“Of course I did, and I don’t like the tone of your voice, Sergeant. Remember your manners!”
The young sergeant narrowed his gaze, wiped the sweat from his brow and eyed Wesley up. Wesley watched the sergeant deftly reach behind his back, then draw his gun, aiming the barrel directly at him. He raised his hands, feeling the blood drain from his burning face.
“What the hell is going on here?” demanded the sergeant, sweat dripping down his forehead and soaking into his shirt. The gun in his hand was shaking, his body jittery and twitchy. He licked his lips, his eyes focused on the lieutenant.
“Easy does it, soldier. I think you’re just a little ahead of yourself there,” Wesley told him.
“You’re covering something up and I want to know how and I want to know why.”
Wesley remained silent. He needed more time. They were so close.
“Talk, goddammit! Talk now, or I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.” He swept the gun across his desk, sending files flying, some of which came crashing down onto the concrete floor with a loud thud. “This shutdown was not authorized by the general.” The sergeant’s eyes were wild, like those of a trapped animal.
“Shutdown sequence commenced, you have ten minutes to abort.”
* * * *
Janine’s mind was still awash with images of the major, drowning under a sea of rubble. She took a deep breath in and shut her eyes. She had become nothing more than a ruthless animal, so focussed on the hunt and the scent of blood, that she’d forgotten how to be human.
“Hey, let’s go,” said Jack.
She forced herself to let go of her guilt, at least temporarily, and the two of them fought their way through piles of rubble, brick and wood in the basement until they uncovered a door. There was no lock on this one, and Jack eased it open and peered out at what appeared to be a corridor.
“Careful, Jack. What can you see?” she asked.
“It’s a new building, so I think we’re in the right place.”
“That’s reassuring. Do you mean to say you weren’t sure if that tunnel would lead us to the correct building?”
“Of course I wasn’t sure, but there was no bloody way I was going to tell you that. You would never have agreed to follow me.”
“You would’ve been wrong. It wasn’t as if there were a thousand options screaming at us. I wouldn’t have had much choice in the matter. After all, we couldn’t just knock on the front door.”
Jack scanned the corridor for any signs of movement. “Looks clear,” he said, easing open the door.
He took a tentative step into the hallway, but another rumble caught him off guard. He lost his footing, slipped and fell back to the floor, his left ankle taking the full force of his weight. A large rock then tumbled over it. He yelled in agony.
“Jesus! Are you okay?” asked Janine, coming to his aid. She gently levered the rock off his foot.
His face was twisted, his eyes watering. He rubbed his ankle, hoping that the pain would soon subside.
“What can I do?” she asked. “Do you think it’s broken?”
“I don’t know. I’ll find out when I try putting some weight on it.”
Janine took the scarf from around her neck, pulled off his hiking shoe and wrapped the swelling ankle firmly with the material. His face contorted as she tied the makeshift bandage firmly into place.
“Can you help me to my feet?” he asked.
She placed her arm around his body, and with his help she managed to get him upright.
“Okay, I’m going to try to put some weight on it. See what happens.”
He placed his left foot onto the concrete floor. Pain shot through him, and he grunted.
“I think it’s broken, Jack.”
“No kidding!” he said. “Take the backpack off me, we don’t need it anymore. I’ve got my gun in my jacket.”
Janine helped him slip out of the backpack. “What now?” she said.
“You go ahead, and you can help me.”
Janine gently eased open the door, and after making sure there was no one around, crept onto the polished marble-floored corridor. Jack hopped quietly behind her.
A quick survey revealed a narrow passageway, with a multitude of opaque glass sliding doors coming off it in various directions. The clinical smell of disinfectant was overpowering.
“Smells like a hospital,” said Janine.
“No sign of an alarm system or close-circuit TV, although if there is one, it’s likely to be hidden from view.”
