Chapter 4

The guards at the rooftop helipad took charge of Zandra and her paperwork from those in the helicopter. They marched her into the building, and took the elevator down to the detention section. She had already seized control of their minds, and there was nothing for the Headquarters's expensive and sophisticated detection equipment to find as Zandra had returned all of her equipment to the storage dimension while still on the helicopter.

Halfway to the detention center in the basement, Zandra stopped the elevator and got off after planting the memory in the guards minds that they had delivered her to the detention area and that they could go to the cafeteria on break before returning to the roof.

On exiting the elevator, Zandra quickly slipped into a ladies room, entered a stall and closed the door. She then re-opened the window into her storage dimension and changed clothes again removing the prisoner clothing and dressing in a business suit so she looked like one of the secretaries here. She used a pair of glasses to make herself appear older than she was, and then waited for another woman to enter, took control of her mind, and sat her in the very end stall, asleep. She took the woman's identification badge and the paperwork that she carried; so she would have easier access to the various parts of the buildings.

The Homeland Security Headquarters covered a vast area, and consisted of many buildings and large parking areas for its fleet of vehicles, There were warehouses and barracks. The main headquarters was a series of connected multistory buildings that were parallel to each other. By scanning the surface thoughts of the people she passed in the halls, Zandra was quickly able to determine where the area she wanted was located.

Zandra worked her way to the correct building in the complex. There were security guards in the halls there to control access to that building from the others and especially to the area that she was interested in, but Zandra was able to gain access by seizing control of a security guard's mind and having him create a pass for her and then having him forget all about her and the pass. She now had access to the area of the building where the Director's office and the Plans and Operations sections were.

Zandra then went to the south end of that building on a mid level floor, and found a storage room there midway down the hall. She transported into the locked room, opened the window to her storage dimension, removed the second surprise package, and set the timer for two hours later than the first one. She repeated this on the north end of the rather large building, and then transported back to her lab in the hills of Allso.

At 6:00 PM Central time that evening, the gravity bomb in Indianapolis activated. It created an initial gravity field 350 feet in diameter at one gravity and quickly increased the gravity to ten thousand times Earth gravity and then shrank the field and everything enclosed in it to a ball of material four feet in diameter. At this density the ground under it could not support the weight of the ball, and the field and everything in it started sinking into the rock below it.

Panic ensued in Indianapolis, as the police and the military went on terrorist alert. Homeland Security in Greater Washington puts all of their people on alert and notifies them to come into work. No one had ever seen anything like this before, and no one knew what it was, or who had done this. It was a total mystery at the time.

Two hours later at 9:00 PM Eastern time that evening the two gravity bombs in the Greater Washington Headquarters of Homeland Security activated within thirty seconds of each other with similar results, only now there was no Homeland Security Headquarters to take charge of things. All of the people that had been responded to the emergency call were in the various buildings, and those who had planned and organized the assaults on Allso interests in North America were in the main part of building affected at the time.

The President placed all military and police forces on terrorist alert within thirty minutes that evening. Everyone waited to see what would happen next, as there were no experts to explain what had happened. No one had ever seen anything like this before. Panic ensued in many places as people worried about who was next, and everyone stayed away from Homeland Security offices and training centers.

TIME: two hours after the gravity bombs imploded the Homeland Security Headquarters in Greater Washington.

LOCATION: Near the ruins of the Greater Washington Headquarters of Homeland Security.

"I don't know, Mr. President," the President's National Security Adviser said, "No one has ever seen anything like this. According to your Chief Counter-terrorist Adviser, Mr. Harris, the site in Indianapolis had the same kind of attack, as we have here. But we don't know what or more importantly who caused it." He was interrupted then by the National Science Adviser, who grabbed his video cell phone.

"Mr. President," the National Science Adviser said, "this wasn't an explosion. It was an implosion."

"Define that," the President demanded.

"The buildings weren't blown up. They collapsed in on themselves. I have several Physicists here from local universities and they have confirmed my theory. Someone created an intense gravity field and literally collapsed and sucked the affected parts of the buildings and their contents in on themselves. Also there were two of them here, one in the south end of the main headquarters building and one in the north end.

"Everything is now compressed into a ball roughly four feet in diameter and it is sinking into the solid rock. It has such a high density that nothing can support it for long. My three colleges are worried, as it could eventually penetrate the entire mantel and sink into the core of the planet. On the other hand, if those gravity fields collapses all of that material will do its best to return to its former volume," The Science Adviser finished to take a panicked breath.

"What would happen then?" the President demanded.

