“Oh I’m almost scared to think where this is going,” said Jack, shaking his head.
“I told him that Tom had taken Kath in the car to school but that she’d accidentally taken an overdose of insulin, as Kath in those days was a newly diagnosed diabetic. I said that I had just discovered the empty vial in the bathroom, and that if she didn’t get glucose into her system within the next hour, she’d fall into a coma and possibly die. I also said that both of them had left their phones at home, which I admit was a bit of a stretch and wasn’t sure if Ed would buy it or not. I did an Oscar-winning performance and then went as far as promising Ed a date should Kath be found in time. Within minutes every police car in town was searching for a beige Chevy, license number EF536.”
“Did they find her in time?” asked Jack.
“You bet they did. They found more than just the car.”
“What do you mean?”
“A patrol car happened to notice the beat-up Chevy making its way onto a private road just minutes before the APB went out. The cop quickly raced down that road and when he opened the car door he found a bit more than he was expecting.”
“You mean …?”
“Oh yes, Tom’s trousers were wrapped around his ankles and he was sporting a massive erection, while Kath was screaming out, trying to fight him off.”
“That must’ve been a relief for you and Kath, I mean that Tom had been caught literally with his pants down.”
“It sure was. Want to know what the cop said?”
“Shoot.”
“Mister, I’d advise you to put that weapon away. Mine may not be much bigger, but it’s a lot deadlier than yours,” said Janine, imitating the cop by mimicking his southern drawl.
Jack exploded with laughter. “You sure taught him a lesson.”
“More than that, not only was Kath saved just in time, but Tom spent a good few years behind bars. Poor guy never stood a chance with me. Kath and I still have a giggle about it every now and then.”
“What about young Ed? Did he ever get his date with you?”
Janine smiled. “Of course, Jack. One thing I don’t do is break a promise. He took me to dinner a few days later, and gave me my first kiss on the porch that night. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, but we remained friends for a very long time.”
Jack smiled at her, his white teeth glistening. He took her hand and squeezed it firmly. She stared back at him and felt a warm, prickling feeling spread through her body. It felt good.
“Okay, now how about we work on a plan to get us inside, what do you say?” he said.
“Great. What have you got in mind?” she asked, intoxicated by the sweet scent of his aftershave.
“Actually, I have an idea.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
“General, look at that, isn’t it incredible?” remarked Wesley Miles, an overweight, balding marine whose facial features always made him appear surprised.
“What, Lieutenant?”
“That, sir.”
The marine pointed to two holographic projections of the Earth gathered from multiple satellite images.
“The left one is what the Earth looked like yesterday.”
Denny peered at it. “Yes and …?”
“Well, sir, as you can see, it’s very recognizable as our planet with typical fall climatic patterns with retreating ice caps over Greenland and Northern Canada.”
The marine moved over to the image on the right. “And this, sir, is what our planet looks like today.”
“My god!” said Denny, his eyes widening.
“Exactly, sir. Notice how the polar caps, both north and south have advanced at least fifteen degrees toward the equator. The whole of Canada, half the continental United States, as well as most of Europe and Russia are now covered in snow and ice. And it doesn’t end there. Look at the southern hemisphere. Even Argentina, Chile and southern Australia are starting to experience snowfalls. Only the African continent seems to be relatively spared, but that will no doubt change in time.”
“Are we going into an ice age?”
“No, sir, we are in an ice age.”
“Jesus Christ, what the hell caused that?” Denny felt his heart quicken, and the sweat build under his uniform. The room somehow had gotten hotter. How could things have become so bad so quickly? It was never supposed to happen this way. If he had known about this before, he would never have gone ahead with the plan.
“I’ve been in contact with my civilian scientific colleagues, friends of mine from before the military. They tell me that the freezing and boiling points of water have changed, along with other elements. With regards to the temperatures experienced on Earth though, water is the compound most affected. Currently, water is freezing at 39.7 degrees Fahrenheit, although we’ve noticed that it has increased by half a degree in a day. At that rate, who knows where it will lead? And I’m afraid, sir, that there’s more bad news.”
“More?” Denny felt a quick stab in his groin. He rubbed it. How could anything get any worse?
“Yes, sir, I’m going to zoom in a little. Take a look at the coastlines of the world, especially those adjacent to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Look how the water has moved at least three to six miles inland all around the ring of fire.” He paused. “And we’re lucky.”
“I hardly call that lucky!”
“It would’ve been ten times worse had it not been for a lot of the planet’s water being captured in ice.”
Denny took a deep breath, and rubbed his aching upper thigh. It was throbbing. He had no choice but to ask the hard question. “What are the projections for the future, Lieutenant?”
The marine shrugged his shoulders. “Difficult to say, but if gravity continues to increase in magnitude, the tides will keep growing and we could be seeing up to a third of the Earth’s landmass swallowed up by water, provided it’s not offset by more of the planet freezing over.”
“What does all this translate to in terms of mortality?” Denny’s heart was pumping faster, his mouth as dry as cardboard.
