2042: The Great Cataclysm (10 page)

The secretary for the navy, John Holmes rose from his seat and turned to Josh. ‘What about the dykes? They’ve been keeping the rising sea back for years.’

‘They won’t hold against this.’

‘If we can believe this theory, what will happen first? The rise in the sea level or the tsunami?’

‘It’s more than a theory’’ Josh who had remained quiet, commented defensively, expecting this reaction from the navy. ‘Pretty much the same time. The shock waves will create the tsunami, which will be followed by the rising sea.’

Nick continued. ‘Um, huge amounts of sea water will be swallowed into the magma chamber all along the open fault line and, ah, when confined by rock it will quickly become steam. We all know what happens when steam builds under pressure. There’ll be violent explosions sending the sea water bursting out again to create a tsunami.’

‘Okay, we hear what your saying.’ The Vice President interrupted.  ‘How come you’re so sure?’

Nick wasn’t sure of anything anymore. He pushed his shoulders back and flicked his neck. ‘The ERS2 satellite system. It’s been operating for two years and it’s proven to be accurate in predicting earthquakes. It’s not just my findings, you have the eminent scientist Wolf Drescher stationed with the US Coast Guard on Unimak Island. He came with me on the Bunyip and supports me one-hundred per cent. He’d be here now, but he wanted to stay behind to close up his research station. It was Wolf who called me up there from Hawaii. He was concerned about the peculiar things he was finding.’

‘What’s the timing on this?’ The President asked. ‘How long before it happens, if it happens?’

The small outdoors man who had also remained quiet to this point, interjected. ‘Oh, it will happen all right. Maybe sooner than we think.’

‘Sorry, I didn’t get your name.’ Nick said to him.

Josh looked at Nick.

‘This’s Professor Don Sinclair, he’s a nuclear scientist. I talked to him after our first meeting.’ Josh said.

‘I’ve studied your reports Mr. Torrens, and I agree with you.’ Sinclair said. ‘The atomic explosion you foresee will be the biggest humankind has seen.’

The President frowned. ‘Will there be atomic fallout Mr Sinclair?’

‘Oh, yes. There will be, and long-term leakage of the longer-lived radioisotopes into the surrounding ocean. They’ll be spread by the currents. That will be the least of our worries. Methods can be employed to control this but we can’t control the sea level.’

Josh whispered to Nick. ‘Are you okay Nick, you sound a bit odd.’

Nick’s nodded and his fingers tapped out a silent rhythm on the table. ‘To answer your earlier question Mr President, we don’t know when it will happen but it’s um, building up rapidly. It could happen any time.’

Admiral Deakin had listened attentively during Nick’s speech and now moved forward in his seat. ‘I think we all know who dumped this nuclear stuff you found Torrens. Can’t we force them to clean it up?’

‘Even if we could there’s no time, and it would put men’s lives in danger.’

‘Sounds to me that we’re all going to be in danger. Surely you don’t expect us to put the whole naval fleet on alert on the theory that it could happen any time. We could be sitting around for months.’

President Walker raised his long arm and made a halt sign to the admiral. ‘It’s all right Richard, I think we’ve heard enough. Whether we believe it or not we can’t afford to ignore it.’ He addressed Vice President Peterson. ‘Tom get our experts working on this immediately, I need them to validate Nick’s findings, and call an emergency video conference with the World Government when you can. I’m going to call Prime Minister Barker in London personally. Meanwhile start putting together emergency evacuation procedures. Top Priority, and keep it away from the bloody press as long as you can. This catastrophe could be greater than any war threat.  We can control a war but I’m not sure where to begin here. Nick, I have to ask you to remain at our disposal for now. You too Mr Sinclair. We’ll no doubt have a barrage of questions from the World Government.’

The President rose indicating the meeting was over. Nick sat with his head in his hands, his headache had escalated and the veins on his temples were thumping. The other men remained virtually silent, lost in their own thoughts, riveted to their seats by some unexplainable force.

