Sunfall

by Jim Al-Khalili

  It seemed like an age before the door to the conference room finally opened and two men walked in: Senator Hogan and the party host, Ambassador Xu. There was no sign of Aguda. Whatever was going on, this meeting was clearly meant to be far from the ears and eyes of journalists and other politicians.

  So, what was this going to be? A debriefing or an interrogation?

  Hogan paused and looked across the table, before sitting down. ‘Good evening, Sarah.’ The intensity of his reptilian stare made her skin crawl and it took every bit of her will-power to meet his gaze, but she was determined not to be cowed by him. When he spoke, his voice was flat and toneless, his tight grin more a rictus than a smile. ‘It would appear that we have something of a crisis on our hands.’

  She decided to say nothing for now. Let’s see how this plays out. Hogan certainly didn’t look like a man who’d just discovered that the world was about to end. Nor indeed did Xu Furong, whose face betrayed no emotion whatsoever. Like Hogan, his eyes never left Sarah. If they were deliberately trying to intimidate her, they were wasting their time.

  After a pause, it was the ambassador who broke the silence. He spoke in perfect English. ‘We are giving you the benefit of the doubt in assuming that it wasn’t you who deliberately recorded and transmitted your conversation with Gabriel a few minutes ago.’

  Sarah frowned, suddenly realizing how that might be one interpretation. ‘Of course you bloody assume correctly. If I had wanted it leaked I’d have done it myself. I chose to speak with Aguda first because … well, because I needed to know the truth for certain before the rest of the world did.’

  Hogan raised a hand towards the ambassador and smiled. ‘Come on, Furong, we know full well that Dr Maitlin didn’t do this. Besides, it will be easy enough to see if there was any spyware downloaded with the files placed there by the cyb.’ He turned to smile at Sarah again. ‘Something this big, this, ah, scandalous – the cyb couldn’t possibly take the chance that you might betray her, and so it appears she’s dropped you in it. And I have to say that Gabriel doesn’t come out smelling of roses.’

  The ambassador stared at Sarah, stone-faced.

  Hogan continued. ‘Still, Dr Maitlin the scientist, the seeker of truth and objectivity, not corrupted by the lies and deceits of the world of politics like the rest of us – you must surely be quietly relieved by this outcome. After all, the secret is out, and you presumably see yourself as playing the role of an innocent and blameless participant – the hero, even.’

  The sarcasm in his voice was nauseating and she glared at him. So this was how it was going to be, was it? His tone suggested that Hogan most certainly did not see her as an innocent and blameless participant. He sat back in his chair. Was he deliberately trying to goad her?

  She tried hard to keep her voice steady as she spoke through gritted teeth. ‘Are you accusing me of wrongdoing, Senator? Seriously? You invite me onto your committee to provide my scientific expertise, and for what? This whole business has been a sham from the start. I’m the one to demand answers here, not you two. And where the hell is Aguda?’

  ‘Gabriel will be joining us shortly. He’s currently engaged elsewhere. In fact,’ added Hogan, ‘we are all going to be rather busy tonight, as you can imagine. Of course, we hope to count on you too.’

  ‘What? You expect me to cooperate with you? To smooth this over? Damn it, we’ve been discussing recommendations to world governments about how to cope with potential CMEs until the Earth recovers, and yet it seems you knew the whole situation was futile? Tell me which bit I’ve got wrong.’ Anger and indignation welled up inside her, threatening to overflow.

  Then she added, before either man could respond, ‘And in any case, just so we’re clear, this is absolutely not about me. You’re damn right I’ve done nothing wrong. But you … I mean, how dare you fabricate scientific data and lie to the world? And just how far does this lie stretch? What else are you hiding?’

  ‘Oh, come on, Sarah,’ said Hogan. He sounded almost amused by her outburst. ‘I gave you more credit than that. Firstly, yes, of course we knew. But, you’re playing in the grown-up world now, so save that touching moral outrage of yours for your pathetic world of liberal academia.’