“Our latest computer modeling predicts that at the current physical changes being experienced, we could be seeing a loss of at least twenty-five percent of the world’s population within days, mostly due to flooding, hypothermia and starvation. That’s not to mention increased radiation levels now that the Earth’s magnetic poles have shifted and weakened. If nature continues on this destructive path, it’s not unreasonable to see ninety percent of humanity disappear within the next two weeks.”
“I don’t understand; I was told we could … adapt,” said Denny softly, closing his eyes and sitting down in a nearby chair. Sweat was dripping off him like a leaking tap, staining his collar. He reached into his tunic and pulled out a hanky, and dabbed himself with it.
As surprised as the marine looked, he somehow managed to look even more surprised.
“I don’t understand, sir, who told you that?”
“Never mind, just thought it was possible for humanity to adapt to these changes. That’s all.”
“Well it’s true that over the millennia humans and all species, both plant and animal, have adapted to changes in the climate and the planet, but you’re forgetting that the changes took place over thousands of years. In ten thousand years or so, a lot can happen. Natural selection will achieve the best outcome for survival. However, we and all life on this planet have had only days to adapt, and that’s impossible to do. Our technology will be rendered completely useless shortly; some of it already is.”
The marine’s lips were moving, but Denny wasn’t hearing anything the man was saying. Instead, he was caught up in his own hell, and the pain in his groin had reached a crescendo.
The lieutenant continued. “We’re no match for Mother Nature, we never have been and we never will be. All our technology has been based on physical assumptions that the laws of physics are constant and unchanging throughout the cosmos. With that theory now in tatters, we have pretty much been rendered useless. We may a
s well be back in the Stone Age, beating our next meal to death with a wooden club.”
Denny dabbed more beads of sweat from his forehead and cleared his throat. He had been caught off guard with such a dire prediction. He was completely out of his depth, and he had no one to turn to who he could trust. “Well you’re the scientist, what do you think we should be doing?”
The lieutenant stumbled for an answer. His eyebrows narrowed, and he cocked his head to the side, as if the general had asked him for the keys to his house. He squeezed his eyes shut and gripped his head tightly with his hands, his face turning blood red.
“Those headaches again, Lieutenant?” Denny shook his head. “Crazy research. Can’t believe you volunteered for that ridiculous study.”
“Sometimes I wonder the same thing. Give me a second, the pain will pass soon.”
He didn’t. “So, Lieutenant? What should we be doing about all this?”
“I’m afraid, sir … there’s nothing we can do,” the lieutenant said. “The best we can hope for is that the physics stabilizes and stabilizes soon.” He let go of his head, and his color returned to normal.
“Unacceptable, Lieutenant!” barked Denny. “We can’t just sit here and wait for Armageddon!”
Wesley scratched his jaw. “There’s one thing we could certainly try. It might stop or at least slow the process down, but I don’t know if you’re ready to hear it.”
Denny’s eyes widened. He knew exactly what the marine wanted to do. “No fucking way!”
“Sir, it may slow things down, possibly buy us some time.”
Denny’s eyes were protruding slightly from their sockets, his cheeks reddening. “Absolutely not! I don’t live my life by maybes. If there’s no guarantee it will work, then there’s no point in pursuing it. I have already assembled a team of military scientists in the adjacent building looking into amazing new military technologies that we could learn from this alien civilization. I will not put that in jeopardy. EMB could also be the ticket to all our future energy needs.”
“With all due respect, what good is energy if there’s no one around to use it?”
“Because, Lieutenant, you and your scientific team will find an alternative solution to our problem.”
Wesley shook his head. “But … there’s no—”
“Enough!” yelled Denny, slicing his hand through the air. Three soldiers nearby immediately stopped their chatter, turned around and scrutinized the pair. “Now I won’t hear any more of this negativity. Get back to work, and sort this mess out with your team. You seem to be forgetting that you’re no longer a civilian scientist, and while you’re in the military you’ll damn well follow orders. That’s what you’re paid to do!”
Denny did not allow the marine to respond, but instead marched down the corridor, boots stomping against the concrete floor of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory as he headed toward his office.
* * * *
Once inside his office, Denny looked at his watch. It was time for his briefing from the head of the navy. He daren’t miss that. He also had a lot to do if he was going to secure his leadership by nightfall.
He locked his office door, unbuttoned his tunic and ripped off his tie. He slouched into his desk chair, and for the first time ever in his life, felt his body trembling.
It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.
“Pull yourself together, Denny, you’ve dealt with big problems before,” he said out loud, recalling how he had eluded one very suspicious Detective Williams when he’d come knocking on his front door the day after Johnny McFarlane had disappeared during the category-five hurricane over forty years ago.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
“Okay, guys,” said Sheri. “I’ve programmed in the entire shutdown sequence. The only thing left to do is to somehow get hold of the other two passwords from NASA. As you might or might not be aware, there are three passwords. I have one, and Wesley Miles, a former civilian, now military scientist in Pasadena has one …” Sheri paused.