"A huge explosion. Nothing like it has ever been seen on this planet. It could cause a catastrophic earthquake!" the Science Adviser explained in panic.

"Who knows how to do something like this?" the President demanded.

"No one that any of my colleagues know of," the Science Adviser answered. "Well, the Allso people do something with gravity fields, but nothing like this."

"The Allsos again!" the President said, as if it were a curse. "Damn my predecessor for ever dealing with them."

"He didn't have a lot of choice," the Science Adviser mumbled.

"Can you contact them and see what they know?" the President asked.

"Yes, sir. I can try," the Science Adviser answered.

Zandra appeared in the operations section just after 8:00 PM Pacific time that evening with red eyes from crying. There was great excitement there over what had happened in Greater Washington and Indianapolis, and everyone wondered who had done this to Homeland Security. Miranda immediately ushered Zandra into her office, along with Randell, who was also there at the time, and closed the door.

"Zandra, did you have anything to do with this?" Miranda demanded.

"Yes, I caused both of them," Zandra acknowledged quietly.

"Why?" both Miranda and Randell asked, stunned at the admission.

"They are the ones that orchestrated the attacks on us here in North America. It was payback," she stated, unemotionally.

"But what did you use?" Miranda asked. "I've never seen anything like that before."

"I used gravity bombs," Zandra told her. "They consist of two very strong gravity fields, one inside the other."

"Why two, and one inside the other?" Randell asked, not understanding.

"The outer field starts out at just over 350 feet in diameter at one gravity initially, but soon increases to ten thousand Earth gravities and then shrinks to four feet in diameter as it compacts the material."

"How strong did you say the field was?" Miranda asked, stunned.

"Ten thousand times Earth's gravity," Zandra told her again.

"We've never produced a field that intense," Miranda said.

"No, but I have," Zandra told her.

"What does the inner field do?" Randell asked once again.

"It keeps the outer field from crushing the mechanism and the batteries. It's stepped to stay just ahead of the outer field and counter it," Zandra explained.

"Oh my God!" Miranda exclaimed, "how long are those batteries good for?"

"About 24 hours, they're our best batteries," Zandra told them.

"What happens then?" both Randell and Miranda asked in frightened voices.

"The gravity fields collapse when the batteries run out of power," Zandra explained, somewhat calmly.

"Oh, all right!" Miranda said, breathing easier.

"No, that's not all right!" Randell said, even more worried.

"What do you mean?" Miranda asked, worried now also.

"Zandra, what happens to all of that material when there is no more gravity field to hold it to the size and shape it has been forced into?" Randell demanded angrily.

"It will expand back to its original size and volume," Zandra told them quietly.

"But it's all sinking into the ground," Miranda said. "How far will it sink in that time?"

"I'm not sure. It depends on the type of rock under it, but it will probably sink at about fifty feet or so in an hour."

"So in twenty-four hours it will have sunk somewhere around 1200 feet, is that right?" Miranda demanded.

"Yes, probably something like that."

"And when all of that energy is released?" Randell demanded.

"It will all rebound and come back up," Zandra told him quietly. "Very fast."

"How fast?"

"Considering the effects of friction and heating probably in a second or so, and it will be pushing out everything in front of it."

"Oh my God!" Miranda exclaimed again, and sank into her chair. "Do they know about this?"

"I don't think so," Zandra said much more quietly.

"But why, Zan?" Randell asked in shock.

"For what they did to our people ... MY PEOPLE!" Zandra answered, as she broke down in tears again. Randell and Miranda just sat there in stunned silence for a time.

"We need to contact them and warn them," Randell said after a short time. "That much energy released that suddenly will create a huge explosion. It could cause a serious earthquake at that depth and destroy a very large area."

"Yes, we should definitely contact them," Miranda agreed.

"There is time," Zandra told them, as she continued to cry and sob in anguish.

"Why are you crying, Zan?" Randell finally asked his longtime girlfriend and lover in concern.

"Because I probably killed a lot of innocent people who didn't deserve to die along with those that did," she blubbered and fell into Randell's arms and continued to cry.

"Yes, it was a terrible thing that you did, Zandra," Miranda said, as she stared at her boss in disbelief. Shortly her phone rang.

"Yes, what is it?" She demanded harshly, as she held the receiver to her ear for privacy.

"There is a call on the line from the North American Union's Science Adviser. He wants to talk to someone about gravity fields," Miranda's personal assistant told her.

"Put him on the line," Miranda told her assistant in resignation, as she transferred the phone to conference call mode.