O-Negative: Extinction

by Hamish Cantillon

  Greg was all for it. “Definitely David if you can become a voice in Washington for the unheard masses we should see your marginal lead at the last election turn into something much more comfortable - which will give you a shot at being asked to serve in a Republican administration in 3 years times”.

  After the staff meeting, and a day meeting with key constituents who had been invited up to Washington for a chat and tour of Capitol Hill his spirits had been lifted quite considerably. However the sense of normalcy he had begun to feel during the day vanished abruptly when a call came through on his cell while he was attending an important Republican fundraising dinner in the evening. ‘Unknown number’. His heartbeat, perhaps rather irrationally, went up at seeing these words on his phone. He excused himself from the conversation he was having with a techno-industrialist from Dallas and moved to a quieter part of the banqueting suite.

  “David Mitchell”.

  “Congressman Mitchell its Colonel Richardson”

  “Ahh Colonel good to hear from you”. Somewhat of an exaggeration he thought.

  There was no further small talk from the business like Colonel “Congressman I’ve taken a call from Mr Lynch at the Nex group. He told me he’s been unable to get hold of Congressman Wyatt and suggested that you might be the best person to convene a meeting of the homeland security committee”.

  He felt a surge of anger at the presumption underlying the request that he was some sort of errand boy and so answered uncommittedly “Ummhh well we have a meeting scheduled for Thursday. Maybe that would be a good time for Mr Lynch to provide additional briefing to the committee, perhaps in a closed session following the main business?”

  “Mr Lynch seemed quite keen on the briefing being sooner rather than later Sir. He said he’d be free to meet this evening at twenty one hundred hours in the same place as before”.

  He almost told Colonel Richardson that the world didn’t resolve around Mr Lynch and that it would be impossible for him and the other congressman on the committee to be able to drop everything and meet with him that evening. Nevertheless he swallowed his anger “Look you can tell Mr Lynch I don’t know what you think it is that congressmen do but it’s currently seven o’clock in the evening. I’m here with the party faithful along with a number of fellow representatives and am not really in a position to excuse myself and I doubt they will be either.”

  “As you say Congressman but I note that my boss and Mr Lynch will be briefing the president and the general staff in precisely half an hour. I would have thought your committee might be interested in what they had to say?”

  “Your boss is briefing the President? Fine tell Lynch I’ll do what I can but can you make it quite clear that this is a serious inconvenience?”

  “Will do sir.” And at that the line went dead.

  Jesus he thought ‘what a sociopath’ it was like talking with Charles Manson but without the charming personality. He took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and quaffed it in a single gulp. So much for pressing the flesh and getting his face about amongst the people he’d need to smooch up to. He spotted Andrew Harper across the room and moved to join the conversation.

  “Gentleman, Andrew, good to see you all. I hope you’re enjoying the free drinks”. There was polite laughter all round. “Now I hate to do this to you all but I need a quick word with Andrew here. Andrew do you have a minute?” Andrew Harper looked annoyed at being asked to remove himself from the conversation but politely acquiesced and removed himself from the group.

  When they’d moved away a reasonable distance Andrew sniped “David much as I enjoy your company I’d rather not talk shop with a fellow congressman this evening especially when we’re surrounded by the movers and shakers.”

  “I understand Andrew and I feel the same way, unfortunately I’ve just taken a call from an associate of Mr Lynch’s asking me to convene a meeting of the committee at nine o’clock this evening.”

  “Is this some sort of joke David? The committee already has a published schedule, a very busy schedule as I recall, this is a completely unreasonable request. Civil Servants are supposed to work for us not the other way round. Is this more of that Antarctica nonsense?”

  He looked uncomfortable at Andrew’s obvious ire “Couldn’t agree more Andrew but the President and the general staff are getting another briefing on the apparently escalating situation in Antarctica and it’s all but been suggested that we also need to be as fully appraised as them re what’s happening”.

  “This is highly annoying he’d better have something vitally important to say or I’m going to rip him to pieces, who else is going?”

  “Well at the moment no one I was hoping I could split the list of committee members with you and we’d call half each to see if we can get them to attend?”

  “Great now I’m missing the highest profile Republican reception of the year to act as a fucking secretary. Fine I’ll do the other Republicans you can have the joy of talking to the Democrats I know how much you love chatting with them”.

  He sighed knowing as Andrew did that most of the Republicans were probably already at the reception and so would be much easier to get hold of. “Thanks Andrew you’re a real pal” he said with a heavy dose of sarcasm. “I guess I’ll see you later”.

  “I’m promising nothing David but I’ll speak to the others and make a decision when I know how many of them are prepared to ruin their evening to get another briefing from the Man from Uncle”.

  “Ok well I’d better find a quieter room.” At this he exited the reception and decided to stroll down to his own office located in the bowels of Capitol Hill. When he got there none of his staff were there other than Greg.

