2041 Sanctuary (Let There Be Light) (43 page)

‘No one is above the law.’

Joiner chuckled. ‘Ah, dear me, you really don’t know how the world works, do you, child? You see, when you have power such as I wield the rules of the masses don’t apply. The higher up you go, the more power you have, the less rules you have until, finally, you realise, the rules are as you make them. For those on the outside, who’ve lived their lives chained by these laws, I can see how that can be hard to comprehend.’ He leaned toward the screen as if taking them into his confidence. ‘I can tell you, though, the experience is quite liberating.’

‘Malcolm Joiner,’ Bic said, ‘we know the world’s resources are being taken into your subterranean bases. Your secrets are unravelling and soon I will have them all.’

The intelligence director appeared unaffected by the hacker’s admission.

‘I have already located USSB Steadfast and EUSB Deutschland,’ Bic continued. ‘It is only a matter of time before we uncover the rest. And when that happens I will disclose the information worldwide.’

‘Considering your current company,’ Joiner said, ‘I thought your knowledge would have been far greater. Isn’t that so, Professor?’

Jessica turned to see Professor Steiner staring down at his clasped hands while his body trembled.

‘Come, Professor, I would have thought you of all people would have something to say to me.’

The professor didn’t respond, failing even to look up.

Malcolm Joiner laughed. ‘Oh, how the mighty fall. I’m sure, no, I know, the company you’re keeping must boil your blood – Professor Steiner working with the terrorist he so despises. The irony!’

Jessica saw the old man’s jaw clench in anger as he shook and twitched with increasing violence.

‘Your position really is between a rock and a hard place, isn’t it, Professor? You’re powerless. How does it feel to be so impotent? I find it hard to imagine. I guess Nathan Bryant could tell you, or should that be
could
have
told you.’

Professor Steiner remained in a state of tremorous flux, immobilised.

‘Did you hear about the explosion on the news, Professor?’ Joiner continued. ‘Although how could you, you were in prison. Some said it measured over six on the Richter scale. They said it was strange as the epicentre of the quake was located on the Colorado and New Mexican border, near a town called Dulce. Ring any bells?’ Joiner paused, waiting for a response. When none came he resumed his monologue. ‘When those in Steadfast tried to fight their way out I had to take steps. You understand? They were a diversion I could no longer afford. The nuclear bomb we dropped on them wasn’t that large, although I heard it created quite a substantial crater on the surface.’

Professor Steiner was looking up now, his eyes ablaze with fury and hate.

‘There he is,’ Joiner said. ‘I thought that might get your attention. I guess you’re wondering why? Why sacrifice such a significant investment? There were a variety of reasons, most of which I’d have thought you’d have worked out by now with that big brain of yours. I suppose I might as well tell you, what harm can it do? If the truth you unearthed had come out, Steadfast’s half a million residents would have been moved to another base, a base we both know is too valuable to become overcrowded. Secondly, there were—’

‘I know what you’re doing, Malcolm Joiner,’ Bic said, ‘but your efforts will be in vain.’

‘Will they now; our trace is almost complete.’

‘And yet so is mine.’

A smile crept across Joiner’s face. ‘Is it? Tell me where I am and I’ll let you know if you’re getting warm.’

‘You are in the state of New York – no – wait, Washington … or—’

‘You don’t sound too sure.’

‘Jessica,’ Bic said, ‘you must leave. They’ve found you!’

Joiner approached the camera until his face filled the screen. ‘You’re wrong, hacker, I’ve found you all!’

Chapter Forty Nine

The image of Malcolm Joiner disappeared to be replaced by a stream of coding.

‘Eric,’ Bic said, ‘they’ve overcome my defences. I need your help, we need to divert their trace. Quickly!’

Eric rushed forward and pulled a keyboard from the wall. He looked at the code. ‘What do you want me to do?!’

‘Follow my lead on-screen; I need you to work fast.’

Eric gazed ahead, fingers tapping at the keys.

‘But you told us to get out?!’ Jessica said.

‘He hasn’t found you yet, Jessica Klein,’ Bic said, ‘but soon, very soon.’

Jessica watched in frustrated fear, unable to help her young German friend with his task.

Malcolm Joiner’s image reappeared in the corner of the wall display. ‘You might as well give up; I know you’re in Chile,’ Joiner put a finger to his ear as if listening to instruction, ‘in the north east. The Pacific Fleet already has bombers in the air.’

