The Waterhole

by Warren Chazan

  “Of course,” he said, tenderly kissing her forehead before leaving the room. She pulled out her phone and quickly dialed Kath’s number.

  She dialed the familiar number.

  “Hey, sis, what’s up?” answered Kath.

  Janine’s voice was shaky and soft. “Hey, Nunu, just checking in … um … I just needed to hear your voice.” She was unable to stop the phone from trembling in her hand.

  “What’s wrong, Jay? Talk to me.”

  “No, nothing. Really, I just needed to talk to you,” she said, a knot forming in her throat.

  There was a pause on the other end of the line.

  “Are you okay? Are you ill? Have you got yourself into trouble with the Australian authorities?”

  “No, no nothing like that. Kath, I just want you to do me a favor,” she said, desperately trying to sound calm and upbeat. “Could you please take little Jake and Lyle and give them a big hug … I mean a really big hug, and tell them how much their Aunty Janine loves them.”

  She held the phone firmly against her chest, squeezed her eyes tightly, fighting off the tears, eventually bringing it back up to her ear.

  “Sis, you’re scaring me. What’s going on?” said Kath, her voice rising.

  “Just do it, Nunu! Please just do it for me.”

  “Of course I will, but why?”

  Janine ignored the question. “Um, there’s something else too. You have to stay indoors. Please don’t ask me to explain, but you must stay indoors and be extremely careful. Don’t open the door for anyone you don’t know.”

  There was a pause. “Now you’re really scaring me. I—” A note of panic was etched in her sister’s voice.

  “Promise me, Nunu!”

  “Jay. What the hell is going on?”

  “I’ll explain as soon as I can. Now I have to run. I’ll call you when I can. I love you, and I’m … sorry. Oh god Nunu, I’m so sorry I have to do this to you.”

  Janine quickly hung up, cradled her head in her hands and burst into tears. A minute or so later, she blotted the salty liquid from her face, tried to force a smile then called out.

  “Jack, we can go now.”

  Jack retuned with a thick woolen coat. “You’ll be needing this, the weather’s suddenly turned nasty,” he said, slipping the warm coat around her shoulders.

  “Jack, promise me that if we make it through this whole end-of-the-world thing you’ll at least let me take you out for dinner.”

  He winked at her. “You got it, lady.”

  “Just let me get my things together.”

  “Okay, meet you in the car in five.”

  As Jack left the room, her phone rang. It was Kath, and she desperately wanted to answer it, but she knew she couldn’t. Oh, god, she thought, what if she had made the wrong decision?

  * * * *

  Jack grabbed his coat, gun and a large duffel bag and marched outside. The air was cool, a cold front that had been forecast had just arrived. It was overcast yet very still. He looked up at the sky, which appeared to be glowing. It was then that he noticed the white snowflakes fluttering lightly down in a silent ballet. He checked the thermometer on his watch. It read forty-six degrees.

  “Well I’ll be damned.”

  * * * *

  Across the road from the house, a black 2012 Audi A5 was parked discreetly adjacent to a large eucalyptus tree. Light snow falling gently on the black roof had turned it white. A gentle gust of wind whistled through the narrow alley where the car was parked out of view.

  The man inside the car spoke into his phone. “General, it’s me, sir, Kennedy, sir.”

  “Yes, Major, I’m extremely busy so this had better be important.”

  “Yes, sir, I thought you should know something. It’s about Janine Fuller.”

  “I thought you’d taken care of that rodent by now, Kennedy.”

  Graham thought about what he was about to disclose. There’d be no going back from here. It was one of the hardest decisions he’d ever had to make. To tell would most certainly invite more questions, perhaps even end up with the finger pointed right in his direction, but not to tell would be treasonous. After all, he was a soldier, and after the Israeli fiasco, he felt that he had no choice. “It’s difficult. As you know she’s a public figure, and she’s teamed up with this Jack guy … and—”

  “Get to the fucking point, Kennedy!”

  “Well, sir, I had his house bugged and they seemed to have somehow managed to record a conversation you had yesterday in the press room, something about the end of the world and—”

  “Who else knows about that conversation?” the general barked.

  “No one. Just them and me.”

  “Now listen here. That conversation is immensely confidential. You are to tell no one what you overheard.”

  “I understand.”

  “Fucking hell! Where the hell is that bug? And more importantly, how the hell did she get it into the press room?”

  * * * *

  Jess had noticed that Denny’s breathing had become erratic. His face had reddened to the color of her nail polish. She tapped him on the shoulder and decided it was time to play the ace she’d been holding up her sleeve. There seemed to be no point in keeping it from him anymore. Besides which, something really did need to be done about that whore. She was proving to be more than just irritation value now.

  “Not now dammit, can’t you see this is important.”

  “I think you just might want to hear what I have to say, darling.”

  “Hang on, Major, just a minute.”

  Denny placed the major on hold, putting the phone down on the pillow.

  “I think I know who helped that cow to get in,” she said in a hesitant, soft voice.

  “You think? What do you mean you think?” he asked, his eyes narrowing into a lethal stare. She both loved and hated it when Denny became enraged.

