The glass prism atop the rotary laser housing began to spin.
BEEP-BEEP.
Three sharp electronic chirps echoed across the silent jade platform as the internal magnetic gimbals swung into place. He settled the dual-axis pendulums into true, unbending gravity balance.
Inside the prism, a high-output red diode pulsed to life.
WHIRRRRRRRRR—!
The sight motor spun up to six hundred turns a minute.
Instantly, from the center of Frank’s tripod, a nonstop, perfectly level plane of brilliant crimson light swept outward in a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree circle.
The thin red laser plane cut through the misty morning air of Mount Apex, slicing across the empty high-sky gulfs between the nine floating platforms. It didn’t waver. It didn’t dip. It didn’t curve with the mystical spiritual currents or yield to the ancient magnetic leylines.
