2021

  ‘I just get the feeling that it’s my destiny somehow to be there’ Tom shrugged.

  Alec just blew a long sigh.

  ‘All right, I guess Mexico it is then’ he smiled.

  ‘We will help you all we can’ nodded Cardinal Greco.

  ‘If you both return to your hotel for now’ smiled Cardinal Moretti ‘then once we have arranged flights for you both we will let you know.’

  ‘Thanks, for everything’ nodded Tom as he shook both their hands.

  ‘No, thank you’ smiled Cardinal Moretti.

  ‘What for, I haven’t even done anything?’ puzzled Tom.

  ‘No, thank you for what you are about to do’ answered Cardinal Greco, now looking at him very seriously.

  With that, the two teenagers returned to their hotel suite once again, where they just mulled over everything that had just happened.

  ‘This is all very mysterious, Tom’ pondered Alec ‘Pope Paul was great though wasn’t he’ he smiled.

  ‘Yes, he was’ agreed Tom ‘I still can’t believe you had the cheek to ask to have your photo taken with him though’ Tom shook his head as he smiled at his friend.

  ‘Well, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, do you?’ laughed Alec. ‘My mum is going to just love that photo!’ he smiled as he checked it out on his mobile phone again.

  Then he looked more serious.

  ‘That painting was a bit weird though wasn’t it? It looked the spitting image of you, Tom’ puzzled Alec.

  ‘I know, it just felt kind of weird looking at it, it was as if I kind of ‘recognised’ it somehow’ pondered Tom.

  ‘Well of course you did, it had your picture painted on it stupid!’ chuckled Alec.

  ‘No, I didn’t mean that!’ smiled Tom ‘I mean I instantly knew I needed to go to the border between Mexico and the United States.’

  ‘How exactly?’ puzzled Alec.

  ‘I’d tell you, Alec, but I’m not altogether sure myself’ pondered Tom ‘I just knew I had to be there that’s all.’

  ‘I just reckon you’ve gone completely crackers, mate. I always knew it would happen one day’ laughed Alec.

  ‘Oh, just say what you think’ replied Tom.

  ‘Don’t worry I will!’ chuckled Alec.

  After a while, Tom noticed Alec looking deep in thought about something.

  ‘What’s up now?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, I was just thinking’ replied Alec ‘maybe those guys dressed all in black hypnotized you on the way here?’

  ‘And you’re call me crackers?’ smiled Tom.

  ‘Well they could have done!’ Alec insisted.

  ‘Why though?’ puzzled Tom.

  ‘Oh, I don’t know, maybe they want you to smuggle in some drugs for them or something?’ pondered Alec.

  ‘Two men from the Vatican want me to smuggle drugs into England for them? And you’re calling me nuts? You’re off your trolley, mate’ Tom laughed.

  Then he noticed Alec looking deep in thought again.

  ‘What’s up now?’ he asked curiously.

  ‘Oh nothing’ replied Alec ‘I was just thinking if we’re going to Mexico, does that mean I’ll have to buy myself a sombrero?’

  ‘You twit’ laughed Tom ‘and I thought you were going to say something important!’

  ‘Na, not me, never!’ chuckled Alec.

  ‘Still, at least you didn’t pass wind in front of the Pope like you thought you might’ smiled Tom.

  ‘How do you know? I could have done’ Alec giggled.

  ‘No, you never did?’ laughed Tom.

  ‘Do you think if I did a silent one you wouldn’t have noticed?’ smiled Alec.

  Tom just thought about that for a moment.

  ‘Yeah you’re right, especially with all those egg sandwiches you keep eating for lunch every day at work, you end up smelling just as bad from either end’ he laughed.

  ‘Anyway, if had dropped a silent one I would have blamed His Holiness’ commented Alec with a cheeky grin.

  ‘Knowing you, you probably would as well!’ smiled Tom as they both broke down in laughter!

  Chapter Twenty Four

  Day Twenty Two:

  28th January 2021

  San Diego, U.S.A.