  “Okay, Denny, I know goddamn it!” she cried.

  “How the hell do you know?” he demanded, leaning slowly toward her, his bulbous nose almost touching hers.

  “Let’s just say I saw it with my own two eyes. It happened just after lockdown.” She climbed out of bed and slipped into her white bathrobe. She crossed her arms in front of her. “I’m sorry, Denny, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust you, so I followed you to NASA one evening.”

  “Didn’t trust me? What were you thinking? It’s always been us.” His voice had deepened, his eyes now bloodshot. His frown had intensified.

  “Yes and your wife and kids.”

  “For god’s sakes, woman, I told you we’d be together when the time was right, and that time has come now, but if you can’t trust me …” He was on his feet, turned away from her.

  Jess lurched herself over to him and started massaging his shoulders. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry, I can see that now. I wanted to tell you earlier, but I couldn’t because I knew this is how you’d react if I told you. And look, I was right.”

  Denny shook his head. “I can’t understand it. I can’t believe you betrayed me.”

  “I didn’t. I’m telling you now. So do you or don’t you want to know?”

  He swung around and grabbed Jess’s arm. It caught her off guard. “Let’s stop these games. Who got that nightmare inside?”

  “It was him, the major you’re on the phone to right now. He dressed her in fatigues and must have organized a fake ID or something.”

  Denny snapped his fingers. “Now it all makes sense.”

  “What does?”

  “The glasses that I found in the press room. I couldn’t work out who’d leave them there, especially since no one has been in there since before EMB was launched. Are you absolutely sure it was Kennedy?”

  “No question about it, I know him from his previous dealings with you.”

  Denny began to pace. “That lying piece of shit! He must’ve given her the glasses. They must’ve had some sort of retinal hologram imprinted on them to get her inside.” He paused and looked her
deeply in the eye. “You really should’ve told me this earlier, it would’ve saved us all a lot of trouble.”

  “I know, babe, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up to you. I promise,” she said, trying to play the repentant lover. She ventured over to him and then slowly lowered her hand to his crotch and began to gently massage it.

  Denny took a deep breath and shook his head. “It’s okay, just don’t do that to me again, ever!”

  “I promise,” she remarked coyly, completing her acting debut with her eyes forlornly downcast.

  Denny reached for his phone, took the major off hold and put him on speakerphone. “Now let me deal with this darn weasel,” he said, covering the speaker with his hand.

  “Now you listen here, you two-faced prick. I’ve just received some reliable information from a very trustworthy source that it was you who let that bitch into NASA last week.”

  There was silence, then what sounded like panting on the other end.

  “Are you there, Kennedy? Do you wish to deny it?”

  “Yes, sir and … no, sir,” said the major in a timid voice.

  “Good, now you listen, and you listen well. I do not tolerate lying, deceptive, two-faced vermin. If you were here right now in my office, I’d probably be strangling the life out of you. Your eyes would be popping out of your skull and your pea-sized brain would be exploding under the pressure. You hear me, boy?”

  Jess was reveling in Denny’s anger. God this excited her. She got off on the respect that he demanded from his subordinates. He was a powerful man, just like her father had been.

  “Yes, sir,” said Graham.

  “Right, well you keep listening. Seeing as you’ve been completely incompetent in your duties in dealing with her, I’ve decided to institute another plan of attack against that little troublemaker, and I’m hoping she’ll back off, but I have a sick feeling that most likely she won’t. You are extremely lucky that I’m going to give you one last chance and one chance only to redeem yourself.”

  “What’s that, sir?” Kennedy asked hesitantly, a note of hope evident in his soft voice.

  “I want that rodent taken care of for good. If she so much as tries to do anything apart from fly home to the States today, she is to be disposed of, no excuses, no more second chances. I want her dead. D-E-A-D dead. Today. There are only three possible outcomes here. Either she leaves Australia today, having accepted my generous offer, or she’s dead, or, Kennedy, you’re dead. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal, sir,” said Kennedy.

  “Now what’s that piece of vermin up to now with that information she’s just uncovered?”

  “I’m not sure, but I think I overheard them saying something about getting the news to someone. The reception wasn’t great, so I didn’t hear exactly to whom.”

  “Then that says to me that she’s ignored my generous offer, so only two possibilities remain. If just one word of that conversation leaks out to just one person, you may as well take that pistol of yours and blow your own brains out, because the alternative to what awaits you is far, far worse. You understand me, boy?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “I also want all incoming calls to all scientists in the Stromlo complex screened for her voice and blocked if necessary. I don’t care how you manage it, but do it! She’s not to speak to anyone in there or at JPL in California, and most importantly you make sure that until your job is done, that she doesn’t go anywhere even remotely near a television camera or radio transmitter. Understood?”

  “Sir. Do you realize how difficult that will be to organise?”

  “I don’t fucking well care. Just do it, or even better, get rid of her before she can make that call. We may already be too late.”

  “I understand.”

  “One more thing. Don’t bother contacting me again until your task is completed. And to reiterate again, Major, remember, just one word from her mouth is all it takes, and you’ll wish your sweet mother had never given birth to you. Now go do your job.”

  “Yes—”

  Denny cut him dead.

