Creation- The Auditor’s Apprentice

by Frank Stonely

  The general was struggling with that one, wuz angn out. The Australian driver stepped forward and whispered in the general’s ear, ‘He’s asking where Evans had his base, sir.’

  Acting as though he had understood every word, the general took a marker pen and circled the village of Bonford, only a mile away from Peter’s farm. ‘This is where he is, Captain. According to the satnav data, the hire car stopped several times in the carpark of this pub.’ The general was pointing at the outline of the White Hart Inn on Main Street.

  ‘De pubs a bit obvious, you’d think he’d be iding up e’yer?’ The SAS officer was circling the mountainous peaks above the village with his finger.

  ‘This guy’s as dumb as shit. He ain’t gonna go hiking into the mountains, he’s got a wife and a kid in tow. No… he’ll be hiding in the village somewhere.’

  ‘So wos yer plan?’

  ‘I’m gonna to cut off all the access roads and then fly in a platoon of marines. The drones will give us a real-time feed of the operation, we’ll be able to see everything. An’then, when everybody’s in place. Bang! We hit the bastard.’

  ‘So, wa do yous want us ter do?’

  ‘I need you to get up into the mountains and stop the bastard if he tries to run. The problem is, the president wants him unharmed. So for fuck’s sake, don’t kill’im!’

  Over coffee, the general and the SAS captain agreed that in return for their help the Brits would receive their fair share of the president’s reward; an agreement the general had no intention of keeping.

  Above the plateau the night sky was now almost as bright as day. Inside the cavern the previous evening, Amy, Daniel and the others had watched the President of the United States make his global television broadcast. He was standing behind a lectern in the state dining room, flanked by almost every world leader. As he started to speak, his voice had an uncharacteristic tremor about it, ‘Fellow humans… It will be clear to you that something is happening to our world that is beyond our control. For years scientists have been secretly working on your behalf, trying to stave off what is about to happen. But the power of God’s universe has proven too strong for us and so now, I must tell you exactly what we know.’ He paused and picking up a tumbler took several sips from its golden contents while he composed himself. The room was silent, with the exception of occasional outbursts of sobbing from the group standing around him. He replaced the glass and continued, ‘We all have differing beliefs about how our universe was created and how mankind came to inhabit this Earth. And, each of you will have your own God to whom you will turn and I pray you get comfort from that. But, what I am about to tell you is what our scientists believe will happen, probably within the next few days. We all learnt at high school about the Big Bang, that huge explosion at the beginning of time that created everything. And we’ve all tossed pebbles into a pond and watched the ripples on the surface radiate out like our expanding universe has done. But, when those ripples strike the bank they bounce back, and that is what is happening now. The Big Bang has hit the end of the universe and is bouncing back towards us. There is nothing we can do! We can only pray that it is quick and painless. So, go now and find your loved ones, as I will do.’ He picked up the tumbler again, his hands visibly shaking, spilling the contents over the rim of the glass. He steadied it with both hands and then drank the remainder of the whisky before looking back into the camera’s lens, ‘As of now money has no value and will cease to be used. From midnight tonight there will be no obligation for you to work and all social services and town utilities will cease. This will include electricity, the internet, cell phone networks, transportation systems, hospitals, the police force and the emergency services. Retail stores are to open their doors and looting is no longer a crime… I’m afraid, my friends, this is the end! Look after yourself, your family, and your neighbour, and I look forward to seeing you on the other side.’

  The next morning, Daniel had switched on the TV as Amy laid out the table for breakfast. They all stood transfixed, watching the stream of images being broadcast by the station’s technicians, jumping from one live feed to another. There was no sound, no breaking news banner and no presenter. The live video would suddenly drop out leaving a blank screen until a technician at the TV station, frantically patching from one feed to another, found a live circuit. The execution of loved ones had become common place and scene after scene showed mothers suffocating or drowning their children and husbands shooting, clubbing or throttling their wives. Then there were those who just enjoyed the carnage; torturing, dismembering and raping whoever they came across. Somewhere in the sun a makeshift barbecue had been set up in a street, its scrawled cardboard menu including Virgin Burgers, Baby Rump Steaks and Sticky Man Ribs. Then the TV station’s generator ran out of fuel and the images dropped out for the last time.

