Dan’s visit, the first planned stop in a whirlwind three-city tour, was intended to begin bridging the gulf between factions and to finally shed some light on the triangles. He could hear the crowd as he stepped out of the armoured vehicle that had carried him from the airport, and he was glad of that. The gathering was peaceful but insistent, calling for dialogue and unity.
Dialogue is the weapon, Dan thought to himself as he and Emma stepped into a building they’d seen on TV so many hundreds of times. Unity is the prize.
V minus 48
ELF Headquarters
Beijing, China
“We’ve all heard the rumours,” ACN’s lead reporter Maria Janzyck yelled, her voice fighting to be heard over a bustling crowd outside the ELF’s brutalist global headquarters, “but I don’t think any of us could have guessed it would happen this quickly. I’ve just received official word that the Zanzibar and Vanuatu triangles are both en route to China as we speak and should arrive within hours. But that’s not all… both triangles are going to be presented to the public on Wednesday morning local time, which is tomorrow evening at home.
“We can only speculate whether Ding Ziyang has pushed this announcement forward because of the surprise overnight news of Dan McCarthy’s touchdown in Buenos Aires, but that’s certainly the general feeling on the ground here in Beijing.
“And amid growing Western scepticism regarding the true origin of these triangles, one thing is for sure: Ding Ziyang and the ELF are not backing down on this, they are doubling down. For ACN in Beijing, I’m Maria Janzyck.”
V minus 47
GCC Headquarters
Buenos Aires, Argentina
The reception area of the GCC’s imposing headquarters was abuzz with activity as Dan and Emma made their way inside via the secure VIP entrance, and it was immediately clear that this activity was urgent and had just kicked off.
Dan resisted the urge to point his frighteningly powerful finger at any of the hectically occupied workers, but Emma’s quick glance at her phone brought the explanation: Ding Ziyang had just announced his intention to publicly display the triangles in only thirty-six hours’ time. Neither said anything, and the chaperone who led them to Chairman Godfrey’s high office had been instructed to remain similarly silent.
It thus came as a major surprise when they knocked on the office door and encountered only President Slater on the other side.
“We’ve been expecting you,” she said, speaking to Dan with a warmth that was either genuinely felt or incredibly convincing in its effort to appear so. “William should be back in a few minutes; he’s gone to brief our frontline media liaison teams on how to reply to enquiries about Ding’s latest comments until we issue a full response. I assume you’ve seen the news?”
Dan subtly placed his fingers in the initiation position, establishing a one-way thought-reading link-up with the President of the United States. He had major ethical concerns about utilising his new ability without the knowledge and consent of the other party, particularly when they weren’t a hostile foe, but on this occasion he felt that the ends justified the means so completely that it would be irresponsible not to make the most of what he had been given.
“What do you think’s going on with all of this?” he asked.
Immediately, he heard thoughts of helpless ignorance. She didn’t know, and she was dearly hoping Dan could help.
“I really don’t know,” Slater replied, vocalising the thoughts Dan had already heard loud and clear. “I’ve been hoping the Messengers told you something and that you’re about to tell me whatever it was. Because short of that, we’re stuck.”
Dan studied the President’s expression. She had been openly honest, stating in blunt terms exactly what she’d been thinking. He turned his body towards Emma, then took a few steps towards her and whispered: “I want to tell her. She’s being totally straight and she’ll be way more likely to help us set up the meetings with Cole and Poppy if she knows why I’m really doing it. She can help us convince Godfrey without him having to know, too. For once I think we should trust my gut on this; we’re in his office and she’s here alone… let’s make the most of it.”
“Don’t say a word,” Emma replied, winking slowly before removing her phone from her pocket. She typed a message as she walked to Slater’s side. “Dan will relay what the Messengers told him as soon as Godfrey gets here,” she explained to her, mindful that the room very likely housed hidden recording equipment. “But here’s a still image from our home security system, showing a flash. Crazy, huh?”
