CHRONOSCAPE: The future is flexible we can change it by Roger Ley

Author:Roger Ley [Ley, Roger]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-12-10T22:00:00+00:00

On the day after the quake, the Colonel asked Riley into his office. He wants to get the inevitable confrontation over as soon as possible, thought Riley. The Colonel was standing behind his desk as Martin entered.

“I don’t make policy Martin, I’m sorry that we didn’t warn those poor people in Haiti,” he said, “but we have to keep this technology secret. The same way you Limeys protected your code breaking in World War Two. Alan Turing, Bletchley Park, the Enigma code, all that good stuff. The Government has to take painful decisions for the greater good. Sacrifices have to be made.”

Riley was furious. He placed his hands on the desk and, leaned forward into the Colonel’s face.

“They’ve counted 170,000 bodies so far, and they estimate there’ll be a quarter of a million.” He spoke through gritted teeth. “Do you know what 250,000 casualties means? Men, women, children, mothers, fathers, babies. Even now hundreds of people are lying trapped and dying with broken limbs in the darkness of cellars under collapsed buildings, calling out for water, calling for their God. You could have warned them, it wouldn’t have cost you anything, you and your precious Committee, you could have easily warned them?” He was shouting, his hands were shaking, he stepped back.

“I refuse to work with you people any longer. You are mass murderers, I quit.” He heard the slight break in his voice. “Oh, and by the way, I know about you and Estella. You, are a man without honor,” he said slowly and carefully, before he turned and left the office. He would always regret that his inhibitions stopped him from punching the Colonel in his stupid face and then kicking fuck out of him while he lay curled up on the floor. He wanted to stamp on his head.

Riley walked into the main laboratory looking for Estella; the embers of a dangerous, violent anger fanned into flame. It mixed with his feeling of class inadequacy, and the injustice of his anonymity. Estella was sitting at one of the work stations; he leaned down close to her ear.

“Come with me,” he hissed. She looked up in surprise, and then followed him into the conference room. He shut the door and tried to drop the blind on the laboratory side.

“What’s the matter Martin?” she asked, as he pulled ineffectually at the draw strings. He threw them down, leaving the blind high on one side.

He turned and looked at her. “I know about you and him,” he said.

“Me and who? What do you mean?”

He noticed that her blink rate didn’t increase; it was normally a sure sign of tension with her, one of those useful indicators that a spouse notices but never discloses. A separate, logical part of him, found her personal control interesting, almost admirable. She was going to try to deny this thing.

“You and the Colonel.”

“You’re imagining things Martin.”

“He’s been leaving his car parked at the back of the house, on the nights he stayed with you, nights when the boys and I have been away.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.