  For what seemed like several minutes they stood in silence staring into the blank screen. Then Daniel turned to Anubis, ‘Proud of yourself?’ Anubis stood, shaking his head in disbelief at what he had witnessed. Never in his wildest dreams had he thought that the changes he had made to the drone firmware would have produced such horrific scenes.

  Amy turned to Spiro’s incarnation and asked, ‘I need to know, has Charlie got our essence?’

  Daniel immediately stepped between them, ‘Don’t answer that!’ He held Amy by her shoulders and looked into her eyes, ‘What do we do if Spiro says no? Are you going to kill Charlie like those mothers we’ve just watched?’ He turned to the table, picked up the breadknife and wrapping Amy’s fingers around its handle, dragged her towards Charlie’s makeshift crib. ‘Look he’s asleep, he won’t feel a thing, do it now! DO IT!’

  ‘I CAN’T!’ she screamed hysterically, wrenching her hand free and throwing the knife to the floor.

  ‘Neither can I!’ he said, pulling her to him, ‘Neither can I, so what’s the point in us knowing?’ He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and kissed her cheek, ‘Charlie’s coming with us, Amy, I just know he is. He’s coming back to Creation!’

  The tension was broken by a low thud coming through the floor of the cavern, followed several seconds later by the drone of helicopter rotors passing overhead. Grabbing his binoculars, Daniel held up his hand to the others saying, ‘Stay here.’ He waited impatiently as the cavern’s door slid open and then ran out onto the plateau.

  Following the general’s orders to destroy all the local access roads, two Apache helicopters were turning overhead, preparing to make a second run down the valley. As they came out of the turn, both unleashed Hellfire missiles, which whooshed down into the mist. The flashes from the exploding missiles were accompanied seconds later by the roar of a road bridge being torn apart. Daniel could only estimate the direction and distance of their target, which he guessed was the road leading up to the Kinder Reservoir. Daniel lowered his binoculars and ran back into the cavern.

  ‘What’s going on,’ Amy said as she joined him.

  Daniel ignored her and walked over to Anubis who was still staring into the blank TV screen. ‘Looks like your breakdown of law and order has started,’ he said sarcastically. ‘What do we do now?’

  Anubis shook his head to dislodge the brutal images and glancing up at Daniel said, ‘What do you want me to do… wave a magic wand.’

  ‘There are helicopters out there firing missiles across the reservoir.’

  ‘Start panicking when they’re firing them at us! I told you this would happen. They’re probably protecting the water supply… or maybe… they’re cutting it off. The marauding hordes won’t get very far without water to drink… will they.’

  In the silence of space the Solar Explorer probe had lost communication with NASA’s deep space network. It was travelling at almost a hundred and fifty thousand kilometres per hour and accelerating exponentially under the influence of the Sun’s gravitational pull. Its plunge into the upper chromosphere was only thirty-six hours away and the spacecraft was working completely autonomously under the control of its SA-P
rocessor. Most computer systems were now built around Self-Aware Processors running the Human Mind operating system. The configuration passed the Turing test faultlessly and it was now impossible to distinguish between an SAP computer and a human operator, during those irritating daytime sales calls. SAP computers had a habit of day-dreaming and would talk to themselves during low processor loads. The experience of walking into an empty office to hear the computers, printers, routers and telephone systems talking to one another was quite an eerie one, especially as they usually stopped immediately you entered, almost as though they had been talking about you behind your back.

