The Ripple in Space-Time: Free City Book 1 (The Free City Series) (12 page)

23. Calamity
No one had left the Student Union,
Desiree suddenly realized, even though the meeting had jerked to a halt hours
ago when they had first learned of the calamity.

Her head throbbed with a headache
that felt as if thin, sharp knives were being jammed repeatedly into her skull.
Her eyes were dry and itchy; she and nearly everyone else in the room had run
out of tears long ago.

The video loop of the explosion
began again, she
’
d seen it countless times already but she could
not
turn away.

The unfathomable disaster in East
Africa had caused her poor little sister, Sabra to curl up on the floor next to
her, shaking and whimpering like so many others in the meeting room.

Hours ago, many had wondered out
loud as to who would have done this horrific deed. Now the weary and dumbstruck
group endlessly endured the traumatic reoccurring communal nightmare that the
video loop had come to signify.

Desiree stared at the video screen
and steeled herself again for the replay of the atrocity that had repeated
every twenty-seven seconds for many hours.

From high above and a bit to the
north, an East African weather satellite had, by chance, recorded the disaster
before the immense flash of the explosion had blinded the indifferent robotic
observer.

A few thin clouds hovered to the
south above the plains when a tiny red dot appeared at the left edge of the
screen. The celestial visitor slowly moved about a quarter of the way across
the screen before suddenly dropping out of orbit and racing downward towards
the doomed city.

Desiree flinched just as the red
speck reached the center of the metropolis. A rapidly spreading circle of white
mercilessly consumed the city almost instantly before the satellite camera
failed.

And it was over.

She had no idea when she would be
able to summon some tiny reserve of inner strength to stagger out of the
meeting room and bring an end to the unremitting ordeal.

The video loop restarted.

• • •

The radiation meter was still off
the scale.

Constable Jones stared grimly out
of the thick bulletproof viewport of the antique Armored Personnel Carrier as
he drove slowly through the carnage. A sullen and moody red sun was just rising
over the scorching dusty gray ruins of the Arushan Outer District neighborhood.

He had been trained to use the
heavy old vehicle years ago should disasters arise in the capital city. His
superiors had surmised then that riots, or much less likely, a volcanic
eruption might someday menace the megacity.

But he knew this was neither.

His latest crew of five ragtag
volunteer rescuers sat quietly behind him, likely all contemplating their
certain impending demise. An hour earlier at the comparative safety of the
Armory, they had watched in stunned silence when he returned with the previous
crew of mortally radiation-sickened rescuers and, by then, the three expired
‘survivors’ that had been pried out of the wreckage.

Everyone seemed to sense the
futility of the rescue operation, but the radiation levels were so high that
any attempt to escape by fleeing would certainly be fatal as well.

In a strange twist of luck he had
survived the blast because he had forgotten to salute his Commander when the
pompous old fool had unexpectedly stopped by his office in the early evening.
As punishment for his minor lapse in protocol, the old man had ordered him to
stay late and tend to some filing in the basement Records Room. Although the
building had collapsed around him, he
’
d managed to crawl out.

He
’
d been the only
survivor at the district headquarters and had since put himself in charge of
the hopeless rescue effort. Like most of the residents of Arusha, he was merely
a serf; his life meant nothing.

Three trips earlier, he
’
d spotted a few ghastly looking victims staggering around what he
presumed was the site of the tourist hotel. The crew had spent twenty minutes
collecting the survivors and loading them into the vehicle while he waited
inside. When they reached the Armory, the rescuers were nearly
indistinguishable from the victims.

Unquestionably he too would soon
suffer the same fate.

• • •

“
This will lead to riots,
”
Chief Inspector
Helga Bennet muttered to herself as she sat alone in her somber darkened
office.

She undoubtedly held the dubious
honor of being the first person in Free City to learn of the catastrophe.

It had all started hours ago,
while she was engaged in a heated late evening conference call with Inspector
Second Class Zara Kamchatka in Nairobi and Liaison Agent Hugo Mackillroy in New
Rome regarding the investigation into the assassination of Madame Kufuzu.

Mac had definitely linked the
murder to some sort of plot that was a foot to kill the Warlord of EurAfrica.
He and Zara had been arguing about who would track down a few feeble leads in
Arusha when it happened.

