The Waterhole

by Warren Chazan

  “What have you got in mind?” Janine’s heart skipped a beat. She liked to deal with these road obstacles herself, and now she was forced to hand over the controls.

  “Trust me on this.”

  Kevin approached the guard at the scanner. The man was massive, probably tipping the scales around two hundred and fifty pounds and looked like he could wrestle a bear. This wasn’t likely to end well. She watched from a few feet away and was ready to make a dash for it, should Kevin’s people skills fail him.

  A couple of minutes passed. Janine’s stomach felt like it had climbed up into her chest as she watched the verbal exchange take place. She cringed when she saw Kevin reach into his pocket and retrieve what could only have been cash. She was certain that bribes were not well received in Australia. Despite her doubts the exchange was slick and quick; a drug dealer couldn’t have done it any better. A moment later Kevin gestured her toward the scanner.

  “I’m impressed,” she whispered when they were out of earshot of the guard. “You must do this fairly often.”

  “Put it this way, I’m no virgin to it.”

  The guard scanned Kevin’s eye, and then pretended to scan Janine’s, but instead held the gate slightly ajar after Kevin had passed through, allowing Janine to enter without authorization.

  “Phew, I can’t believe you just did that. How much did that cost you?”

  “A lot, but don’t worry about it. Your story will more than make up for it. Now, let me introduce you to the gang.”

  She sighed as she thought about how fortunate she had been. She allowed herself to relax a little. Nothing could stop her now. She wasn’t aware that about three hundred feet away stood an innocuous-looking man watching her every move.

  CHAPTER forty-SEVEN

  “Are you crazy or just plain stupid, Denny? You really don’t think we should be shutting down this project?” They were in the Oval Office, sunlight streaming in through the window. Edward O’Brien, known as Teddy, was sitting behind his desk chewing on a pen.

  Denny gritted his teeth in response to the familiar way the President had addressed him. He was after all a general, and had dedicated years of his life in order to achieve that title, and deserved some respect for it. “Definitely not, Mr. President,” he responded. “It’s imperative that we keep going with it. I believe that with the help of science, we will find the answers and solutions to what’s going on here. Stopping now would be madness, sir.”

  There was a moment of silence. The President removed his reading glasses, stood up and turned to gaze out at the White House lawns. “I’m sorry Denny, but in the last few hours we’ve been getting threats from our enemies and even some of our friends to shut this thing down. The Russians have gone as far as threatening to take out EMB with a missile if we don’t come to the party.”

  “And we’re going to pander to them?” Denny felt his blood pressure rising. “This is exactly the problem with this country. We’re always so quick to give in to world opinion.”

  “Enough Denny! We’re talking about the future of the planet here, not some oil embargo.” The President’s face was red, his eyes bloodshot. He took in a deep breath and sat back down at his desk. “You have until midday tomorrow local Canberra time and that’s it.”

  Denny cleared his throat and adjusted his tie. “Mr. President, sir, with all due respect, we need more time. We’re just scratching the surface right now. Our scientists are only just beginning to decipher the code and twenty-four hours just won’t cut it.”

  “It will have to. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got dozens of heads of state to placate.”

  * * * *

  Denny marched outside onto the White House lawn. He scratched his head, both furious and worried in equal measures. If the President had more faith in him, respected him more like he had once done, then this would never had been an issue. He knew, though, that by midday tomorrow, they would be lucky to have deciphered the vowels of the alien alphabet, let alone finding the answers to the universe’s most elusive mysteries.

  He was going to have to buy more time, but how? It was too early for Stage B of his grand plan, but time was no longer a luxury he could afford. He would have to move now.

  He pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number.

  “Jess? Yes, it’s me. Now listen closely. If you’re really serious about going through with this, you’d better get over here right now. The clock’s ticking and we need to act fast. I’m executing Stage B. It’s happening.”

  He didn’t allow her a chance to respond before disconnecting. Better she didn’t ask too many questions, at least not until he was ready to answer them. He could sense the excitement in her voice. He knew that he could trust her, but it wasn’t going to be easy and there were numerous more complications taking place than he had initially anticipated.

  * * * *

  “So do you know what you’re going to say, Drew?” asked Steve.

  “Don’t worry about me, I’m not going to give them a thing they don’t already know. I’m pretty good at keeping secrets,” he said.

  “I hope so. Those reporters, especially when gathered together, can behave like a pack of wolves.”

  “I’m no Little Red Riding Hood.” Drew narrowed his hazel eyes. “Although in saying that I did once play the part of Hansel, in Hansel and Gretel when I was a kid.”

  Steve smiled. It was an immature comment, but in the short time he’d known him, Steve realized it was the way Drew dealt with pressure. The professor, who had been listening in, was now feverishly inscribing symbols onto the virtual glass screen above him. Something no doubt was exciting him.

  “What is it, Professor?” asked Steve expectantly, leaning forward and placing his hand on the man’s shoulder.

  The professor did not respond but continued on with his gesturing to the machine, waving his hands frantically while moving icons, pictures and symbols around. He began to chuckle to himself.