Josh jabbed Nick with his elbow. ‘Are you okay Nick? You look like shit. C’mon we can use my office to set up an information centre. I’ve already cancelled all my appointments.’ They nodded to the remaining five men as they left the room, further conversation was unnecessary.  They had said it all!

***

The World Government

In the early twenty-twenties when the ice caps melted sufficiently to raise the sea level over two metres, it became necessary to move billions of people to higher ground, forsaking the cities that had served the populations for hundreds of years. For a while the massive dykes that averaged five metres in height and twenty metres deep at their bases, combined with co-ordinated projects of river and coastal engineering held the rising sea at bay. Governments were under no illusion that they could maintain this defence, and it became necessary to find homes for their people living in the threatened areas.

The combined population of India and China had grown to five billion by 2035. The relocation of millions of people across these countries would have an impact on their society to the point it could not be sustained. It was decided by the United Nations that these people should be relocated to other countries who could support a sudden increase in population. A world ruling body was formed to transcend country borders. This body was called the World Government and was made up of three leaders from every country, who would work with Presidents, Ministers, Kings and such and be responsible for the logistics of these manoeuvres.

Citizens were given priority for relocation followed by refugees from the rising sea. People were moved to Europe, Canada, United States and Australia. The task was enormous and claimed the full range of emergency services, military, government and private resources. By 2042 this operation was floundering under the weight of the enormity of the work still to be done.

Chapter Eleven

Laura was sleeping soundly when Nick arrived home. Deciding not to disturb her he napped fitfully on the lounge. The morning sun’s bright rays pierced the room forcing him to reluctantly prise open his eyes. The apartment was silent as he fumbled for his clothes careful again not to rouse her.

Maxime rubbed against his ankles purring wildly. ‘C’mon Max, let’s get you some milk.’ He whispered and tiptoed to the kitchen. Maxime wrapped herself around his ankles as he filled her dish. ‘Don’t know what you’ll think about all this, Max.’ He said. ‘What will become of you and your kind?’ Helping himself to a glass he glanced around the stainless steel kitchen at the sophisticated appliances that were all controlled by voice command. So much had changed since 2025 and Nick wondered what would happen to this beautiful apartment. Feeling a little guilty for his abrupt departure the previous evening, he thought it may be prudent to give Laura some time to cool down, so he patted Maxime and left without waking her.

Laura awoke late and became worried when she realised Nick had not come home, or had he? Memories of last night flooded back. He had really frightened her with that talk about earthquakes and floods. Where could he be? Surely the meeting with the President couldn’t have lasted all night?

She dressed hurriedly and went to the kitchen to make coffee. She spotted the saucer of milk on the floor and realised he had indeed come home. ‘Nick?’ She went from room to room expecting to see him. Now she was really worried. Determined to find out more about what was going on she ordered the car to take her to the Capitol.

Finding the President’s office barred, her next stop was Josh’s office where she burst into the room without knocking, surprising both he and Nick who were engrossed in a mountain of papers.  ‘I’m sorry to barge in like this Josh but I have to talk to Nick!’

Nick realised that he’d picked the wrong time to tell her last night, running off as he did without explaining everything. ‘I’m sorry Laura. I’m tied up right now, meetings all day you know how it is.’

‘I’ve had time to think about what you told me last night and I need some answers.’

Nick stood quickly and taking her arm gently guided her back to the door. ‘We’ll have dinner tonight. We can talk about Australia then. I’ll pick you up at eight Okay?’ He shuffled her back to the door.

‘But, Nick.’  She spluttered throwing him a quizzical look. ‘You can’t leave me up in the air like this. I don’t like it!’

He kissed his fingertips and gently pressed them against her lips, more to quieten her than to say goodbye. ‘Promise I won’t be late.’ He closed the door on her and turning to Josh, answered his puzzled look with a shrug of his shoulders. ‘I just asked her to go home with me, I don’t know what she’s all hett up about.’

