“I have enough knowledge of the components of this experiment to be able to make a call every now and then,” Kasper snapped at her with a cool disposition. “I do have a life outside of this secret cesspool you live in, Bessler.”
“Ouch,” she mocked him. “I choose to keep…” she looked seductively at the American magnate, “company with higher powers.”
Tuft’s big teeth climbed out from between his lips, but he did not respond to her inference. “Seriously, Dr. Jacobs,” he said, taking Kasper by the arm lightly and drawing him away form Zelda Bessler’s earshot, “how are we faring on the construction of the bullet?”
“I hate that you call it that, you know, Cliff,” Kasper confessed.
“But that is what it is. In order for us to magnify the effects of the last experiment, we will need something that travels as fast as a bullet, with an equal dispersion of weight and velocity to accomplish the task,” Tuft reminded him, as the two men strolled further away from a frustrated Bessler. The construction site was located in Meerdaalwoud, a woodland area east of Brussels. Lying unassumingly on a farm owned by Tuft, the plant featured an underground tunnel system that was completed several years ago. Few of the scientists on loan from legitimate government and university academia ever got to see the underground, but it was there.
“I am almost done, Cliff,” Kasper said. “All that is still left to calculate is the total weight, which I need from you. Remember, for the experiment to be successful, you have to furnish me with the exact weight of the vessel, or ‘bullet’, as you say. And Cliff, it has to be accurate to the gram, or else no genius equation will help me make this happen.”
Clifton Tuft chuckled in a bitter way. Much like a man about to break very bad news to a good friend, he cleared his throat through the awkward smirk on his ugly face.
“What? Can you give it to me or what?” Kasper pressed.
“I will give you those details shortly after the summit in Brussels tomorrow,” Tuft said.
“You mean the international summit on the news?” Kasper asked. “I am not interested in politics.”
“You should be, pal,” Tuft grunted like a dirty old man. “Of all people, you are the main player in the facilitation of this experiment. Tomorrow, the International Atomic Energy Agency will convene with the international veto powers of the NPT.”
“The NPT?” Kasper frowned. He was under the impression that his part in the project was purely experimental, but the NPT was a political matter.
“Non-proliferation Treaty, pal. Jesus, you really do not bother to research where your work goes after you publish the findings, do you?” the American laughed, slapping Kasper playfully on the back. “All the active members of this project should represent the Order tomorrow night, but we need you here to oversee the final stages.”
“Do these world leaders even know about the Order?” Kasper asked hypothetically.
“The Order of the Black Sun is everywhere, my friend. It is the most powerful world force since the Roman Empire, but only the elite know this. We have people in each of the NPT countries’ high command seats. Vice-presidents, royals, presidential advisers and decision makers,” Tuft elaborated dreamily. “Even mayors, helping us infiltrate on a municipal level. Attend. As orchestrator of our next power move, you are entitled to enjoy the spoils, Kasper.”
Kasper’s head was spinning at the revelation. His heart thundered under his lab coat, but he kept his pose and nodded in agreement. ‘Look enthusiastic!’ he urged himself. “Wow, I am flattered. Looks like I am finally getting the credit I deserve,” he bragged in his charade, and Tuft bought every word.
“That’s the spirit! Now, get everything ready, so that only the numbers can still be thrown in the calculation for us to initiate, okay?” Tuft bellowed happily. He left Kasper to join up with Bessler up the hallway, leaving Kasper shocked and confused, but one thing was certain. He had to get hold of David Purdue or he had to sabotage his own work.
20
Family Ties
Kasper ran into his home and locked the door behind him. After a double shift, he was completely drained, but there was no time for fatigue. Time was catching up with him and he was still unable to speak to Purdue. The genius explorer had an airtight security system and kept himself firmly out of the public eye most of the time. Most of his liaison was done by his personal assistant, but that was the woman Kasper thought he spoke to when he spoke to Lilith Hurst.
A knock at his door stopped his heart for a moment.
“It’s me!” he heard from the other side of the door, a voice that dripped a little heaven into the bucket of shit he was in.
“Olga!” he gasped, opened the door quickly and pulled her inside.
“Wow, what are you on about now?” she asked, kissing him passionately. “I thought you were coming over to my place tonight, but you did not answer any of my calls all day.”
In her gentle manner and soft voice, the beautiful Olga carried on about being ignored and all that other chick flick nonsense that her new boyfriend really could not afford to suffer or take blame for. He grabbed her firmly and sat her down on the chair. Just for effect, Kasper reminded her how much he loved her with a proper kiss, but after that, it was time to explain things to her. She was always quick to grasp what he tried to say, so he knew he could trust her with this exponentially serious matter.
“Can I trust you with very sensitive information, honey?” he whispered hard into her ear.
“Of course. Something is driving you nuts and I want you to tell me this stuff, you know?” she said. “I want no secrets between us.”
“Great!” he exclaimed. “Fantastic. Now, listen, I am insanely in love with you, but my work is becoming all-consuming.” She nodded quietly as he proceeded. “I’ll keep it simple. I have been working on a top-secret experiment, building a chamber shaped like a bullet to do the test with, right? It is practically completed and just today I found out,” he swallowed hard, “that what I have been working on is about to be used for a very evil purpose. I need to leave this country and disappear, do you understand?”