  Just outside San Diego, troops from all over the world were now forming an International Fighting Force to make a final stand against the Migrators.

  After the demise of General O’Dowd it was to be under the central command of General Iram and troop carriers were bringing troops into the area in their thousands every day.

  Every factory in the United States that could produce the new gas pressure artillery launcher was now producing them in their thousands with smaller factories put in charge of supplying the ammunition.

  Hundreds of thousands of men were now building up banks of earth and breeze blocks over an area running all of some twenty miles wide.

  Stuart, Joan, Jack and Jenny had all been moved alongside the troops at this point. A place that was now being widely considered as quite possibly, mankind’s last stand against the Migrators, as serious new developments had made defeating the Migrators at this point now an absolute must.

  Stuart had requested an urgent meeting with General Iram, but with so many civilians and army personnel from the international community under his command, it was chaos all around his private encampment most of the time now.

  Stuart insisted though that he must finally see him.

  ‘What is it, Professor Keys, as you can see I’m a little bit busy at the moment?’ General Iram complained rather gruffly.

  ‘General it is vital that I speak to you’ Stuart insisted.

  ‘If you must, then go on’ the General insisted as he continued working on the plans for their defensive wall on a map lying on a table top in front of him.

  ‘These things move really fast, General, that’s why General O’Dowd’s army was rapidly overwhelmed.’

  ‘Yes, yes, well we already know that much’ replied the General impatiently.

  ‘Well, General, I wondered if you’d seen the feature film Zulu?’ inquired Stuart politely.

  ‘Zulu?’ queried General Iram ‘what in God’s name are you going on about man?’

  ‘Well, the film was about a real life battle in 1879 in which just over a hundred and fifty British troops fought off literally three to four thousand Zulu warriors. It was at a place called Rorke’s Drift’ explained Stuart quickly.

  ‘A history lesson, Professor, I haven’t got time for this. Someone take him away please!’ ordered the General as an army officer began man handling Stuart out.

  ‘IT’S ABOUT MILITARY TACTICS!’ shouted Stuart as General Iram suddenly stopped what he was doing.

  ‘All right, I’m listening’ nodded the General as Stuart was allowed back in again.

  ‘The problem we face here is exactly the same as the British troops faced back then’ Stuart quickly explained. ‘They were hopelessly outnumbered and had to keep reloading their guns exactly the same as we do here.’

  ‘All right, I’m still listening’ nodded General Iram.

  ‘No fewer than eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded after that battle, the most ever awarded in one place at any one time and it was all to do with the way they maximised their potential’ explained Stuart.

  ‘Get to the point man!’ ordered General Iram impatiently.

  ‘What they did to combat the tremendous odds against them was they organised several lines of gunners, so as each line had to stop to reload, the next line was then firing. With a line of three rows they in effect organised a non stop salvo that was capable of stopping even the fastest moving enemy charging straight at them. Added to this, at the start they fired further out so the charging troops were slowed by having to jump or step over the dead bodies of their own warriors lying dead on the ground in front of them’ explained Stuart quickly
.

  He now had the General’s full attention.

  ‘Where did you say this was again?’

  ‘At Rorke’s Drift, General, during the Anglo/Zulu war’ replied Stuart.

  ‘Yes, but we’re hardly fighting Zulu warriors here, Professor, the British had guns and the Zulus only had spears’ commented General Iram.

  ‘Well, that’s not quite correct, General, many of the Zulus also had guns they had taken from the battlefield from a previous battle they had won’ explained Stuart.

  He could see he now had the General’s full attention.

  ‘But how would you suggest we do the same thing here then?’ the General asked curiously.

  ‘We need as many lines of guns as we can arrange, with some pointing further upwards or outwards to reduce their numbers and have their bodies forming obstacles to slow them down as they charge towards us. Then we need lines of guns so that as one team are reloading the air pressure cannon with another missile, so the next line of guns are already firing and so on’ smiled Stuart.

  The General just stopped what he was doing now and just looked up.

