‘Take care of him,’ he said. ‘No one knows he’s still alive.’
The ferocity of her glare stopped him saying any more.
He waited.
Her eyes burned into his. ‘If Alex Hunter dies, it is on your head,’ she said slowly. ‘And I will not forget.’
She turned away without another word.
Jack Hammerson only exhaled once the transport was reversing down the road.
Adira sat silently in the back of the truck with the steel cylinder. Slowly, she reached out to place a hand on its casing. She could feel the cold emanating through the solid metal.
She had achieved her primary mission of securing the Arcadian data and now she was going home — she should have been elated. But she had failed in her personal objective to keep Alex Hunter safe and that dispirited her. Adira rarely had time for friendships; never really liked or respected anyone enough to allow them to get close to her in any shape or form. Now the one person she had respected, the one person she had ever … what?
She withdrew her hand from the steel and sat staring at the coffin-like container. Her palm still felt cold.
Hammerson watched a satellite feed of Adira’s truck speeding across the country. He was relieved: the ‘furniture’ had been successfully removed and there had been no firefight. He was out of practice, and going up against Senesh wouldn’t have been a great way to see if he still had his edge. He felt no remorse for what was essentially his act of treason, or for manipulating Captain Senesh or lying to Aimee Weir. He couldn’t have protected Alex from Medical Division. Arcadian’s only chance of survival was to get out of the country and under General Shavit’s secure umbrella in Israel.
He opened his email and selected a small group as recipients of the message he was about to send. They were some of USSTRATCOM’s most senior military people, including the US Vice-President and the head of the Medical Division. He began to type:
MILITARY DEATH NOTIFICATION 121 — EYES ONLY
DECEASED:
CAUSE OF DEATH:
ACTION:
He looked at the message for a moment, then typed another line underneath:
NOTE:
He sent the message, then sat back, closing his eyes and clasping his hands behind his head. The Arcadian had been off the grid for years. There would be no letter of condolence from the President, or notification to the next of kin, his mother, Kathleen Hunter. She had been told years ago that Alex had died in action. There would be no further communication with Aimee Weir either; now she thought him gone too. The man was a ghost.
Hammerson spoke to the ceiling, his voice tinged with grief. ‘You’re free now, Arcadian. Maybe I’ll see you again some day.’
He leaned forward and tapped a few keys on his computer. A satellite feed of the coast showed a blue dot moving out over the water. The micro-tracker he had planted in Alex’s heel was non-metallic and undetectable without surgery. He was the only person who knew it was there. He smiled.
‘Nope, I
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Many readers ask me about the underlying details in my novels — is the science real or fiction? Where do the situations, equipment, characters or their expertise come from, and just how much of any legend has a basis in fact? So, starting with
Roque Gonzalez de Santa Cruz was born in 1576 and ordained at the age of twenty-two. By thirty-two, he had become a well travelled missionary in South America, converting the natives to Catholicism and settling them in townships. In 1628, Gonzalez was joined by two young Spanish Jesuits, Alonso Rodriguez and Juan de Castillo. The three men trekked into the jungle of South America and founded a new settlement near the Ijuhi River. Their mission was to bring the local natives together in a single place, so they could be converted to Christianity, and also saving them from becoming labourers for the Portuguese army. Soon, Gonzalez and Rodriguez moved on to Caaro, in the south of what is now Brazil, leaving Castillo at Ijuhi River. Unfortunately for the priests, the Guarani Indians in the new location resisted being converted and attacked the mission under the leadership of a powerful ‘medicine man’, Nezu. Father Gonzalez was killed by blows to the head with a tomahawk as he was preparing to hang the new church bell. The new chapel the priests were building was set on fire and the Jesuit’s bodies thrown into the flames. Father Castillo was soon tracked down and also killed; he was savagely beaten and then stoned to death.
The three Jesuits died in November 1628. Six months later a written account was prepared as evidence in the process of their beatification; the original documents were lost but copies were found many years later in the Argentine. Roque Gonzalez, Alonso Rodrigues and Juan de Castillo were declared blessed in 1934, and canonised by Pope John Paul II in 1988. The three Jesuits remain the earliest beatified martyrs of America.
In my story, I have Aimee Weir looking for the key to a process called methanogenesis. She looks for the unique bacteria that actually ingests carbons and produces natural gas, miles below the earth. This is a real biochemical occurrence, and although science today understands how the methanogenesis process works, and also understands the time scales and transition characteristics, the full range of the microorganic zoology (types of bacteria) involved is still a mystery. Consider this piece from the US Geological Survey:
Natural gas generated from microbial activity in natural organic deposits (coal, black shale, petroleum) represents an increasingly important natural resource … It is estimated that natural gas from microbial activity (methanogenesis) accounts for about twenty per cent of the world’s natural gas resource. Since this gas is biologically produced, it also represents a possible renewable resource. Examples of microbial-produced natural gas deposits in the United States include: the organic-rich Antrim shale deposits in northern Michigan, and the shallow eastern edge of the Powder River Basin coal [sic] in Wyoming.
Although a considerable body of research exists on the biology of methanogenesis, there is much less known about the microbial-mediated conversion of geopolymers such as coal, black shale and petroleum to methane. Methanogenesis involves a large consortium of microorganisms in order to convert the geopolymers in fossil fuels to methane. Methanogenic archaea are the end producers of methane, but the consortia also includes fermenting bacteria that biodegrade geopolymers in the organic deposit to simpler molecules utilized by methanogenic archaea. The nature of the microorganisms, enzyme systems and decomposition pathways involved in the production of microbial natural gas from organic deposits is actually poorly understood.
Were vampires real? Sensitivity to sunlight, lengthening teeth, and unusual hair growth; not to mention blood drinking and an aversion to religious symbols. Unbelievable? Perhaps, but read on and see what you think.