“What?” she shrieked.
“Remember the asshole that sat on my porch that day after we came back from the wedding? He is in charge of a sinister operation, and, and I think…I think they are planning to assassinate a group of world leaders during a meeting,” he explained hastily. “The only man who can decipher the correct equation has taken possession of it. Olga, he is working on it right now in his house in Scotland, soon to crack the variables! Once that happens, the asshole I work for (this was now Olga and Kasper’s code for Tuft) will apply that equation to the device I have built them.” Kasper shook his head, wondering why he would even bother laying all this on a pretty baker, but he had only known Olga for a short while. She had a few secrets herself.
“Defect,” she said plainly.
“What?” he frowned.
“Defect to my country. They cannot touch you there,” she repeated. “I come from Belarus. My brother is a physicist at the Institute of Physics and Technology, working on similar fields as you. Maybe he can help you?”
Kasper felt strange. Panic gave way to relief, but then clarity washed it away. He was mute for a minute or so, trying to mull around all the details along with the astonishing information about his new lover’s family. She kept quiet to let him think, grazing his arms with her fingertips. It was a good idea, he reckoned, if he could escape before Tuft realized it. How would the head physicist of a project just slip away without anyone noticing?
“How?” he voiced his doubts. “How do I defect?”
“You go to work. You destroy all copies of your work and you take all their project records with you. I know this, because my uncle did that many years ago,” she apprised.
“Is he there too?” Kasper asked.
“Who?”
“Your uncle,” he answered.
She shook her head nonchalantly. “No. He is dead. They killed him when they found
out that he sabotaged the ghost train.”
“The what?” he exclaimed, quickly put off all over again by the dead uncle business. After all, from what she was saying, her uncle died exactly because of the thing Kasper was about to try.
“The ghost train experiment,” she shrugged. “My uncle did much the same as you. He was part of the Russian Secret Society for Physics. They made this experiment with sending a train through the sound barrier or speed barrier or whatever.” Olga giggled at her ineptitude. She knew nothing of science, so it was hard for her to correctly relay what her uncle and his colleagues did.
“And then?” Kasper pressed. “What did the train do?”
“They say it was supposed to teleport or go to another dimension…Kasper, I really do not know about these things. You are making me feel very stupid here,” she interrupted her explanation with an excuse, but Kasper understood.
“You do not sound stupid, honey. I do not care how you say it, as long as I get an idea,” he coaxed her, smiling for the first time. She was really not stupid. Olga could see the strain in her lover’s smile.
“My uncle said the train was too powerful, that it would disrupt energy fields here and cause an implosion or something. Then all the people on earth…would…die?” she winced, looking for his approval. “They say his colleagues are still trying to make it work, using abandoned train tracks.” She was unsure of how to end her relation, but Kasper was elated.
Kasper wrapped his arms around her and pulled her up, holding her suspended from the ground while he planted a myriad of little kisses all over her face. Olga did not feel stupid anymore.
“Oh my God, I have never been so happy to hear of human extinction,” he jested. “Honey, you described almost exactly what I am struggling with here. Right, I have to get to the plant. Then I have to get to the news people. No! I have to contact the news people in Edinburgh. Yes!” he carried on, pacing with a thousand priorities darting through his mind. “See, if I get Edinburgh papers to publish this, not only does it expose the Order and the experiment, but David Purdue will hear of it and cease his work on the Einstein Equation!”
Terrified of what still had to be done, Kasper felt a sense of liberty at the same time. At last, he could be with Olga without watching her back for nefarious followers. His work would not be corrupted and his name attached to a worldwide atrocity.
While Olga made him some tea, Kasper grabbed his laptop and searched ‘Edinburgh best investigative journalists’. Of all the links presented, and there were many, one name stood out prominently and this man was remarkably easy to contact.
“Sam Cleave,” Kasper read aloud to Olga. “He is an award winning investigative journalist, honey. He lived in Edinburgh and is freelance, but he used to work for several of their local newspapers…before…”
“Before what? You are making me curious. Speak!” she cried from the open plan kitchen.
Kasper smiled. “I feel like a pregnant woman, Olga.”
She roared with laughter. “Like you know what that is like. You have definitely been acting like one. That is for sure. Why do you say that, love?”
“So many emotions all at the same time. I want to laugh and cry and scream,” he grinned, looking stacks better than a minute ago. “Sam Cleave, the guy I want to give this story to? Guess what? He is a famous author and explorer involved in several expeditions led by the one and only David fucking Purdue!”
“Who is he?” she asked.
“The man with the dangerous equation I cannot get hold of,” Kasper explained. “If I have to tell a reporter about the evil plan, who better than someone who personally knows the man with the Einstein Equation in his possession?”
“Perfect!” she chimed. As Kasper rang Sam’s number, something in him changed. He did not care how dangerous defecting would be. He was ready to make a stand.