  Sarah felt an overwhelming urge to reach across and punch his conceited, supercilious face, but instead she sat back in her chair and closed her eyes. Her opportunity would come, she was sure of it.

  Hogan lowered his voice and spoke softly. ‘Listen to me carefully, Sarah. You are going to help us put this mess right. You’re smart, and so I have no doubt that you will understand what I have to say. There are people around the world, people in positions of stupendous power, working within, and even above, world governments, who have been trying to ensure that nine billion people don’t descend into collective mass hysteria. Tell me, what did you expect to happen – what is no doubt already happening – when those nine billion people found out what was being kept from them? That before this century is halfway through, the Earth will witness the fastest and most dramatic mass extinction since life first began four billion years ago? Please, do tell me what you expected them to do? At this very moment, I predict there will be potentially hundreds of extremist groups and cults springing up and promoting their own version of how to avoid the apocalypse or how to punish the authorities for bringing it on.’

  Xu added, ‘Not to mention how this news will be received by the Purifiers. If they are persuaded that the Sun is taking care of things for them, they may lose their raison d’être. On the other hand, this might embolden them and things could get far worse.’

  Like most people, Sarah was familiar with the terrorist organization generally known as the Purifiers, although many people still referred to them by their original Arabic name of Almutahirun. In their basic ideology they were not so different from many other radical groups and end-of-days cults that had come and gone since the dawn of civilization, inasmuch as their central message was beautifully simple: humankind was destroying the planet, and the world was approaching Yawm ad-Dīn (the Day of Judgement) and Yawm al-Qiyāmah (the Day of Resurrection). Many world religions shared this belief that there would be a final assessment of humanity by God, which would begin with the annihilation of all life, followed by resurrection and judgement. But the Purifiers were impatient. They believed their role was to hasten the arrival of the Day of Judgement by whatever means necessary. The revelations about the Earth’s magnetic field would only lend strength to their cause. Sarah wondered whether it would give them fresh impetus. Would they want to find some way to hurry things along? After all, their fatalistic philosophy was based on all hope in this life being abandoned and instead looking to a plentiful afterlife that awaited the faithful.

  Hogan’s cold voice cut through her thoughts. ‘So, I guess we now need to know. Can we still count on you?’

  ‘Count on me?’ she burst out. ‘To do what, exactly?’

  As she was debating whether she could trust any answer Hogan gave, he leaned forward across the table, his arms folded, and rested his chin on them. ‘To clear up this mess you’ve been duped into creating, of course. Jesus, Sarah, are you really so naive?’ He turned to Xu and gave him a quick look, which was meant to be one of innocent exasperation. He sighed, then said, ‘OK, Sarah, you ask us what the truth of the situation is. Well, here’s the truth. Yes, of course a plan to save the planet is in place.’

  She noted that his demeanour had now changed to one of intense sincerity, like a parent dishing out important advice to an errant child, something he must have practised on the campaign trail to get elected to the Senate. ‘We still want you to be part of that plan, Sarah.’

  Again, he held her gaze for a few seconds before releasing her from his hypnotic stare. He sat back in his chair and, again, his personality switched. This time the chill was back in his voice. ‘In return, you are going to help us clean up this mess. You see, between us, we will be going on a charm offensive to try to calm the world down. There will no dou
bt be unrest. Some governments that are, shall we say, less than well prepared will topple. And yes, people are going to die. Our job now is to sell a prettier, more optimistic future to the media, to calm nerves and to play down the consequences. People across the globe are going to need time to digest this. And they will be looking to those of us in charge to tell them everything will be OK. A statement is being carefully prepared as we speak.’

  He paused to let his words sink in. Then, ‘Of course, it will naturally be more convincing coming from you. You will see that what is being developed is a quite ambitious rescue plan – one that would benefit from your expertise as a solar physicist. It goes without saying that you don’t have to agree to this. So, we’ll give you a minute or two to think the matter over.’

