AND 2 A.M. MOUNTAIN DAYLIGHT TIME 1:36 A.M. MDT Ironwood National Laboratory, South Mesa, Los Alamos County The Snake Pit pulsed with rising power. “I thought the tests were over for tonight,” Jack Bauer said. “They are. The last firing was around midnight,” Gabe McCoy said. He looked puzzled, frazzled, irritated. “Something’s happening,” Hickman said. They were in the INL Laser Research Facility, crossing the main floor toward the blockhouse. The LRF had an otherworldly quality even in broad daylight at the height of a busy working day. At this late hour it was positively eerie, a mad scientist’s surrealistic science fiction dream. Or nightmare. Big as a blimp hangar, the huge space dwarfed the three humans hurrying toward the blockhouse. Floodlights and spotlights showed at various places on the structure. Windows were lit in the upper-floor control room area but their translucent nature hid what was occurring behind those squares of light. An intense pulsating vibration now shivered through the surroundings.
