The Citadel and the Wolves

by Peter Goodman

  I was a little annoyed with my father. He was keeping me in the dark, and I hated magical mystery tours. Why wouldn’t he tell me? Couldn’t he just treat me like an adult for once? I let out a small sigh.

  He noticed. “After you had gone to bed, Jade, I made some phone calls.”

  “Oh?”

  “An old friend of mine from my university days has agreed to help us.”

  I remained intrigued; however, daddy wouldn’t say anymore than that. I forgave him…a little.

  I glanced at the sky. The light rain had stopped, and the clouds were beginning to disperse, revealing the bright, twinkling stars once more. We had left the city streets awhile back, driving on the endless concrete of the motorway. It was a long journey to wherever we were going. I glanced at the next illuminated motorway sign.

  WALES 200

  It said Wales. Wales! We were heading for Wales. The picture wasn’t any clearer in my head nevertheless.

  “Wales,” I remarked.

  He murmured.

  Something father had said earlier came to mind.

  I looked on the window. The bright, motorway lights hypnotised. I tried to stay awake. I was tired, and my eyelids were getting heavier. ‘Stay awake, Jade Robinson,’ said a voice in my head, ‘stay awake.’

  The bump in the road woke me. I was disorientated briefly. Where were we? I looked around me. We were driving through the gates of the Mount Stephen Space Observatory, which was housed in a large, dome building on top of a mountain. Now I understood. Daddy had said that he wanted a bigger telescope!

  A tall, blonde, elegant and slender woman in a white coat waited for us on the entrance steps of the modern admin block. Who was she? I would find out soon enough.

  Father stopped the Jeep and turned off the engine. We had arrived at journey’s end. We climbed out of the Jeep.

  “Jade, I want you to meet an old friend of mine,” said daddy.

  He guided me to her.

  “Jade, this is Doctor Margaret Frost,” he revealed.

  We shook hands. I forced a friendly smile through my rigid cheeks. I’m not very good with strangers first thing in the morning especially when it’s still dark. Doctor Margaret Frost was tanned and attractive.

  “Frank.”

  When she kissed his cheek in a familiar way that surprised me, I was immediately jealous.

  “Let’s go inside, Frank. I want to show you something,” said Doctor Frost.

  Did that include me? Or was I simply here for the ride?

  We went inside.

  She took us down a long, brightly-lit corridor, which hurt my eyes, with frosted windows and closed doors.

  “After I got your phone call, Frank, I got them to swing the telescope around,” revealed Doctor Frost. “They were none too pleased needless to say. Scientists have very fragile egos.”

  He chuckled. I glared at her.

  “Thanks for volunteering at such short notice, Margaret,” said Daddy.

  “My pleasure, Frank.”

  We paused outside a door marked Director. She unlocked it, showing us in. It was modern, spacious and comfortable. This was her office.

  Doctor Frost offered us the comfortable chairs in front of her desk as she sat behind it. Her secretary brought in the coffees with the digestives on the side a few moments later. I studied her out of the corners of my eyes curiously. She was an oriental girl aged about 19 or 20, slender, pretty with long, dark hair that almost touched her small waist. I noticed the name on her ID tag: Ishida Nishiyama. Japanese, I thought…maybe. She caught me and flashed me a friendly smile, revealing beautiful, white teeth. She set the tray down on Doctor Frost’s desk and left.

  I took my coffee from the tray and spooned in three sugars. I noticed the wry smile on Doctor Frost’s face, watching me. I ignored her. I needed the carbohydrate energy. My head still remained full of sleep. I let a discreet yawn slip. The others missed it. I wanted to feel excited, but I wasn’t. I wanted to be somewhere else, sleeping in my big, warm, comfortable bed under the thick covers. The question kept on coming back to me. Why was I here? I sipped my coffee. I grimaced, for it was very hot. It burnt my lip. I blew on it. I nibbled a biscuit. I was already bored.

  “Frank, I think you may find these interesting,” said Doctor Frost.

