The Final Call

by Craig A. Falconer

  Even before the dissolution of the GSC or the events of Contact Day, there had been serious concerns within several American agencies that Timo might partner with the Chinese. The money Beijing had been willing to throw at space-related research and technologies already posed a huge problem for President Slater’s administration, but any link-up between CNSA and Fiore Frontiere would have been cause for immediate alarm.

  But now, on the contrary, Timo’s decision to recognise the GCC rather than the ELF was a cause for celebration. The support of the space-obsessed world’s richest man didn’t only strengthen the GCC in budgetary terms, however, but also — perhaps even more importantly — it hugely strengthened the GCC’s appearance of legitimacy.

  With Dan McCarthy and his friends and family in Birchwood diplomatically silent on the GCC-ELF chasm and with no suggestion that they would ever change course, Timo’s position mattered.

  And in the eyes of a public more sceptical of their political institutions than ever before, Timo was a man whose word still meant something. He was also greatly admired for his bravery in the face of the life-altering injuries he suffered in a botched assassination attempt at the hands of nihilistic terrorists who now hid themselves within the dangerously media-savvy GeoSov movement.

  That same terrorist attack in Colorado Springs had almost cost Emma Ford her life, and both Timo’s injury and his close friendship with Dan made him a hugely sympathetic figure across the world.

  Dan didn’t mind that Timo had opted to publicly pick a side, understanding that he had only done so under a considerable degree of political pressure. Timo would have been able to withstand this pressure had it been merely economic in nature, but the firm message Godfrey ultimately issued wasn’t something he was able to ignore.

  Essentially, Godfrey calmly told Timo that unless he backed the GCC, its founding charter would include a provision barring any private launches into orbit or the analysis of data from certain kinds of privately held telescopes within its member states’ territories. Timo’s observatories in South Africa and Italy and his headquarters in Colorado Springs would have been affected by these restrictions, as would his ambitious plans for an orbital laboratory far larger than any before it.

  Godfrey framed it as though these were general purpose restrictions and as though he’d had to work hard to convince some unnamed member states that Fiore Frontiere should be allowed to operate at all. All Timo had to do was issue a public statement recognising the GCC’s sole legitimacy and to refrain from ever recognising the ELF, Godfrey said, and Fiore Frontiere could continue as normal.

  The only thing that made Timo Fiore more sick than the idea of shaking Godfrey’s hand was the alternative option of moving his operations eastward and working with an organisation led by countries who seemed determined to engage in direct geopolitical competition with his European homeland.

  “We are joined tonight by our friends from Fiore Frontiere,” Godfrey said, gesturing to the attendant trio and inviting a polite round of applause, “and their presence is a sign of just how inclusive the GCC wants to be. Timo Fiore is not a head of state or government, and yet he has a seat at our table because of his committed investments in the field of astronomical research. We all know that two of our esteemed Italian guests detected Il Diavolo from a facility Timo built from the ground up and funded for the good of humanity, and I’m sure you’ll all agree that their presence here is more than welcome.

  “I’m equally delighted that our membership includes so many of the nations who came together when our planet’s future looked far less rosy than it does now, and despite my disappointment that we are not joined tonight by representatives from certain other countries, I do want to stress that our door is always open. Despite the hollow propaganda with which Beijing has been bombarding the world of late, the GCC is as exclusionary as the sun is purple.

  “Allow me to set the record straight: we did not sit around a table and draw up a list of invitees to this party… this party was open to all! We did not and will not exclude anyone; others, unfortunately but not irreversibly, have opted to exclude themselves. And when I say our door is open to all, I do mean all. Were I to get a call from an ELF-affiliated state tomorrow, I would welcome them with open arms. But it’s often said that when one door closes, another opens. And, out of necessity, that’s the case here. To be granted a seat at the GCC’s table and pass through our door, any such nation will first have to exit the ELF’s and relinquish all participation within that undemocratic organisation.”

  Godfrey’s eyes narrowed all of a sudden as he saw his executive assistant standing at the far side of the room with his arms aloft in a decidedly ominous X shape. Stopping the speech now to find out what was wrong seemed utterly out of the question, but Godfrey had known and trusted Manuel for long enough to know that this wasn’t a drill.

  As Godfrey considered his next move, however, the ball was taken from his hands by an unexpected development.

  “What the hell’s going on?” one cameraman asked, his voice loud and clear before a deafening hubbub filled the room as the others caught on.

  Gruffly calling for silence, Godfrey heard a clear shout that all phone, data and satellite signals within the room had suddenly been lost. He stepped away from the podium, seeing little sense in continuing a speech that was meant less for the room than the billions of people around the world who could no longer see it, and headed straight for Manuel.

  “Don’t worry about anything,” he calmly announced to the more frightened members of his audience as he walked. “Please wait patiently while these signal issues are corrected. We had intelligence that the GeoSovs might attempt some kind of city-wide technical disruption or cyber attack today, and it looks like our pitiful foes have had a rare and momentary success in that regard. But let’s not let them win by losing our composure, shall we? As you were.”