  But Sarah knew she wasn’t going to get the chance to mull it over, sleep on it or ‘phone a friend’, as her mother was fond of saying. In the end, her cold rationalism and survival instincts took over. Maybe she could be of more use working on the inside. Hogan was almost certainly right about the mass hysteria these revelations would now cause. He might be a cold-hearted bastard, driven by blind political ambition, but he certainly wasn’t stupid. In the end none of these ethical questions were what decided it for her – it was her elemental scientific curiosity about the plan Hogan had hinted at. But she couldn’t admit to that. It would be as though she had just rolled over and surrendered to these two bullies, and she was still angry at their arrogance. Suddenly, she saw a faint glimmer of salvation and clutched at it with the desperation of a drowning person grasping a lifebelt. ‘OK, but on one condition.’

  Hogan snorted in amusement. ‘Bless you. Did you really think you were in a position to barter?’

  Xu raised a hand. ‘Wait a minute, Senator. I’m intrigued. Please continue, Dr Maitlin.’

  Sarah sat upright and stared Hogan in the eye, hoping that she sounded and looked braver than she felt. ‘The young cyb, Shireen – she was only doing what she believed was the right thing to do – and, for what it’s worth, what I still believe was the right thing to do. I assume you have her in custody. I want her released, and all charges against her dropped.’

  Hogan’s laugh was that of someone who’d never in his life found anything funny. It was cold and unnervingly high-pitched, like the bark of a fox.

  ‘I can see why that would play on your conscience. Again, you’re not thinking this through. This cyb is going to be hailed as a hero. We wouldn’t be able to keep her locked away for long anyway. So, yes, that sounds like a reasonable request, especially if you feel it will buy your redemption …’ He laughed again, then sat back and kicked his chair away from the table. ‘Well, we have work to do, don’t we?’ He pinched his thumb and forefinger together to activate a nano-mike on his nail, which he spoke into. ‘Gabriel, you should join us.’

  A few seconds later, Aguda came into the room, followed by the young woman Sarah had seen earlier and several other aides who had been waiting outside.

  Sarah and the Nigerian geologist exchanged a glance. She didn’t know what to say. She just knew she could never trust him again.

  24

  Saturday, 16 February – New York

  Sarah stared out of the window of the FBI Lilium E-Jet as it came in to land at JFK. Across the aisle from her, Shireen had been sleeping soundly for the duration of the one-hour flight from DC. A few minutes earlier Sarah had needed to pull down her blind to block out the bright mid-morning sun as the aircraft banked at the start of its descent. But, now that it had dropped down through the thick grey cloud cover, the scene outside, and her mood, suddenly turned gloomier. She was looking across to where the Manhattan skyline should have been visible in the distance. Instead, she was greeted by a thick blanket of falling snow that dramatically reduced visibility.

  She wondered what the weather was like in Rio, realizing how desperate she was to get back to the Institute and her research.

  It had been a week during which her life had been turned upside down: not content with finding out that the fate of humanity hung in the balance, she’d had to make a public statement, with Aguda by her side, aimed at calming the nerves of billions of people around the world. Governments in many countries had put their military on high alert, but that hadn’t prevented the inevitable unrest and widespread rioting that had broken out. There’d been a large number of deaths reported in both Nairobi and Istanbul and huge demonstrations in most large cities. People were demanding to know what was being done to avert catastrophe. And Sarah felt personally responsible. Maybe Hogan had been right – wouldn’t it have been better for the world to have remained in blissful ignorance of its fate? She looked over at the sleeping Iranian cyb. You thought you were doing the right thing, didn’t you? Well, for better or worse, it’s out now.

  Sarah didn’t blame Shireen for transmitting her conversation with Aguda to the world. She understood the girl’s motives. But then Shireen wasn’t the one who’d been getting death threats. Sarah had been shocked to the core by the first one she’d received, less than two hours after her broadcast statement late Monday evening. Someone had managed to hack through her security firewall to send her a colourful personal message about what they would do to her. And while she had immediately demanded heightened security, it hadn’t prevented several other nasty threats getting through in the following couple of days. Thankfully, they seemed to have stopped now.

