Chapter 5: Unwanted Developments
FROM: ANIL SURESH. LORD EVALUATOR, GUARDIAN OPERATIONS
TO: LORD MARSHAL EARL FOSTER
DATE: NOVEMBER 10TH 2035
SUBJECT: FINDINGS OF SECTOR OVERSEERS: HIGH GRAND MASTER SAMUEL THALETON—AMERICAS & HIGH GRAND MASTER PARK LEUNG—ASIA
SIR,
FOLLOWING MY INVESTIGATION INTO THE SUSPICIONS RAISED BY HIGH GRAND MASTERS THALETON AND PARK, I REPORT AS FOLLOWS:
AT 11:00 A.M. EST USA—OCTOBER 30TH 2035, DUTY FARSCANNERS ABOARD GUARDIAN OBSERVATION STATION 2, (GOS-2) DETECTED AN EMERGENCY DISTRESS CALL FROM A DIAMOND DA20 TRAINER LIGHT AIRCRAFT EXPERIENCING DIFFICULTIES ABOVE CHICAGO, IL, USA.
THE MAY-DAY WAS ALLEGEDLY MADE BY A PANICKING STUDENT, STATING HER INSTRUCTOR HAD PASSED OUT AND THAT SHE WAS UNABLE TO CONTROL THE CRAFT AS IT WAS ONLY HER SECOND LESSON.
OBSERVATIONS CONFIRMED A DA20 CONTAINING TWO INDIVIDUALS WAS INDEED FLYING ERRATICALLY OVER SOLDIER FIELD, BOSTON, APPARENTLY HEADING TOWARDS MERRILL C MEIGS AIRPORT. AS SCANS CONTINUED, THE PLANE WENT INTO A STEEP DIVE.
IN VIEW OF THE POTENTIAL SEVERITY OF THE SITUATION, GUARDIAN MASTER LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM (TK) AND GUARDIAN PETER SMITH (HEAL) WERE DISPATCHED TO ASSIST.
NEITHER MEMBER IS ENDOWED WITH NATURAL TELEPORT ABILITIES, AND AS SUCH, INSERTED THE CRAFT VIA T-RING FUNCTION.
UPON ARRIVAL THEY DISCOVERED TWO UNKNOWN OCCUPANTS, ONE MALE AND ONE FEMALE, WHO APPEARED IN THE BEST OF HEALTH. (DESCRIPTIONS AS PER APPENDIX A)
THE OCCUPANTS APOLOGIZED FOR THE DECEPTION AND STATED THEY REPRESENTED “INTERESTED PERSONS” WHO WERE KEEN TO ACQUIRE THE SERVICES OF EXCEPTIONAL AND GIFTED INDIVIDUALS TO UNDERTAKE “EMPLOYMENT” THAT WOULD BE MUTUALLY BENEFICIAL TO ALL PARTIES CONCERNED.
GUARDIAN MASTER BUCKINGHAM MOVED TO APPREHEND THE INDIVIDUALS, AND DISCOVERED THEY WERE PSYCHICALLY GIFTED. THE SUSPECTS WERE ABLE TO ANTICIPATE HER REACTIONS AND TELEPORTED FROM THAT LOCALE BEFORE SHE WAS ABLE TO PLACE THEM IN CUSTODY.
NOT BEING BLESSED WITH NATURAL TELEPORTING SENSITIVITIES, NEITHER GUARDIAN WAS ABLE TO FOLLOW THE HYPERSPATIAL WAKE TO ITS MANIFESTATION POINT.
ONCE THE TRAINER WAS SAFELY ON THE GROUND AT MERRILL C MEIGS AIRPORT, ENQUIRIES DISCOVERED THE BRITISH REGISTERED PLANE HAD BEEN STOLEN THE PREVIOUS DAY FROM BRISTOL AIRPORT, IN THE UK.
CHECKS ARE STILL UNDERWAY TO DISCOVER HOW IT MANAGED TO ARRIVE IN THE USA SO QUICKLY, BUT, AS THE DISTANCE INVOLVED IS FAR BEYOND THE NATURAL RANGE FOR A CRAFT THAT SIZE, IT IS THOUGHT TEMPORAL TRANSLOCATION IS THE MOST PROBABLE CAUSE.