Slightly slow on the uptake, Dan walked over to see what Emma was talking about. There had been a flash, of course, but he didn’t know or understand why Emma might have saved a shot of it to her phone. The expression on Slater’s face didn’t reflect something so relatively mundane, either, and when Dan looked down over their shoulders to look at the phone’s screen, it all made sense.
The typed message from Emma was clear: “Be cool, don’t react. The Messengers gave Dan a limited version of their ability to hear each other’s thoughts, and he can hear other PEOPLE’S thoughts. We can use this, together, but right now we trust you to be responsible more than we trust Godfrey. Don’t tell anyone — please. Now think of a four-digit number, but don’t say anything.”
Emma handed the phone to Dan; once again, his overwhelmed mind didn’t immediately grasp what she was getting at. But as Slater raised her eyebrows at him, it clicked in his mind.
Since the connection was still active from his initial listening — these were the imprecise words in his mind when considering a process he couldn’t pretend to understand on any technical level — Dan didn’t have to do anything with his fingers to know what Slater was thinking. His ability to control the power was improving rapidly, as the Messengers had promised, and all his index finger did was type 0319 at the end of the existing note on Emma’s phone.
Although he had gotten slightly used to the amazed reactions he’d received when telling first Emma, then Tara and ultimately the others in Birchwood, this was the first time Dan had looped in anyone who wasn’t a close friend or family member. And in this moment, Dan’s nervous anticipation of how the reaction would play out was greatly heightened by the fact that Valerie Slater wasn’t just the first ‘stranger’ to find out that he possessed a gift positively alien to everyone else… she was the President of the United States.
If Clark or especially Emma had viewed Dan’s gift with fear and distrust, he would’ve had serious personal problems to work through. But if Slater reacted the wrong way and passed the entrusted secret onto the wrong people, Dan McCarthy knew he would have far greater problems than that…
V minus 46
Drive-in
Birchwood, Colorado
“Well well well,” Mr Byrd mused, walking into New Kergrillin’ for his afternoon chat. “I didn’t think we’d see a press pack like that around here again unless Dan was talking. He’s not even in the country!”
“But he is in the news,” Henry McCarthy sighed. He peeked out of the window and saw that the number of reporters at the edge of the lot had indeed ballooned since he’d entered much earlier in the morning.
It was sure to be another long day for the two men as they tried to distract themselves and each other from the reality that all they could do from thousands of miles away was wish Dan well. They both knew better than to talk too much in public about why Dan was in the news, since they were among the precious few who knew the true motive behind his trip to Buenos Aires, but this only made them think about it even more.
He had Emma by his side and the power of the Messengers within him, though, so both felt justified in their firm hope that he would succeed in his mission.
With the global situation slowly spiralling ever deeper towards chaos and conflict, as looping news reports on the bar’s many TVs endlessly reminded them, the alternative did not bear thinking about.
V minus 45
GCC Headquarters
> Buenos Aires, Argentina
“Interesting,” President Slater said, reacting to the news that Dan had gained telepathic abilities with the last word he’d expected to hear.
Dan gulped, tremendously glad that neither Slater nor Emma could discern the level of fear in his thoughts.
“This is something I didn’t expect,” the President continued. “I thought there would be a flash, so that wasn’t overly surprising, but this second time-stamped image shows that it went on longer than I would have guessed. This part is slightly more surprising, but I don’t think it’s something we need to trouble Chairman Godfrey with.”
Dan breathed the deepest relieved sigh of his life; Slater wasn’t just being discreet, she was clearly on board. With the phone still in his hand, he typed again: “I can keep listening in or I can kill the connection. If I keep it live, I can say things you want me to say without him knowing. And I CAN’T dive deep into the recesses of your memories or read your mind like that, it only lets me hear conscious thoughts.” Gazing into Slater’s eyes, he had her consent within seconds.