  This effortless lie about an expected cyber attack came to Godfrey on the spot, and it seemed to do the trick. People were still unhappy and concerned, for sure, but there was no longer a sense of dread that everything had died because of a bigger issue such as a physical attack somewhere else.

  “So what’s happening?” Godfrey whispered when he reached Manuel; his tone was gentle even in the circumstances, as it tended to be whenever he spoke to one of the few men in the world he truly and unconditionally liked.

  “We did this, sir,” Manuel replied. “We engaged the building’s full signal block as soon as the word came in.”

  Godfrey’s shoulders tightened. “When what word came in? Don’t tell me those bloody GeoSovs really have—”

  A quick head-shake from Manuel cut off this train of thought.

  “Okay,” Godfrey continued. “So what is the news? And how did we get it before this lot?” he asked, gesturing to the media pack behind him, all of whom were desperately fiddling with cameras, phones and computers in the hopes of getting some kind of data or satellite signal.

  “At this stage, it’s intelligence rather than news, sir. This isn’t public yet… not even locally.”

  Godfrey had to fight to keep his cool, frustrated by Manuel’s slowness in spitting out the pertinent details but loath to let any anger show when so many eyes were on him. “Locally where?” he probed, almost hissing out the question. “What the hell is going on?”

  “There’s been a discovery on a Tanzanian beach,” Manuel said. “Sir… there’s been an alien discovery.”

  After slowly and dryly blowing air from his lips, Godfrey grinned involuntarily. “Not just on the anniversary of Contact Day,” he mused, “but literally while I’m making my inauguration speech. It’s a bit on the nose, Manuel, don’t you think?”

  The man couldn’t hide his confusion. “Sir, I don’t—”

  “It’s a distraction, Manuel. A cheap Chinese hoax. I mean, come on… Tanzania? With the money they’ve spent there, it’s practically a Chinese colony by now! I’m almost embarrassed for them; the timing just makes it all so blatant
ly obvious. Do they really expect anyone to believe that they just happened to dig something up today of all days? Are we seriously supposed to buy the story that they just discovered whatever this thing is?”

  Manuel gulped. “Sir, if our ground intelligence is correct and this image is legitimate, this isn’t something they could have kept under wraps for a single second.” He encouraged Godfrey to turn around so they were side-by-side and both facing the rest of the room, then showed him the image on his phone.

  Of its own accord, William Godfrey’s jaw dropped.

  “You see, sir?” Manuel said, his voice shaky under the weight of the words. “They didn’t just find it… it just arrived.”

  Part 2

  Zanzibar

  “The only true wisdom

  is in knowing you know nothing.”

  Socrates

  V minus 84

  Denver International Airport

  Denver, Colorado

  With Birchwood locked down for another twelve hours and with a hotel the last place he wanted to be after the foiled GeoSov plot at the Buenos Aires Gravesen, Dan McCarthy sat alongside Emma in a small room at Denver International Airport.

  This spartan room, bunk beds and all, was normally reserved for individuals facing immigration complications that seemed likely to be solved eventually but to take more than a few hours.

  The airport’s immigration and security staff all proved extremely accommodating, going out of their way to make Dan and Emma feel safe and welcome, but Dan knew beyond doubt that there were other and distinctly less personable agents lying unseen nearby.

  There had been agents lying unseen nearby for a year, he now realised, and the violated feeling of having been closely watched and surveilled for so long was like a film of dirt on his skin. He couldn’t shake it and suspected he never would, angrily considering all the private and intimate moments the agents would have seen or heard.

  The conspicuous camera on the ceiling of the airport’s holding room made Dan and Emma wary to speak much and certainly ruled out any physicality, but pondering their obvious current surveillance only made Dan think that it had been like this all along; really, the only difference now was that the visible camera made it known.

  On reflection, this colossal invasion of privacy bothered him even more than the fact that a government doctor had covertly placed a pain-monitoring device under his skin.

  But while these two very different kinds of violations were troubling in their own ways, it did seem clear to Dan that the doctor in question had acted in accordance with political orders rather than the supposedly sacrosanct Hippocratic oath.

  His anger was so strong that he was paying little attention to William Godfrey’s inauguration speech as it played on the room’s surprisingly large TV. The words so far had gone in one ear and out the other, with Emma occasionally adding a word or two of commentary which registered only slightly more fully in Dan’s mind.

  But as the speech appeared to be nearing its end, the news feed on ACN abruptly turned black.

  Dan and Emma turned to each other; whatever was happening, it couldn’t be good.

  “Well, clearly we’re experiencing some kind of technical issue,” the news anchor said, his confused face suddenly filling the screen. “I’m being told that all feeds from the GCC have been lost, so please do bear with us here on ACN while the tech-heads in Buenos Aires fix whatever has gone wrong. But Chairman Godfrey has covered a lot of ground already, so let’s hear the views of our in-studio analysis team on the speech so far. James, what do you make of—”

  The sound of the room’s door being urgently thrown open tore Dan’s attention from the screen.

  “Are you okay?” a black-suited agent asked, bursting into the room with an expression on his face befitting a man who had just seen a ghost.