FORENSIC INVESTIGATIONS BY OUR OWN INQUISITORS HAVE REVEALED NO CLUES AS TO THE IDENTITY OF EITHER INDIVIDUAL, SUGGESTING A PSI-SWEEP WAS EMPLOYED TO REMOVE DNA EVIDENCE. (FORENSIC ANALYSIS AS PER APPENDIX B)
A META-CRYSTAL CONTAINING THE MENTAL RECORDS OF THE INCIDENT BY ATTENDING GUARDIANS IS ENCLOSED. (AS/1)
AT 03:00 A.M. HONG KONG LOCAL TIME—NOVEMBER 2ND 2035, DUTY FARSCANNERS ABOARD GUARDIAN OBSERVATION STATION 4, (GOS-4) MONITORED A CALL TO EMERGENCY SERVICES FROM THE RECEPTION OF THE RITZ-CARLTON HOTEL – ATOP THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE CENTRE, WEST KOWLOON, HONG KONG – STATING THERE HAD BEEN AN EXPLOSION ON THE ROOF OF THE BUILDING A FEW MINUTES PREVIOUSLY, AND THAT A FIRE WAS NOW RAGING.
AT OVER 1688 FEET TALL, THIS STRUCTURE IS THE TALLEST BUILDING IN HONG KONG, AND THE FOURTH TALLEST IN THE WORLD. BOTH LIFE AND PROPERTY WERE IN IMMEDIATE DANGER. AS SUCH, CIRCUMSTANCES FITTED OUR RAPID REACTION PROTOCOLS.
SENSORS HAD CAPTURED THE EXACT COORDINATES OF THE DETONATION AND A FULL – TWO STICK – ALPHA RESPONSE TEAM WAS SCRAMBLED, COMMANDED BY GUARDIAN MASTER EDWARD CLEGG, (ELM-F/E & TP), WITH INSERTION TO TARGET BEING MADE TWO FLOORS BELOW THE EXPLOSION.
ONE STICK UNDER THE DIRECTION OF GUARDIAN KERRY YIP, (TEL/HEAL), WAS TASKED TO THE RECEPTION OF THE HOTEL AND ARRIVALS LOBBY TO THE BUILDING ITSELF TO ASSIST INGRESS BY LOCAL EMERGENCY RESPONSE UNITS, WHILE THE OTHER STICK HEADED BY GUARDIAN CARLOS ABANO, (SH/TEL/TK), WAS TASKED TO ASSIST MASTER CLEGG ON SITE.
MASTER CLEGG FOUND THE ROOF AREA DESERTED, AND A SALOON BAR AND ADJACENT STORE HEAVILY DAMAGED BY PERCUSSIVE FORCE AND FIRE. WITHIN THE REMAINS OF THAT BAR WERE THREE CASUALTIES: TWO MALE; ONE FEMALE WHO, DUE TO MASTER CLEGG’S ENHANCED CAPABILITIES, WERE EASILY REACHED.
THE TEAM WAS SURPRISED TO FIND THAT THE CASUALTIES WERE IN FACT FREE OF INJURY, AND THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM WAS POSSESSED OF SOME DEGREE OF ELEMENTAL COMPETENCY, AS NONE SHOWED ANY DISTRESS FROM THE EFFECTS OF BLAST, HEAT OR BURNS.
THE WOMAN APOLOGIZED TO GUARDIAN MASTER CLEGG FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO THE BUILDING, AND STATED SUFFICIENT FUNDS TO COVER THE COST OF REPAIRS WOULD BE DISCOVERED WITHIN THE HOTEL’S SAFE TO THE REAR OF THE MAIN RECEPTION, INSIDE A BLACK LEATHER BRIEFCASE. SHE THEN WENT ON TO MAKE A SIMILAR OFFER AS WAS EXTENDED TO OUR OFFICERS IN CHICAGO, STRESSING THAT ALL GUARDIANS PRESENT SHOULD SERIOUSLY CONSIDER HER PROPOSAL, AS IT WAS UNLIKELY SUCH A COURTESY WOULD BE AFFORDED AGAIN SO FREELY.