The remainder of the day was fraught by a constant barrage of never-ending questions. Nick called Wolf for lengthy discussions on their findings. The phone buzzed incessantly and at two o’clock in the afternoon, they were recalled to the World Government emergency meeting in the President’s office.

‘Boy, when he says immediate action he means it.’ Nick remarked as they headed off to the meeting.

Chapter Twelve

General Worth’s day was charged with activity. He had sat through that meeting with rising excitement listening to the President’s responses to Nick Torren’s revelations. However it wasn’t until he lay in bed that night that the grand scheme came to his mind.

He was an enigma, a small angry man puny but fit. He wore his brindle coloured hair shaved close to his skull.
A thin, almost invisible scar ran above his left ear down his jawline and pulled the skin on his face, giving him a perpetual sneer that most people mistook for a slight smile. He never smiled, that would give others the impression he liked them, he didn’t like anybody and nobody liked him. He attained the rank of three star general through subterfuge, manipulation and deception and his ambition had no boundaries. He aspired to the highest rank and nothing was going to stop him. Grey piercing eyes that turned dark were the only outward signs that his anger was aroused.

He despised the untrustworthy President whom he could not control, and barely tolerated Vice-president Peterson. Politicians were the bottom of the pack as far as he was concerned, but he would not let them see his antipathy.

However, he agreed with Walker that they could not afford to ignore this situation. Worth had no intention of ignoring it, he planned to exploit it for all it was worth. To enable his plan to work he needed to gain the support of some of his trusted colleagues. If he pulled this off those extra three stars would be his, and he could offer them more than sufficient reward for their loyalty.

The overall scenario ran around in his head. There would be panic all right, but he would make sure he was well out of the way before that occurred. The nuclear shelter known as Mt. Rockwell in the hills surrounding Washington would be his refuge and his realm. He began to wonder if former President Cash had had a vision when he instigated project Star Flight back in 1980. Worth always knew he was destined to do great things, and now the way to that goal had opened up and he wasted no time summonsing the men he wanted by his side. There would be only two who would know his true intentions, the others would simply obey orders.

One of those two men was General Porter Douglas, a general of lower rank than himself but of equal ambition; the other was his ally in the cabinet, Secretary of State Bob Anderson. It had taken years and many favours under-the-table to gain their loyalty for which he now intended to call in his markers. He was far too canny to rely on loyalty alone, and kept a thick dossier on each man with enough information to sink both careers should they decide to turn on him.

The morning after the President’s meeting, Worth called both these men to his office at the Pentagon and told his aide not disturb them.

Secretary Bob Anderson lounged in the visitors chair opposite Worth’s desk and glared at the coffee in his cup, swirling it around several times before drinking its contents. He didn’t get up when Porter Douglas entered the room and Douglas scowled in his direction. Douglas’s breath rasped and he held his hand to his chest, a habit he’d developed since learning of his heart problem. Worth was sure of his support, as Porter Douglas at 62, was being forced into early retirement, which meant he would have to take a cut in salary, and his years of living like a fat calf would come to an abrupt end.

Douglas’s pinched eyes darkened and he returned Bob Anderson’s frown before sitting in the other chair beside him. The men greeted each other curtly and General Worth pulled a file from his drawer and passed it to Douglas. ‘We had a very interesting meeting with the President yesterday, Douglas.’ He rasped. ‘Read through this while I order some coffee. More for you Anderson?’

‘Yeah. Thanks.’ Anderson replied lighting up a small cigar. He leaned back and silently watched while Douglas read through the report. Smoke from the cigar wafted toward the general who coughed loudly.

Anderson sneered and puffed an extra cloud of smoke toward Douglas.

Douglas sniffed and returned to the report as the aide brought the coffee.

Bob Anderson’s thoughts drifted back to the previous night’s game when he’d dropped a large amount of cash. He’d being doing too much of that lately, and if kept up he would have to sell his Ferrari. He fingered his neat moustache that was beginning to show signs of grey, and worry lines furrowed his smooth brow. He idly tapped his fingers on the desk impatiently wondering why Worth had called this meeting.