Chapter 1
Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL)
Homestake Mine, Lead, South Dakota
2009
Vancil Thomas was not one to complain. Really, he wasn’t.
Sure, being a janitor wasn’t the most exciting profession out there. But being a janitor in a highly acclaimed, cutting-edge research laboratory wasn’t too bad. The pay was pretty good—thanks Uncle Sam—and the scientists who worked there were surprisingly polite, for scientists, anyway.
Not that he had a thing against scientists. Technically he was one himself. PhD in computational geoscience. But he could never get the funding he needed for his grants, so, here he was. And he knew exactly how smug scientists could get when they did get grants for their research.
Especially theoretical research.
But the scientists at DUSEL trying to detect dark matter were pretty decent. Even said hello to him in the hall. Didn’t treat him like an ignorant interloper who was one mop away from breaking their extremely sensitive equipment and ruining their research.
Not that he used a mop very often. Most of the cleaning gadgets needed to maintain the lab’s high-tech equipment and sterile environments were pretty sophisticated. You almost needed a degree just to use them.
It wasn’t computational geoscience, but it was important work, and he could live with that.
What he couldn’t live with, though, was a subpar electrical system.
“Blast it,” Vancil muttered as the bathroom lights where he was cleaning started flickering wildly again for the third time that night. He set down his mop—okay, he was using one that night—and stomped over to flip the light switch off and on a few times. Sometimes that worked, sometimes it didn’t.
He’d reported the malfunction to the lab maintenance manager several times already. The manager had tersely informed him each time that they’d checked the electrical system and everything worked properly when they ran their diagnostics.
Vancil blamed the giant, experimental machine housed next door—the one they’d developed for the Large Underground Xenon experiment attempting to detect and interact with dark matter particles. Ever since they’d turned it on with the lab’s recent inauguration, the electrical systems had been glitchy on this side of the mine. For some reason it never happened during the day when the scientists, lab assistants, and government officials were about and could witness it. Only at night when the place was deserted but for the security team and him.
It was so much fun being dismissed for “imagining” things. As if he didn’t have two eyes and a brain between them. He had a freaking PhD for God’s sake. He didn’t need to be an electrical engineer to know something was up.
Probably government contractors cutting corners on the wiring installation. It would be just like them.
Messing with the light switch did not produce the desired result, so Vancil heaved a sigh and pulled his radio off his belt.
“Hey, John,” he said into his crackling handset. “The lights in the bathroom off the LUX-350 chamber are going crazy. Are any other lights in this area doing weird stuff? Flickering? Going off on their own?”
Vancil’s question was met with silence, and he scowled at his radio.
“You better not be napping again, you old geezer. The last time—”
The radio crackled to life.
“Who you calling old, Vancil? Can’t a man have a few minutes to enjoy his potato chips in peace?”
John Huff on the security team night shift was good people. Their friendly banter during the long, slow nights kept Vancil sane.
“Enjoy your chips after you answer my question. Do you see this?”
“Yeah, yeah, I see it. I was just about to ask what’s going on. The lights down your way are going all strobe-light crazy.”
“I knew it. Promise you’ll back me up this time when I talk to that maintenance harpy with a stick up her a—”
The light in the bathroom abruptly went out, plunging Vancil into complete darkness.
“Aw, come on,” Vancil yelled at the room, then started muttering curses as he fumbled for the flashlight on his belt.
“What happened?” squawked John’s voice.
“I swear, if she doesn’t get an independent team in to recertify the electrical system this time, I’m going to—”
A sudden, violent seizure jerked through Vancil’s body. The flashlight and radio he’d been holding slipped from his spasming finger and clattered to the floor. His eyes rolled up and he collapsed, head striking the smooth cement hard enough to cause a nasty split in the scalp. Blood began to ooze onto the floor, pooling around his head. He lay there, still as death, cheek squished against the floor and limbs tangled in lifeless disarray.
“Vancil?” the radio squawked again from where it lay nearby. “Vancil, are you okay? Your entire sector has gone dark. I’m sending a team over to check it out. Vancil? Dadgummit, Vancil, say something. Vancil!”