3. Axis. The Machine“There are fewer of you here today than I had hoped for,” Ilsa Hartlin says.
Only Wendy, Rudolph, and I and three others have returned to the conference room. Ilsa Hartlin takes us through the door at the head of the conference table.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Ilsa says to me.
I find it strange that I’m singled out.
No guards or attendants accompany us. Ilsa leads us into an elevator that descends fast. We’re going deep.
“You knew it was a collider,” Wendy whispers to Rudolph.
Rudolph smiles.
The elevator opens into a cavernous space, the largest I have been in since the neutrino collector.
A giant machine towers over us, a monolithic rectangle as tall as my hotel, but wider. It is faintly luminous, giving off a soft glow that doubles our shadows.
Next to it is t