Janine put her arm around Jack to support him, then the two of them, filthy, covered in dirt and grime, scuttled along the corridor like two overgrown rats, until they arrived at an intersection. There was a large sign.
Cafeteria left. Press room right.
“That helps a lot,” said Janine. “We could either go listen to a non-existent press conference or grab a sandwich.”
“I don’t know about you, but I could do with a sandwich about now. I’m bloody starving.”
“Jack! I was kidding!”
Jack winked at her. “Well I’m not,” he said. “Anyhow there’s no point in going to the press room. Maybe we’ll see a sign on the way to the cafeteria that could lead us to the control room.”
“Okay you win,” said Janine, brushing herself down with her hands, trying to salvage some dignity. She’d never been so filthy in all her life.
The place was extremely quiet and deserted. A sloshing noise alerted them to a janitor who seemed to be cleaning the floors with an old-fashioned bucket and mop.
“That’s quaint,” said Janine. “I haven’t seen an old mop in years.”
Jack rolled his eyes. “You really do surprise me sometimes.”
“Why, because I love my Mark 3 Electrolux robot? I’m guessing that whatever affected the cars, took out Mr. Electrolux, too.”
They skirted around the janitor, who seemed unaware of their presence. He dragged the soapy mop back and forth across the tiled floor, slopping it around, his hat tilted low and his earphones blaring.
Then the two of them, backs hugging the wall, slid around a corner without checking first. They froze when they heard the words, “Who the hell are you!”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-TWO
They spun around to discover a large portly man and an attractive young woman standing in the corridor, eyes wide and fixed on them.
Jack grabbed his revolver, pulled it out and took aim at the pair, who seemed just as surprised and caught off guard as he and Janine were. “Nobody move!” he yelled.
The startled strangers raised their arms, their faces paled by the unforeseen encounter.
“Okay, who are you two?” asked Jack, flicking his head toward Janine, as if to summon her to move in behind him.
“Who are you?” asked the woman. “And how the hell did you get in here?”
“Hey, I’m asking the questions. You may not have noticed, but I’m the one with the gun.”
“We best answer him, dear,” said the man calmly. “He certainly does have a gun pointing at us.”
“I’m Sheri Johnson.”
“And I’m Professor Alastair Hart.”
Jack looked at Janine. Her face lit up, and he put the gun away.
“Sheri, are we pleased to see you,” said Janine.
Sheri’s eyes scanned the disheveled woman. Her eyes narrowed, frown lines appearing on her forehead. “Excuse me, but do I know you?” she asked.
“Of course you do, Janine Fuller, CNNA. And this is my friend, Jack Keagan. Jack might have broken his leg getting in. Remember I did the interview at the EMB launch? I guess I looked rather different then. Sorry, but we had some trouble getting inside,” she finished, brushing more dirt from her jacket.
“Some trouble?” said Sheri. “It looks like the two of you have been climbing through a sewer. How did you get in? There’s security everywhere!”
“Actually, I was going to ask you about that. How come it’s so quiet in here? Where’s everyone?”
“Ever since the blizzard started, most of the staff have been unable to get to work, but how did you guys manage?”
“That’s not important right now,” said Janine. “What is important is that I have some pressing information that you’ve got to see. It may have huge ramifications for the whole of EMB, and possibly the world. But first, please tell me that you haven’t shut down the machine?”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-THREE
“Soldier, do you know what’s happening out there?” asked Wesley.
“Of course I do, I’m not a retard.”
“I mean, do you really know what’s going on out there? Do you know that everything you’ve come to know, everyone you’ve come to love, is about to disappear forever!”
Sweat from the sergeant’s forehead had soaked the shirt on the arm that was clutching the gun. A faint smell of body odour permeated the room. Wesley knew that one uncalculated move could spell disaster.
“What do you mean?” asked the sergeant, his arm shaking, forcing him to tighten his grip on the trigger.
