The Deadliest Moop

“I don’t know.” Alex patted Wegener, but that didn’t calm the animal. “He was a drug sniffer dog, but who knows? He might have also been trained as a disaster rescue dog.”

“You think there are people trapped in here?” said Katerina.

“What?” Alex was puzzled. Katerina sounded different. Her voice was thinner and higher pitched. Then he understood. “Crouch down,” he said almost at a shout, “and breathe close to the ground. We’re breathing a lot of helium.” He crouched. Katerina and Takeo did so as well. Low to the ground, they made their way slowly toward the exit.

“If the liquid helium line has ruptured,” said Takeo, “then the magnets are destroyed. The Tevatron is dead.”

“Such a lot of destruction,” said Katerina.

“It would have been much worse had it not been shut down when it did.” Takeo looked back at Alex. “One assumes it was you who annealed the tear in the spacetime fabric.”

“I did hit the button.”

As they neared the entrance, a shaft of sunlight shone down the staircase. Alex blinked in the brightness, and he noticed that their voices had returned to normal. “I guess the helium’s dissipated.” He stood upright. Katerina and Takeo did as well.

They’d taken a few more steps when the shaft of light vanished, replaced by animated shadows from the entrance. They stopped as another beam of light, this time from a flashlight, found them.

As the light grew close, Alex saw that it was wielded by a police officer. Behind him walked another individual.

“Is that the deputy director?” Katerina whispered.

“Decker?” said Alex, squinting past the beam. “Yeah. I think so.”

At about the same time, Decker seemed to recognize them. “Have you seen the director?” he called out, without preamble.

“No,” Alex called back. “Why?”

“I was on the phone with him.” Decker stopped as he reached Alex and the others. “The line went dead. He might be trapped in his hideaway down here.” He glanced over at the police officer. “I didn’t know what to do. I called 911.”

“Where is that hideaway?” said Katerina.

Decker stared down the corridor. “Don’t really know. I’ve never been there.”

“Well, come on,” said the police officer. “We’d better hunt him down.”

Again, Wegener whined, and pointed his muzzle towards the interior.

Alex glanced at him. “My dog seems to want to hunt him down as well.”

Katerina cocked her head. “How could Wegener have possibly gotten to know the director’s scent?”

“I don’t know,” said Alex, letting Wegener have his way. “I just don’t know.”

Nose to the ground, Wegener padded down the corridor. The officer, his flashlight serving as the headlight of a locomotive, followed—and the others followed him.

A few minutes later, after running a convoluted route through many corridors, Wegener stopped at a door. Opening outward, the door was made non-functional by an equipment rack overturned in front of it.

The officer pounded on the door. “Anyone in there?”

“Get me out of here,” came a voice, the director’s, from inside.

Alex and Decker lifted the rack upright and shoved it out of the way. The door opened and the director, seeming unsteady on his feet, came out. Wegener, though, darted inside and started barking.

Alex, puzzled, followed his dog into the room. The room lay completely in darkness. “Excuse me,” Alex called over his shoulder to the police officer. “Could you shine your light in here?”

“Yeah. Sure.” The officer directed his beam into the room and then he took a couple of steps inside.

Alex saw Wegener on-point, his muzzle aimed at a small glassine envelope and a strawlike tube next to it on a table.

Staring at the items, Alex shrugged. “I have no idea what this stuff is.”

Decker walked into the room, glanced at the table, and scowled.

“I’m afraid I know what it is,” said the officer in a grave voice. He stepped up to the table, shined his light on the items and, almost in the way Wegener would, sniffed at the envelope. Then he stood erect, swiveled around, walked out and up to the director, urging him away from the others.

“Wonder what’s going on,” said Alex as he and Wegener left the room.

“I imagine,” said Decker, following behind, “that our esteemed director is about to be arrested for drug possession.”

Alex swiveled around. “What?”

“No surprise,” said Decker, including Katerina and Takeo in the conversation. “The board’s suspected it for some time. But there’s been no proof.” He glanced forward at the police officer, who seemed in a heavy dispute with the director—”Until now.”

The officer and the director walked toward the entrance. Alex and the others followed at a respectful distance.

“This isn’t exactly good publicity for Fermilab,” Alex whispered.

“No, it isn’t,” said Decker, softly.

As they emerged into the sunlight, Alex saw the officer ushering the director into a police car.

“What do you think will happen with Fermilab?” said Katerina.