End of Days (3 page)

“Switzerland. You really don’t understand the implications of your theory, do you?”

Sheppard blankly shook his head.

“Each person working in isolation holds a small piece of the puzzle. Have you heard the story of the three blind men who were asked to describe an elephant? One held its leg and said the elephant was like a tree. The second held the tail and said it was like a snake. And the one who was touching its side said it was like a rock wall. If they had been able to see, or if they’d bothered to speak to one another, they would have come up with a better answer.”

“Obviously you are saying that I don’t see the whole picture,” Sheppard said.

“You will soon understand the full implications of that spacecraft getting closer to Earth, and it is not only—”

“I’m still going over my figures,” the professor said. “I have to make sure that there was no mistake.”

“There was no mistake. Your figures are correct. But what is more significant than the spacecraft itself is what will accompany it when it arrives in slightly less than twenty-four years.”

“How do you know about my most recent calculations?” Sheppard demanded, suddenly feeling protective of his research. “You were dead … I mean, gone long before I came to that conclusion, and I have kept my figures completely secret. I didn’t want to release any findings until I was absolutely certain.”

Markell laughed. “Your computer has been linked to our computers. Your phone calls have been monitored, your laboratory bugged. And where do you think the financing for all your work came from?”

“From here … from this Aerospace Institute?”

“You were working for the institute long before you were invited to come here. We were all working together without even realizing it.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why I was taken, why all of your deaths were faked—”

“Why
your
death was faked.”

“My death … my God, that’s right … everybody will think I’m dead.”

“One of the advantages is getting the opportunity to read your own obituaries. I think you’ll fare well. You have numerous scientific awards and an excellent research background, and you’re the author of three books—not to mention that nomination for that Nobel Prize. You will be remembered for your outstanding contributions to science.”

“But my family … my mother and sister … her children … my friends … they’ll think I’m
dead.”
He felt a sudden wave of anger. “Who’s behind this? They can’t just kidnap people and pretend they’re dead.”

“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but actually they can. Can and have, on numerous occasions. You’ll soon learn that there is practically nothing they can’t do, either
for
you or
to
you.”

The professor felt a renewed surge of fear that drove away his stunted anger.

“Cup of tea?” Markell filled the kettle in the room’s small kitchen. “Don’t worry, Daniel, you will be treated kindly. And even better, you will be provided with every resource your research could possibly require. Tell me, what has been the purpose of your life?”

Sheppard was at a loss and struggled to provide an answer. “That is certainly a much deeper question than I can answer at a moment’s notice.”

“Doesn’t your life revolve around your research?” Markell asked. “Isn’t it the focal point of your thoughts, your actions, and your hopes? Isn’t it why you never married or had children or pursued even the faintest semblance of a hobby?”

“Well, of course I live for my work and—”

“Here you will be free to pursue your research. You will not have to cook or clean house, be driven to work, contend with traffic jams or telemarketers. If you need something for your research,
anything
, you’ll simply have to ask and it will appear, almost like magic.”

He thought about that. In some ways it did seem so desirable, so positive, so good … but still …

“I don’t understand. Why did they kill us … I mean, stage our deaths? Why did they come for me in the middle of the night and drag me from my bed?”

“They felt they had no choice. They couldn’t risk leaving you out there in the world to report what you suspect, what you
know
, and they couldn’t risk the chance of you refusing their offer to join the program.”

“Is that what you call it, an offer?”

“Consider it an offer you couldn’t refuse.” Markell laughed again. “It makes them sound like gangsters, which they’re not.”

“But who are they?”

“I think it’s best that I allow them to answer. Daniel, you do still take five sugars in your tea, don’t you?” he asked as he walked back to the professor carrying two steaming mugs.

Sheppard nodded as he accepted the tea. “Andrew, I just don’t know you can be so matter-of-fact about all of this. You’re acting as if we simply bumped into each other at the corner market or you invited me over for a drink. Doesn’t this all seem absurd to you?”

“Absurd, yes, but you have to remember that I’ve been here for over six months, so the uniqueness has worn off a
bit. At this point my daily routine is not dissimilar to my workday at the university. Besides, like you, I left practically nobody behind. It’s been harder for people like Dr. McMullin.”

Sheppard thought back to McMullin’s funeral and remembered his wife at the grave, two small children crying for their father.

“His family doesn’t know he’s alive?”

“It is difficult, but he has learned that it is far less dangerous for his children to believe that he is dead.”

“You don’t mean that they would … these people would kill his children?”

“No, I don’t believe they would do that.”

“You don’t
believe?”
the professor exclaimed.

Andrew shrugged his shoulders.

“I can’t fathom how you can be so calm, Markell. These people stole me from my bed in the middle of the night, and now, according to you, they have told the world, told all the people I know and care for, all those who care for me, that I am dead. They have brought me to who knows where to do who knows what. And it is almost as if you have been brainwashed into somehow believing that all of this is right.”

Andrew didn’t answer at once.

“Daniel, I know what you’re feeling. And you have every right to feel, think, and say it. The difference is that I
understand
why we are here. You really do need to see the whole elephant.” He paused. “But it’s not my place to explain.”

“Then whose place is it?”

Markell gestured to a large mirror next to the door at the end of the room—a mirror Sheppard hadn’t noticed.

Seconds later, the door opened and a woman and a man entered the room, followed close behind by four men—the men who had kidnapped Sheppard. No, these were
different
men, albeit dressed identically, right down to the dark sunglasses hiding their eyes.

The professor felt his blood chill. He had to assume that the mirror was two-way, used for observation. These people had obviously heard everything he’d said.

The man and woman took seats at the table at the end of the room, and the four men stood silently, two at each end. There were two seats left empty.

