“We are a long way from the nearest settlement,” said Sarento, “but I have all the time in the world to find it. How does it feel, Shannow, to have condemned the entire planet?”
“Today I am become death,” said Shannow. Wearily, the old man turned away and walked back down the hillside.
Sarento sensed his despair; it only served to heighten the joy he felt. The sky was clearing, the dawn approaching.
He looked again at the metal tower, which was around a hundred feet high. Something had been wedged beneath it, but from there Sarento could not see what it was.
Who cares? he thought. The largest concentration of people was away to the north. I will go there, he decided. Shannow’s words came back to him, tugging at his memory.
“Today I am become death.”
It was a quote from an old book. He struggled to find the memory. Ah, yes … The Bhagavad Gita. I am become death, the shatterer of worlds. How apt.
There was something else, but he could not think of it. He sat down to await the dawn and exult in his newfound freedom. Atop the metal lattice tower was a galvanized iron box as large as a shed. As the sun rose, it made the box gleam, and light shone down on the tower itself. Now Sarento could see what was wedged below it.
Mattresses. Scores of them. He smiled and shook his head. Someone had laid mattresses twenty feet deep under the tower. How ridiculous!
The quote continued to haunt him.
“Today I am become death.”
Knowledge flew into his mind with every bit as much power as the distant lightning. With the knowledge came a numbing panic, and he knew without doubt where he was—and when.
The Alamogordo bombing range, New Mexico, 180 miles south of Los Alamos. Now that his memory was open, all the facts came flashing to his mind. The mattresses had been placed beneath the atomic bomb as servicemen had hauled it into place with ropes. They had feared dropping it and triggering a premature explosion.
Swinging around, he sought the old man. There was no sign of him.
Sarento started to run. The facts would not stop flowing into his mind.
The plutonium bomb resulted in an explosion equal to twenty thousand tons of TNT. The detonation of an atomic bomb releases enormous amounts of heat, achieving temperatures of several million degrees in the bomb itself. This creates a large fireball.
On wings of fear Sarento ran.
Convection currents created by the explosion suck dust and other matter up into the fireball, creating a characteristic mushroom cloud. The detonation also produces a shock wave that goes outward for several miles, destroying buildings in the way. Large quantities of neutrons and gamma rays are emitted; lethal radiation bathes the scene.
I can’t die! I can’t die!
He was 127 yards from the tower at 5:30 A.M. on July 16, 1945. One second later the tower was vaporized. For hundreds of yards around the zero point that Oppenheimer had christened Trinity, the desert sand was fused to glass. The ball of incandescent air formed by the explosion rose rapidly to a height of 35,000 feet.
Several miles away J. Robert Oppenheimer watched the mushroom cloud form. All around him men began cheering. “Today I am become death,” he said.
“Gemmell not only knows how to tell a story, he knows how to tell a story you want to hear. He does high adventure as it ought to be done.”
—Greg Keyes,
Author of The Briar King
THE SWORDS OF NIGHT AND DAY
A Novel of Skilgannon the Damned
by David Gemmell
With mythic sweep and epic scope, David Gemmell’s bestselling novels of magic and adventure feature brooding heroes who fight to preserve all that is good and honorable in themselves and in the worlds through which they stride like lonely giants. In times of terror and despair, theirs are the swords that carve a shining path, inspiring others to follow. Even after their deaths, their names live on.…
Published by Del Rey
Available wherever books are sold
“I love David Gemmell’s work. He’s one of the best out there today, and one of the reasons that fantasy is alive and well.”
—New York Times bestselling author
R. A. SALVATORE
WHITE WOLF
A Novel of Druss the Legend
by David Gemmell
With each new novel, and in prose as sharp and skillfully wielded as the swords of his great heros, David Gemmell carries to stunning new heights the swashbuckling tradition of Robert E. Howard and Robert Jordan. His action-packed stories feature unforgettable characters journeying through sorcerous worlds where love can exalt a heart or debase it, power can ennoble or corrupt, and honor is the most powerful weapon of all. Now Gemmell has written a long-awaited novel featuring his newest hero—Skilgannon—and his most popular character of all time: Druss the Legend.
Published by Del Rey
Available in paperback wherever books are sold
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David Gemmell, Bloodstone
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