Despite himself, Anderson let a smile cross his lips. The woman at the amusement park had a name. ‘Good work. Is that the file?’ he asked, gesturing at a folder on the desk.
The analyst nodded. ‘Yes, that’s all the information we have on her.’
Anderson picked up the file and started to flip through it, his mind already establishing the next course of action. ‘OK,’ he said, his head coming up, ‘get people round to her apartment, see if she’s there. If she is, have her picked up. At the same time, I want agents over at the Post. Let’s find out who her contacts are, what she’s working on at the moment. Get this file circulated to everyone. Treat this as top priority.’
The analyst nodded, already turning back to his bank of computers and picking up the secure telephone on his desk. Satisfied, Anderson put the folder under his arm and turned on his heel, heading back out for the radar field.
Good, he thought as he left the room. Alyssa Durham will soon be mine.
6
‘IT’S BEAUTIFUL,’ ALYSSA whispered to Jack as they sat huddled together under a thick blanket on the roof of the main control centre.
Jack had led her out of the dormitory building and across the area leading to the command centre, careful not to be seen by the patrolling guards. Jack knew they wouldn’t be picked up by electronic surveillance but there was still the human element, and they had to keep to the shadows to avoid detection.
They had managed to get to the large concrete structure completely unseen, and Jack had then taken her to a metal ladder on one side. He had explained that there was no security on top of the building, just a bunch of air-conditioning ducts and a single access hatch for routine maintenance. As long as they kept down, careful not to get silhouetted on top of the building, they would be safe from prying eyes.
In the distance, Alyssa could make out a huge forest of antennas. Jack told her that it was called the Ionospheric Research Array, and gave her a brief breakdown of its purpose and how it all worked. It was interesting, but no more detailed than the information she had digested from Jamie’s research notes. On the other hand, seeing was believing, and it was a tremendous sight to behold. Alyssa could detect no activity at the radar field, except for what Jack seemed to think was an unusually large number of vehicles in the car park.
But now the first lights of the aurora started to illuminate the dark winter sky, a sudden flash of brilliant green, like bioluminescent sheet lightning. And then it started in earnest, and the sky all around them lit up with irradiated brilliance. The eerie green glow seemed to contract, then expand, then contract once again, twisting into seemingly impossible shapes as it danced across the sky. It was perhaps the most beautiful thing she had ever seen; and there was also Jack, whose heartbeat she could feel as her head rested on his chest.
Alyssa pushed herself up, keeping her body in contact with Jack’s all the way, until her head was level with his. She turned away from the pulsating green aurora and looked into Jack’s eyes, which looked back at her with burning intensity. Did he feel it too? She leant forward slowly, wanting so much to find out; and as the aurora flared once more above them, he moved towards her, accepting her invitation. Their lips met, gently at first, and Alyssa’s heart seemed to beat louder and louder in her chest as Jack wrapped his arms round her. Alyssa responded by pressing harder into him, deeper, her arms seeking his body.
A feeling almost like electricity surged through her as their kiss continued, their bodies almost becoming one, and she felt free once more, the reality of the world melting away with their passion.
But then Jack pulled away, breaking the embrace, shattering the magical unreality of the moment. She felt cold instantly, separated from his warmth.
‘What is it?’ she asked, putting her hand on his.
‘Quiet,’ he said in reply, turning his head like a dog straining to hear some faraway noise. ‘Do you hear it?’
Alyssa turned her head and listened. Nothing. What was Jack doing?
But then she heard it too, just faint, a low rumbling like a big-capacity car engine ticking over at idle. ‘What is it?’ she asked again.
Jack held up a hand as he struggled to make it out, but then Alyssa tugged at his sleeve and pointed towards the closest radar.
Jack looked too, and she felt his body tense. A spark of light exploded from the surface of the huge radar crosshead, and then the outer perimeter of radars lit up in the same way, one by one round the huge square. They watched as the inner ‘rings’ lit up, electricity surging across the vanes, until all one hundred and ninety-six antennas were crackling with barely contained primal energy. Alyssa and Jack could both feel the force of the radar array pulsating across the clear night sky.
‘What’s going on?’ Alyssa asked breathlessly, but Jack could only look on in wonder, speechless.
They continued to watch as the huge sparks of light left the confines of individual radars, travelling through the air until the entire grid was criss-crossed with bright, crackling light. Minutes seemed to go past as they watched, the ghostly green of the Northern Lights above them all but forgotten as the energy coming from the radar grid seemed to build steadily in power, the light becoming thicker, brighter, more intense. Alyssa felt the need to look away to protect her eyes, but couldn’t.
And then the light was directed upwards from the top of each radar mast towards a point thirty feet above the central group of masts. The beams met there, joining together in a single point, forming a covering of energy almost like a brilliant, luminescent parasol, and then both Alyssa’s and Jack’s jaws dropped open as they saw a huge flash of blinding light shoot straight up into the sky from this central point, the power from every radar mast converging in one single, arrow-like surge of pure energy into the aurora above them.
