The Fusion Cage

XVIII

The desert was cold in the pale light of pre — dawn, the horizon a sharply defined line of blackness against a flawless deep blue. Ethan rode in silence alongside Lopez, following a line of militants making their way across the trackless wastes like shadowy demons traversing the barren plains of hell. Stars sparkled above them in the vault of the heavens, and the silence was broken only by the occasional snort from one of the splendid Arab horses as they climbed a dune at a gentle gradient.

As Ethan’s mount crested the dune’s ridge he could see in the distance a feint line crossing the endless expanses of the desert, a metalled road linking Riyadh and Damman, both cities beyond sight but marked by the glow of their lights against the horizon.

The plan was simple. Huck Seavers always travelled as part of an armed convoy, the cautious American always mindful of the risk of abduction for ransom. The militants would set up a staggered ambush, attacking the convoy from both in front and behind and pinning the vehicles in a cross fire. Amber would then be extracted and spirited away into the lonely deserts, far from the reach of Huck Seavers. Or so the militants figured, with the brash arrogance of those fighting with a god supposedly on their side.

Ethan had extensive experience of the ability of the US military to probe deep into even the most inhospitable of terrain using UAVs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, capable of deploying Hellfire missiles and staying aloft for days at a time. With Saudi Arabia such a close ally and themselves deploying US military aircraft and drones, the idea that anybody could simply vanish into the wilderness was fast becoming a thing of the past.

‘You know we’re going to have to high — tail it out of here, even if we do get hold of Amber?’ he whispered to Lopez as they rode.

‘I know,’ she replied. ‘We can’t trust the natives as far as we can throw them. The question is, where? Can Jarvis deploy anything to get us out of the immediate area? Can we even get hold of him out here?’

Ethan rested one hand on his satchel, which contained a satellite phone Jarvis had supplied them with before they had left Chicago.

‘Probably, but I don’t doubt that the Saudis will detect the call. There won’t be much time before they vector military assets onto our position, and we won’t be able to get far before jets arrive.’

Lopez nodded and glanced at the militants. ‘They’ve survived out here for long enough with the Saudi authorities breathing down their necks. Maybe they’ve got something up their sleeves that we don’t know about?’

Ethan shrugged as they rode on toward the metalled road. It was true that despite having tremendous firepower behind them the combined might of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines had effectively failed in Iraq and Afghanistan in quelling an enemy familiar with its terrain and fuelled by an unholy determination to repel the “infidels”. Numbers and local knowledge had effectively trumped superior technology and firepower even on the modern battlefield, the ephemeral nature of militant groups hard to combat, tough to bring out into open battle. Where one force was struck down, three more emerged in their place. The brutality of the suicide bomber was impossible to predict, the cruelty of the Islamic militants so terrifying that few military folk could predict just what their limits were, knowing only that they would not stop, ever.

Saudi Dawn had planned an armed attack on a convoy belonging to an American company, and Ethan was acutely aware that he was effectively assisting them. It was only his knowledge of the corruption at the heart of Seavers Incorporated that compelled him to continue with the mission.

‘I don’t care,’ he said finally to Lopez. ‘We need to break off from these guys as soon as we can and get the hell out of Saudi Arabia.’

‘Done and done,’ Lopez agreed.

Ethan spurred his horse up alongside Stanley Meyer’s. ‘So, are you going to tell me that this is all worth it, that we’re doing the right thing, that the world will be powered for free if this device of yours goes public?’

‘I’m hoping so,’ Stanley replied. ‘Things aren’t going exactly to plan though.’

‘From what I’ve heard about cold fusion, they never have.’

‘It’s not cold fusion,’ Stanley uttered angrily. ‘It’s Low Energy Nuclear Reactions.’

‘If you say so.’

‘Look,’ Stanley persisted, ‘cold fusion has become a byword for pseudoscience, but they clearly witnessed something or the scientists behind it would not have dared to go public. Those still researching the subject think that rather than nuclear fusion, what Fleischmann and Pons really observed was the conversion of one element into another, a transmutation that releases energy in the process: a low energy nuclear reaction.’

‘You mean like alchemy, lead into gold? You can’t be serious?’

‘I’m serious,’ Stanley said, ‘and so is NASA. Both their Langley Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory are studying the conversion of stable elements like nickel, carbon, and hydrogen to produce stable products like copper or nitrogen, along with heat and electricity. They have already demonstrated the ability to produce excess amounts of energy, cleanly, without hazardous ionizing radiation and waste.’

‘And that’s the same process your fusion cages uses?’ Ethan asked.

‘Precisely the same, except I’ve added a fuel cell that massively increases the yeild,’ Stanley explained. ‘I’ve calculated that just one percent of the nickel mined each year around the world could produce the entire world’s energy requirements at a quarter of the cost of coal, if my fusion cage was adopted globally.’