  She picked up some large photographs from her desk and gave them to father. His eyes narrowed as he examined the pictures. Something troubled him. He let me look at them. I got biscuit crumbs on the pictures. I saw what it was almost immediately. The comet had broken up into several parts!

  “Our preliminary investigations suggest that the radii of the comet particles vary from less than a few hundred metres to over one kilometre,” divulged Doctor Frost.

  I was a little more than horrified that the earth would now be hit by a shower of giant asteroids!

  “Frank, what are your own feelings about the comet?” asked Doctor Frost, sipping her hot drink.

  “Feelings?”

  “When do you think it will hit the earth?”

  It was a question that was on my lips too.

  He considered the question carefully, lighting his pipe.

  Daddy answered, “It won’t strike the earth for another two hundred years or so, Margaret, for its erratic path takes it beyond our planet.”

  We had worried for nothing, I thought. For me, yes, but what about my children’s children, children? They’d be around then in two hundred years or so. Was I being selfish?

  “Frank, what do you think caused it to break up?” quizzed the doctor.

  “It probably passed too close to the sun,” replied father.

  My own conclusions exactly, I thought.

  “Jade, may I see your drawings?” requested Doctor Frost.

  Her request surprised me. I opened my bag and handed her my science book. She put on a pair of reading glasses as she studied my drawings and calculations. The glasses made her look older. She was near daddy’s age.

  Doctor Frost looked up. “And you worked this out on your home computer, Jade?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled suddenly. “I’m impressed, Jade.”

  I was pleased. I’d changed my mind about Doctor Frost. She was a dedicated professional.

  “Jade, we’d like to borrow your drawings,” said Doctor Frost.

  “Borrow?”

  She explained, “I’d like our computer people to feed your figures and calculations through the mainframe in the computer hall to see what it throws out.”

  I remained puzzled.

  “We need to predict when the comet is likely to hit the earth,” illuminated father.

  “The computer here at the space observatory will give us a fairly accurate prediction,” added the doctor.

  The mainframe in the computer hall was impressive. It had a giant memory compared to my PC at home. It’d be a great help with my maths and science homework, I wryly thought.

  Doctor Frost gave my science book to the other who looked bemused. His blue eyes strayed to me. He was youngish, perhaps in his early twenties. I was only guessing. The other went away and started feeding my sums into the big computer. I frowned when he shook his head once or twice as he read my figures from my school exercise book. My tongue slipped between my teeth behind his back. I was half-tempted. No, I mustn’t. I wanted to be grown up from now on.

  Doctor Frost spoke, “Although the computer may predict when the comet will hit the earth, it won’t tell us where.”

  That was an awful thought. Now that the comet had broken up, it could fall on earth anywhere, New York, Paris, Sydney…London.

  The other, who glanced at me, returned with the data that the big computer had thrown out. He gave it to Doctor Frost with my school book. Her eyes narrowed as she studied the data briefly.

  She looked up ashen-faced. “The comet will hit earth sometime in late July of 2017!”

  6. THE CELLAR PEOPLE

  I wo
ke with a crick in my neck and my sister’s elbow in my face. When I pushed her away, she moaned a little protest in her sleep. Since late spring, father has insisted that we all sleep in the cellar as a precaution. It’s now early summer. I’m sharing a bunk bed with Wendy. It’s tiny and cramped in the cellar. We sleep in one another’s faces. We’d rather be sleeping in our own beds upstairs in the house. My parents share the other bunk in the cellar, and Tommy sleeps in his own cot in the corner. Sometimes, he tries to creep into our bunk in the middle of the night. We usually throw him out because two’s company but three’s definitely a crowd. We’ve tried to make it as cosy as we can down here in the cellar. Daddy painted the walls purple, and I put up some prints from my room, yet something is still missing. Father is being cautious. I understand his fears about the comet. I share them. There are several metres of steel reinforced concrete above our heads. Would that protect us from the comet if it does hit London? I tried not to think about it too much.