  Solar Explorer’s SAP was not too concerned about losing contact with NASA; the engineers were probably too busy repositioning the Hubble-II telescope. It would try and contact them again after it had initialised the experiments in the spacecraft’s payload bays. Activation of pods one to five went flawlessly, and SAP was telling itself what an excellent job it was doing as it called the boot-loader to initialise the experiment in pod six. As the code executed there was a huge unscheduled drain of power from the fuel cells which made SAP feel quite woozy and forced a system restart. It had to reboot itself twice before regaining sufficient control to shut the experiment down. It called NASA. There was no reply, so it started to search through its knowledge base for a solution. The military equipment pod in cargo bay six had been given an Imperative priority level just before launch; this meant that if necessary other experiments had to be sacrificed to keep it operational. Within twenty-five nanoseconds of the problem being encountered the SAP had come up with a solution. By shutting down the experiments in bays three and five it could power up the MEP without compromising other critical systems. Satisfied that the issue had been resolved for the time being, it jumped into the navigation subroutine and checked the spacecraft’s angle of approach into the Sun. It was perfect, just three point two degrees from vertical. This navigational parameter was critical, as the dark-matter heat shield would only protect the probe from heat and radiation. If it was to strike the Sun’s inner core, the outcome would be disastrous. At its present speed and trajectory it would pass within ten kilometres of the core and have more than enough momentum to propel itself through the star’s outer layers. Then, as it emerged from the other side, SAP would transmit the data it had collected back to Earth.

  The only major modification Anubis had to make to the drone was to fit wheels beneath its frame to allow them to push it out of the cavern and onto the plateau. The low cloud base had shrouded the mountainside in a heavy mist, concealing their activities from the general’s reconnaissance drone circling overhead. It was no longer possible to distinguish night from day and what was once blue sky was now cloaked in ripples of green flickering light, giving the appearance of a super aurora borealis. Daniel had connected a twenty-metre power cable from the cavern’s generator to the drone and was standing next to Anubis as he pressed the Activate button for the first time. The control panel’s display flashed into life and Daniel watched as Anubis checked the drone’s settings. ‘I hope this mist holds. It would be just our luck to be spotted now,’ he said.

  Anubis laughed as he climbed down from the drone, ‘Think about it, Daniel. We’ve got a rusty drone that’s been sitting about for decades. We’re using estimated return coordinates. We’re relying on an untested temporal bomb to generate the power we need, and you’re worried about the mist!’

  ‘Well, I’m worried about Haamiah,’ the Gatekeeper said, walking towards them, followed by a levitating tray containing mugs of coffee and a plate stacked high with toasted cheese and onion sandwiches. ‘Angels don’t just forgive and forget, Haamiah’s going to do everything she can to make sure we never leave this planet alive.’

  ‘Look above you,’ Anubis said, staring up at the flickering sky. ‘She’s extracting the universe, as far as she’s concerned, we’re dead already.’

  ‘Do you mean it’s too late for us to escape?’ Amy asked anxiously, as she followed Orion from the cavern, cradling Charlie in her arms.

  ‘Of course he doesn’t, there’s plenty of time.’ Daniel said, putting his arm around her shoulder and glancing at Anubis.

  ‘Enough of all these negative thoughts!’ Anubis said, slapping the side of the drone enthusiastically. ‘This masterpiece of inter-dimensional engineering is going to have us out of here with time to spare.’ He reached down and took a sandwich from the levitating tray as it passed by, ‘Now let’s eat these before they get cold.’

  Nobody was convinced by Anubis’ motivational team talk, especially Orion, who had been trying to analyse every possible eventuality. But even he couldn’t be sure what would happen.

  The morning was spent practicing their escape. Anubis had allotted everybody, except Orion and Spiro, one of the seats set around the circumference of the drone. He would be responsible for operating the control panel and entering the destination coordinates. Daniel was in charge of the power absorption antenna which, in theory, would extract the energy they needed from the exploding Sun. Tanka was to make sure that Amy and Charlie were well within the protective umbrella of purple light radiating from the tips of the extension arms. And so, as the countdown digits ticked into the final hour, they all stood in a group, reassuring themselves that Anubis’ creation was going to work and without a hitch.

  45

  The Village Falls

  The approaching extraction wave was causing havoc with the planet’s weather systems, resulting in the most devastating hurricanes ever seen. Torrential rain now covered the British Isles, washing slurry and boulders onto the only remaining access road to the village. The general’s driver was struggling to control his Hummer, blinded by the volume of rain washing across the windshield.

