“So that’s what’s causing the structural weakness in the material, Greg? All those little holes?”

“It’s a good bet. This kind of steel should appear pretty smooth at this magnification.”

“Could radiation have done the damage?”

“No,” Maple said, absently. He increased the scope’s power again and the uniformity of the damage disappeared. Some of the pockmarks were round and milky in appearance, while others appeared to have collapsed in on themselves.

“Let’s take a look at the concrete.”

They found the same kind of damage in both it and the plastic samples.

“Where did you get this?” Maple asked, panning the scope back to the steel.

“It’s not really important.”

“It would help to give me some context.”

“I’m concerned it might influence your conclusion.”

He let out a long breath, still staring at the screen. “Can I bring some other people in on this?”

“Absolutely not.”

Finally he dropped into a chair and looked up at Smith. “You’re not giving me much to work with, Jon. You’re starting to sound like those military intel guys.”

“Call me a utility infielder.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Look, if it wasn’t hard, I wouldn’t need you, Greg. Why don’t you just give me your first impression?”

The engineer chewed his lip for a moment. “It’s not radiation damage. You can take that to the bank. I’ve never seen anything quite like this, and I can guarantee you I’ve seen everything radiation can do to construction materials. It’s weird that the damage is so similar in such different mediums. Can you tell me if they all came from the same place?”

“They did,” Smith said. “Is it possible that it was sabotage?”

“With what? A death ray?”

“You tell me.”

Maple pointed to the screen again. “Look at the pattern of damage. It’s from the outside in on some samples and coming from a single side on others. Nothing from the inside out.”

“So it was attacked by something. Like it was facing a radiation source and that source slowly penetrated.”

“It’s not radiation, Jon.”

Smith leaned into the screen. “In a way, it looks like a biological attack. An infection. A bacteria attacks the tissue and multiplies, moving inward as it goes.”

“So you think your concrete got a cold?”

“Just thinking out loud. What about some kind of corrosive liquid—an acid. It gets on the material and essentially soaks in, weakening it as it goes.”