  It’s 2017. We’ve been expecting the comet all summer. I remain optimistic despite this threat to our world from the dark heavens. Doctor Frost, who has kept in touch since our dramatic visit to the space observatory, suggests that the comet might miss the earth by many thousands of kilometres, remaining in a harmless orbit around the sun. Why don’t I believe this?

  Unlike the 2016 summer, which was very hot and dry, breaking many records that year for Great Britain, leading to a prolonged drought in some areas of the country, the summer this year has been very wet indeed. In fact, it hasn’t stopped raining since April. Mum said that wasn’t unusual. We normally have wet summers in England. What about the 2016 summer? Then the following winter was one of the worst on record. More than one thousand people died in the great freeze over Christmas. Then we saw the Northern Lights in Southern England for the first time in living memory. Something odd seems to be happening to our weather patterns, and I blame the coming of the comet from Jupiter. When I mentioned my theory to my scientist father, he chuckled, but he didn’t disagree with me. I was right.

  Although we expect the comet to strike the earth later this summer, I remain unusually calm about things; however, I am worried about my forthcoming exams. I’ve been getting on everybody’s nerves around the house. Wendy had threatened to smother me with my own pillow once or twice. I don’t believe her, of course, because I know that she loves me. I really want to do well for father. I will do well. The comet can wait. I’ve got my future to think of. Maybe Doctor Frost is right after all. The comet will miss the earth.

  When I stirred, I fell out of bed again. I forgot. The floor was cold and hard. I ruefully rubbed my bruised rump. Only my pride was hurt. When Wendy opened her eyes, she smirked.

  I warned, “Don’t say a word, Wendy Robinson.”

  She giggled instead. I threw my pillow at her.

  As I was already up, I decided to pop upstairs to see if our house and Crown Dale Close were still there and make myself some breakfast, assuming that they were of course.

  Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I climbed the cellar stairs and unbolted the door. I hesitated briefly before I opened it, half-expecting to see a large hole where our house had once stood. I stared into the gloom of the hallway, turning on the light. Our house was still there as I knew it would be. I padded down the hall in my night jersey. I picked up the morning post. When I spotted the airmail from my American pen friend, I was excited.

  I busied myself in the kitchen, making eggs and bacon for breakfast.

  When I turned on the portable radio, I just caught the end of the weather forecast for Tuesday. The speaker on the radio predicted that we would have another wet and rainy day. I glanced at the kitchen window. He was right too. How unusual. It was becoming the wettest summer on record, yet few knew why. Father and I did. But would anyone else believe us? I suspected that they did. Daddy had stopped trying to convince the authorities about the comet; for there was no way that we could prevent it from happening. There was a far greater force at work in deep space, and it was coming our way very soon. That thought made me shiver.

  I jumped like a startled rabbit when the bug-eyed monster with six arms from outer space wrapped itself tightly around my right leg. After I’d recovered from my mild shock so early in the morning, I looked down, glaring at the dwarf. He gazed up at the glowering giant.

  The little monster grinned suddenly. “Flakes, Fade.”

  I shook the little monster off my leg.

  He didn’t give up however. “Flakes, Fade.”

  “Wait till mum gets up,” I said.

  He pouted before he started again. “Flakes, Fade.”

  The little monster from outer space just wouldn’t give up. He was stubborn, like someone else I knew.

  I caved in. “Okay,” I sighed.

  He grinned broadly, giving me another one of his hugs. When will he learn how to say my name properly? Jade!

  I opened the cupboards in the kitchen and took out the corn flakes, his favourite breakfast cereal. Then I warmed up some milk in the saucepan before I poured it over his breakfast cereal.

  Tommy sat at the breakfast table, shovelling the corn flakes down his throat. He had a big appetite first thing in the morning.

  Yawning, Wendy, whose eyes were still full of sleep, wandered into the kitchen in her nightdress. She glanced at Tommy.

  “Jade, why do you spoil him?” she asked.

  “I don’t,” I insisted with a sigh. “He beat me into submission. You know Tommy?”

  She murmured.

  “If you’re making breakfast, Jade, would you crack two more eggs for me?”

