Ethan shook his head. ‘No, of course not.’
Ryker grinned.
‘Yes, you have. We all have. Every human being on earth has looked into the past, back in time. We do it every minute of every day.’
‘What are you talking about?’ Lopez snapped impatiently.
Ryker gestured to one of the windows, through which shafts of sunlight passed from outside.
‘Light, is what I’m talking about,’ he replied. ‘The speed of light in a vacuum is a constant across our universe – its velocity never changes. What’s important here is that the speed of light’s velocity can be measured: it doesn’t cross vast distances instantaneously, but over periods of time.’
Jarvis, standing with his hands in his pockets, frowned at the young physicist.
‘How fast does it go?’
‘Three hundred thousand kilometers per second. ‘Fast enough,’ Ryker said, ‘for a photon of light to zip around our planet’s equator seven times in one second. Fast enough that the human eye cannot detect the movement of light.’ The kid jumped up and walked across to a blackboard, picking up a piece of chalk and drawing three circles: a big one on the left, a little one in the middle, and then a large oval disc on the right side of the board.
‘What’s important, though,’ Ryker continued, as he pointed at the nearby window, ‘is that it’s still a measurable velocity. The photons of light coming in through that window have to bounce off me and reach your eyes before you can see me. Even though I’m only a couple of yards away, you’re still looking into the past.’
Ethan blinked in surprise.
‘So wherever we look, we’re looking into the past.’
‘Exactly,’ Ryker smiled. ‘What I meant when I said that Purcell could see the future wasn’t that he’d travelled in time, only that he’d perhaps found a way to see through time.’
Lopez glanced at the window.
‘But if it takes light to be reflected off something in order to see it, then how can he have seen events that haven’t happened yet? The light won’t have been able to reach him.’
Ryker raised an eyebrow in surprise.
‘That’s incredibly astute of you, Miss Lopez,’ he said, as he gestured to the diagram he’d drawn on the blackboard, ‘and entirely correct. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves a bit. Look at these circles: the one on the left is the sun, the one in the middle is the earth, and the egg-shaped one on the right is our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy.’
Ryker turned to face them.
‘It takes light from the sun eight minutes to reach us, so we see the sun as it was eight minutes ago. If the sun vanished from the center of our solar system right now, we wouldn’t know about it for eight minutes. In comparison, the light from the Andromeda galaxy takes about two million years to get here, so we see that galaxy as it was two million years ago.’
Jarvis nodded as he got the message. ‘The further away you’re looking, the further back in time you can see.’
‘That’s right,’ Ryker agreed. ‘And if someone in the Andromeda galaxy had a big enough telescope and they zoomed in to this very spot here, what do you think they would see?’
‘Not this office,’ Lopez guessed.
‘They’d probably see saber-toothed tigers and woolly mammoths,’ Ryker confirmed. ‘Whatever was living on this spot two million years ago.’
‘Okay,’ Ethan said, ‘I’ve got that much, but how does all of it translate into Charles Purcell being able to see into the future?’
Ryker stepped away from the blackboard.
‘Well, the simplest way to put it is that time and space are effectively the same thing. You need space in order for light to be able to travel from one place to another, and how long it takes light to cross that space gives you the definition of time. Each needs the other in order to exist, and what affects one will affect the other. This relationship is known as the space-time continuum.’
Lopez nodded.
‘I’ve heard of that before,’ she said. ‘You reckon that Purcell has somehow worked out how to alter the continuum?’
Ryker shook his head.
‘I’m not sure. What I do know for sure is that time does not always run at the same speed across the universe, or even here on earth.’
Ethan frowned. ‘How can that be true, if the speed of light’s velocity is fixed?’
Mitch Hannah spoke up.
‘It’s a fact of physics,’ he explained. ‘It’s not the velocity of light that changes. If an object starts moving at high velocity, then time begins to run more slowly compared to another object that remains stationary. The discrepancy was predicted by Einstein in his Theory of General Relativity. The Air Force ran tests using a Boeing 747 with an atomic clock on board, and another synchronized atomic clock that stayed on the ground. The aircraft flew around the world, and when it landed again the clocks were compared: the clock from the aircraft showed a slightly different time as a result of its sustained velocity.’