Helga had recalled that the image
on her desktop screen of the wilily woman Inspector in East Africa had
strangely flicked and briefly faded before returning to normal. When the
unusual communication anomaly had passed, Zara had an uncommon look of terror.

“
There was a flash and now the ground is shaking!
”
she
’
d yelled before fleeing.

While Zara was escaping from the
trembling building in Nairobi, Mac had quickly checked the seismic and
satellite information for East Africa and relayed his findings that indeed some
sort of huge blast had occurred in neighboring Arusha.

Helga had notified the Prime
Minister of the disaster shortly afterwards and set about shifting through all
available details. Information quickly surfaced about the extremely high
radiation levels near the blast. Helga sent Zara to the University of Nairobi
and a High Energy Physics Professor there confirmed her fears that most likely
stolen antimatter from the Lunar Lab was to blame for the destruction of the
EurAfrican capital.

In the ensuing hours, Helga had
talked to dozens of Inspectors and Agents on Earth and elsewhere; all reported
the horrified shock and revulsion of the locals upon learning of the sneak
attack.

Disturbingly, several incidences
of vandalism and vicious vigilantly justice had already surfaced in outlying
areas.

24. News Item: Sabbatical for beloved
professor

Dateline: 3rd of August, 2445; Free City University, Free
City, Earth

Free City University
’
s much-idolized Professor Malcolm Evans of the Department of Advanced
Applied Molecular Biology unexpectedly announced today that he would begin an
unscheduled sabbatical effective immediately.

The revered instructor revealed
that he and two associates would be tending to an unusual and pressing new
opportunity at an undisclosed research site in the remote Trojan Asteroid
Field.

School of Biology officials wished
Professor Evans well in his upcoming endeavor and announced that Professor
Suzuki would take over his teaching responsibilities for the rest of the
academic year.

Classes will proceed as normal
beginning next week.

25. Extortion
“
My requirements are modest, for now,
”
the fuzzy video image of Dimitri Verhovnyi continued,
“
I must receive a good faith payment of one million Standard Units from
each of the six fiefdoms by midnight Titan time or I shall let loose further
destruction.
”

Ryo paused the recording that
Helga had forwarded to the
Seiran
and studied his horrified crewmates.
“
The message is three days old.
”

Keira stared at the old
Investigator in panic,
“
Did everyone pay him off in
time?
”

“
Fortunately yes.
”
Ryo glared at the frozen image
of the madman,
“
EurAfrica was the only fiefdom that didn’t comply
immediately; mainly because the capital city is in ruins. To stave off
potential bombardment, the New Roman City Council sent the bribe for their
entire fiefdom.
”

He rubbed his forehead in dismay,
“
Helga said that the Free City Municipal government sent an offering as
well, apparently to avoid any ambiguities that could lead to the fair city
’
s demise.
”

Lev
’
s head slumped
onto Keira's shoulder. He had barely spoken since they had learned of the
catastrophe that had claimed the jewel of EurAfrica.

Ryo sighed,
“
I
’
m sorry to say that there is more.
”
He restarted the recording.

The Outer Reaches Warlord sneered,
“
If anyone should foolishly attempt to circumvent my wishes
or harm me in any way, dozens of these devices will rain upon the fiefdoms in a
most malicious torrent of death.”

The message ended abruptly.

“Could he really have so many
weapons?” Keira asked.

Lev shook his head,
“
No, judging by Carla
’
s original Gravitational
observations, probably only 3 or 4 of the Tau blockbusters.
”

Ryo nodded in agreement.

“
But,
”
Lev added ominously,
“
he may have plenty of the more common and difficult to detect standard
matter/antimatter weapons that were leftover from the Second Amero-Asian War.
”

Ryo stared pensively out at the
rubbly vastness of the Asteroid Belt,
“
I
’
m afraid that
this puts an especially keen edge on our hunt for the pirates and the
Butin
Belle
.
”

“
Right now, we
’
re the only people who could put
an end to this madness.
”

• • •

“
Son of a bitch!
”
Olin Gristle protested loudly
when the message light on the control panel of the
Butin Belle
began to
blink again.
“
How many friggin
’
times is he going to check up
on us?
”

Fortunately due to the time delay
of many hours, the nagging Warlord could not communicate directly with Captain
Gristle.

Olin steadied himself and viewed
the latest of the eight messages that Dimitri Verhovnyi had sent in the past
dozen hours.