‘You need to work faster, Eric,’ Bic said, his tone urgent.

‘
Ich kann es nicht, ich bin zu langsam!’

‘You can do it, Eric,’ Bic said, ‘concentrate.’

An alarm sounded on the screen.

‘
Scheisse
!’ Eric raised his hands in anguish. ‘It’s no good, there’s too much!’

A calloused hand grasped his shoulder and Eric looked up into the face of Professor Steiner.

‘Four hands are better than two.’ The professor sat down next to him with another keyboard and joined their defence, his fingers a blur as they flew over the user interface.

The clatter of keys filled the air and Jessica held her breath.

Seconds dragged by like minutes, then the code vanished and Joiner’s image filled the screen once more. He smiled at them. ‘Time’s up.’

Another image appeared – grey footage of the ground from high above. In two of the corners numerical values fluctuated in value, while crosshairs in the middle traced the surface as it flowed past beneath.

‘We need to move!’ Brett shouted.

Professor Steiner turned round to meet Jessica’s eyes, his expression one of despair. ‘I’m sorry, it’s too late.’

A massive cluster of radio telescope dishes came into view on-screen.

The missile homed in on its target and everything went black.

Chapter Fifty

‘Is he still awake?’

Rebecca lifted her head. ‘I think so.’

‘And Kara kicked him out?’

‘That’s what he said.’

‘Sounds serious.’

Rebecca thought so too.

Julie snuggled back under her cover. ‘Poor guy, you’d think with his depression she’d give him a break.’

‘Yeah, you would.’ Rebecca lay back down, wondering if there was something she could say that could ease Richard’s suffering. Unable to think of anything, she closed her eyes and let the sounds of those that slept around her ease her back into the land of dreams.

♦

Richard Goodwin sat on the floor of Rebecca’s tent, a tiny light by his side enabling him to view the photographs laid out in front of him. His confusion and frustration at Kara’s actions had long since left him; now he only had time for the problem in hand – how to help those in camp escape from their infernal underground tomb. And to do that, he had to solve the riddle before him. He turned his attention back to the photo of the Anakim frieze. Picking it up, his eyes followed the line of the metallic pentagram that had been woven into the granite sculpture.

On instinct he removed a marker pen from his shirt pocket and traced red lines over the image to fill in the symbol’s missing gaps and render the pentagram complete.
What had Kara said? If you look for something long enough, you’ll find it
. Perhaps her words hadn’t been a coincidence. Perhaps it was a message for him to follow.

He stared at the picture a while longer, then switched to his compilation of photographs of the constellation carvings. He saw something that looked familiar and picked up the frieze photo again. His brows furrowed before a spark of recognition sent his heart racing. He picked up his portable computer and expanded its screen. Bringing up the image of the lake’s outline he’d discovered hidden in the carvings compilation, he inserted all the inscriptions, lines and pictograms back into the photographic mosaic. And then, one by one, he removed them again, leaving in any straight lines and the outline of the lake itself, which he’d compared to the Darklight version to produce a solid line.

He gazed at the image he’d created:

The shape surrounded by the lake’s outline had segments missing, just like the missing segment in the Anakim’s Libra constellation.
Another clue, perhaps, or just a coincidence?

He returned his attention to the photo of the frieze and the Nephilim, with the great flood depicted behind and the map of the galaxy in the corner. The pentagram that he’d previously traced in red pen leapt out at him. This was no coincidence. Powering up the netcube, which he’d managed to grab before Kara chucked anything else at him, he typed in the term
pentagon
. Selecting the first result, he found what he was looking for. A regular pentagon was made up of five equal sides.

He turned back to his computer’s screen and switched his pen round to use the digital scribe on the other end and filled in the gaps to get another image.

He activated the measuring tool and, using the length of the first edge as a guide, extended the other two lines to match. Referring back to the results from his net search, he saw that all regular pentagons had the same interior angle between each edge, one hundred and eight degrees. Creating the correct angle, he then added the final two sides.

Believing he was on to something, he snatched up the photo of the frieze and turned it upside down. The same regular shaped pentagon made up the centre of the pentagram:

‘This is beyond coincidence,’ Goodwin murmured. ‘Something is in the lake.’

Chapter Fifty One

A ripple of water lapped over the edge of the raft, sending rivers of dark liquid running between black timbers. The long dead trees that had once populated the Anakim chamber had proved their worth time and again, and yet even their usefulness had its limits.