The Prometheus Effect (8 page)

Public Announcement: There has been an incident. The public are in no immediate danger. You are requested to remain in your homes and await further instructions. Information will be broadcast when it is available. It is recommended that you do not travel at this time. Remain in your homes until you are instructed otherwise. More to follow.

There was a stunned silence in the office. Joshua looked over to his right where several people were weeping.

“
This is crazy. What the hell is this? What a ridiculous announcement. It doesn't say anything. The only thing
that
is going to do is incite panic!” Sarah said waving her arms around.

“
Give it five minutes and there will be people tearing through the streets looting. There's going to be anarchy.” She continued.
She was probably right
thought Joshua as he slumped down upon an office chair which bounced under his weight.

“
Here comes the cavalry.” Someone called out from the window. Joshua walked over to the vast glass panel and looked out over the street where a number of army vehicles powered through beeping their horns loudly as they went.

“
Are we talking martial law here?” He said, thinking out loud.

“
At least they're here to protect us from the masses.” Another reporter said cynically. Past experience had taught them that the public did not need much of an excuse to initiate a riot.

“
Are we under attack?” A tall young man asked as he stood with his palms against the window.

“
I can't see it myself. Who would have the capability of killing off our networks like this and how do you explain that?” Joshua said as he pointed to the fierce red sky.

“
I don't think anyone knows what the hell is going on, even the government.” He continued expressing himself bravely.

“
Perhaps Deacon's pissed off too many people.” Sarah said, cynically directing her anger towards the Prime Minister who had not had an easy run of it of late.

“
It's the damn Chinese. The whole red sky thing is a calling card.” Joshua remarked in jest although others may have read more than a little in to it.

“
We need to get to a damn TV station or even a local radio, find out what the fuck is going on.” Sarah said forcefully. She was right in a sense, it would at least answer the question of why they could not broadcast.

“
I'll go.” Joshua said putting himself forward.

“
You'll need a car.” Sarah wisely noted Joshua's lack of transport. Throwing him a bunch of keys, it was quickly agreed that Joshua would tackle the local commercial radio station, 'Thames Talk' which had their offices in Camden.

“
It may be that they are broadcasting but the signal is being lost, I expect they are also in the dark the same as us!” Joshua said as he made his way to the car park.

“
Josh?” Sarah called out halting him in his tracks.

“
Be careful.”

CHAPTER NINE

Niemechek Residence, Orlando, Florida

November 14
^th
2020

Roger Coffey sat nervously upon the long upholstered sofa clutching a large glass of red wine. Jill sat at the other end of the sofa, her glass long since emptied. It was late. They had talked long into the small hours of the morning, remembering Paul, discussing their collective experiences with him throughout the past ten years. Roger looked at Jill and remembered the way she looked when he had first met her when they were both still in the Air Force. They were sweethearts then but people change. Roger never begrudged Paul, they were a perfect couple and Paul was always contented to have Roger around despite their well known history.

Jill's living room was large and plush. The sofa's matched the wallpaper, the wooden furniture was all the same shade of deep red brown mahogany and several up-lighters gave the room a comfortable feel that was homely and warm. Jill was in her early forties and had given up work when Paul went to NASA. She did not want for much, her children got the best of her attention and she was an active and proud parent to two girls, nine and eleven.

Roger had not planned on staying so late. It was only meant to be a fleeting visit. He wanted to know that Jill was coping with the horrendous events of the past week. He did not even mentioned his accident at first. He was too concerned for Jill, plus in his mind he needed to know what might have driven Paul to take his own life.

Feeling a little vindicated to know that Paul had no hidden depression or worries, Jill revealed that Paul had in fact just bought the family tickets to Disneyland the previous day and had been discussing taking leave in the summer. Roger had been suspicious from the start when he was delivered the Director's verdict on Paul's state of mind. Roger did not even want to consider an alternative to his boss' verdict, to do so would open a whole can of worms.

“
Did I mention that I crashed the car on the way over?” Roger asked, despite knowing that he had not talked about it previously.

“
Oh my God, you're OK though? What happened?” Jill's eyes were glazed and her speech slightly slurred. Her accent was unusual, her English heritage was tinged with the American twang, a product of emigration earlier in her life. Roger did not know if this was the most appropriate time to be raising his suspicions.

“
Brakes failed.” He replied succinctly.

“
God, that must have been terrifying. Were you going fast at the time?”

“
Yeah, well enough to give me a scare.” Coffey was modest sort.

“
But your car, it's beautiful, how did that happen?” Jill was putting a brave face on her recent grief by taking great interest in others.