“
Gristle, I need those devices now!
”
the Warlord shouted in panic.
“
If someone discovers that I
’
m bluffing...
”
his voice trailed off in despair. Dimitri forced an uneasy
smile,
“
Let me know as soon as they
’
re ready.
”

The Captain shook his head in
contempt, if the Shipjacks had managed to get the
Lightning
to the
rendezvous in the Asteroid Belt on time then his slaves from the lunar lab
would have had more than enough time to build Dimitri
’
s weapons.

After several seconds of
irritation, Gristle deleted the message. He wouldn
’
t even bother to look in on Boz and the slaves on the
Lightning
.

Persistent pestering on behalf of
their jittery employer would not go well with his recalcitrant First Mate.

• • •

“
Yes, Prime Minister,
”
Chief Inspector Helga Bennet
assured the head of the Free City government at the hastily arranged meeting,
“
the Inquisitor
’
s Office is tracking down the
explosives.
”

The venerable leader nodded,
“
We have a second group attempting to covertly stop Dimitri Verhovnyi.
”

Helga
’
s bushy eyebrows arched up,
“
The CRAMP, I assume.
”

“
Indeed; we
’
ve loaned them a particularly
fast prototype interceptor spacecraft.
”
The Prime Minister winced,
“
Let
’
s hope they are successful.
”

• • •

“
With the receipt of the good faith payments, all have
avoided destruction for now,
”
Dimitri derided as he began
recording his second proclamation.

“Each fiefdom must now send an
official delegation to the Titan Palace to pay tribute to my elevated status as
the Supreme Exalted Ruler of All Humanity.
”

He smiled menacingly,
“
Fiefdoms that fail to deliver suitable offerings and envoys shall risk
punishment.
”

The door to his chamber creaked
open.

Dimitri frowned, his concentration
on the extravagant demands had been broken. The Warlord of the Outer Reaches,
recently self-appointed as Supreme Exalted Ruler of All Humanity swiveled
around for the source of the unwelcome interruption.

His slave girl cowered at the door
obviously aware of her unfortunate transgression.

“
GET OUT!
”

The heavy door slammed shut.

Dimitri fumed as he collected
himself.

He restarted the recording,
“
With the receipt of the good faith payments...
”

• • •

“
You will work here,
”
Boz pointed to the
well-equipped maintenance compartment.

Jana nodded as she appraised the
facility located off of the labyrinth of passageways somewhere in the huge
robotic space tanker.
“
Where do we get parts and
supplies?
”

The First Mate spread his hands,
“
Scrounge whatever you want from this heap. We
’
ve got three and a half trillion Units of stolen hardware here that ain
’
t never gonna be seen again.
”
He smirked at his lone
prisoner,
“
You and your friends will of course have a grouchy pirate
or two tagging along when you hunt for parts.
”

“
Naturally,
”
Jana nodded.

They drifted into the workroom.

“
What is it that you would like for us to build, Boz?
”

The First Mate tapped on a wall
mounted display screen and a see-through image of a small and sturdy looking
sphere appeared.

Jana studied the image of the
complex device for many minutes. She pointed at the tiny speck in the center of
mechanism,
“
This is anti-tau iron.
”

“
You
’
re not as stupid as you look,
”
the pirate mocked.

Just as Jana had feared, she and
the others were now expected to create an unimaginably destructive miniature
weapon.
“
Where are we going to find tau iron?
”

“
We brought it all with us from the moon lab, sweetheart,
”
he gloated.

• • •

The trio onboard the
Seiran
had spent twelve grueling hours scanning the miniscule sector of the Asteroid
Belt for any signs of gravitational abnormalities and the elusive
Butin
Belle
.

Ryo looked up hopefully at Keira
as she concentrated on the wide sweep radar screen.
“
Anything?
”

She shook her head in dismay.

“
Lev?
”
the old Inspector called back
to the young man awkwardly pressed into the tightly packed gravitational survey
compartment that had been hastily added to the ship.

“
Nothing.
”

Ryo slumped in defeat. All of
humanity depended on their uncertain luck in locating and stopping the
fugitives and hopefully retrieving the stolen antimatter.

Keira stared at him
sympathetically.
“
If I was going to hide out from the law,
”
she pointed at the vast and slowly tumbling multitude of mountain-sized
boulders that stretched out beyond the porthole,
“
I
’
d do it out there.
”