He typed again very quickly, this time for Emma: “Do you want your voice to be in my head, too, telling me what to say?”
“Definitely,” Emma said, answering Dan in a way that passably sounded like it was a response to Slater. “Do we know when to expect him back?”
As if by magic, Slater’s reply that Godfrey should be back at any moment was interrupted by the opening of the door and his stepping inside.
“Fucking Ding,” the GCC Chairman cursed as he stomped towards his desk. He sighed, exasperated, and roughly ran a palm down his face to try to push the anger to one side for now. “Dan, Emma, thank you. Now in the name of all that is holy, please tell me something I want to hear. Are the triangles fake?”
“The Messengers didn’t tell me,” Dan replied. “They couldn’t tell me.”
Without the need for words, Godfrey’s expression asked what the hell Dan was getting at.
As briefly as he could, Dan recounted every recallable detail of his meeting with the Messengers other than the rather important part regarding the powers he was granted. This retelling was the first time either Godfrey or Slater had heard in any detail about the reluctantly evasive replies Dan received when asking about the triangles, and both appeared particularly concerned to hear of a problem with the Messengers’ Elders.
“I’m worried about that, too,” Dan said, speaking to Godfrey. At times he had to be careful not to reply aloud to an unspoken point he ‘heard’ from Slater, cognisant of the risk of slipping up and letting Godfrey in on the secret. He didn’t quite know why he didn’t want Godfrey to know about the powers at this stage, but his vague thoughts on the subject were mainly related to Godfrey’s recurring recklessness in the arena of international affairs.
“And you’re worried because their Elders tell them exactly what to do?” Slater asked, wisely speaking out loud.
Dan nodded.
“And the words they used regarding their Elders…” Godfrey said, “can you home in on exactly what they said was wrong? Was it illness… corruption… disagreement… some kind of decision-making gridlock?”
“I don’t know,” Dan sighed. “But if this isn’t a hoax, which they weren’t able to tell me, maybe there’s a chance that the Elders told them to plant these triangles, but now they’ve backtracked or changed the orders… and that’s why the Messengers showed up now? They didn’t tell me. They couldn’t tell me, and it’s making me physically ill trying to work this out.”
“Welcome to our world,” Chairman Godfrey said with no hint of humour. “But Dan, you know the Messengers better than any of us could ever hope to. What does your gut say, and what would be your next move here?”
Dan looked at Emma, as he always did in times of confusion. She was as glad as ever to use her nimble and well-honed mind for persuasive speech, but on this occasion her words of assistance did not have to be spoken aloud.
Fighting past how crazy it all was, Dan took Emma’s silent suggestions on board as they continued to come even when he turned back to Godfrey. He explained very quickly and efficiently that he wanted to meet and publicly interview John Cole and Poppy Bradshaw, to interrogate them with any questions discreetly suggested by Godfrey and Slater.
Slater, hearing of this plan for the first time despite being in on the far more shocking revelation, silenced a gasp of sudden understanding.
Dan continued by stating that his outreach could be a way of the GCC being seen to try to bridge the gap between itself and its Beijing-based counterpart, since it would be understood that Dan, as a US national, would be visiting non-aligned nations with the implicit permission of his government who could have blocked his external movements if they saw fit.
Emma butted in to name Cuba as the planned spot for a meeting with Cole; her vocal input was unnecessary, but it maintained the familiar pattern of her appearing to guide Dan’s way… which she was, just far more subtly and privately than normal.
Godfrey, to everyone else’s mild surprise, didn’t look to be dead set against the idea. “That might not be as crazy as it sounds… but it has to be said that there’s a conspicuous pattern we can all see, but which we all seem to understand shouldn’t be mentioned in public,” he mused. “If they followed the modus operandi they’ve established so far, Ding will probably reveal the third triangle while you’re talking to Cole or being paraded around the streets; he stole my thunder on Friday night while I was talking downstairs, he stole your thunder on Saturday night during Focus 20/20, and I’d wager that the only reason a triangle didn’t magically turn up last night is that there was no thunder to steal! All I’m saying is this: when you meet Cole, be prepared for an unexpected interruption. That’s the kind of thing they would pull.”
