Wushu Skidoo
A half dozen savages crowd his kitchen. Their faces are twisted masks of warped and seared flesh. Their hair clings to them in uneven clumps. They hiss at him through toothless mouths and cracked lips.
He feels his friend's hand fall on his shoulder like a headman's axe. "I, too, have become Death," he intones. "And now Death has come for you."
This month's riff is a bit of modern mythology in the style of The Lost Room or Unknown Armies. I took as my inspiration one of the most legendary events of the twentieth century: the splitting of the atom. All kinds of craziness poured forth. You can use this an alternate history setting or slap on a monumental cover-up and call it a "hidden history." (Mix and match with my previous modern myth: Rainbow Effect.) Any resemblance to actual persons, either living or dead, is entirely intentional.
The Atomic Age
The year is 1950, shortly after the Soviets detonate their first nuclear bomb. The world stares total annihilation in the face for the first time in history. The men who brought about this terrible miracle have gone their separate ways, but The Manhattan Project casts a long shadow. None can run far enough.
Robert Oppenheimer is dead. Witnesses reported a blinding flash and a pillar of light at his home, but authorities have not found any signs of a nuclear explosion. The entire property was obliterated. Communist conspirators are widely assumed to be the culprits, but were they sabotaging the U.S. nuclear program... or eliminating a compromised spy?
The truth is far more sinister.
Indian Joe
Richard Feynman was the only person to watch the Trinity test with naked eyes, and he saw something profound in its 20 kiloton flash. He saw the dark heart of the universe. Now, it beats inside his chest.
In short, Feynman believes that the godhead created our reality as a prison for his Adversary. Scripture and myth call it Angra Mainyu or the Fenris Wolf, but Feynman knows it as The Destroyer of Worlds. It sleeps deep inside every atom, every photon, every object and animal. Human consciousness is the manifestation of its struggle for freedom. Were it to succeed, it would end both heaven and earth.
Richard Feynman has accepted some profound truths. First, he cannot allow himself to live. Should his mind ever fully grasp these revelations, the Destroyer's chains would be broken. Second, he cannot allow his Manhattan Project colleagues to continue their work. Some cannot be allowed to continue drawing breath.
Oppenheimer was the first. Feynman converted his mass into pure energy and blasted it into space. That is the slimmest fragment of what The Destroyer can do. (Use this as a limitless-ammo weapon that can cannot be disarmed. Feynman can turn a grain of sand into a death ray or send waves of destruction erupting up from the ground. Go nuts, he certainly has.)
He is joined on his quest by a throng of Pacific Islanders who share his apocalyptic insight. They were exposed to atomic blasts during Operation Crossroads; the radiation left them burned and mutated almost beyond recognition. (How could I do this article without nuclear mutants? How, I ask you?!) Feynman doesn't control them or even speak their language, but as he likes to say: They dance to the beat of the same drummer.
Teller Ede
Next on Feynman's hit list is Edward Teller (the mad genius who would inspire the character of Dr. Strangelove). After alienating his colleagues at Los Alamos, Teller withdrew from the scientific community and embarked upon new lines of research. Driven by the very insights that Feynman seeks to suppress, he has unlocked new and fantastic technologies which he collectively calls Quantum Alchemy.
Red Mercury - The atomic philosopher's stone. Once refined, this substance exists in a quasi-quantum state from which it can be transmuted into all manner of exotic substances (see below). It is quite volatile and must be transported in special isolation tanks; if these are not opened under controlled conditions, the substance turns into a useless, red, metallic liquid.
Alkahest - The universal solvent. It must be kept in a magnetic containment field until used, as it will rapidly eat its way through any other substance.
Neutronium - A super-dense, "degenerate" metal that is virtually unbreakable. It is also ridiculously heavy, but even very thin sheets are sure proof against bullets, blades, and even the Isomer Death Ray (see below).
Polywater - High-viscosity, magnetic water. It can be shaped and reshaped with the twist of a knob. (Think The Abyss. If you, like me, want to give Teller an underwater laboratory, this is the way to go.)
Azoth - Every mad scientist needs a doomsday device! This "strange matter" instantly converts nuclear matter into more of itself. Once started, the chain reaction would be swift and unstoppable. The entire Earth would be annihilated in a matter of minutes, or so Teller claims.
Isomer Death Ray - A nuclear weapon in the palm of your hand! Each chamber of this over-sized revolver contains a metastable isomer that, with one pull of the trigger, releases a massive dose of gamma radiation. This energy is focused down the barrel, leaving the user relatively unharmed. Anything on the other end, however, it instantly irradiated.
Teller has his fingers in many pies. His ultimate goal is to ensure world peace by making war too costly to wage. He plans to give his doomsday device to both sides of the Cold War; it's the ultimate in Mutually Assured Destruction. To raise the needed capital, he has ventured into the illegal arms trade. The federal government, the Soviets, and the OSRD (see below) have all started to take notice. Teller's time is running out.
Vannevar Bush
The head of the Manhattan Project was a man with the unlikely name of Vannevar Bush. As Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during World War II, he was privy to all of the government's most classified weapons programs.
In 1947, the OSRD went black bag and Vannevar Bush went with it. Now free of public oversight, the OSRD tracks down rogue scientists, recovers Nazi prototypes, and generally cleans up after WWII's mess. Everything the "recover" goes into their inventory. The OSRD may not do much research or development, anymore, but you wouldn't know it from looking at its hardware.
The OSRD is hot on Feynman's heels. Several witnesses heard distant drums the day before the explosion that killed Oppenheimer, and Vannevar remembers Feynman's habit of playing his Indian drums out on the mesa. Obviously, he has no idea what's really happened to Feynman since Trinity, but he's going to find out soon enough.
Teller is a much more difficult man to catch, despite his prosthetic foot and permanent limp. The OSRD has been working for months to set up a sting operation that will draw Teller into the open, but he's every bit as paranoid as he is brilliant. In all likelihood, it will be Feynman who flushes him out... and the OSRD will be in charge of damage control.
Pick Me Ups
A pack of thieves breaks into Edward Teller's magic workshop. They fight their way past polywater security systems and death ray booby traps before stumbling upon the wizard himself... as he finishes chaining his doomsday device to his wrist. He demands that they escort him to the airport and help him flee the country. In return, they can have his workshop and everything in it; if they refuse, he'll destroy the world. Is he bluffing?
It has taken Richard Feynman five years to accept his destiny and, in that time, he did not keep his revelations entirely to himself. A few of his best students have witnessed his miracles, though they do not fully grasp their terrible meaning. After hearing of Oppenheimer's death, they've set out to find their teacher and pull him back from the abyss, but what happens when they, too, see the Destroyer starring back?
A team of OSRD field agents, mostly WWII vets with a science background, track Indian Joe and his nuclear mutants through the back alleys of (insert iconic American city here). They close in on him just as he closes in on Teller, but there's another problem: the team setting up Teller's sting operation doesn't want any surprises. Plus, Teller's "legitimate" business partners are in town and packing Teller-brand heat. How's that for an apocalypse?
Next Up: Coyote's Brood & the Bugs Bunny Two-Step!