  I obeyed. The fried eggs spat in the hot oil.

  She shivered.

  I noticed, puzzling me. “Cold?”

  She shook her head. “I feel so dirty in the morning after sleeping the night in the cellar, Jade. I need to take at least two showers to wash it off.”

  “Wendy, dad’s only being cautious.”

  “Personally, I don’t believe in all this comet stuff,” growled Wendy who was in a grumpy mood.

  “I wish I didn’t, Wendy. The wettest summer on record so far, last year’s hottest summer on record, the drought, followed by the freezing winter, it all makes sense to me.”

  She folded her arms, frowning. “Well, it doesn’t to me, Jade Robinson. All this talk of giant comets hitting the earth frightens me. Kevin thinks it’s all daft.”

  He would, I thought.

  “We’ve been through all of this before, Wendy. The comet is from Jupiter. It’s fragments from the Icarus 9 Comet that hit the giant planet in the 2015 summer.”

  “You’ve told me this before many times, Sis. How can you and daddy be so sure that it’s going to hit the earth?”

  I saw the fear in her eyes. She needed some reassurance. I slipped my arm around her. I was strong for her.

  “I’m not, Wendy,” I said. “It may never happen, Sis, but whatever the future brings, we’ll always have each other.”

  Wendy brightened up. “I guess.”

  She smiled and laid her head on my shoulder. I had lied.

  After breakfast, Wendy and I showered together to save on hot water, though that wasn’t the real reason. We simply love a good gossip in the shower.

  “Kevin is calling around tonight, Jade,” announced Wendy unnecessarily.

  As she passed the soap to me, she shot me a warning look.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Try to be nice to him for once, Jade,” replied Wendy.

  I murmured. I wasn’t about to make a promise that I couldn’t keep later.

  After the shower, we dressed.

  I found father hunched over his second computer in his downstairs study, which was cluttered with science papers, science magazines and old science text books. The low rain clouds at night had made it impossible for him to chart the progress of Robinson’s Comet now, so he used his computers instead to do all of his latest calculations. He d
idn’t notice me till I wrapped my arms around him. I gave him a peck on the cheek.

  “Jade.”

  I looked past his broad shoulder. There was a jumble of figures on the computer screen.

  “Well?” I inquired.

  “She hasn’t altered her course,” answered daddy in a resigned tone. “I’ve confirmed my latest data on the comet with Doctor Frost’s. She’s still coming our way.”

  I remained calm. “When?”

  “Very soon, Jade,” he replied grimly.

  “Wendy is scared,” I revealed.

  “You?”

  I shook my head. I wasn’t scared, for I knew in my heart that we’d be okay whatever happened to the world around us.

  I assured him, “The comet won’t hit London, Daddy.”

  He chuckled, squeezing my hand tightly. I noticed the look in his eyes. I suddenly realised that daddy was very scared too.

  It was raining buckets when Wendy and I came out with our hoods up. We gratefully vanished into the dry of daddy’s car. The relentless rain pounded on the roof. I wondered if it was raining all over the world. It probably was. We swung out of the drive, turning into the Close.

  I glanced at the long queue at the bus stop as we sat in our car in the high street. The people looked wet and miserable. Rather them than me, I thought selfishly. We were stuck in a traffic jam that had been caused by an accident further up ahead, involving a lorry and a van in a minor collision on the wet, slippery roads. No one was seriously hurt.

  The rain had strangely abated by the time we arrived at school. We were late for class needless to say. It was worse for father because he was a teacher.

  As Wendy and I crossed the pavement to the main school gates, we noticed a small group of girls from the school chatting to a young guy in a leather jacket, jeans and dirty trainers. When he said something to them, they giggled. I wondered briefly what the joke was. One or two glanced at us. Then one of the girls pointed at Wendy and I, puzzling us. The leather jacket, jeans and dirty trainers approached us by the school gates.

  “Are you Wendy and Jade Robinson?” he inquired, flashing a smile.

  But the other’s official tone made me immediately suspicious.