“I mean that planet Earth and all its inhabitants will soon be no more,” Wesley said. “Every scientific principle that we’ve learned and come to trust over the millennia is no more. Already roughly a billion people around the planet have drowned, frozen to death, or been involved in unforeseen accidents because nothing is what it was. And they’re the lucky ones. And it’s destined to get worse. Every law of physics has changed or is about to change, and from the rate at which these changes are occurring, it’s highly likely that everyone on this planet, and I mean everyone and everything, including all plant and animal life will cease to exist in no more than a week.”
The sergeant was blinking quickly. “I don’t believe you, besides which the general gave clear and precise orders when I spoke with him this evening. He said that the answer to all these problems lies with the project. What you’re doing is committing treason!”
“Do you believe that lunatic?” yelled Wesley. “The man is a megalomaniac. Do you not find it strange that both the President and Vice President have conveniently been disposed of? Don’t you find it odd that he has given orders to shoot civilians if necessary? The only tiny hope we have here, Sergeant, is to shut this project down, and to shut it down immediately.”
The young sergeant’s eyes narrowed. The gun was swaying in his hand, his finger ready to pull the trigger.
“Shutdown sequence commenced, you have three minutes to abort.”
* * * *
Sheri’s eyes widened. Her face colored and she felt sick. “Why, what do you know?”
“I’ll explain everything later,” Janine said, “but first I need to confirm that you haven’t shut it down. Everything, and I mean every bit of hope depends on that.”
“How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
Janine shrugged her shoulders. “I can prove it to you, but it will take at least ten minutes or so.”
Sheri turned to the professor. “Prof?”
“She did risk her life to get us this information. I think we should trust her.”
“Oh my god. How much time?”
The professor looked at his watch. “I’d say less than five minutes.”
“Jesus,” said Janine. “We’re too late.”
“Maybe not,” said Sheri. “Follow me and run!”
* * * *
Sheri and Janine entered the control room just as the computer was counting down the final minute. The two men took their time on account of their knee and ankle issues.
“Shutdown sequence commenced, you have twenty seconds left to abort. Twenty, nineteen …”
“Guys,” said Sheri. “Take a seat, and I’m going to need one of you to flick that giant lever over there in the corner, but only when I say so.”
“This one?” said Janine, pointing to a foot-long transparent pole with a rounded metallic handle. It was located just behind them on the wall.
“That’s it. But you have to do this on my mark, only once I’ve finished entering the abort codes.”
Sheri quickly fed the computer the various numbers, terrified that in her haste she’d make an error and be unable to stop the countdown.
“Nine, eight, seven …” Her heart was thumping away, her fingers moving at light-speed as she completed the sequence. With two seconds to spare, she finished entering the codes, grabbed the glass lever and shouted to Janine. “Now!”
CHAPTER SEVENTY-FOUR
Ten minutes later, Jack, Janine, Sheri and the professor were sitting around a table in the far corner of the control room, all drinking a glass of Alastair’s whiskey. Jack had his left leg up resting on a stool.
“My god, that was close,” said Sheri, shaking her head. “I never drink, not even wine, but this sure does taste good.”
“Neither do I,” said Janine, who turned to look at Jack.
“Don’t look at me. I love the stuff!”
“Okay, Janine. Now that the initial crisis has been resolved, I think you have a lot of explaining to do.”
“Yes, you do,” said the professor, rubbing his knee again.
Jack and Janine explained to them all about the threatening phone call, the tunnel and what had happened to Graham inside it.
“Very sad about the major,” said the professor.
“Yes, it is,” said Janine. “He was a tortured soul, and I’m afraid to say that I feel partly responsible for that. I had no idea what the poor man was going through because of me.”
Steve walked into the room, wiping his eyes. “Seems like I’ve missed out on something while I was sleeping.”
“You have no idea,” said Sheri. “Janine and Jack, this is Steve Winslow, he’s a colleague of mine working on EMB, and my better half.”
“Pleased to meet you,” they responded.