Ethan blinked, surprised at how plausible the whole thing sounded.

‘Doesn’t that mean you’re in a race against NASA?’ he asked.

‘In a sense. They’ll wish to commercialize the technology, whereas I wish to give it away. The science isn’t even that radical. NASA researchers rely heavily on the Widom — Larsen Theory published in 2006, which speculates that low energy nuclear reactions already occur on Earth in lightning, and may be responsible for occasional fires in lithium — ion batteries, which highlights that even low — energy nuclear reactors can produce dangerous amounts of energy. I’ve heard of several explosions in laboratories researching this LENR technology, which is another danger.’

‘What’s that?’

‘Like any energy source, they could easily be weaponized in the wrong hands,’ Stanley replied.

The interior of the SUV was plush, black leather and dark wood panelling with chrome trim. Through the tinted windows the sunrise was visible breaking across the distant desert wastes, the whisper of the SUV’s tires on the asphalt road distant as though Amber were in a dream, all sound muted and vague.

‘As soon as we get you to Damman, you’ll be safe. To be brutally honest few women are safe in this country, especially Americans.’

Amber turned from the panoramic view to look at Huck Seavers, who was sitting in the opposite seat with his hat in his lap and watching her with interest.

‘You call this safe? Abduction?’

‘Liberation,’ Huck corrected her without taking offence. ‘You were under attack from protesters, and I can’t imagine what would have happened had they gotten hold of you.’

‘They got hold of Ethan and Nicola,’ Amber shot back. ‘I don’t suppose you’re concerned about what happened to them?’

‘They’re adults and they’re journalists, always poking their noses where they don’t belong,’ Huck snapped dismissively. ‘I had my people track them down to a lousy two — bit bail bondsmen service operating out of Chicago, Illinois. They haven’t been within a hundred miles of the Defense Intelligence Agency and they’re fools for having brought you here. I won’t be happy until you’re back in America.’

‘Like you care,’ Amber muttered and turned back to looking at the sunrise.

‘You’ve got me all wrong,’ Huck insisted.

‘Sure I have.’

‘You think I’m the bad guy in all this, but for no reason.’

Amber rubbed her temples wearily with one hand and shook her head. ‘No reason? The disappearance of three hundred people with whom I shared the town of Clearwater? The pursuit of my father, Stanley Meyer. Threats, violence, corruption and payoffs in order to keep people silent. Legal challenges quashed by lawyers too expensive for anybody else to fight, just so you can tear the tops off of mountains for profit.’ Amber looked at Huck for a long moment and then looked away again.

Huck Seavers sat quietly for a moment before he replied.

‘I have a family, you know?’ he said finally. ‘My wife and I have been married fifteen years and we have a son and a daughter, twelve and eight years old respectively. My parents died a decade ago and I have no siblings, so my family is everything to me. You say that I used expensive lawyers to quash legal challenges and you’re right, I have. That’s because often the challenges are from environmentalists who have absolutely no understanding of how important it is for people, for our country, to have power. Have I made villages disappear or murdered countless people? No, I challenge them in the courts, and I win. I win because our country can’t face an ever — growing energy demand with nobody to fulfil it. I win because my business is a legitimate one and because I want to provide for my family in the future. This is a business, the business of supplying energy for the things you want in your own home; your lights, your television, your hot water and your heating. Without companies like Seavers Incorporated, you’ll have none of that.’

Amber shot him look of pure disgust.

‘At what cost? The poisoning of the atmosphere and the water table and of countless species, the destruction of habitat that can never be replaced, the warming of the oceans and the atmosphere that will change the face of our planet forever, all just to see your kids go to a more expensive school or own a more powerful car? You can’t use the excuse anymore that there is no other option, that we can’t power our world by other means. Even before my father devised his fusion cage he already understood, as I do, that we could power our entire world off the back of either solar or tidal power if the world’s governments simply got their act together and committed to it. But they won’t of course, because capitalism demands profit: if something can be done for profit but is too expensive to initiate, then it is ignored. You’re not the solution Huck, you’re the disease. My father is the cure, and because his solution didn’t involve profit you’re trying to shut him down. Don’t you dare sit there and try to justify the things that you’ve done with a plea for sympathy and understanding, when more sympathy and understanding on your part might have turned this into the best thing that ever happened to our planet, the planet that your son and daughter will inherit.’

Huck remained silent for a moment.

‘You’re living in a dream world,’ he uttered finally. ‘You’re right that there’s enough energy falling on the planet every day from the sun to power our world for a year, but without anywhere to store that power it’s useless to us. Likewise tidal power, which no country can afford to implement on the scales required to power everything. You people, you always seek a singular answer to complex questions when no such answers exist. The environmentalists cry that nuclear power is dirty and dangerous, when in fact it is clean and safe. Any kind of coal burning is considered heresy, even though clean coal is now available to us. Oil is the sworn enemy of any environmentalist seeking to ban motor vehicles, and yet only a tiny fraction of the oil that we buy goes into our vehicles — the vast majority is used in manufacturing and lubricants. Aeroplanes are hated by the green movement, and yet now one of the most efficient forms of travel available to humanity. Left to you and your kind we would all be living in mud huts, our children suffering from hideous diseases long since cured by science, unable to read or write, but hey, at least we’d be able to hug a tree or two.’