  * * * *

  Graham Kennedy sat in the Audi and began to weep. He thought about his family and how they would cope if he never returned. What would Claire say to little Michelle when she asked for Daddy before bedtime? He took a deep breath and sighed as he watched Janine emerge from the house and get into the four-wheel drive.

  Damn, if only he had said no to her last week. If only he’d stood his ground. Yes, life would have been difficult. Yes, he probably would have ended up in jail for a long time, but at least he would be alive, and at least he would have Michelle, even if he lost Claire. He leaned forward until his head was resting on the steering wheel and began to sob uncontrollably at the thought of not seeing his baby girl grow up. He shook his head. He was no murderer, but there was no choice anymore: Janine Fuller had to die.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE

  Alastair took a swig of the Johnny Walker, swallowed hard and then made the call. After answering numerous security questions, as well as calling in multiple favors, he finally managed to secure the current mobile number for the Vice President’s cellular and called it.

  “Dempsey,” said the voice. There was a hiss. The line wasn’t good.

  “Mr. Vice President, this is Professor Alastair Hart. I’m terribly sorry to disturb you, but you must listen to what I have to say. Your life may depend on it.”

  “Who did you say this was?”

  “Alastair Hart, but you probably know me better by my codename, Fuzzy.”

  “Fuzzy? Yes of course. I was briefed recently that you had joined the EMB team. You guys have an awful lot to answer for!” he said firmly.

  “Yes I know, sir, and that’s why you have to listen to everything I say, and I mean everything, as the entire planet depends on it. You are in grave danger.”

  “Oh don’t worry about me, Fuzzy. The CIA has checked this plane from top to bottom. She’s good to go. The engineers gave her a thorough once-over and none of the electrics are a concern.”

  “Please, sir, I wouldn’t even trust the CIA. We believe they’ve already got to the President and—”

  “Oh yes I know about … that. Might be food poisoning or some … thing.”

  “Are you okay, sir? You sound kind of drunk.”

  “I’m perfectly … fine.”

  “No, sir, I’ve reason to believe that the President was drugged by someone and I think I know who. Listen to me, you have to land that plane immediately.”

  A hissing noise was heard over the line.

  “Did you hear me, Mr. Vice President?”

  “I … did heeee …”

  “Sir. Are you there?”

  Silence.

  “Sir please, can you hear me?”

  Hissing only.

  * * * *

  The Lear jet was ascending through twenty thousand feet, and the air was thinning. Instead of the engines compressing and pressurizing the aircraft, the reverse began to occur. At first, neither the pilots nor the plane’s precious cargo noticed anything unusual, but as the plane climbed higher, the low concentration of oxygen in the cabin slowly began to take effect on their mentation. As the effects came on insidiously, the pilots were unaware that they were in the slow process of asphyxiating. Soon, they were struggling to maintain consciousness. The oxygen alarm in the cockpit did not sound, nor did the autopilot activate, as they had both been disconnected by an engineer named Ryan some three hours earlier. It wasn’t long before the pilots and the plane’s crew lost consciousness and the aircraft slowly began its downward spiral toward the Grand Canyon. In the hours to come, little if anything would be found of the pilots, and only a watch and a few charred bones would be all that remained of the Vice President.

  * * * *

  “Damn.” Alastair hurled the phone to the floor. It sparked and glowed as the wireless circuitry overloaded, but instead of picking it up, he hobbled over to an adjacent table, pulled a bottle of Scotch from his briefc
ase, and poured himself a measure.

  “What happened, Prof?” asked Steve.

  “It’s no use. We’re too late. They must’ve already gotten to him.” He took a swig.

  “Bugger,” said Drew.

  “What now?” asked Sheri.

  “Damned if I know,” responded Alastair. “Without the Vice President, there’s no one left in the government who we can trust.”

  “I just can’t believe this,” said Sheri. “We’re in the middle of the biggest crisis to ever threaten humanity, in fact to threaten everything that has or possibly ever will exist, and we can’t even rely on our government for help. All we can do is watch a complete megalomaniac single-handedly facilitate the destruction of the entire planet.”

  “Mmm, maybe not,” said Steve.

  Drew raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you thinking?”

  “What about contacting the UN?” he asked.

  Sheri shrugged her shoulders. “And what good would that do? They have no jurisdiction in the US or Australia. All they ever do is make recommendations and pass resolutions. Besides which, word is that if things deteriorate any further, Russia has threatened to take out the EMB facilities in both Pasadena and here in Canberra.”

  “Any other suggestions?” asked Alastair.

  Steve put up his hand. “It’s simple. All the problems started with the boot-up of EMB, so common sense says all the problems should disappear when we shut it down in …” he looked at his watch, “… two hours time. That’s when the President’s deadline expires.”

  Sheri chuckled. “You obviously missed the latest memo that came in just after the general’s TV address.”

  Steve frowned.

  “He’s rescinded the order. With the President out of the picture, he’s keeping EMB up and running. Probably for the best, in my opinion. For all we know, we could make things worse. The entire sequence of events could be set in reverse, resulting in catastrophe after catastrophe until everything eventually unravels.”