“
Well, to be honest I don't know. It looks like the brake line had a major leak and I lost a lot of fluid whilst parked up at Kennedy.”

“
Jesus, you were lucky then? Sounds a bit suspicious, you haven’t been annoying anyone have you?” Jill laughed but Rogers face brought her to a curious silence.

“
What? You don't think...”

“
I don't know. I have a suspicion, no, a feeling that something isn't right at work. The mission was hell. Nothing I want to talk about but...” Roger tailed off, he was thinking that he had better quit whilst he was ahead.

“
Oh no, Roger. I know that face, I know you too well. You're not the one for exaggeration. Are you in trouble?” Jill was clearly concerned and she placed her hand upon his. He took her cold, bony fingers and warmed them in his hot palm.

“
You know, I just can't believe Paul would have gone without some kind of message, some kind of firm reason for giving up. You know him, it's totally out of character.”

Jill nodded and pursed her lips. She swept back the long straight, mousey coloured hair from her face and stared into the distance.

“
You know I never considered that it could have been anything else. Why would anyone want to hurt Pauly?”

Roger was still remembering Janus' words in the lounge, the sinister warning and the consequences of disobeying the directive of silence.

“
Jill. I believe there may be some kind of conspiracy. I think Paul may have been involved somehow.”

Jill's face dropped and her mouth gaped open.

“
You know Paul has never broke the law in his entire life, there's no reason why anyone would want to hurt him.” Jill said defensively.

“
No, I know that. That's exactly the reason why I think that someone wanted to keep him quiet. Paul was the most straight up guy I ever met.”

There was a quiet moment of reflection as they both thought hard about the theory.

“
And you think that your car was tampered with?” She asked playing devil's advocate.

“
I think it's a major possibility.”

Jill reeled at the thought of losing Roger as well.

“
Oh my God.” She uttered slowly, whispering.

“
So what's the connection?” Jill asked wisely, if there was a conspiracy then there would be a common theme. Roger must know something that could be dangerous to someone in a position of power.

“
I have a vague idea. Nothing I want to talk about though. I don't want to put you in any danger.”

“
What Roger, tell me. Something to do with work?” Jill was insistent.

“
Let's just say it maybe something to do with the recent mission. I don't know what Paul signed up for but it was obviously something he didn’t agree with. Look...we should not talk about this anymore, at least until I figure out something more tangible. Just to be safe, give me a call every day, check no one is following you, keep an eye out for anything suspicious.”

“
My God, do you realise what you're saying? If they have tried to kill you then they may try again!”

“
Maybe, but at least I’ll know that it's coming this time. I'll be careful.”

Jill squeezed Roger's hand tightly. She could not bear losing him as well.

“
I should go. Christ it's almost time to get up! It's like, nearly 5AM. I'd better go before your neighbours get up or there will be rumours.”

“
Yeah, you're telling me. Next door would have a heart attack seeing you leave this late only a few days after...”

“
I know.”

Roger collected his soft leather jacket and went to leave. Jill stopped him and clung to him tightly.

“
Please be careful. Let me know if you find out anything.” Roger nodded and walked slowly to the front door.

“
Call me.” He reiterated as he opened the white panelled portal. As he did so, he looked back at Jill only to see her face, pale and in shock. Realising something was very wrong, Roger poked his head outside and realised the magnitude of the cause behind Jill's disbelief.

“
My God.” Roger muttered as he looked upon the dark, red dawn that greeted the American population.

“
What the hell is wrong with the sky?” Jill whined as the surreal image brought about a highly emotional response.

Roger could not speak. His astonishment lasted only a few seconds and then his scientific mind began to go to work. He walked out on to the lawn which had become overgrown in Paul's absence and looked up to the heavens. It was only then he realised how very quiet the world had become.

CHAPTER TEN

Thames Talk Commercial Radio Station

Camden, London

November 14
^th
2020

Joshua revelled in the desolation of the streets as he drove with some haste to the radio station. Annoyingly, he was still stopped periodically by red lights despite there being few other vehicles on the road and even fewer pedestrians. He was tempted to jump them but despite the lack of normality, he was not about to flagrantly transgress the laws of the land just because something out of the ordinary had transpired.

Unsurprisingly, his sat-nav system had also suffered in the red dawn, it complained incessantly as it searched for its GPS location but with no success. Where had the satellites gone? Finding the small commercial station in the heart of Camden was not easy. Eventually he stopped a passing pedestrian who wandered shell shocked along the street with seemingly no awareness of the bulletins message. The young man pointed vaguely in the direction that Joshua had just arrived from and the reporter tutted and swung the car round with a little excessive throttle causing the tyres to squeal.