  “What is it?” asked Steve. “What’s so amusing?”

  “Oh my dear boy, I just discovered something fascinating.”

  “What?”

  “I have the first glimpse of what these so-called aliens look or looked like. It seems that our overactive human imaginations of three-headed giant insects with green antennae were just a tad off.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Steve.

  “Take a look for yourselves, lads. There is the very first image of an alien from another world.”

  Steve pulled his chair around and gazed at the screen as the professor zoomed in on an image.

  Steve squinted, cocked his head from side to side examining the picture while it was enlarging and coming into focus. At first it appeared as a blurry amorphous lump, and he was certain he was about to be repulsed by some hideous-looking creature. His mouth dropped open. “But that’s impossible, Professor. Surely it’s an error or glitch of some sort.”

  “Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes. Perhaps evolution works in a way we could never possibly have imagined.”

  CHAPTER forty-EIGHT

  The cool Canberra morning slowly began to warm as a dry northerly wind blew in from the hot desert. A gentle breeze kept the temperature bearable, but the forecast was for blustery dry, hot north-westerly winds and possible outbreaks of fire.

  Janine brushed the beads of sweat away from her forehead as she and Kevin pushed and shoved their way through the myriad reporters in the open-air press gallery.

  “This way,” gestured Kevin as he grabbed her arm and pulled her toward his team. “Janine, I’d like you to meet Hans Olef, Britta Guurden and Kurt van Susteran.”

  “I didn’t realize we had a German team,” she remarked, flicking her hair off her sweaty eyelids.

  “Britta and Hans are partners. They moved here from Germany two years ago, and Kurt’s my cousin. He’s an Aussie.”

  “Now listen here, guys,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re from Vladivostok, but you need to be on the ball and you need to do you
r job properly. There’ll be no time for retakes or editing. We’re going out live to almost every household on the planet with what is most probably the story of not just a lifetime, but perhaps the story of all time. I want one camera constantly on this Murrey guy, and one camera on me. Be prepared for the show of your life.”

  Janine’s attention was drawn to the stage.

  “Right, guys, cameras ready? Here he comes!” she said.

  * * * *

  Drew Murrey appeared from behind a laser-beam security system and was escorted onto the podium by four armed guards wearing fatigues. He was dressed in an ill-fitting gray jacket, under which he wore an oversized white button-down shirt that he seemed to be drowning in. Teardrop-styled sunglasses and a black baseball cap completed the ridiculous look.

  “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the press.”

  “What the hell is going on?” shouted an irate reporter with a British accent.

  “Please, please, I ask for restraint. I’ll make a brief statement and then I will take questions from you all.”

  The crowd simmered down as Drew cleared his throat, pulled out his “cheat” cards and began to read. “As you’re all aware, EMB was launched on the twelfth of September. It was built as a sort of telescope that could look back so far in time that effectively we could see what the early universe looked like just moments after the Big Bang took place. It’s the culmination of years of research and science which we all thought would give us answers to questions that the human race had always sought, ever since our ancestors crawled out of the forests and began walking on two feet.”

  Drew paused, immensely pleased with himself with the words he had painstakingly rehearsed.

  “Last week, we got that glimpse into the early universe, and we were all delighted with the data that started flowing in. What’s more, we also got something else, something that we weren’t expecting. We got a signal which we think emanated from an alien race.”

  There was an excited stir of activity as members of the press were awed with the rumor finally being confirmed.

  “As far as the strange happenings around the planet though, we believe this to be completely coincidental, having nothing whatsoever to do with the EMB project. We realize that the timing is similar, but to date, we cannot find a link between the two. Our scientists are working around the clock on a solution as we speak, but—”

  “Liar!” yelled Janine.

  “Excuse me, Miss?” he said, taken aback by the woman’s arrogant outburst. “You’re way out of line.”

  “Liar! You’re lying to us!” she shouted, her voice bursting with conviction.

  The crowd erupted in screams of anger, delighted that Janine had expressed what all of them wished they had the courage to say. All eyes were now focused on the well-known redheaded celebrity wearing a pink scarf, wondering what she would say next.

  “What if I were to tell you that EMB had everything to do with these strange happenings,” she continued.

  “I’d say you were a bloody crazy woman without any proof,” said Drew in his forthright Aussie manner, nervous energy slowly replacing the confidence he had felt.

  “No proof, eh? I’ll show you proof,” said Janine in a triumphant tone, digging into her handbag like a puppy in desperate search of a buried bone.

  Drew cleared his throat again. He hadn’t expected such a confrontation. His stomach felt like it was twisting itself into a knot, pulling tighter as the crazy woman carried on with her antics, a sensation he couldn’t recall experiencing since coming out to his father more than twenty years ago.

  * * * *

  Five minutes earlier, on the Stromlo lawns, across the other side of the crowd, a man dressed in jeans and a blue flannel shirt put down his binoculars and reached for his phone. “What is she doing?” whispered Major Kennedy into the mouthpiece.

  “I have no idea, Major. She seems to be with a group of cameramen. What are my orders?” responded the sergeant.

  “Damned if I know,” said the major in a hesitant voice.