The professor sat up. “Who’s watching Chloe?” he asked. “If Steve’s here, who’s watching her?”
“EMN,” Steve said.
“Who’s that?” asked the professor.
“Not who, what,” Sheri said. “It’s the electro-myelo-nanny. It sticks to Chloe’s bed and monitors her EEG brain and muscle activity. If she wakes up or stirs, I get a message to the alarm on my watch.”
“You learn something new every day,” he quipped, then began topping up his guests’ glasses, before sitting down with his own.
Jack had found a stale sandwich on a desk, and was tucking into it. Janine glared at him, raising her upper lip ever so slightly.
“Okay, we’re all here and listening,” said Sheri. “Now what’s so important that you had to break your way in through a sewer in order to see us?”
“Before I say anything, I need to know if this room is secure.”
Sheri looked at Steve. “Well, Steve, what do you think?”
“Everything is going to be recorded, no matter what.” He looked at his watch. “But even so, the footage isn’t likely to be viewed until tomorrow morning. This ain’t NASA HQ, but I guess if it’s that important, we’ll just need to take a chance.”
“Okay, here goes,” said Janine. She dusted off her mobile phone, hugely relieved that it hadn’t suffered any major damage in the tunnel. She sat it upright on the table and proceeded to activate the video clip. Within a few seconds, a hologram of the general materialized above them. He was on the phone.
“Just so you are aware,” said Janine. “This conversation took place at NASA HQ in the press room about forty-eight hours ago. I think you’ll all be astounded at what you’re about to witness.”
“How did you get this footage?” asked Steve, shaking his head, as he sipped at his near empty glass of whiskey.
“I’d rather not say just yet.”
“Okay, not a problem. Just thought I’d ask. However you got it, I take my hat off to you. You’ve had the security guys at NASA running around in circles trying to plug the leak.”
Janine blushed, then felt a deep pang of guilt. If it hadn’t had been for her espionage, Graham
would still be alive. “Well, we best get on with it. I’ve had to boost the voice of the guy the general was speaking to, so it’s a little unclear. Here goes.”
“Are you alone? Is this line secure?” asked the general.
“Yes of course,” answered the distorted voice.
“Do you realize what’s going on?”
“What do you mean, General?”
“You know exactly what I mean, the damn planet is falling apart. This is not what was supposed to happen.”
“I warned you of the risks, General, I never claimed that this was risk free. You wanted a diversion, and that’s exactly what you got.”
“Is that what you call the Earth crumbling apart at the seams? A diversion? I should’ve never promised you what I did.”
“Remember, you came to me, not the other way around. I told you it could be risky, but you didn’t seem concerned about that. You were only worried about consolidating your power, and for that you needed a powerful diversion. You can’t tell me that I didn’t deliver.”
“You said that it was likely the magnetic poles would shift, and that global communications would likely falter or fail. You said nothing about tsunamis, ice ages, mass extinctions, and a moon that’s doing its best to collide with the Earth. Just a small misunderstanding? Is that what you expect me to believe?”
“I get your point, General, but you have to understand what I was up against. I had four months to do this. Four months to work my way through about a thousand different programs, learn about the latest conjecture in string-theory physics, not to mention to write a patch that couldn’t be traced and then sneak it into the EMB main hard drive. Do you have any idea the pressure I was under?”
“So what the hell happened?”
“I think the electromagnetic pulse disturbance that I created did more than just reverse the poles and knock out the communication satellites. I think in combination with the wormhole EMB created, it somehow caused a tear in the actual fabric of space time, allowing another dimension to become exposed. The string theorists would say that I opened our universe to another one, one with different laws of physics, and different suns and planets and forms of life adapted to those laws. What works there doesn’t work here, and vice versa. Everything here has evolved over billions of years with the laws of physics that work here. Change those laws and you change everything. Nothing is in balance anymore, nothing can function as it did before.”
The Waterhole Page 31