“But why would they want to steal any thunder when I’m in Cuba talking to Cole?” Dan asked. “That’s good PR for them, isn’t it?”
“Hmm,” Emma chimed in, the tone offering a hint of agreement with Dan’s point. “Yeah. If that is what’s been happening so far, which we don’t really know for sure, I don’t think it’ll happen again this time. It would put you on the spot, and I think that’s the last thing they’ll want to be seen to do. Even on Focus 20/20, before they knew you were willing to talk to them, Cole didn’t go into attack-dog mode on you like he usually does.”
No one openly disputed this reading of events.
“And for Poppy,” Emma continued, “I was thinking somewhere non-aligned. Ideally also somewhere close… which limits our options.”
Godfrey upturned his palms. “Cuba for Cole, naturally. But if we’re looking for a non-aligned country for the Poppy meeting, the obvious nearby choice is surely Honduras?”
“Honduras is a delicate one,” President Slater interjected. “They depend on us for trade and we still work together on the ground to combat drug trafficking, but they’ve been eyeing closer links with China for years. Their post-contact neutrality was a calculated move to try to bring better ‘offers’ from both sides.” She turned to Godfrey. “But… if we deliver Dan for a public appearance, that could be something of a hearts and minds victory for us.”
“Us being the GCC?” Godfrey asked.
Slater nodded. “That said, I very much doubt that a high-profile event on the Honduran mainland at extremely short notice will be viable from a security angle, so we’ll draft an invitation — or challenge — for a meeting on one of the Bay Islands. Roatán, most likely. Because with the best will in the world, Honduras isn’t Cuba; we don’t have to like the Cubans to acknowledge that they have a firm record of maintaining public order and guarding high-value individuals. Nationally, the Hondurans would definitely prefer a mainland venue… but when this is all that’s on offer, they’ll still jump at it. It’s good press, it’ll hugely boost the country’s tourism profile, and it’ll probably help them squeeze better terms from Beijing next time there’s a deal to negotiate.”
“How close
are those islands to Cuba?” Dan asked, more than willing to bow to Slater’s evidently superior knowledge of all things Honduran.
“Can’t be much more than five hundred miles,” the President shrugged. She in turn glanced at Emma, awaiting her gut reaction.
“Honduras works,” she responded. “My main hesitation was about security but the island idea sounds like it takes care of that. And I think while we should invite Cole, we should challenge Poppy. Cole and Ding will jump all over this, so making it seem as cordial as possible makes sense. I’m a lot less sure that Poppy and her idiot friends will be quite so willing so I think we should issue a challenge she can’t back down from without losing face. I would shoot an organic-looking video of Dan standing outside this office, saying that Godfrey has already spoken to him, that Cole is going to sit down for a one-on-one televised interview, and that he hopes the GeoSovs will have the balls to do the same. I’d name the time and place and say this is Poppy’s opportunity to make the case she claims she couldn’t make on Focus 20/20 because de Clerk froze her out. Done.”
“Done,” President Slater firmly agreed. “Cole is going to arrive in Cuba within hours, so we’ll get on that invitation and the interview will happen tomorrow. There’s no doubt in my mind. Emma, feel free to arrange the ‘challenge’ video for Poppy and we’ll get to work on logistics for Honduras so we’re ready to go as soon as she is. Ideally, that’s going to be in as little as forty-eight hours… and just like that, done.”
Everyone turned to Godfrey, who grinned and let out a slight chuckle. “Sounds like we’re done.”
“I want these chips out of our necks before we go to Cuba,” Dan said, facing President Slater. “You said whenever we want.”
The Final Call Page 21