  “Should we take her out?”

  “Are you crazy, Sergeant? In front of the entire world’s press?”

  “I need orders, sir. The general said—”

  “Fuck, Sergeant. I know what the general said. I have a plan. Don’t do anything just yet.”

  The major ended the conversation with the sergeant, and then, his hand trembling, he felt for his pistol and found it where he expected it to be: secured to a strap, just under the hem of his trousers.

  CHAPTER FORTY-NINE

  Damn you, Janine. He didn’t have the nerve to kill her, but he knew the alternative was to endure the wrath of the general if he just sat there and allowed her to divulge state secrets to the world.

  The major glanced around him. Time was quickly running out. He spotted a deserted rocky outcrop, about fifty feet north of his position.

  Graham quickly made his way there. He almost knocked over an infant in his haste, resulting in a brief argument with the child’s mother, before he finally reached the rocks. He scampered around them, and to his delight was relieved to find the area practically devoid of people.

  He pulled out a small pistol with more technology built into it than the entire Apollo moon-landing program. Although only the size of a lemon, the new technology in the pistol was assisted by the latest GPS technology, which was so precise all that was needed was to key in Janine’s personal phone number, aim in her general direction and the bullet would be steered toward her phone. If she had her phone inside a coat pocket, however, the shot might be fatal. As for the noise, the silencer had been perfected to the point whereby someone might possibly hear a pop, but only of course if they were listening for it.

  It was then that the Major saw her retrieve her phone from her bag, and he was struck with an idea. Theoretically, if he was quick enough, he might not need to kill the bitch in front of the entire world media, just her phone. Far fewer questions would be asked, and it might scare some sense into her to back off.

  He activated the miniature screen to fire it in a hyperbolic curve so as not to take out any innocent bystanders, and then casually aimed the discreet weapon in the general direction of Janine. He heard a noise nearby and spun around, but apart from a toddler who seemed fascinated by a large stick insect that had climbed onto her trousers, all eyes were glued on the podium where Drew was speaking.

  Graham steadied his finger on the trigger.

  CHAPTER FIFTY

  A hundred feet away, a flickering holographic image, projected from Janine’s phone, came to life.

  “I believe that something fundamental has occurred, something completely unbelievable that even though it makes sense to me, my scientific mind is telling me that it’s impossible—”

  The powerful force that almost ripped her arm from her body took her by surprise, the holograph instantly vanishing as the phone flew from her hand.

  “What the hell?” she said, puzzled by the shooting pain in her arm. She grabbed her shoulder with the other hand. It ached so badly that it felt as if someone had tried to twist it off.

  She scrambled for her phone and saw that it was a tangled mass of chrome and glass, scattered in a thousand directions on the asphalt.

  “Damn!” she screamed, throwing what was left of it to the ground. Then, realizing her dilemma, she searched among the pieces, desperate to find the priceless SIM card, which was lying scattered somewhere amongst the hundreds of other fragments.

  * * * *

  “So, Gabs, any engagements this afternoon?” asked Jess Kelly, sipping tentatively at her chardonnay.

  “No, actually. With all the chaos going on today, the President has insisted I remain here at the White House. Apparently, security is so stretched at the moment that even the Secret Service is short-staffed.”

  Jess eyed up her long-time friend, who also happened to be the first lady. Gabriella, better known as Gabi to the public, was indeed an elegant-looking lady; always polite, and wel
l turned out. With curled long brown hair, a size-eight dress size and an olive complexion, she’d heard people comment how naturally beautiful she was, although Jess wasn’t quite so sure. Okay, maybe Gabi was attractive, she’d give her that, but unlike Jess, the woman was flat-chested and had no ass. A man like Denny would never give her a second look.

  Gabi had always bragged to Jess about how she had so serendipitously met Teddy O’Brien. While on college assignment, and attending a political rally ten years ago, she had supposedly by way of an accident spilled a glass of fruit punch over the young and extremely popular senator. An awkward conversation had ensued and Gabi was asked out on a dinner date, apparently thinking it impolite to refuse. They’d courted for a while, then Gabi had become ill, some depression sort of thing, most likely made up by the manipulative princess. Ted had fallen for the ploy and suddenly they were engaged, and not long after that they were married. Jess was asked or rather subpoenaed to be her maid of honor, not because Gabi treasured her friendship, but rather because she wanted to brag to Jess about the prize fish she’d caught. God the bitch could be quite devious when she wanted to be.

  “So,” asked Jess, “what have you got planned for today?”

  Gabi kicked off her heels and lifted her skinny legs onto the blue-and-white-striped Hampton-styled couch and curled up. “I was planning on redecorating the Blue Room; it’s the only room I haven’t touched since moving in, but with everything that’s going on out there, it hardly seems appropriate. I wish there was something I could do to help all those poor people.”

  Jess smiled and nodded empathetically, while her brain feverishly went to work planning her attack.

  “Aww, hon, I know how bored you get when you don’t have a project to work on. I’m sure you’ll think of something. Hey, what about the President? What’s he up to today?” she asked nonchalantly, swirling the wine around in the glass.