“And the third one?” asked Drew hesitantly.
“You’re not going to like this, but yep, Psycho Smith has the last one.”
“You can’t be serious, Sheri?” said Steve, running his long, narrow fingers through his thinning hair.
She shrugged her shoulders. “When we set up EMB, there were supposed to be only two passwords. We all thought that would suffice, but at the very last minute, about two days before launch, I was sent this urgent email from the military, instructing us that for the sake of national security, the military should also be issued with one.”
Steve’s eyebrows came together. “But surely Miles represented the military?”
“Exactly what I thought, but given that we didn’t want any further delays, I reluctantly agreed to it, and I believe a third password was randomly created, and distributed to a one General Denny Smith.”
“We’re screwed again. We just can’t cut a break,” said Steve, tossing a marble ornament off his desk. It hit the hard floor and shattered.
“Calm down there, lad,” said the professor, who was peering at Sheri over the empty whiskey bottles on his desk. “Quite a feisty one—your boyfriend, that is.” He stood up and stretched his aching knee. “I don’t think we’re totally screwed, as you so elegantly put it, Steve. It’s just a matter of ascertaining the passwords. What’s the chance that Wesley will part with his?”
“Pretty certain he’ll come to the party,” Sheri said, “unless of course Psycho has managed to get to him first.”
“Well, if we have only one password to break, I’m sure I can manage it,” the professor said.
“That’s if they don’t smell a rat there first,” said Steve, “and shut us down first.”
“Or the Russians beat us to it,” added Drew.
“We’re not that lucky. I guess we’d better get to it then,” said the professor. “Will HQ know what you’ve done, Sheri?”
“I doubt it, at least not initially. The only person who’ll know what we’re up to will be Miles, and as I said, he’s a reasonable man and I think he can be trusted. Were any of you aware that he’s recently become a guinea pig for some sort of high-tech experimental project?”
They all shook their heads.
Sheri raised her eyebrows. “They implanted a microchip into his cortex so he can communicate better with computers. Yes, I was thinking the same thing—crazy, right?”
They all nodded in agreement.
“What exactly did they say it would allow him to do?” asked Drew, biting into a chocolate bar.
“If it works out as planned, he’ll be able to get the computer to do things by just asking it mentally. He might even be able to upload information from the hard drive directly into his brain.”
“That’s incredible,” said Steve.
“That’s if it works, of course,” Sheri said. “It could mean taking a mentally retarded child and making him or her intellectually normal.”
They all nodded approvingly.
“Okay, enough talk,” said Sheri. “I’m going to try to get Miles on a secure line.” She pointed to Steve and Drew. “You two should get some sleep, while the professor tries to decode the third password. I think the next twenty-four hours will drain us all. No point in all of us being exhausted. We need to be alert to think straight.”
“I certainly could do with a nap,” said Steve. “It must be at least twenty hours since I last slept.”
“Me, too,” said Drew. “Don’t know how much sleep I’ll manage to get though, knowing the world’s about to come to an end.”
“Think positively, Drew. Can you help me with a secure line before you put your head down?” asked Sheri.
He nodded.
Chloe, who had been patiently sitting in a corner playing with some toys, came wandering over to Sheri. “Mommy, I want Mr. Teddy.”
“I know, honey, but unfortunately Teddy’s on vacation, and I’m sure he’s sleeping, and you should be, too. You’ve both had a very lon
g day.” Chloe reluctantly nodded. “Now give Mommy five minutes and I’ll come and read you a story.”
Sheri followed Drew to a vacant console, which supplied her with a secure line, while Steve disappeared to his quarters.
The professor was alone at the large computer console, once again searching for a cryptic clue deep in the core of a hard drive, buried somewhere within the most sophisticated computer ever built. He had to find it soon. The stakes were rising quickly.
* * * *
“Have you seen this yet, General?” asked Lieutenant Miles, wide-eyed.
“What now dammit! More bad news?”
“I’m afraid so, sir. Check this out. It looks like the northwest coast of the US has been hit by an 8.6 earthquake followed by a 65-foot-high tsunami, or should I say high tide.”
“What do you mean by high tide?”
“Exactly that. The Earth’s oceans are settling into their new tidal patterns. With gravity from the moon pulling the tides more strongly with each passing day, we could expect this, as well as massive earthquakes, to become an everyday event.”
“You mean to say that we can expect more of these … um waves?” Denny said incredulously.
“No, what I’m trying to say is that we now have a new coastline, and it’s no longer Santa Monica or Long Beach. It’s more like Glendale! Have you bothered to look out the window lately, General? The beach is less than 1.2 miles down the road. If my predictions are correct, then in a few days’ time, high tide will end up swamping the entire area and we’ll end up under ten feet of water.”
“Jesus Christ! Are you certain of these predictions?”
Wesley thought for a moment before answering. “Yes, I’ve verified my results with multiple computer models. If anything, my predictions are conservative. I must again strongly suggest to you that we shut down EMB immediately!”
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