The government LIMO had collected Rick Pickles from the King David Hotel at six-twenty on a very dark and cold morning. Rick shivered as he stepped out of the official transport and yawned for the tenth time, his body gathering oxygen for the task ahead. A screen had been set up at a good distance from the access point and floating screens were suspended above to frustrate any nosy vehicles that might happen to pass overhead. Although the blue beam was dazzling to the eyes at this distance, it shed little light on its surroundings, so flood- lights had been set up, which dulled the bubbling lava that oozed from the stair well.
Even from a distance of twenty meters the heat from the lava was fierce and cut through the morning chill. Rick returned to the LIMO and donned a heat insulating suit, something that his organisation had developed years earlier for fire-fighters and racing drivers. The suit was silver and almost perfectly reflected light, using a unique micro-thin layer of liquid mercury. Built into this suit was a version of the energy absorbing device, it also had a small, but efficient, air conditioning unit. Dressed like some alien invader, Pickles once more approached the access point. The suit was working effectively and Pickles reached the top of where the steps should be without any adverse effects, the lava splatter fell away, seemingly in mid air. Rick felt with his right foot to find the first step, and found it. He found the second step without difficulty, and then the third. The lava was now up to his thigh, looking down he could see the two inch gap around his legs, so he took the next step, the fifth and the sixth. Then it happened, he could not reach the seventh step, for no matter how much he pushed his leg would not go down any further, it was like trying to force two south pole magnets together. After another five minutes of straining, Rick gave up and reversed back up the steps.
Outside of the burn area Ben Marks was waiting near the official LIMO, “What happened Mr. Pickles, you seemed to be doing well when you stopped,” Ben asked.
“Not sure,” Rick answered with a puzzled look on his face, “could be a buoyancy issue, or some magnetic effect, that is what it felt like, but I just couldn't move past that sixth step, no matter what I did.”