“Time, then.” Again, he glanced at his watch.
Jerk.
“Just because you had to scrimp and build your holometer with commercial parts, since Dr. Kramer wouldn’t give you the funding for anything else—”
“Our prefabricated elements have produced successful results.”
“But forourproject—”
They traded blame and research grandstanding for ten minutes. At least, Erin did. Ethan studied the frayed laces on his boots or continued marking time on his watch, mouth tightening and ears reddening at her caustic arguments but returning nothing beyond brief, factual replies. Ten minutes became fifteen. She argued against his silence through the staff shift change and over a series of muted announcements from the West Experimental Hall’s address system.
“Are you planning to use a drug store thermometer to track any rises in temperature from the event horizon?”
“What?”
“Or maybe just the Scoville Scale, toreallycut costs?”
“No,” checking his watch for a fifth time. “The Scoville Scale is for peppers, not Hawking radiation—”
Thirty-five minutes.
Fifty.
They could’ve continued for hours.Shecould’ve. When her own watch read five forty-eight and his dogged focus still remained on anything in the control room except for her, however, she threw up her hands.
“This is pointless.” It was—the Scoville Scale was nonsense—and it was late. She’d be with Bannister at Salt & Straw in just over an hour. She pushed past Ethan to the door before he could edge away. “It’s almost six o’clock. I have somewhere to be.”
But when she tugged down on the handle, it didn’t budge.
What?
She rattled the mechanism harder.
Nothing.
She put her full weight on the latch. It didn’t release.
“Damn!The door’s jammed.”
“What?”
“I just said:the door’s jammed.It won’t open! Something must be wrong with the lock. The scanner, or…”
“Weren’t the speakers reporting a test of the Personnel Protective System in the experimental halls?” SVLAC’s Personnel Protective System was a lockdown protocol that remotely activated every failsafe deadbolt in the building. “Staff might’ve been instructed to go to the East Experimental Hall while the systems finished their checks.”
Nowhe decided to talk?
“You knew this, but you didn’t say anything?”
“I thought you’d heard it, too.”
She swore. She tugged at the handle again.
“Maybe you’re not doing it right.”
Nowhe decided to snipe back at her?
“Harping on my spatial—ugh!But it doesn’t matter, because it’s remotely locked—”
