The natural disasters had all but petered out. There were a few rumblings from some active volcanoes, but nothing that would make the headlines.
Flying back into Geneva, Tom and Serena had expected a welcoming committee consisting of Interpol, the local police and even the Swiss Army; but, as they passed through customs into the arrivals hall, the only person waiting for them was Frederick. He had explained, on the way to the hospital to see Ajay, that Gervaux and Lavelle had cornered Deiter’s henchmen, who had then given themselves up without a fight. What was more, once they had started to talk they couldn’t shut them up; they spilled the beans on all Deiter’s activities. By the end of their confessions, they had implicated their boss in the death of Professor Morantz, the explosion that killed the maintenance workers and the attempted murder of Frederick, Ajay, Serena and Tom.
Liaising with Sherriff Watkins, in Suffolk County, Gervaux had concluded the case, dropping all charges pertaining to everyone apart from Dr Deiter Weiss and his mercenaries.
‘So, the Inspector believed Deiter’s thugs when they told him that he was responsible for everything?’ Tom asked.
Frederick gave him a sly look. ‘I’d already had a word with the Police Commissioner.’
‘You know him well?’ Tom queried.
Frederick gave a short laugh. ‘Let’s just say SHIVA has many fingers in many pies, to borrow one of your expressions.’
Tom knew not to push the topic any further, so changed the subject. ‘So what are you going to do now, Frederick?’
‘That all really depends on you, Tom. What are your plans?’ the older man countered.
‘As of an hour ago, the only plans I was making were to stay out of prison, so I haven’t really had much of a chance to think about it. But I will say that I have been offered a position at Brookhaven – Charles’s old job.’
‘Do you think you’ll take it?’ Frederick pushed.
‘Probably,’ Tom conceded. ‘I don’t think the Swiss air is all that good for me.’
Tom could see Frederick looking at Serena. He realised he’d been a bit tactless, as he hadn’t discussed any of this with her. He didn’t see the point if he was going to spend the next thirty years in a Swiss gaol. He turned to her now.
‘I will, of course, need someone to manage all the statistical data that we generate from any new projects I instigate.’
‘Ha!’ she said in mock indignation. ‘Make it a directorship and I may just think about it.’
Their banter was interrupted by Ajay, who had sat bolt upright and appeared to be having a fit.
‘Sh… Sh… Sh…,’ was all he could manage.
They followed his eyes to the TV screen to see a news bulletin breaking. The reporter was broadcasting live from Yellowstone National Park. In the background was what looked like a huge domed mountain, several hundred feet high and at least a mile in diameter. As the footage switched to an aerial view from a circling helicopter, the top of it exploded, throwing millions of tonnes of rock and ash into the air, in an incandescent display of force. The picture went black, transmission lost.
‘Sh… Shiva,’ Ajay finally managed to say.
The End
About the Author
Born in Yorkshire in 1961, Daniel spent his formative years with his head buried squarely in a book. His appetite for literature was insatiable; by the time he was a teenager he had read an entire library of books, from ‘the classics’ to popular fiction, but his preferred genre was action and adventure, citing Frederick Forsyth, Ian Fleming and Robert Ludlum amongst his favourite authors.
It was inevitable that he would take his passion into adulthood and, in 1979, went to Manchester University, graduating with a first class honours degree in English Literature. After a short spell as a journalist at the Manchester Evening News, he recognised the commercial potential of the newly emerging computer industry and joined IBM, where, his forward-thinking creativity was put to good use, developing some of the computer platforms that are still recognise as the industry standard, today.
Daniel left IBM in 1995 to set up his own company. Carving a career as an internet entrepreneur left little time for him to pursue his dream of writing his own novel, although, his passion for reading never waned and was rarely seen without the latest best-selling novel in his hand.
Daniel now works as a freelance writer and, with the encouragement of his family, has finally found the time to put pen to paper. His first novel, inspired by a business trip to Geneva, where he overheard two technicians from the nearby CERN institute discussing the Hadron Collider, delves into a sinister world where humanity has reached a tipping point of developing technology so profound, that it can destroy the human race.
His exciting thriller The God Particle has been published by Aventura and is available from major online ebookstores.
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