'It's time to get back to the base and radio a report,' he said. 'How are you doing?' he inquired of his companions.

'This is amazing stuff!' Runyan replied enthusiastically.

'The man is really incredible. He has developed a whole series of innovative techniques to accomplish things I would have said were impossible. Apparently, he deliberately set out to make a black hole. He wanted to use it as an energy source, utilize the power emitted as material is swallowed. Vast power from anything, dirt, water, air. He started by investigating how great a density he could create in the lab. Just a question of pure basic science with no practical application in mind. Then he got the idea of creating a black hole. He imploded pellets of iron with his standard beam techniques — iron so that there would be no nuclear reactions. The problem is that it requires vast energies to overcome the internal pressure of the compressed matter. Krone seems to have developed a way to neutralize the electrical charges in the pellet and the beam which compresses it. That reduced the pressure and allows much higher densities. I haven't got to anything about black holes yet, but if I'm any judge his studies will advance our knowledge of the behaviour of nuclear matter by a decade.'

'Could be,' replied Isaacs. 'I was just looking here somewhere in the middle of the story,' he checked a date, 'about a year and a half ago. Apparently, he has had some success at reaching high densities, but trouble maintaining them. He's describing here the development of a magnetic confinement configuration which can support the compressed pellet while he continues to focus the intense neutron beams on it. The discussion is highly technical. I'm barely getting the gist of it.'

Isaacs paused to rub his eyes.

'The real question is whether we are going to learn anything from these that will tell us how to undo the damage. Are you getting any sense of that?'

'He's done the impossible and recorded it in meticulous detail,' Runyan replied. 'Only time will tell, but I can't believe there won't be some new knowledge, some hints. I know this, as long as the original knowledge is locked up there,' he glanced at Krone's still figure, 'these books are invaluable.'

Danielson had not seemed to pay any attention to this interchange. She had swivelled her chair away from the desk and was staring at the fire.

'Pat?' inquired Isaacs.

She turned to look at him with a vacant smile. 'I was thinking about Shelley.'

'The poet, Percy Bysshe?'

'No, his wife, Mary Wollstonecraft.'

'Oh, right, Frankenstein. Well, our scientist has created a monster all right.'

'Four of them.'

'What's that?'

She pointed at the book she had abandoned on the desk.

'He thinks he made four of them. At first the suspension system was ineffective. He cites evidence that he managed to start three seeds, but then they disappeared from the system. There was no sign that they had evaporated, no unexplained release of energy. He suspects they fell into the earth, but are too small to detect. By the fourth time, he made significant improvements to the magnetic suspension and managed to force-feed and grow the one we know about. Eventually, the suspension failed again. This time he detected it seismically and knew for sure what was happening.'

'My god!' gasped Runyan from his seat by the door.

'Didn't he know what he was doing? Why didn't he stop after the first disaster?'

She looked at him Godly.

'The journals are pretty clinical so his state of mind is only implicit, but I get the feeling that he was totally caught up in the scientific and engineering questions and driven by a powerful megalomania. Apparently, he was so consumed by his quest that he didn't question the failures in that way, just what had become of them. When the fourth got away from him, he finally thought seriously about the implications of what he had done — and it destroyed him.' She waved a hand towards the quiet figure in the chair by the fireplace.

'But if he's right about the other three,' said Runyan, 'then even if we find some solution to the big one we're still in danger from the others. Drag on them is going to act more quickly to cause them to settle into the earth where they're unreachable. They may take a much longer time to grow to a dangerous size, but it's still just a matter of time.'

He exchanged a long glance with Isaacs. Isaacs broke it off, gathered up the books he had been reading and stood.

'Well, let's see if we can get these books to someone who will understand them better than we do.'

Danielson stood up from the desk, and Runyan gathered his long legs under him and shoved himself to his feet.

Maria Latvin appeared in the doorway. She gave Runyan a cool look and then addressed herself to Isaacs.

'I must put Paul down for his rest. Then I would like to talk to you, if I may. Would you please wait in the living room?'

'Certainly,' replied Isaacs. 'We have a couple of issues to discuss with you as well.'

They filed out of the room and down the hall as the woman bent to help Krone from the chair.

Isaacs deposited the books he had been holding on the table in the foyer. He walked over next to Runyan who had settled in the chair next to the fireplace. Danielson examined the artefacts on the shelves.

'What next?' Runyan inquired.

'We'll explain to her that we need the books and that we'll have to send someone for Krone. Something tells me she's not going to take that news too well.'

Runyan's face clouded over. 'I don't believe I fathom that lady. Surely she realizes that we represent some threat to upset her isolated but rather posh applecart here, yet she doesn't seem at all perturbed.'

'I'm not sure of her role, either,' Isaacs answered. 'She does seem to be devoted to Krone. If he returned the consideration, he may have set her up for life, regardless of what happens.'

Runyan smiled an impish grin. 'Or maybe Krone's not as incapacitated as he seems. That's one good-looking woman there.'

'Oh, for heaven's sake!' Danielson turned, exasperated.

'You can see what shape that man is in. Can you imagine what an effort it must be to care for him? All by herself?'

Runyan leaned towards Isaacs and said in a stage whisper, 'Touchy feminist.'

'Mr Isaacs,' Danielson's voice was cold with fury. 'I don't believe you need me here anymore. I'll wait in the car.' She paused to pick up the lab books Runyan had left in the foyer and then swept out the front door.

Runyan gave a half shrug as Isaacs fixed him with a stony stare.

'That was completely unnecessary, Alex. I don't know what you've done to upset her, but I want a lid on it.' 'Hey, it was a little joke.'

'There's more to it than that. Something's going on between you.'

'Well, to hell with you,' Runyan scowled. 'My personal life is none of your business.'

'It is if it keeps one of my people from performing at top efficiency, or distracts us at all from what we're doing here.'

'Horse shit,' seethed Runyan. 'Don't tell me I'm not on top of what's going on.' He stood up and looked down at the slightly shorter man. 'You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me.'

'I know what you've contributed, and I'd like to keep you on the team, but if you get in my way, you're out!'

The two men glared at one another, then Runyan broke off and looked at the carpet, scuffing his toe, then finally back at Isaacs.

'Look,' he said, 'this thing is too big for us to lose sight of it fighting over some girl.'

'Girl! She's a damn fine worker. Let me remind you neither of us would be here if it weren't for her early work.'

'She's a bright lady, I know that. She's also attractive, in case you hadn't noticed. We got a little friendly out there in Arizona. Didn't mean anything.'