The
man’s attire hid nothing about his wealth. But the place he had chosen for this
particular meeting did. His companion-a cop-was befuddled by the claims made,
but then the rich man seemed absolutely certain and was frantically trying to
convince the cop.
“You think he is dead? He is not. He
wants me dead…”
“Why? After all these years…”
It was evident that the cop had his
reservations.
“He and the maniac Agnew planned…”
“Agnew is dead too.”
“You are mistaken…”
“Now if you could explain…”
Before the cop could hear the
explanations, the lights went out.
Then, there was a muffled thud and a
gut wrenching yell.
***
Farther away...
The
Colonel wanted to maintain a calm demeanour in front of his junior who looked
thoroughly disturbed.
“Sit
down, Jonathan.”
“Thank
you, Sir”
He did
not take the seat but his superior continued without taking any notice.
“You
realize that this cannot be solved the usual way… with our fuel crisis?”
“Yes,
Sir”
“Yet
you failed to realize the significance of this getaway…”
Jonathan
remained silent. His superior went on.
“Did
you inform the General?”
“Not
yet, Sir…I wanted to confirm the prisoners’ destination…it took some time”
“Do
not expect the General to be too kind on you. I want you to tell him exactly
what you told me. You can expect an even worse invective, face it.”
“Yes,
Sir… I thought you might…”
“I am
not going to help you on this regard.”
The
young man, keen to avoid eye-contact, still had his eyes firmly fixed on the
floor. The superior took an old file from his cabinet one that was heavily
laden with dust and had a distinctly unpleasant aura which seemed to have no
effect on the man rummaging it. It was not until he found a small paper did he
look at the young man- still was staring at the floor with intent. The young
man responded with a shudder to a rather loud clearing of the throat by the
Colonel.
“Before
meeting the General, I want you to know what OMEGA is capable of”
The
young man accepted the small piece of paper which his superior, who had
lambasted him earlier, gave.
"The
General must know. Every second you delay, hastens OMEGA’s return. You may
leave.”
The
young man left the Colonel’s room. The crumpled bit of paper was from an old
newspaper. It showed a man, whom he recognized was OMEGA. The paper carried his
speech.
Having read it, Jonathan
instantly recognized what having OMEGA back- let alone in power- meant. He
would instantly gain the support of every separatist faction in the world.
Worse, he would incite millions of people with his words rendering himself
immune from direct warfare. The last thing the world needed was OMEGA given a
second chance to finish his endeavor to destabilize the political system.
Jonathan hoped his error would not mark the beginning of the reign of chaos and
sincerely regretted his carelessness. He prepared himself to face the tirade
the General would launch against him in a little while.
***
A few days ago…
The PC based oscilloscope showed wave
patterns Hatridge Terrell could not recognize. For the next few hours, he
intently stared at the patterns while referring to a few thick books as he took
notes in a rather mechanical manner. After he was done-a dozen hours later, he
had a look at the report. It was utterly incomprehensible. He decided to take a
copy to the chief. Anne Scharner, another colleague of his, came out of the
Chief’s room.
She caught his eyes and gave a
tentative nod. The Chief called him in. He explained his boss how a plausible
explanation for the patterns eluded him. The Chief talked in a strangely
subdued voice.
“How long have you been here?”
“3 years, Sir”
“Good. Now erase the data and this
conversation never took place”
He did not understand what the chief
exactly meant but he thought he knew the nature of the interpretations and its
consequences.
He decided to ignore his chief’s words
and took the copy to a renowned scientist, who seemed interested. But his
mistake proved to be too costly.
Three hours later the man was killed.
In the meantime, the chief was left
wondering if a decade had passed since the last time a similar recording was
noted. After going through the register, in secret, he confirmed that every
date he had in the list differed by 10 years almost to the minute.
The last entry was made on 6th
August 1996.
It had been only four years.
***