  “What the hell are you doing here David shouldn’t you be laughing uproariously at some politically incorrect joke from a Nebraskan businessman?”

  “Yes I should but I need to convene the homeland security committee.”

  “What for tomorrow that’s a bit of short notice no?”

  “I wish it were for tomorrow but no for this evening and I’ve got the job of contacting all the Democrats.”

  “This evening, what’s going on that’s so important that you need to get a briefing this evening?”

  “To be honest with you Greg I can’t really say but there’s some big shit storm going on about Antarctica and though this sounds way out of our remit apparently it might have some bearing on national security so we’re having a briefing following the one that the President’s getting right now”.

  “Antarctica Gods hardly a pressing issue, is this the Russians rattling their sabres again?”

  He hesitated slightly, he didn’t want to mislead Greg but neither did he want to be the source of any leak that Greg in good faith might think it would be good to utilise to embarrass the Democratic administration. “Err yes probably. May well just be a storm in a teacup it’s just highly annoying that it’s happening tonight. Listen can you call Megan and tell her not to bother coming over to wow the crowd? She was going to join me after eight o’clock. I need to get on with calling those bloody Democrats to ruin their evening as much as my own”. With that he moved into his office, shut the door and began flicking through his rolladeck as he picked up the phone.

  __________________________________________________

  As he expected not all the Democrats were in a position to turn up. Some thought it was a wild goose chase of the first order and had told him as much, others were genuinely concerned but had already returned to their respective constituencies given it was a Friday evening and so would be unable to get to Washington in time. He also suspected some had chosen not to attend because they were being called by a young upstart Republican. A number of them said if it was that serious then they were sure the President and his team would be in touch directly. In the end the Democrat congresswoman Marlene George from Virginia had turned up - her family were based in Richmond and so she hadn’t yet left the office when he called. On the Republican side he and most
of his other colleagues were present in the same out of the way committee room they’d used for the last briefing. The corridor on this occasion had been completely deserted and the lights had been off, only coming on when he’d walked under them. Dead on nine o’clock Andrew Harper and Tripp Wyatt turned up looking put out. Andrew addressed him as he walked in. “So where’s our agent extraordinaire David. I hope this isn’t going to be a colossal waste of our time?”

  As if by magic Mr Lynch appeared in the doorway. “The agent extraordinaire is now present and correct” he said dryly moving forwards into the room shutting the door behind him. “Shall we take our seats?”

  As David and the others climbed the 4 steps on to the podium Mr Lynch took his traditional seat on the chair behind the desk facing them.

  Andrew Harper was first out of the blocks. “Right ok Mr Lynch let’s hear it as I for one don’t want to be here a moment longer than necessary and I suspect none of the rest of my colleagues do either. Has a massive meteorite landed causing untold damage to an area no one gives a monkeys about, has a Russian submarine surfaced in the middle of one of our scientific stations? Or have Aliens invaded Antarctica?”

  “At this stage we do not believe the Russians are involved Congressman. All the communication transcripts we’ve intercepted and decoded suggest they are as mystified as we are at the appearance of a strange structure at the South Pole. Similarly they do not have the immediate resources in place to be able to ascertain the nature of the threat, if it is a threat. And by threat I do mean a ‘clear and present danger’. It is my job to inform you that the British have reported losing an entire SAS team which was sent to investigate by air and the ground based mission by a platoon of Royal marines has also experienced a significant loss of life attempting to reach the Amundsen base. I have only recently returned from my own mission to the British base at Halley where I spoke to the survivors from the overland trip – a Marine Lieutenant and an ex SAS Captain turned scientist who was their guide. They both reported the wholesale slaughter of their colleagues by strange metallic creatures who’s nature and design neither of them had encountered previously. Neither I might add seemed the type to make up such a story but you never know. In addition they brought back video evidence, which has been passed to our high command and has convinced General Carter enough that he’s ordered the Seal teams we sent to the Falklands to proceed to the centre of the continent and get our own intell on what’s happening”. He paused. “Still want to get back to your reception congressman?”

  Andrew Harper sat back in his chair while Marlene George leaned forwards. “I’m sorry Mr Lynch but this all sounds like high fantasy. And even if it’s true what impact is this going to have here. I know it sounds serious but we are after all 10,000 miles from Antarctica?”

  “Well Madame Congresswoman at the moment we just don’t know. We’re hoping the Seal team will give us a bit more to go on but I’d note the President is concerned enough to have given approval for the use of Cruise Missiles should the Seal teams be compromised. There is a distinct feeling of nervousness amongst our present leadership. Apparently every earth facing satellite with the ability to see what’s going on down on the ground is ‘malfunctioning’ - perhaps even more worrying is that our outward facing satellites and space telescopes are also currently out of operation. Before they stopped working a number of them had been tracking a series of meteorites or comets, which according to the data analysed so far the next two will enter the Earth’s atmosphere in a couple of days’ time. The rest a few days after that.”