21
The Weigh-In
In Brussels, it was time for the congregation of principal players in the global management of atomic energy to convene. The Hon. Lance McFadden hosted the event, since he had been involved in the United Kingdom chapter of the International Atomic Energy Agency since just before his campaign to become mayor of Oban.
“The turn-out is at one-hundred percent, sir,” Wolf reported to McFadden as they watched the delegates take their seats in the splendor of La Monnaie’s Opera House. “We are only waiting for Clifton Tuft to show up, sir. As soon as he is here, we can proceed with the,” he paused dramatically, “supplanting procedure.”
McFadden was decked out in his Sunday best. Since becoming involved with Tuft and the Order, he had become acquainted with wealth, even though it did not buy him class. He turned his head surreptitiously and whispered, “Have the calibration been successful? I have to get this information to our man, Jacobs, before tomorrow. If he does not have the exact weight of the collective passengers, the experiment will never work.”
“Each seat set out for a representative has been equipped with sensors that will quantify their exact body weight respectively,” Wolf informed him. “The sensors were designed to weigh even the finest materials with deadly precision by means of new, top of the range scientific technology.” The repulsive thug smirked. “And you are going to love this, sir. This technology was invented and produced by the one and only David Purdue.”
McFadden gasped as he heard the genius explorer’s name. “My God! Really? You are too right, Wolf. I love the irony in that. I wonder how he is doing after that accident he had in New Zealand.”
“Apparently he uncovered the Dire Serpent, sir. Thus far the rumor has not been verified, but knowing Purdue, he probably did find it,” Wolf speculated. It was both a good revelation to McFadden, as much as it was terrifying.
“Jesus Christ, Wolf, we have to get it from him! If we get the Dire Serpent, deciphered, we can apply it to the experiment without having to go through all this shit,” McFadden said, looking positively blown away by the fact. “Has he completed the equation? I thought it was a myth.”
“Many thought so, until he took his two sidekicks out to help him find it. From what I am told, he is working hard on solving the problem of the missing details, but has yet to crack it,” Wolf gossiped. “Apparently he has been so obsessed with it that he almost never sleeps anymore.”
“Will we be able to get it? He certainly will not give it to us, and since you did away with his little girlfriend, Dr. Gould, we have one less mate of his to blackmail for it. Sam Cleave is watertight. He is the last person I would bother to count on to betray Purdue,” McFadden whispered as the delegates of the government agencies spoke softly in the background. Before Wolf could reply, a female security official of the EU Council overseeing the process interrupted.
“Excuse me, sir,” she addressed McFadden, “it is eight o’clock sharp.”
“Thank you, thank you,” McFadden’s false smile fooled her. “Kind of you to let me know.”
He glanced back at Wolf as he stepped out from the stage and onto the podium to address the members of the summit. Each chair occupied by an active member of the International Atomic Energy Agency, as well as the NPT countries, had transmitted the data to the Black Sun computer in Meerdaalwoud.
While Dr. Kasper Jacobs was collecting his important work, wiping his data as far as he could, the information came onto the server. He lamented having completed the vessel for the experiment. At least he could corrupt the equation he created, similar to the Einstein Equation, but with less power drive, himself.
Just like Einstein, he had to decide whether he would allow his genius to be used for nefarious actions or not allow his work to destroy on a mass scale. He opted for the latter and, keeping an eye on the mounted security cameras, pretended to be working. In actual fact, the brilliant physicist was corrupting his calculations, in order to thwart the experiment. Kasper felt guilty enough that he already constructed the giant, cylindrical vessel. No more would come from his abilities to serve Tuft and his wicked cult.
; Kasper wished he could smile as the final lines of his equation was being altered just enough to be accepted, but not to function. He saw the numbers being transmitted form the Opera House, but he ignored it. By the time Tuft, McFadden and the others came to activate the experiment, he would be long gone.
But one desperate individual he did not factor into his escape calculation, was Zelda Bessler. She was watching him from a secluded booth just inside the large site where the giant vessel was waiting. Like a cat, she bided her time, allowing him to do everything he thought he had gotten away with. Zelda smiled. In her lap she had a tablet, hooked up to a communications platform between operative of the Order of the Black Sun. Without sound betraying her presence, she typed in ‘Apprehend Olga and put her on the Valkyrie’ and sent it to Wolf’s subordinates in Bruges.
Dr. Kasper Jacobs pretended to be hard at work on the experimental paradigm, having no idea that his girlfriend was about to be introduced to his world. His phone rang. Looking rather nervous at the sudden disturbance, he quickly got up and went to the men’s room. It was a call he had expected.
“Sam?” he whispered, making sure every stall in the restroom was vacant. He had told Sam Cleave about the experiment due, but not even Sam could get hold of Purdue to change his mind about the equation. While Kasper checked the waste bins for bug devices, he continued. “Are you there?”
“Aye,” Sam whispered on the other side of the phone. “I am in the booth at the Opera House, so that I can eavesdrop properly, but so far I cannot find anything amiss to report. The summit is just beginning, but…”
“What? What is happening?” Kasper asked.
“Wait,” Sam said abruptly. “Do you know anything about a Siberian train trip?”
Kasper frowned in utter confusion. “A what? No, nothing of that sort. Why?”
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