  ‘Professor Keys, that’s actually quite brilliant! And that’s how a handful of British troops won against many thousands you say?’

  ‘Yes, Sir’ nodded Stuart.

  ‘Umm, maybe having a Brit on board wasn’t such a bad idea after all?’ the General smiled.

  ‘If I might suggest’ asked Stuart.

  ‘Go on’ nodded General Iram.

  ‘Maybe a few guns could also be placed beyond the lines to pick off any Migrators that do manage to break through?’

  ‘Yes, good idea, Professor Keys, you know, you’d make a half decent General’ the General laughed.

  General Iram then rubbed his chin as he looked deep in thought.

  ‘Could you perhaps help explain all this to all our officers along the line?’ he then asked.

  ‘Yes, no problem’ smiled Stuart.

  ‘That’s all, Professor’ nodded the General as he began looking down at his maps once again.

  ‘Good luck, General’ Stuart smiled just before he left.

  ‘And you, Professor Keys’ nodded the General before he began barking out his instructions to everyone around him once more.

  The International Defence Army now totalled over a million men with an army of civilians also helping out behind the scenes organising food and supplies.

  There were also over a half a million civilian volunteers who asked to help keep a non-stop supply of ammunition to the guns once the fighting had begun.

  One big advantage they had over last time was the humans themselves had chosen the front line. This way they were able to use trucks to bring the guns right to the site and fortify proper defences using heavy machinery.

  After his discussion with General Iram, both Stuart and Joan were now working flat out, making sure the angle of the guns were correct all along the line and also as many lines of guns were put in place as was physically possible, so a non stop salvo of missiles could be fired at the Migrators.

  Stuart was determined that the Migrators were not going to have such an easy time overwhelming them this time.

  Jack meanwhile, was now in possession of a fantastic new airship or ‘blimp’ as he preferred to call it.

  With that, he kept up his flights tracking the progress of the Migrators, but upon returning from one sortie he quickly sought the opinions of both Stuart and Joan and immediately asked them to come with him, along with Professor Gregorksi, the man considered to be the leading world expert on insects.

  ‘You must come quickly, there are now some even bigger ones’ Jack uttered as he finally tracked Joan, Stuart, Jenny and Professor Gregorksi down.

  ‘What do mean, bigger ones?’ queried Joan as he dragged them all off.

  ‘Let me show you all!’ demanded Jack as he quickly rushed them towards his new airship.

  ‘Slow down, please, I’m not a young man you know’ complained Professor Gregorksi.

  ‘Sorry, Professor, we’ll all slow down a bit’ Jack apologized.

  Once into the flight for a long while, when they came across the Migrators both Joan and Stuart could see exactly what Jack had meant.

  The usual black Migrators were now all joined by a newer cousin, a much bigger red Migrator with some black stripes.

  ‘How big do you think these new ones are, Jack?’ asked Stuart as he gazed out at them.

  ‘Phew, I reckon fifteen foot high maybe’ replied Jack looking very stern faced.

  ‘Christ they’re big!’ uttered Jenny unable to hide the fear in her voice.

  ‘How do you think this will affect us, Professor Gregorksi?’ inquired Stuart.

  ‘These look much faster’ commented the Professor. ‘See how they’re quickly overtaking the others to reach the very front. These larger Migrators will reach our defences much faster than we anticipated’ he uttered as he shook his head in dismay.

  ‘Oh God, this is not good news’ uttered Joan in panic.

  ‘But it’s worse than that, don’t you see?’ suggested the old Professor as Jack left the controls temporarily to listen to what he had to say.

  ‘Look at their backs’ he pointed.

  ‘NO! I CAN’T BE?’ suddenly shouted Stuart as he quickly looked through his binoculars.

  ‘Why? What’s wrong?’ puzzled Joan as she began to look quite alarmed.

  ‘Here, look through my binoculars’ suggested Professor Gregorksi as he handed them to her.

  ‘Oh my God!’ Joan suddenly uttered in shock.

  ‘That’s right, they’re developing wings!’ nodded the old Professor.