  He came in at this point “Mr Lynch are you saying that we have had a first contact?”

  “At the moment we don’t know but there is mounting evidence that something has landed in Antarctica and appears to be attacking anything that gets too close. The concern from a national security perspective is that it might be a reasonable assumption that these remaining ‘meteorites’ could hit or land in much more populated areas – which could result in catastrophic loss of life.”

  He couldn’t help himself “I don’t mind saying this Mr Lynch but you’re beginning to scare the shit out of me”. He looked around at his colleagues most of whose faces seemed to have paled at Lynch’s words.

  It was Trip who was the first to recover. “Mr Lynch you said the President and General Staff have been briefed on this, do we have a plan for what to do if such a worse case situation does arise and we find ourselves dealing with an ‘alien’ host on our soil?”

  “We have plans that can be adapted. At the moment these are being dusted off. Nevertheless key military bases are being put on high alert and in some cases may end up going into lock down.”

  “And the media? How on earth is this going to be handled? There’s going to be panic when this gets out?”

  “At the moment the line is that the Russians are expanding operations in Antarctica and we are responding accordingly including by increasing our military presence in the region. When we know more I believe the White House’s team will bring into play a number of recent policies and procedures which were drawn up under the approval of this committee relating to emergency powers and responses. Now gentlemen that’s all I have at this time. I would remind you that this information remains highly sensitive – please do not reveal this information to anyone. Including your closest loved ones. We still don’t have final confirmation on a number of the elements we’ve discussed. Who knows, it could all be explained by solar flares or such like. However I doubt it and therefore it’s my job and the job of my colleagues to make sure continuation of government. With that in mind I’d remind you that all of you are on emergency transfer lists where in a case of something more directly threatening taking place you will be transferred to a secure location by the military.”

  “Great a bunker in Virginia. That will be a hoot I’m sure” said Andrew Harper.

  Mr Lynch without any further ceremony wished them all “a good evening” and left the committee room.

  The remaining Representatives began talking loudly and nervously with one another before leaving in some haste to return back to their homes.

  Tripp Wyatt passed by him sitting as he was in silence. “I’ll give it a day or two before the information leaks David. You might want to think about where you want to be when it does. I’d imagine there’s going to be a huge upsurge in social unrest. The crazies will definitely be out in force”.

  “You’re probably right Trip. This doesn’t sound good at all, I’m just trying to absorb what we’ve all just heard. I haven’t made up my mind whether to be absolutely terrified or stoically optimistic that things aren’t quite as bad as he’s suggesting”.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this one David. I’m going to go and spend some time with my family, I suggest you do the same”.

  ___________________________________________________

  He’d hardly class Chad as family but given the nature of the news he’d been briefed on he eventually decided to get on the late night flight to Houston from Washington. He called Chad on his arrival and Chad told him to come on over.

  The house in Cinco Ranch looked as impenetrable as it had before but this time turning up in the dark it had a sinister look to it that would probably deter any but the most hardened criminal – if that’s what Chad was actually concerned about? Elizabeth wasn’t in when he arrived so he was met by the housekeeper who had a gaunt angular face that brooked no nonsense. She took his coat and bag, which she told him she’d put in his room, before indicating he should use the lift to go down to the ‘operations centre’.

  This time when he entered he noticed that every desk and every computer seemed to be occupied. Chad was obviously well aware that something was up and had called in people from wherever they normally worked. Chad took him into his office and offered him a whiskey.

  “Looks to me David my boy that the situation in Antarctica seems to have deteriorated somewhat. I’ve got people feeding me information from all over the general staff
and they seem to be somewhat vexed. Am I right?”

  “Something is definitely going off Chad. They’re talking about more meteorites landing and the Brits have been attacked when they got too close to the weird structure that’s turned up in the middle of the continent. The army boys are about to send in the Seals and the Navy commanders have got the authority to use Cruise Missiles if they feel the need”.

  Chad whistled “CMs hey. They must be shitting their pants in Washington about this David. I’d also be changing my trousers if I’d spent the last 25 years patting myself on the back about the end of the cold war and getting distracted with unwinnable wars in the Middle East. Fortunately I haven’t and even as I can smell my own fear I can also sense an opportunity. I think we might be able to benefit from the events occurring in the southern hemisphere. Any idea where these other ‘meteorites’ are going to land?”.

  “No idea yet. All our tech seems to have packed up. We’re running blind at the moment.” He paused to collect himself and took another prolonged sip from the tumbler in front of him. “And exactly what sort of opportunity are you seeing here Chad? Isn’t this a time to pull together?”