‘So the clock on the airplane had travelled through time?’ Lopez asked.
‘Not exactly,’ Hannah corrected her. ‘Time had flowed at a different rate for the travelling clock than the one that stayed on the ground. The same effect occurs for satellites orbiting our planet at seventeen thousand miles per hour, especially the ones that provide Global Positioning data. If the different rates in the flow of time for the satellites compared to us on the ground were not accounted for, then GPS systems would be wildly inaccurate.’
‘That’s not all,’ Ryker said. ‘It’s not just velocity that affects the flow of time. If you’re close to an object of great mass, like a planet or a star, then time slows down for you compared to another observer out in space, well away from any gravitational fields.’
‘How can mass make a difference?’ Jarvis asked.
‘Because a large object like a star warps the field of space-time around it,’ Ryker explained. ‘This results in the effect we know as gravity. Light follows this gravitational curve, as do other objects around the star or whatever object is warping space-time. That’s why planets like the earth orbit the sun: they follow this bend in the field of space-time like a ball rolling around a casino wheel. Point is, when the planet or star warps space it’s also warping time along with it.’
Mitch Hannah spoke up again.
‘This was also predicted by Einstein, and was proven in the last century when his equations were used to explain why Sir Isaac Newton’s laws of gravity perfectly predicted the orbits of all the planets around the sun, except Mercury. Mercury orbits very close to the sun and always seemed to appear slightly out of place. It turned out that the sun’s mass curved the light reflected from Mercury’s surface when seen from the earth, making it appear in a different place to where it actually was. Newton’s laws were correct – Mercury just looked like it was in a different place.’
Ryker nodded, picking up from Mitch.
‘The bottom line is that time is relative to the observer, and can flow at different rates depending on how fast we’re moving and how close we are to planets and stars. The effect of these phenomena on time is known as time dilation.’ Ryker gestured up to the sky outside the window. ‘The world record for what some people might call time travel is held by cosmonaut Sergei Avdeyev, who orbited the earth almost twelve thousand times over 750 days whilst aboard the Mir space station. At such velocity, and farther from the mass of the earth than those of us on the ground, the time dilation he experienced sent him 0.02 seconds into the future, because time passed slower for him than for the rest of us.’
Ethan thought about this for a moment.
‘So I take it that unless Charles Purcell has spent the last two years sprinting faster than the space shuttle, he must have found some other way of achieving time dilation.’
Hannah shrugged.
‘So you’d suppose, but I’m not aware of a single way that he could have done that.’
Ethan looked at Ryker. ‘Can you?
’
Ryker held Ethan’s gaze for a few moments. ‘There’s a great deal of evidence suggesting that we can see into the future, albeit in a basic and somewhat nebulous way,’ Ryker said. ‘Virtually all the great scientific formulae which explain how the world works allow information to flow both backwards and forward through time. For many years the CIA funded a secretive project called “Stargate”, which investigated everything from psychics to remote viewing in an attempt to turn such skills into defense initiatives for the military. More recent experiments have repeatedly shown that people have the ability to respond emotionally to images shown them on television screens some three seconds before they occur, with those results confirmed by replication in laboratories as far afield as Edinburgh University and Cornell, and that this ability shows parallels in real-life events. Trains and aircraft that crash are consistently found to be unusually empty, suggesting that people due to travel on them decide not to at the last minute for reasons they cannot define and probably aren’t even aware of.’
‘That’s not enough for Purcell to have predicted what he saw in such detail,’ Lopez pointed out. ‘He can’t have done so much on the basis of a psychic vision.’
‘I guess,’ Ryker replied. ‘What else is in the book?’
Ethan looked down, having almost forgotten he was holding Charles Purcell’s diary. He opened the pages and flicked through them. There were contact details for almost a hundred people: names, addresses and telephone numbers. Ethan shook his head.