  There had been frantic debates among world leaders as to whether they should continue to deny the truth – in fact, the official news networks in some countries were still maintaining the whole thing was fake. But from what Sarah had managed to learn from Aguda and Hogan, and to pick up on the more in-depth newscasts, most governments now knew that the genie was out of the bottle. Researchers in South America and Australia were analysing data from independent satellites over the South Pacific, confirming the continuing weakening of the magnetic field.

  But over the past few days she’d had bigger issues on her mind than the leaked documents or her own safety. Her thoughts drifted back to the ‘rescue’ plan she was now a part of. Now that the world knew about the dying field, the authorities saw no reason to keep their mission to save the world a secret either. Indeed, it was now vital that the public had some hope to cling to. The plan was audacious in scope.

  The ambitious idea, as first explained to her by Aguda, was to perfect the design of a giant magnetic pulse device that could generate a powerful magnetic punch, strong enough to block a coronal ejection. Aguda had given her the MPD report and had even asked her to comment on it.

  The following day she’d met up with him in his UN office. She had expected the atmosphere to be frosty when she walked in and had been taken aback by Aguda’s friendly demeanour.

  ‘Ah, Sarah, good morning. Please come in.’

  She’d tried to clear her head of the multitude of emotions still swirling around: exhaustion from lack of sleep, worry about the ramifications of the Pandora’s box she had played a part in opening, anger at Aguda for keeping the truth from her, and above all a deep-seated feeling of foreboding about the fate of the world. She had nevertheless tried hard to be professional and objective. He had been sitting behind a desk so impressive it made even his frame seem diminutive.

  ‘I know I’m coming to this late, Gabriel, but I’ve read the report and, well, I just don’t see how the sums stack up.’

  Aguda had nodded sagely. Was this still an act, or could she finally trust him? ‘I know it seems preposterous. But I’m proud of the progress that we’ve made so far, and I think you will be too when you see more. As you will have seen in that report, work on the device is already advancing on several fronts.’

  ‘By “several fronts” I suppose you mean where it would be built.’

  ‘Yes, that’s still the main sticking point. There’s still no agreement on whether it should be based on Earth or in space, or whether it would be one device, or many scattered around the globe.’

  ‘And is that a tec
hnical or an economic issue?’ she’d asked, certain that no one could possibly be thinking about putting a price on the only hope to save humankind.

  ‘Oh, it’s definitely the engineering challenges that are proving the issue. You see, while I’m personally against it, the front runner for a working MPD is to build it in space.’

  ‘But the report says nothing about how we get the components for such a large structure out to …’

  ‘… four times the distance to the Moon and then assembling and testing it there, all in the space of a year. Exactly.’ Aguda sat back, as though pleased that he had an ally. ‘It’s technologically possible, of course,’ he continued. ‘The best suggestion seems to be to get the components to the Moon in multiple trips and then assemble most of them at the Chinese moonbase, which has the necessary construction equipment and heavy industry already in place from their mining operation.’

  Sarah had been astonished by the sheer scale of the proposal. ‘So, why not just build an Earth-based device?’

  ‘Oh, a number of countries are pushing for this, believe me. The problem here is that the magnetic pulses they would be aiming out into space would damage any satellites flying overhead at the time.’

  Sarah felt she didn’t know enough about the technical specifications yet to comment on this. But, ‘Surely knocking out a few satellites is the least of our problems?’

  Aguda said nothing.

  This had been the point when Sarah had voiced her central misgivings about the entire plan. No one appreciated the sheer strength of the punch that a massive coronal mass ejection could deliver better than she did. Were they really naive enough to think they could stop one?

  ‘I know you aren’t expecting me to comment on the engineering challenges. But I simply don’t believe the basic physics.’

  ‘Well, Sarah, this is something we do need your input on. The computer simulations that have been run so far suggest that if a magnetic pulse powerful enough and timed just right could be aimed at an incoming CME then it could slow it down, and even disperse it.’