‘It’s you who’s living in the past,’ Amber hissed as she shook with fury. ‘What use are fossil fuels when they’re going to run out? They’re going to be gone, Huck, sooner than you probably think. We’re using more and more every day and yet there is only a finite supply. It’s like those idiots hunting tigers in Russia and India to grind up their bones for use in mythical medicines, the Japanese catching sharks just for their fins and whales just for their blubber. Once they’re gone, they’re all gone! They’re so busy chasing profit that they don’t realise that before they know it, the source of that profit will be gone entirely. And then where will they go? Your company makes its fortune from coal, but that coal will be totally gone eventually, Huck. What are you going to do then? Any smart businessman worth their salt would already be looking for somebody like my father to give them an advantage in the future to start the revolution now, but no. Far better for you to simply take the cash and run, and let your poor son have to sort it all out in twenty or thirty or fifty years time when Seavers Incorporated collapses into ruin at his feet.’ Amber shot him a jubilant smile of distaste. ‘Well played, Huck, well played.’

‘Don’t you think I’ve already thought of that?’

‘Doesn’t look like it to me.’

‘It wouldn’t, would it? Because to you, people like me are the enemy, our black hearts filled with oil and coal, determined to destroy the world. But we did not create this problem, it was created for us hundred years ago and now we labour beneath its consequences. I don’t want to blow the tops off mountains to make a living. I didn’t want to make the inhabitants of Clearwater disappear. This isn’t about environmentalism, Amber, it’s about control. It’s about the fear of governments losing control over their people because the government becomes irrelevant, no longer needed for people to survive happily. The people I’m answering to don’t want that to happen, ever.’

Amber stared at Huck for a long moment, never having considered for herself the possibility that Huck Seavers was merely one more pawn in a long chain that led to heights of government she had never really thought about before.

‘Who are they?’

Huck shook his head. ‘I can’t tell you that because in truth I don’t actually know, but they are incredibly powerful and believe me they have a firm grip on what’s happening. If I’d discovered that your father had created his fusion cage before they did, I’d have offered to buy him out. I wouldn’t have given the device away for free, I admit, because there’s so much potential in it. But by Christ I would have bought it and I would have created a whole new industry, made billionaires of both myself and your father and changed the world at the same time. Don’t you think I would rather have done that than sent people up a mountain to slice the top off it? Don’t think I’d rather have done that than fight long and complex legal battles, regardless of how powerful my lawyers might be? Don’t you think I’d rather be selling something that could fit into anybody’s boiler cupboard, worldwide, than pissing about digging in the cold in Virginia?’

Amber felt her blood run cold and she sat in absolute silence as she stared at Huck for what felt like a very long time.

‘You’d have gone with my father’s device?’ she uttered in disbelief.

‘Of course I would!’ Huck almost shouted in exasperation. ‘But they had me over a barrel! If I hadn’t complied they’d have got somebody else to do it and Huck Seavers would have been destitute by the end of the week! You think I have powerful lawyers? These people appear to be able to control entire governments — they would have crushed me like a worm and left me with nothing. Your war, it shouldn’t be with me. It should be against this shadow government that seems to operate behind the scenes! Your father is running from the wrong people and straight into the arms of his enemies.’

Amber suddenly realised the depths to which some people had gone in order to keep her father’s device safely out of the public eye. Huck Seavers, the perfect foil to the environmental movement, in fact a human shield for those with the power to save humanity or destroy it.

‘We have to find my father as fast as we can,’ Amber said, ‘and I think that I can call my mom.’

‘You can reach her?’ Huck asked.

‘I have my cell phone,’ Amber said. ‘I’ve carried it ever since I left Clearwater.’

‘Finally,’ Huck said with a heave of relief. ‘The sooner we can get your family to safety, the sooner we can figure something out. I want in on this, Amber. Yes, I want to profit from it, but if this gets out it effectively neutralises the very people who are causing all of this — they won’t hold power over me any longer and they won’t be able to stop what’s happening.’

Amber felt excitement rippling through her veins as she sat upright in her seat.

‘Do you have any idea where my dad is?’

‘I think so,’ Huck replied. ‘Let’s try to call your mom first, and find out where she is so that we can warn her of … ’

A sudden deafening blast shook the vehicle and a clatter of gunfire caused Amber to scream as she threw herself down on the back seat. Bullets crashed through the SUV’s windscreen and it swerved violently off the asphalt road and plunged into the desert dunes.