The single blast was over in the blink of an eye, and when it was gone, so too were the powerful, crackling lights of the radar masts, and the entire grid was inert once more, silent, unmoving.
A few moments passed, and then Alyssa turned to Jack. ‘Have you ever seen anything like that before?’
Jack shook his head slowly, seemingly bewildered. ‘Never,’ he admitted.
Alyssa glanced skyward, and her eyes narrowed as she watched the Northern Lights continue their dance across the sky above them. But they were different now somehow, the snaking movements faster, more complex, perhaps even brighter. Yes, they were getting brighter, and she grabbed Jack’s arm to get him to watch too. The aurora began to change. Alongside the familiar green light, streaks of crimson appeared; the two colours danced apart and then melted together, again and again.
Alyssa knew the lights were sometimes red, but this seemed different somehow; and then they changed again, an opaque blue light entering the procession, darting in and out of the green and red. The sky then went completely dark for a fraction of a second, and then glowed pure green, a flash of light that almost blinded Alyssa after the darkness that had preceded it. And then there was darkness again, and then a flash of red; then dark, before a third flash, this time of brilliant blue. Alyssa knew that such a display was unprecedented.
For several minutes, the sky above the HIRP facility raged with light – red, green and blue, but also yellow, orange, violet and white, all battling each other in a stunningly choreographed rhythm that took Alyssa’s breath away.
And then the incredible light show was over and the sky returned to inky blackness once more.
After a few moments, Jack turned to Alyssa, his face serious. ‘I think it’s time we got the hell out of here.’
7
JUST OVER THIRTEEN hundred miles away, Jaywood Nblisi trotted gently along a beautiful white sand beach after his three-year-old son.
It was a glorious day, the sun high in the sky and blessing them with its warmth. He glanced back to his wife and four other children, all gathered on the large rug they’d brought down with them from their small home, just an hour’s walk away.
They lived pleasant enough live
s, although Jaywood had to admit that the conditions at the factory in which he worked left a lot to be desired. No plumbing, no sewerage, and no breaks in fourteen-hour shifts were not exactly ideal, but Jaywood was a realist; his small island had no natural resources to speak of, no tourist infrastructure, and there was no way of making a living save for working at the factory which, hellhole or not, he knew the country was lucky to have. And he fully believed that by putting in the hours without complaint, he would one day work his way up to be a supervisor. At least that’s what his boss had told him, and he had no reason to doubt it.
At least he had every weekend off, which meant he could spend a couple of days a week lazing around on the beach without having to worry about how he was going to afford to feed his family – unlike some of his islander friends, who refused to work at the factory, and therefore suffered the ravages of abject poverty.
He had caught up with his youngest son, who had stopped to examine a multicoloured conch shell, when he felt the beach move beneath his feet.
The sensation was gone as soon as it arrived, and he began to wonder if he had imagined it; but then it happened again, even stronger this time, and he felt himself flipping into the air, the sky turning over him.
He crashed back to the ground, the wind knocked out of him. He looked immediately to his son, who was sitting there with a look of surprise – but not yet fear – on his young face. Jaywood scrambled over the white sand to him and gathered him up in his arms. He raced back towards the rest of his family, who he could see waving frantically for him to return.
Jaywood started to wave back but was sent tumbling once again as the earth shook for a third time. He collapsed, but managed to keep his son aloft, unhurt. Jaywood groaned, wondering if he had broken something.
The other people on the beach were running for the far treeline behind them. Jaywood watched as another shudder rocked the ground beneath him, and he saw a huge section of the jungle disappear right before his eyes, falling into the ground, swallowing the first people with it.
The screams started then, and sounds reached Jaywood from far away – car horns blaring, the sirens of emergency vehicles, house alarms, all from his home town, just a few miles away, on the other side of the jungle. And then he heard the klaxon sounding at the factory, the call for an immediate evacuation.
Earthquake, everyone was shouting, and Jaywood knew it must be true. He’d experienced tremors before, but something that destroyed an entire jungle in the blink of an eye? He could barely move with the shock of it all.
But he needed to move, he had to move, had to get to the rest of his family and make sure they were safe. And so he dragged himself to his feet once more and set out for them, weaving in and out of the other people on the beach who were panicking now, unsure of where to go or what to do.
As he ran, the rest of the jungle disappeared, it just seemed to be sucked down with no resistance, and he could see the buildings of his town, unobscured by trees and foliage. He winced as he saw the tallest of the buildings start to collapse, then turned back to his family, ignoring everything else. They were fifty metres away now; if the world really was going to end, as all the news reports lately seemed to predict, at least they would be together. But then there was another shudder, and the beach itself was ripped in two, leaving a deep crevasse that ran from the ruined remnants of the jungle all the way to the ocean. Jaywood himself was thrown clear, and he landed with his son, who was crying now, in a pile of sand.
The beach on his side of the rift tilted upwards at an impossible angle, so he couldn’t see his family any more. He began to climb towards the top of the disgorged land, the sound of rushing water filling his ears as he went. He climbed steadily, powerfully, ignoring the pain in his legs and back, scrambling up the broken, sandy slope until he reached the lip. He saw his family over on the other side, scattered on the ground, frightened and bruised. But they were alive. His wife, three daughters and another son, they were all alive.