‘Looks like a normal address book,’ he said with a shrug.
‘There’s nothing normal about Purcell,’ Lopez said, as she tapped the pages of the book with a finger. ‘You cracked his last code. Ten bucks says this one beats you.’
Ethan flipped through the diary one page at a time, as Jarvis moved to stand alongside him.
. . . Barker. Carson, Devereux, Elliot, Forbes, Griffiths . . .
‘I could send this to the DIA, have them call the numbers and find out who’s on the other end,’ Jarvis suggested. ‘But there might not be an actual code in there that can be deciphered by computers.’
‘Not enough time then,’ Lopez pointed out. ‘We need to figure this out, right now.’
Ethan frowned as he scanned through the alphabetically arranged list of surnames, none showing any sign of hidden codes.
. . . Hillier, Innes, Jackson, Kellerman, Lamont, Marchant, Nancy, Osborne, Peterson . . .
Ryker stared down at the pages as Ethan flipped them.
‘See anything?’ Ethan asked, flipping the pages as he went.
. . . Thompson, Ustanov, Vernoux, William, Wilkinson . . .
Ryker shook his head.
‘Looks normal enough to me.’
Ethan scanned down the pages and shook his head.
‘Maybe you’re not quite the sleuth you thought you were,’ Lopez said, as she leaned back on the table and folded her arms. ‘Ten bucks it is.’
Ethan stopped reading and flicked back a few pages. All at once, it leapt out at him as clear as the sunlight streaming into the room.
‘The code’s not in the names,’ he said. ‘It is the names.’
16
MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL, MIAMI
June 28, 10:40
‘Gentlemen, welcome.’
Dennis Aubrey stood unobtrusively to one side of the private breakfast room that Joaquin Abell had hired, and watched as he spoke to the men of substance before them. Behind Joaquin was a suspended silver screen, and behind his guests, a projector. To Aubrey’s surprise, four heavy-set men in suits stood like guards around the edge of the room. Aubrey was unused to being in such company, and equally uncomfortable being under armed guard, something that Joaquin had neglected to mention before they had entered the hotel.
All of the seven seated dignitaries before them looked entirely at home in their opulent surroundings. Champagne bottles worth more than some cars lay in buckets of sparkling ice, and the bright sunlight from outside was shielded by glowing opaque blinds.
‘Thank you all for taking the time to come here,’ Joaquin said. ‘You may wonder why I’ve asked for this breakfast meeting so urgently, but I know that within just a few minutes you will all understand, as well as appreciating the need for absolute security.’
Joaquin paced up and down slowly as he spoke, his movements giving rhythm to his words.
‘All of you wield immense control over the lives of the people that you govern,’ he said, and selected a member of his audience with receding red hair. ‘Congressman Ryan Goldberg, you’ve served Congress for over twenty years and your word is considered your bond. Mr. Murtaugh,’ he went on, indicating an elderly man, ‘you own and operate one of the largest news networks in the continental United States, providing 24-hour coverage to millions of homes.’ Joaquin turned to another, middle-aged man who wore a Stetson and sunglasses. ‘Mr. Reed, you are the Executive Officer of one of our largest oil companies, providing fuel for our modern world.’ One of the men watching was a widely respected statesman, a face known to millions of Floridians. ‘Governor MacKenzie, the people of Florida look to you to represent them, and follow you respectfully.’
Joaquin paused, as though thinking. Aubrey knew it was a theatrical flourish. Joaquin Abell was never lost for words.
‘Yet despite your combined wealth and influence there is one thing that none of you can control. Time. Like the rest of the world you are held captive by what you know in the here and now.’ Joaquin smiled at them. ‘I, however, am liberated by the knowledge of tomorrow. And it is this that I wish to share with you this morning.’
Aubrey frowned as he watched, caught unaware by Joaquin’s astonishing claim.