  ‘Just as you said they would’ nodded Stuart.

  ‘Oh Christ’ groaned Jack ‘that’s what I dreaded you’d say.’

  ‘And the ones you describe as ‘the big red ones’ I believe are the fighter drones’ explained the old Professor. ‘If you notice they are quickly making their way to the very front in order to be the first into battle. They will lead the charge against us. They are definitely readying for battle’ the old Professor explained.

  ‘Will they attack us through the air do you think, Professor Gregorksi?’ asked Joan and the old Professor just shook his head.

  ‘No, I do not believe so. They are not fully developed yet. It is my assumption that they believe they can defeat us here and possibly rightly so. Once victors here, they will then feed until they reach their final stage of development. Then they will migrate either as a whole unit or possibly more likely, split into several large groupings to spread to other parts of the world. Much like soldier ants do after eating everything in one part of the forest, they then move on as a group to attack another’ he explained.

  ‘Then this means, if we don’t stop them here, soon nowhere on Earth will be safe from them!’ uttered Jack looking very downcast.

  ‘They’ll just be able to fly anywhere they like’ agreed Joan.

  ‘Then the General was right’ nodded Stuart ‘he said this could be mankind’s last stand, it’s looking likely that it is!’

  ‘At the present we have the advantage, in that they cannot yet fly. So we can build our defences ahead of them’ explained Professor Gregorksi. ‘Once they fly though, we will not be so lucky as they will travel the world and attack us on mass in areas where we will have no defences to stop them.’

  ‘Then this really is our last chance to stop them’ uttered Jack as he now looked very worried.

  ‘Yes it is’ nodded the old Professor.

  On their way back they encountered a million or more people who had obviously been fleeing from the Migrators. They were stuck though, right at the Migrator’s clever cordon that just disintegrated anything that tried to pass through it.

  As some people suddenly saw the large airship in the sky they all began waving at it frantically, hoping to be rescued.

 
‘Oh, all those poor people, can we do nothing at all to help them?’ pleaded Jenny.

  ‘God, it looks like a scene from Woodstock or something’ groaned Jack.

  ‘Jack, they all seemed to have stopped up ahead, do you think that’s where the barrier is?’ asked Stuart.

  ‘Yes, almost certainly’ nodded Jack.

  ‘See if we can throw something at it at different heights as if the barrier only goes up say ten or fifteen feet we might be able to build something over it?’ suggested Stuart.

  Unfortunately though, as they threw things at the invisible barrier and things were simply being disintegrated, they did discover a definite height existed of around thirty or so feet. It was also however, the same in depth.

  ‘Hell, I must have only just missed that myself sometimes when I flew low over it’ commented Jack as he now looked quite shocked.

  ‘It’s going to be virtually impossible to build anything over that as it’s just too deep’ concluded Stuart.

  ‘Couldn’t we fly them over it somehow?’ suggested Joan.

  ‘But there are simply too many people’ suggested Professor Gregorksi.

  ‘Those poor souls then’ Joan commented sadly ‘but couldn’t we save just the babies at least?’

  ‘They’d pull the airship down, Joan’ replied Jack. ‘Can you imagine if I dropped a ladder down in the midst of that lot? They’d all be scrambling up it for their lives to escape from the fate of being devoured by the Migrators. I don’t think any polite ‘women and children first’ rule would apply down there, do you? It would more like a ‘survival of the fittest’ only.’

  ‘No, you’re probably right’ agreed Joan reluctantly ‘I wish we hadn’t seen them all now’ she suggested.

  ‘I wish we’d left Jenny back at the camp’ commented Stuart quietly.

  ‘Thank you for coming along with us’ Jack thanked Professor Gregorksi.

  ‘You’re welcome and thank you for slowing down and being patient with me’ he smiled.

  ‘And if you think of anything else, perhaps you can let us know?’ added Stuart and Professor Gregorksi just nodded.

  ‘I will’ he replied ‘although I feel this is going to be a very hard battle for us to win, being honest’ he admitted.