  “Uh, yeah...” Emma replied, although the question had clearly been directed primarily at Dan. “What’s going on? Why did the feed die?”

  The man placed a finger to his ear, concentrating on the words coming through a barely visible earpiece. “It didn’t die,” he relayed. “It was cut. All signals in and out of the GCC building have been blocked.”

  Very suddenly and very noticeably, the man’s eyes widened in shock.

  “What are they telling you?” Dan asked, rising to his feet. “What’s happening?”

  Holding a finger out to beg Dan’s patience, the man listened carefully then spoke in evident reply to an unheard question: “Yes, they’re both fine; no indication of any contact. Do we know exactly what this discov… oh. Definitely? And do we have a reliable visual? No? So when do we expect one? Okay.”

  “Well?” Dan said.

  The agent rubbed his chin, somewhat flustered by the news he had just received and the unexpected position in which he now found himself. “Well… communications in and out of the GCC building were cut to prevent the news I’ve just heard from reaching any of the media personnel who are attending the inauguration. They clearly didn’t want Chairman Godfrey to be caught off-guard in front of all those live cameras, and I can see why. Intelligence from Tanzania is telling us that an alien object has just been discovered at a beachfront hotel complex. I’ll be surprised if I can show you an image before it’s on that TV, because our intelligence presence on Zanzibar isn’t exactly enormous.”

  Dan, truly stunned by these words, didn’t react.

  “Zanzibar?” Emma mused. “How random is that? Why would the Messengers put—”

  “We don’t know that they did,” the agent interrupted. “For all we know, this is a deliberate distraction from the inauguration. Tanzania is an ELF member with extremely close links to Beijing.”

  “You think this could be a hoax?” Emma asked.

  The agent nodded. “I think it could be, to be clear; not that it is. The sun is rising over Zanzibar as we speak and our limited local intelligence confidently tells us that there was no object on the beach when the sun went down last night. So whatever this thing is, it seems to have… appeared… sometime in the last eleven hours or so.”

  Emma looked squarely at Dan. “Did you feel anything?”

  Glancing between her and the agent, he said nothing.

  “Mr McCarthy,” the man said, his tone firm without being confrontational, “I can understand your anger over how certain things have been handled recently. At least, I can try to understand. But please: it’s crucially important that you tell us if you have experienced any kind of feeling or sensation since leaving Italy, physical or mental, that might point towards the Messengers having planted this object. If I were in your shoes I don’t think I would feel too much like cooperating right about now, but I hope you’ll understand that this is a very important issue.”

  Dan held the man’s eyes and gave a slow and exaggerated shrug, walking a fine line between defiance and petulance. He then shifted his weight, exaggerating the movement again, and turned back to the TV. “You’ve been watching me close enough to know that the Messengers haven’t contacted me since your buddies kidnapped me last night. So if you don’t have anything useful to tell me, feel free to get out of my sight at any point.”

  “Dan,” Emma scorned.

  “No, I understand,” the agent said calmly. “I would feel violated, too, Dan. But I really do hope—”

  “Oh my god!” an interrupting voice blared from the TV. “And this is from a tourist at the hotel? Okay. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I think we have our answer as to why communications have been cut. The following footage has just reached our news desk from the island of Zanzibar, and… well… it speaks for itself.”

  The agent at Dan’s side reached for his phone as it buzzed in his pocket, and his jaw dropped at the sight of the image he had been sent.

  “Let me see,” Dan said, turning to him.

  Dan’s firm belief that the supposedly alien discovery would be nothing more than a distracting hoax collapsed in an instant as his eyes fell upon an enormous object so ornate that he struggled t
o comprehend how any humans could ever have constructed it. When the shaky mobile-phone camera zoomed in as far as it could, showing several local police officers and decidedly foreign-looking officials as they stood around the incredible find, Dan caught sight of a particular series of jewel-like adornments which appeared far more prominent than the others covering the remarkable object. Somewhere deep in the recesses of his mind, he knew he had seen the shape of this conspicuous jewel arrangement before.

  Dan had to stifle a gasp when the realisation finally hit him.

  Holy shit…, he thought to himself. It’s real!

  V minus 83

  Sunrise Palace Resort

  Zanzibar, Tanzania

  A picture-perfect sunrise provided a serene backdrop to the chaotic scenes playing out on a stretch of sand typically filled with sunbathing tourists.

  Already, within an hour of Hassan Manula’s discovery of what he could only describe as a monolithic and triangular object from another world, he had been detained for questioning and his find had been concealed from public view. The concealment method he saw from one of the hotel’s windows before entering a quiet room for questioning appeared to be very basic, with an enormous tarpaulin cover supported by high metal rods shielding the impossibly ornate triangle from open sight.

  Hassan’s mind thought of the object as a triangle and he had already heard that word being used by others around him, but the three-dimensional nature of the object made ‘triangle’ an imprecise descriptor. He would later conclude that ‘triangular prism’ was more appropriate in a technical sense, but this didn’t change the fact that everyone — including himself — would persistently and uniformly call it a triangle.