  ‘I told you this was a shitty country,’ the general said to his young aide.

  ‘Yes, Sir! It is, Sir! A very shitty country, Sir!’ he shouted back, with his usual military school enthusiasm.

  That morning, the general’s platoon of marines had stormed the village, and now Main Street was lined with military vehicles. With the exception of Peter the farmer’s wife, the villagers had been corralled inside the church, leaving her to be interrogated by two CIA agents, who determined, after two hours of waterboarding and removing most of her fingernails, that she knew little more than Daniel had been a guest at the pub.

  As the general’s Hummer pulled up outside the White Hart Inn, his radio crackled into life. The Apache pilots were requesting permission to stop flying due to zero-visibility. This was the third request they’d made to ground their aircraft but, as before, it was refused with a tirade of abuse. ‘I’m surrounded by pussy officers with no spunk!’ the general spluttered, flinging the radio handset onto the seat beside him.

  ‘Yes, Sir! You’re surrounded by pussy officers with no spunk, Sir,’ his aide echoed in agreement.

  There was a tap on the Hummer’s side window and the general turned to see a marine officer, dressed from head to foot in camouflaged waterproofs. Desperate for a mug of coffee and a cigar, the general sighed, ‘What the fuck does he want?’

  ‘Yes, Sir! What the fuck does he want? Sir!’ his aide chanted.

  ‘Will you stop repeating every fucking word I say?’

  ‘Yes, Sir! I’ll stop repeating every fucking word you say, Sir!’

  He pressed the button and let the window slide down just enough to hear the officer, ‘The SAS have found his base, sir.’

  ‘Shit!’ the general said, patting his pockets, trying to find a cigar.

  ‘They were sweeping up the valley when they came across some sort of communication station. It’s about a mile outside the village. They’ve found bomb making equipment and some ammunition. Looks like Evans was a terrorist after all.’

  The pub door flew open and a CIA agent, with his jacket pulled over his head, ran through the rain and jumped in the rear door of the Hummer. The agent introduced himself, ‘Agent Fisher, General. I’ve been interrogating the informant and it’s a l
ot worse than we thought. Paul Evans is not his name, he used it as a cover.’

  ‘Who the fuck is he then?’

  ‘He’s called Daniel, General. But nobody seems to know his surname. He’s part of a cell based up at what they call the Ground Station.’

  ‘That must be the place the SAS have found. How many are there?’

  ‘I’m not sure. But the leader’s called Anubis.’

  ‘The general tapped his driver’s shoulder, ‘Let’s get on up there!’

  As the Hummer started to move the marine officer shouted through the now closed window, ‘General!’ The Hummer stopped and the window slid open. ‘The SAS have set up a base there, sir. Their trucks and Supacats came through here about twenty minutes ago.’

  ‘Shit!’ the general spat as he closed the window.

  As the column of military vehicles snaked up the narrow road towards the Ground Station, the general was trying to concoct a reason for sending the SAS contingent back to his base in Hayfield but, as his Hummer turned the final bend, he realised it was too late. The SAS basecamp was impressive, with the Supacats parked up behind bunkers made from sandbags filled with rubble. Peter the farmer’s van and Sergeant Rogers’ police car had been pushed out of the Ground Station car park to form a barrier across the road. The Supacat with the missile pod was positioned on the crest of the hill, its radar tracking the general’s Apache helicopters hovering overhead. The SAS captain was standing, arms folded in front of the makeshift barrier as the general’s Hummer came to rest. He walked up to the general’s window as it slid open, ‘Awright, General? Avyer looked at de mountain lately? There's som’in go'n on up there.’ The general pulled up the hood of his combat jacket and opened the Hummer’s door. As he got out the SAS officer handed him a pair of binoculars, which were set to infrared mode. ‘Take a look… up there,’ he said, pointing up through the rain and mist in the direction of the cavern. With total disdain the general took the binoculars and scanned the mountainside left and right several times. ‘Nah, over there,’ the officer said, taking hold of the frame and steering the general’s head towards the plateau.