Joaquin glanced across at him and, as previously instructed, Aubrey pressed a button on the remote control he held in his hand. The projector flickered into life and the screen behind Joaquin lit up. Almost immediately, Aubrey recognized the face of news anchor Juliette Parker as she appeared on the screen – the iconic face of one of Robert Murtaugh’s best-known employees. But there was no sound to the image and it flickered strangely, as though Parker’s studio had been filmed through a rippling heat haze. Brief flares of static leapt across the image as Parker silently mouthed her lines. Aubrey caught a few words from her lips: earthquake; sudden; casualties.
Suddenly, the image changed to one of a devastated shoreline, upturned boats and vehicles scattered across roads buckled by the immense seismic might of a churning tectonic plate. Aubrey watched the silently flickering images of stricken survivors afloat amidst vast swathes of floodwater filled with the detritus of smashed buildings. A tsunami, he realized, sweeping vulnerable human life before its wrath across a land devastated beyond all recognition.
‘This,’ Joaquin said as the images played, ‘is a sadly common event on our planet, and one which we have never been able to predict. Until now.’
Reed stood from his chair, removing his Stetson and rubbing his head in confusion.
‘What are you jabbering about, Joaquin? That quake happened yesterday in Puerto Rico. Either get to the point or I’m outta here, goddamn your hide.’
Joaquin grinned and gestured to the screen.
‘This news report is the point,’ he replied, and looked at Murtaugh. ‘Isn’t it, Robert?’
The old man squinted at the screen as though confused, and then slowly his rheumy eyes began to widen as his jaw fell. The scrolling text on the bottom of the screen pinpointed the scenes of destruction at the town of Puerto Plata, on the coast of the Dominican Republic.
Congressman Goldberg stood up out of his chair. ‘There hasn’t been an earthquake in the Dominican Republic,’ he uttered. ‘I haven’t seen anything on the news about it.’
‘The anchor, Juliette, is on vacation at the moment,’ Murtaugh murmured.
Joaquin let the realization of what the men were seeing begin to dawn upon them, and as though on perfect cue, after the appalling scenes of destruction and loss, the news anchor smiled brig
htly and the image changed to the weather forecast. At the bottom of the screen, clearly displayed, was the date. June 28.
‘That’s not possible,’ Reed stammered as he whipped his sunglasses off to reveal surprisingly bright blue eyes. ‘That’s this afternoon!’ He whirled to point at Robert Murtaugh. ‘This is some kind of set-up. You must have pre-recorded the broadcast.’
Murtaugh, with some effort, struggled up out of his seat to face the Texan.
‘I can assure you, Harry, that I have done no such thing.’ The media tycoon turned his gaze upon Joaquin Abell. ‘But I also believe this to be some kind of pointless joke. I have better things to do, the first of which will be to fire Juliette when I get back to New York.’
Joaquin shook his head.
‘I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,’ he said. ‘She’ll be the face of the disaster when it hits, seen more than any other anchor on television throughout the world. That’s exposure you cannot afford to lose.’
‘Bullshit!’ Murtaugh spat. ‘You can no more look into the future than I can look up my own ass.’ His wrinkled features twisted into a grin. ‘Perhaps, Joaquin, this is the result of you spending too much time looking up yours.’
Laughter rippled across the guests as they began standing and gathering their jackets. Dennis Aubrey looked across at Joaquin in surprise, but the younger man grinned happily for a moment before speaking.
‘Perhaps, Robert, you should pay more attention to what I have to show you. It would be such a shame if your wife were to find out just how many times you’ve fucked her sister over the years.’
Aubrey flinched at Joaquin’s sudden and unexpected profanity. Every one of the guests fell motionless, as though frozen in time. Slowly, Murtaugh broke his chains of disbelief and turned to face Joaquin.
‘What in the name of God are you talking about?’
Aubrey felt a pinch of concern as Joaquin’s smile twisted cruelly. He produced a remote control of his own and aimed it at the projector. The news image behind him flickered to another broadcast, another anchor for a rival station speaking silently. Behind her were images of Robert Murtaugh, and the scrolling text revealed his lover’s admission of an affair with the tycoon. Aubrey picked up more words from her silent lips: affair; sordid; decades-long; divorce.
Apocalypse Page 8
