put on a top-secret project at an undisclosed site. The scientists would be allowed to bring their families to the secret location and they would be housed in a "village" to be constructed just for them. The scientists would receive a healthy increase in pay to compensate them for their hardship and the General implied that Roy would be taking over the General's job as soon as the project was successful. Roy knew that would never happen. A military man always had that post.

Three years before, Roy had done a feasibility study on a theoretical weapon that was so far advanced that no one knew if the scientific facts that the weapon was based on were correct. He was sure that the type of radiation that the weapon relied on did exist, but no one could prove it. Hell, a few years ago, no one knew that neutrinos existed. Neutrinos are so small that if one were dropped on a human's head it would fall right through to the human's feet by falling through the spaces in the atoms of the body. If the type of radiation that he had written the study about could be found to exist, it would revolutionize warfare.