Absolute Power. Michael Carroll

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СКАЧАТЬ ten years.”

      Razor’s cellphone beeped. “Oh, what now?” He flipped open the phone. “Yo…Oh, hi Caroline. What’s up?” He listened for a moment. “Damn…All right, we’re coming down.”

      “What is it?” Danny asked.

      “The guys you arrested on the island aren’t terrorists. They’re security guards. The food supplies belonged to the Trutopians. And they’re not happy.”

      Colin stood at the back of the room as Reginald Kinsella stepped in front of the camera. Kinsella looked annoyed and a little flustered. He cleared his throat, took a sip of water from a glass.

      Harriet, operating the camera, said, “We’ve got the link…Going live in thirty-two seconds.”

      Beside her, Byron tapped at his laptop computer. “It’s coming through fine.”

      Despite his reservations about the organisation, Colin was impressed with how the Trutopians worked. Everything seemed to be done with tremendous efficiency: even though the community in Satu Mare was quite small and didn’t have its own official broadcasting facilities, it had only taken Harriet and Byron a few minutes to track down a digital video camera and a powerful laptop computer and connect them to the Internet.

      Harriet counted down the last few seconds, then Kinsella stared into the camera and began to speak.

      “Good morning. Or good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are…As many of you will know, the Trutopian organisation does not simply look after itself. Our mission is to help everyone, Trutopian or otherwise.” Kinsella took another sip of his water. “In a number of different locations we have been stockpiling preserved foods so that in the event of a disaster – an earthquake, for example – we will be immediately able to ship those supplies to the countries in need. Over the past six weeks, fourteen of our stockpiles have been destroyed or irrevocably contaminated by some unknown outside force. A few hours ago, our enemies struck again, on Isla del Tonatiuh, a small island to the west of Central America.

      “After the first few attacks we greatly increased our security measures. Our compound on Isla del Tonatiuh was covered with hidden cameras. We have the perpetrators on film.” He tilted his head to look past the camera towards Byron, and nodded.

      The tall man tapped a few keys on his computer.

      Colin walked over to Byron and watched the video footage play out on the laptop’s screen.

      His heart jumped when he spotted Renata and Butler attacking the guards.

      Once the footage was over, Kinsella reappeared on the screen. “Just in case some of you have been living on Mars and didn’t recognise them, they were the New so-called Heroes, agents of a government that preaches democracy but apparently does not feel compelled to practise it.” Kinsella paused. “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I personally am not impressed with this new generation of superhumans. At least, not those who are still working for the US military.” With that, he cast a quick look in Colin’s direction.

      “I want answers. I want to know how they can justify an action like that. What if there is another disaster like the flooding of New Orleans? If the US government comes to the Trutopians for help, what will we say? Will we turn them away? No. We will not. We will help them in any way we can, because the Trutopian organisation is made up of the people, by the people, and, most importantly, for the people. Words with which the powers that be in the USA should be only too familiar.”

      Kinsella stepped back a little from the camera. “I want answers. I want those answers to be honest, complete and without condition. And I want them within the next twenty-four hours.” He took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “To the ordinary people, thank you for watching. And to the governments of all the countries that are opposed to the Trutopians…We are watching you.”

       6

      IN SAKKARA, DANNY and Razor stood in the doorway of Ops, watching the monitor over the heads of everyone else in the packed room.

      “We’re in trouble now,” Razor muttered.

      At the far side of the room, General Piers hit the remote control to turn off the monitor, then swivelled back to face everyone.

      Danny thought he’d never seen the General look so old, so tired.

      For a moment, Piers was silent, then he took a deep breath and looked around the room. “Any thoughts?”

      Sitting next to him, Maxwell Dalton quietly said, “Someone set us up. And they did a good job of it too.” He looked up at Impervia. “You scanned the place?”

      The woman nodded. “Twice. Danny did a high-speed pass, then I scanned it again as I approached. Obviously, they’ve found a way to mask their cameras from the scanner.”

      General Piers said, “Obviously.” He turned to Razor. “How?”

      “Probably used fibre-optic cameras. There are models that can run with minimal electricity. The scanners would only pick them up if they were specifically looking for them. You don’t set up something like that because you’re afraid someone might attack. They knew.”

      At the far side of the room, Caroline Wagner cleared her throat and said, “I think we’re avoiding something here. Why did you go all that way to destroy food supplies?”

      Impervia glared at the younger woman. “We didn’t. We thought we were going after a weapons cache.”

      “Either you’re lying or you were wrong. If you were wrong then what else have you been wrong about? And if you’re lying—”

      “All right, that’ll do!” General Piers said. “I’ve had the Secretary of Defence on the phone three times already and our press office has been bombarded with calls from every media source on the planet. I’m putting a hiatus on everything but the Paragon project until we find out who set us up. Maybe it was the Trutopians themselves, maybe it was a foreign power. God knows there are more than a few nations jealous that we have superhumans.” He turned his attention to the computer in front of him. “Meeting’s over.”

      As they filed out of the room, Renata and Butler caught up with Danny and Razor.

      “I’m really getting sick of this place!” Renata said. “They’re the ones who messed up, but we get treated like it’s our fault!”

      “Right,” Razor said, “and we don’t even get paid! I work at least fourteen hours a day, seven days a week, and in return all I get is food and a bed. I got better food and a better bed in Florida, and all I had to do was take out the trash in the mornings.”

      A voice said, “And if you want to return to that life, that can be arranged.”

      They turned to see Impervia standing behind them. “Razor, back to the machine room. The rest of you…Go to your rooms and get some rest. I want to see you in my office in one hour.”

      In the small town of Moate, Indiana, two teenage girls kept their eyes fixed straight ahead as they approached a large abandoned factory.

      Erica СКАЧАТЬ