THAT INDIVIDUAL – OR ONE OF THE TWO MALES ACCOMPANYING HER – WAS POWERFULLY TELEPATHIC, AS EVIDENCED BY THE MANNER IN WHICH THEY WERE ABLE TO EAVESDROP ON MASTER CLEGG’S INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS SQUAD TO ARREST THEM. NO SOONER HAD THE ORDER BEEN ISSUED, THAN THE FEMALE INDICATED TO HER COMPANIONS THAT THEY SHOULD LEAVE.
THEY DEPARTED BY WAY OF TELEPORTATION, BUT NOT BEFORE ONE OF THE MEN DROPPED A METAL CYLINDER THAT EXPLODED ONLY A FEW SECONDS LATER, SATURATING THE SURROUNDING AREA IN A CORROSIVE, FLAMMABLE JELLY.
TWO PROTECTORS WERE SERIOUSLY INJURED IN THAT BLAST, AS NEITHER HAD THE TELEKINETIC, SHIELDING OR ELEMENTAL CAPABILITY NEEDED TO PROTECT THEMSELVES SUFFICIENTLY. FORTUNATELY, THE MORE EXPERIENCED TEAM MEMBERS RECOVERED FROM THEIR SURPRISE SWIFTLY ENOUGH TO RENDER ASSISTANCE.
BY THE TIME THE SAFETY OF HIS PEOPLE WAS BEYOND QUESTION, GUARDIAN MASTER CLEGG – THE ONSITE TELEPORT SPECIALIST – DISCOVERED THE DEMATERIALIZATION NEXUS HAD DEGRADED TO THE POINT WHERE THE HYPERSPATIAL WAKE WAS TOO DIFFUSE TO FOLLOW.
(DESCRIPTIONS OF SUSPECTS ARE LISTED AT APPENDIX C)
THE IED WAS ALL BUT CONSUMED. NEVERTHELESS, FORENSIC TEAMS HAVE BEEN ABLE TO ANALYZE MICROSCOPIC FRAGMENTS RECOVERED FROM THE SCENE AND A FULL BREAKDOWN IS EXPECTED SOON. (PRELIMINARY RESULTS AS PER APPENDIX D) — OF NOTE IS THAT INITIAL FINDINGS CONFIRM THE SUBSTANCE USED TO PACK THE BOMB IS AN ADVANCED COMPOUND THAT SHOULD – IN VIEW OF CURRENT GLOBAL TECHNOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING – BE BEYOND THEIR CAPABILITY TO MANUFACTURE.
ALSO OF INTEREST IS THE FACT THAT AN OPEN BRIEFCASE WAS INDEED DISCOVERED WITHIN THE HOTEL’S MAIN SAFE, CONTAINING FIVE MILLION DOLLARS, US.
A STUDY OF THE BRIEFCASE AND ITS CONTENTS HAS BEEN INCONCLUSIVE SO FAR.
THE META-CRYSTAL CONTAINING THE MENTAL RECORDS OF THOSE GUARDIANS INVOLVED IN THE CONFRONTATION IS ENCLOSED. (AS/2)
CONCLUSION:
IT IS EVIDENT THAT MATURATION OF THE HUMAN MIND IS IN ADVANCE OF WHAT WE ANTICIPATED.
GIFTED INDIVIDUALS CAPABLE OF TANGIBLE AND ADROIT EXPRESSION ARE ALREADY PRESENT IN GREATER NUMBERS THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED. SOME WOULD APPEAR TO HAVE UNITED IN WHAT CAN BEST BE DESCRIBED AS, AN “ORGANIZED COLLECTIVE” WHOSE FORMATION AND DEVELOPMENT ELUDED US. THEIR ASPIRATIONS ARE CURRENTLY UNKNOWN.
WHATEVER THIS GROUP IS, THEY ARE UNCLEAR AS TO OUR MOTIVATION AND TENETS, WHICH WOULD EXPLAIN THE NAÏVE APPROACHES AND OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT. IN SPITE OF THIS, IT IS OBVIOUS THEY ARE WELL-FUNDED AND EQUIPPED, HAVE ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY SUPERIOR TO THAT CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TO WORLD MARKETS. NEITHER ARE THEY BACKWARD IN COMING FORWARD.