He looked down into the rift in the beach, and saw how the ocean was surging into it, creating a fast-moving river that pushed through the ruined jungle towards the town beyond. How many people lived there? Jaywood knew it must be ten thousand or more. He said a prayer as he watched the water crash towards them, before redirecting his attention to his family.
He whispered reassurances to his infant son, cradled in his arms, then looked again at his wife and other children. They were standing now, looking out to sea, immobile, frozen.
Jaywood turned himself and his eyes went wide with shock, with fear, and with simple awe at the sight that confronted him.
A wall of water – it must have been a mile high – was thundering towards the little island; an implacable, deadly force of nature. Jaywood shook his head in disbelief. Such a thing seemed impossible. But there it was, coming towards them, closer and closer with each passing second.
The roar of the tsunami filled his head, drowning out all other sounds, all other thoughts, and Jaywood turned to his family on the other side of the rift and waved goodbye.
He cradled his son closer in his arms, letting him feel warm and safe. He bent his head to kiss the little boy on the head, tears in his eyes.
And then the tidal wave hit, destroying everything in its path.
8
‘JUST WHAT IS going on here?’ Alyssa asked.
She was sitting on a chair at the small card table in Jack’s room, while he lay back on his bed, hands covering his face.
He sat up and looked at her. ‘I’ll be damned if I know,’ he said eventually.
‘You must have heard talk about this place,’ she probed.
Jack sighed and shook his head, and then got up from the bed and started to pace the room. Alyssa was worried that he wouldn’t say anything else, but then he turned to her. ‘OK. But before I tell you what the rumours are, you have to understand that I don’t believe them, and I’ve worked here for years. OK?’
Alyssa nodded her head, and then he began. ‘Well, obviously anything with any military connection becomes the target for conspiracy theories of all kinds, especially when some of the research is secret, and kept out of the public eye. But what some people – crazy people, in my humble opinion – believe is that the radar array can be used to influence the weather; you know, heat up clouds here and make it rain there, that sort of thing. Other people think that by influencing the ionosphere, sonic properties can be sent around the globe to be directed towards certain targets, to achieve all sorts of crazy things – natural disasters; electro-magnetic pulse waves which are supposed to shut off all electronic devices, sabotaging an entire country’s infrastructure with one simple move; direct-hit weapons that can shoot missiles out of the sky; even mind control.’
‘Mind control?’ Alyssa asked.
Jack nodded. ‘I told you the whole thing is crazy. Some folk believe the “light rays” shot out by the radars can brainwash people; indeed, they believe that we already are brainwashing people all over the world, our own citizens included.’
‘It does seem a bit far-fetched,’ Alyssa agreed.
‘You bet.’ Jack sat down on the bed once more. ‘I’ll tell you why this place attracts this sort of attention – because the real work that goes on here, quite mundane and boring as it is, is just too hard for most people to understand. And if people can’t understand something, they’ll create a story around it that they can understand. And people understand weapons, and they understand war.’
Alyssa knew that Jack was probably right, but she was convinced something more was going on. ‘Look, I’ll be gone tomorrow,’ she said, ‘and I’m sorry for being so nosy. I guess I’m just trying to understand the kind of place Karl was working in, you know, what he was doing for the last few years. We didn’t see each other much after he started work here.’ The manner of Karl’s death came back to her in vivid detail, and she hugged herself, trying not to tremble.
She didn’t resist as Jack pulled her on to the bed and put his ar
ms round her. And then, as they sat looking at one another, their hands suddenly sought each other’s, entwining so naturally that they hardly realized it had happened. Their lips came together gently, then more forcefully, and Alyssa soon found herself lying next to him and he was brushing his lips across the smooth, soft skin of her neck. She felt herself melting under his touch and at that moment she wanted him more than she could remember wanting anything in her life.
9
AS ALYSSA CREPT from Jack’s room later that night, she hated herself.
It wasn’t for sleeping with him, she didn’t regret that for a second. In fact, lying in bed with him, his arm round her, she’d felt happier than she had in years. But after he’d fallen asleep, she had gone to his jacket and detached the security card that she had seen him using all evening. It was a betrayal of his trust but time was short. She would have to pick up Karl’s things in the morning, and then she’d be on her way, never allowed on to the base again. She’d seen with her own eyes what the radar array could do to the Northern Lights, and if it could do that then surely it could also affect other aspects of nature, perhaps even create natural disasters. If there was even the slightest chance of a connection, she knew she had to investigate it. At the very least, she felt she owed it to Karl to make the attempt.
As she slipped down the quiet corridors, she hoped she would make it back before Jack woke up. At least she had a chance of remaining unobserved, thanks unwittingly to him. He had told her that while she had been taking a shower, he had returned to his computer station in the main command centre under the pretence of correcting a systems failure. Once there, he had logged on to the security mainframe and set about redirecting some of the computer systems.
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