Zero Hour

FORTY-FOUR

In the island’s control room, Hayley was doing her best to act normal. She continued to speak to Thero as if addressing George, infusing her words with affection while trying not to look obvious.

As she fawned over him, Thero showed her the control panels for the great machine and led her to the viewing portal, through which she could see the great orb resting in the darkened cave.

He pressed a series of switches. Lights came on in a cave outside the window. A huge spherical construction appeared. She recognized it from a conceptual drawing Thero had shown her years ago.

“It’s incredible,” she said.

“My father was right,” he said. “This is proof. From here, we can direct vast amounts of energy through the Earth to any point on the globe. Energy we draw from the zero-point field.”

“You don’t need the generators?” she asked.

“Only to start the wave,” he replied.

That gave her an idea. If they could possibly destroy the generators she’d seen outside, perhaps they could prevent the machine from engaging.

“This is amazing,” she said, gazing through the observation window at the latticework. “How did you solve the dynamic feedback problem?”

“We’ve only partially solved it,” he admitted.

“Do you still end up with uncontrollable vibrations?”

“We use the water as a dampening field,” Thero said. “It absorbs much of the energy. Also, by creating a spherical emitter instead of an open-ended conductor, we get a much more stable wave.”

“You were always a step ahead of us, George,” she said, smiling. “That’s really quite brilliant.”

“My father did most of the theoretical work,” he replied. “But I crunched the numbers.”

As they spoke, she tried to gauge how strong a grip the George persona was exerting. Working on her own phobias, she’d learned a great deal about mental health. She’d heard of cases where subjects with multiple personality disorder had absolutely no idea what the other personalities in their minds were up to. To the point where they passed lie detector tests after committing crimes or even carried on affairs or entirely different lives when the dominant personality went dormant.

If that was the case here, perhaps she could coax George into letting them go, or surrendering, or at least giving them more time to come up with some plan to stop the lethal strike he was counting down to launch.

“It was you who sent the letters?” she asked hopefully.

A blank stare issued forth from Thero.

“To warn me,” she said, risking everything.

“Yes,” he replied finally. “I was hoping we might still bring peaceful energy to the world.”

“Your father doesn’t know,” she said. “We have to keep it that way. We can still help him, but he won’t understand.”

“I agree,” Thero said. “He might hate me for it, but it’s for our own good.”

“You helped the others to escape,” she prodded.

Thero nodded. “I gave them a chance and the information. They never knew it was me. I passed notes. Made things possible.”

Inwardly, she cringed, imagining the turmoil. As George, he’d become the informant, he helped the couriers to make it to freedom. But then, as Thero, he hunted them down and had them killed. No wonder every meeting had been blown. There was no leak in the ASIO, the leak was at the source. It meant some information was passing from George’s personality to Thero’s. It made her more nervous than ever, but she had to press on.

“I thought reason might prevail,” George volunteered.

“It still can,” she said eagerly.

“No,” he replied sadly. “They’ve come to kill us again. Only a show of unstoppable force will keep them away now.”

She had to think fast. “I can negotiate with them for you,” she pleaded, squeezing his smooth hand. “The Americans have already promised amnesty,” she lied. “All you have to do is return to the States with them.”

“Amnesty?”

“Yes,” she said. “For you and your father,” she added, doing all she could to keep George’s personality engaged and on the surface.

“Why would they offer that?”

“They’re afraid of the Russians getting their hands on it.”

“They’re working with the Russians,” George said forcefully.

“No,” she said. “The Russians kidnapped us. They want to kill you. But if you get me to a radio, I can bring help.”

George hesitated. “Are you sure?”

“I promise,” she said. “I just need a chance to prove it.”

He stared at her for a long moment, as if pondering what she’d said.

“This is why you reached out to me,” she said, “isn’t it?”

Finally, he nodded. “Come with me.”

He led her down the bank of control panels, stopping in his tracks as he passed the final console.

Hayley saw why. Lying on the floor were several men and a few women. They wore bloodstained lab coats. They’d been shot.

“Father, what have you done?”

Hayley tried to breathe. “We have to hurry, George.”

Thero hesitated. He cocked his head to the side. “What do you mean they were traitors?” he asked the air.

She could see what was happening. “No, George,” she urged. “Don’t talk to him.”

“They worked for you,” he said sharply, as if arguing with his father. “They built this for you.”

A strange trancelike silence gripped Thero, and Hayley sensed him wavering.

“Stay with me!”

Thero hesitated. He stood with clumsy effort and let go of her hand.

“George?” she asked.

“No,” he said softly.

“George?”

“No!”

This time, the words were bellowed at her. The harshness returned to Thero’s eyes with a rush, and he grabbed her by the throat with his right hand and slammed her into the wall. The impact stunned her, and Thero’s hand crushing her windpipe seemed to cut off the blood from her brain.

“Please…” she gasped, crying out to the other side of Thero’s mind. “Please!”

Thero released her, and she dropped to the floor beside the heap of bodies.

“How dare you turn my son against me!”

“I didn’t,” she managed. “We were only… trying to help.”

“I don’t need your help!” he shouted. “Or my son’s, for that matter. I will bring the world to its knees. Once they see what I do to Australia, there will be no need for negotiations. They will beg me for mercy.”

He stepped back over to the control panel and shoved the master switch into the on position. She heard the heavy circuit closing and the big generators in the other room switching on. The lights around them dimmed appreciably and then began to brighten.

Soon, the generators were humming, spinning up to a feverous pitch.

“No,” she begged. “Please, don’t do this.”

“I’m so glad you could be here,” Thero shouted. “I will not even wait for zero hour. I will punish them immediately. And you will watch from my side as I wreak destruction on those who persecuted me.”

Out in the spherical cavern, the gears began to churn, and the giant collection of pipes and electrical conduits began to tilt. The weapon turned slowly, clinking like a roller coaster being dragged up the steep track to its release point.

Hayley found herself dizzy as the weapon slowly ratcheted itself toward a new position, an alignment that would aim the wave of distortion through the Earth’s crust at the dormant rift in the Australian outback.