ON THAT POINT, IT IS PLAIN THAT THE ANOMALIES ENCOUNTERED THUS FAR DO NOT HAVE THE STRENGTH AND RANGE OF ABILITIES TO PRESENT A SERIOUS THREAT TO THOSE OF GUARDIAN RANK. THE SAME CANNOT BE SAID FOR PROTECTOR LEVEL ADEPTS IF CAUGHT UNAWARES.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
A HEIGHTENED ALERT STATUS IS TO BE INITIATED IMMEDIATELY, EFFECTIVE ACROSS ALL COMMAND CENTERS. STATION SENSORS ARE TO BE ADJUSTED AND REPROGRAMMED TO INCORPORATE AUTOMATIC AURA MICRO-SCANS FOR THE NEXT THREE MONTHS, ESPECIALLY WHEN RESPONDING TO THOSE EMERGENCIES REPORTED BY REMOTE MEANS.
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES WILL BE TIGHTENED, TO ENSURE THE ENCRYPTION OF ALL TELEPATHIC INTERCHANGE AND THE GENERATION OF PERSONAL SHIELDS WHILE GUARDIANS ARE ONSITE. THE NEW SOPS WILL REMAIN IN EFFECT AT EVERY INCIDENT UNTIL THE THREAT ASSESSMENT HAS BEEN COMPLETED.
RE-ROSTERED DUTY LISTS ARE TO BE IMPLEMENTED TO ENSURE A BROADER SPREAD OF ABILITIES ARE ON CALL, ESPECIALLY WHERE A PREDOMINANCE OF PROTECTORS ARE TASKED TO DEAL.
ALL RESPONSE TEAMS ARE TO IMPLEMENT FORENSIC PROTOCOLS IMMEDIATELY, AND INITIATE REGULAR EXTRASENSORY AND AURA BASED INTERROGATIONS TO IDENTIFY THOSE WITH PSI ABILITY.
I WOULD ALSO CONSIDER THE TEMPORARY ALLOCATION OF INQUISITOR CELLS TO EACH ORBITAL STATION SO WE HAVE SUITABLY QUALIFIED STAFF ON HAND SHOULD THE NEED ARISE.
THIS CONCLUDES MY REPORT.
LORD EVALUATOR ANIL SURESH
*
For anyone interested in statistics, the five weeks following the Fairbanks incident proved to be a somewhat bewildering time. Governments began issuing new directives, resulting in the implementation of widespread, well advertized – and sometimes, not so well advertized – information trawling campaigns.
The more overt methods included “fun and personal discovery” challenges within national and local newspapers along with the streaming of a battery of online quizzes, tests, and games. Those interested were offered a chance to find out the answer to two intriguing questions: “Are you telepathic? Are you the next Guardian Angel? – Find Out Now.”
Countless schools had visits from groups purporting to represent inclusive educational or charitable establishments – all with authentic looking credentials – who ushered children through “psychic evaluation courses.” Some even made family weekends of them, where the assessors got to meet the relatives of all their students, and duplicitously gained a vast reservoir of intimate details that would have otherwise remained well off the radar.
Businesses, especially those whose role was deemed essential to national and economic security, found their employees were required to undergo additional vetting and teambuilding exercises. This caused a good many people to express their concerns as to how far paranoia would encourage things to get out of hand.
On a more worrying note, certain agencies representing a minority of countries had been authorized to screen the private e-mails, social networking accounts, texts and telephone conversations of literally anyone they wanted.
An extremely sophisticated set of algorithms were unleashed, all designed to monitor the wash of electronic white noise filling the ether, all waiting to be activated by a special set of keywords or phrases that would stand out from the rest of the chatter like a clarion call to arms.
Such monitoring was run parallel to global hunter-seeker programs, premeditated aggressive packets of rapacious malware with nothing to do except collect data as they endlessly interrogated the core of whatever systems they had been set loose upon.
Similar Trojans were also spliced into the countless CCTV control centers around the world, where movements and actions were scrutinized closely for what came to be known as, behavioral marker patterns. Though silent and seemingly innocuous, those little subroutines afforded snoopers virtual live-time surveillance of potential targets of interest whenever they used their credit cards, drove their vehicles, or simply went about the mundane chore of everyday life.