“You’re about to get your answers,” Markell said.

Sheppard was reassured and frightened at the same time. He was no longer sure he wanted those answers.

Andrew guided him by the arm and the two men slipped into the seats.

“We’ll start with introductions. My name is Dr. Hay,” the woman began.

“And I am Donahue,” the man said.

“We would like to apologize for the manner in which you were brought here,” Hay said. “We realize it was somewhat disconcerting.”

Sheppard, against his own will, laughed.
“Disconcerting
is not the word you would have chosen if you’d ever had the experience of being hauled out of your bed by armed men, thrown in a car, and then flown halfway across the world!”

Both smiled. Not the reaction he’d been expecting.

“Professor Sheppard, how do you think
we
arrived?” Hay asked.

“And because we experienced exactly what you experienced, we understand your distress, and we offer a sincere apology,” Donahue added.

“An apology does not change the fact that I have been kidnapped and am being held here against my will.”

“Kidnapped
is such a strong term,” Hay replied. “We would like you to consider yourself a very honoured guest.”

“A guest?” Sheppard couldn’t believe his ears. “Does that mean I’m free to leave?”

He started to get to his feet, but Andrew reached out and took his arm.

“Let them talk, Daniel … please.”

He slowly eased back into his chair.

“I can appreciate your need for an explanation, and we wish only to provide that, so please let me continue,” Hay requested calmly. “We sit in the boardroom of the
International Aerospace Research Institute. This agency was created only four years ago, and its existence has been kept completely secret. So secret, in fact, that even those being funded to conduct research are unaware of their funding source. Each person in this project—including you—has been conducting research that has been directed and funded by this agency. You and all the others have been unknowing associates of this agency and have been working toward its goals.”

“Whether you funded my research or not, you have no right to do what you have done,” protested Sheppard.

“That’s where you’re wrong. We have every right to do exactly what we have done. We have full authorization.”

“No one has the authority to do that!” he protested.

“No one
had
such authority until our inception. Now this agency has the power to … shall we say,
enlist
staff, as well as many additional powers,” Hay noted with a firm but friendly tone.

“You’re saying that you have the right to kidnap a person?”

“Yes.”

“Next thing you’ll be telling me you have the right to take the life of anybody you please,” Sheppard said.

Neither answered, and that silence was chilling.

“Let me ask you a question, Professor Sheppard,” Donahue said. “Do you think that all human life is sacred?”

“Of course I do.”

“And is each life equally important?” he asked.

“Theoretically, of course.”

“So your life is no more valuable than that of any other person. Correct?”

“That would be the logical position.”

“And if there was an opportunity to save either the life of one man or the lives of ten, which would be the logical choice to make?” Donahue asked.

“Ten lives, of course.”

“How about one life or the lives of a million?”

“The million,” Sheppard answered.

“So there’s no doubt in your mind that your individual life would not be as important as the lives of a billion or two billion or eight billion other human beings?”

“Now you’re just being facetious,” Sheppard said.

“He’s not,” Hay replied. “You are here because there are billions of lives at stake, and you are one of those who holds the key to their very survival.”

“That’s ridiculous. I can’t see how—”

“Daniel, let him explain,” Markell said, putting a hand on the professor’s shoulder. “Just
listen.”

Sheppard silently nodded.

“You and many others have been working independently, and in isolation. This was by design. As long as you moved forward with your research, and there was no risk of you revealing the results, you were allowed to continue in this way.”

“So I am here because I was going to publish.”

“You’re here because of
what
you were going to publish, and the potential reaction to that knowledge becoming public,” Hay explained.

“I still can’t see how the return of a long-lost space explorer is of such consequence.”

“Can you please tell me, in a few words, your findings?” Donahue asked.

“According to what I’ve been told, you are already well aware of my results, but regardless, in brief, the space explorer, which was launched over thirty years ago and left our solar system over fifteen years ago, has miraculously reappeared, sending radio signals back to Earth.”

“Miraculous indeed,” Hay agreed.

“Having plotted those signals over the past two years I have been able to project, with a fairly high degree of mathematical probability, that the explorer is returning home. It will, on some day twenty-four years hence, make a close pass by the planet of its origin, Earth.”

“And to what factor or causal event do you attribute the return of the explorer?” Hay asked. “What caused it to reverse its course and plot its way back to our solar system?”

“That is well beyond my area of expertise,” Sheppard admitted. “There might be numerous factors, though, certainly.”

“Perhaps if you had more information, you could reduce numerous possible events to one probable event,” Donahue suggested. “Are you aware that the explorer is programmed to maintain a positional lock on Earth?”

“That would only make sense. How else would it be able to send back signals, either during its initial stage of exploration or subsequently upon its re-emergence? That would be the only reason we are even aware that it’s returning.”

“What you are
not
aware of, however, is the fact that we receive those signals on a regular basis—approximately every seventeen hours.”

“Seventeen hours … but that makes no sense. Any interference from another planetary body would be sporadic. It wouldn’t be at any regular interval. The only thing that could possibly explain such a phenomenon would be that the explorer is somehow in an—” He stopped. He felt as if the blood had all rushed from his body, leaving him light-headed.

“Yes,” Hay confirmed, “there is only one possible answer: the space probe, the one on course to approach Earth, is in orbit around a large planetary object.”

“But … how large an object?”

“There are too many unknown variables, including orbital speed and height, making precise calculations almost impossible. But obviously this object has to be of sufficient mass to have captured the ship in its gravitational pull.”

“To do that, it would have to be at least two hundred kilometres in diameter,” Sheppard said, answering his own question. “But that would mean …” He couldn’t bring himself to finish the sentence.