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The result? Personal details relating to millions of people were thoroughly researched. If the aforementioned keywords or patterns were identified and came in clusters, then the particulars of the individual generating them was added to an ever-growing directory of potentials.
Where such clusters cropped up repeatedly, a shorter list was compiled which invariably found its way to a select cadre of investigators. Those investigators would begin comprehensive background and lifestyle checks to see if they could distinguish a predetermined common thread. If such a thread was verified, that potential was issued a case file number and black flagged for a home visit within forty-eight hours.
What happened next was entirely dependent upon several factors: who the person was; their age and standing in the community; the number of existing and available next of kin; and most insidiously, their country of residence.
Not surprisingly, more nations than you would care to imagine experienced an alarming rise in missing person’s reports during this unsettled period.
The only ray of light to hold back the gloom was the fact that the Guardian Angels had continued to offer invaluable assistance at times of great need. Hundreds of thousands of lives were saved around the world in situations as varied as major earthquakes in China, Greece, Turkey, and the Eastern United States; flash flooding in India and New Zealand; a freeway collapse in Brazil during Rush Hour; the meltdown of a nuclear reactor in Japan; and the recovery of a stranded climber, dying from exposure in the French Alps following a fall of more than eighty feet.
Amazingly, they were also on hand to support authorities on two separate occasions off the coast of Somalia, where pirates had forcibly taken control of several cargo vessels. They had also assisted in the mid-air release of hostages during a hijacking over the Indian Ocean. And recently, they had even rescued a five-year old girl in Thailand, who had been abducted from outside her home by a pedophile as she played in the street.
That particular outrage had attracted broad coverage, for the Guardian Angels had not been content to pluck the child to safety. In an unprecedented move, they had also teleported the terrified miscreant directly into the notorious Klong Prem Penitentiary, a jail full of hardened criminals with a known hatred of sex offenders. The threat that they would leave him there unless he agreed to willingly cooperate with police did the trick. He squealed like the proverbial stuffed pig, admitting to a list of offences going back more than fifteen years.
Sadly, an outrageous incident occurred on the very same day the little girl was rescued in Thailand that caused an international uproar: someone tried to initiate a murderous attack against the Guardian Angels themselves.
Luis Plazas, a Costa Rican crime lord from Jaco, was an unstable individual who, for all intent and purposes, represented the very epitome of a drug abusing homicidal maniac. Not the kind of person, therefore, you would ever want to upset.
He had literally shot, stabbed, hacked, drugged, drowned and tortured his way to the top in a gory two year take-over that had not only eliminated his rivals, but left countless men, women and children, and dozens of police officers and magistrates, dead.
In the decade since his rise, the country had existed in a state of fear so oppressive, no one dared cross him. Residents often said that living there felt as if they were permanently holding their breaths, waiting for a bloodstained axe to fall.
All those years of committing atrocities without the slightest concern of reprisals or prosecution, had left Plazas with an over-inflated opinion of how untouchable he was, and like many of his cohorts, he was incensed that the Guardian Angels were now daring to interfere in the way he had chosen to make his living.
Always out to make a show of himself, Plazas had struck on an idea he hoped would bolster his Teflon reputation. He had his men round up nearly a hundred people from one of the local villages and strapped them all into suicide vests, each one of which contained five pounds of semtex, armed by employing an old-style mobile phone. Following that, he herded everyone into the cramped hold of a seventy-five foot long, semi-submersible drugs boat, which – for good measure – had also been primed with an even bigger bomb.
Once loaded, he picked two lackeys who had recently fallen from favor, and tasked them with a special mission. Lucky not to have been executed already and anxious to make amends, the desperate duo were only too willing to sail the over laden craft eight miles out into the Pacific Ocean, where – they were told – the villagers would be blown to pieces to send a statement of Plaza’s dominance, but only after a support vessel had arrived that would transport the now redeemed pair away.
The two men were given specific instructions. Firstly, that they notify Plazas of their arrival at the prearranged coordinates and secondly, that he was to be alerted immediately of any attempt to prevent the mass execution from taking place.
Knowing only too well the tyrannical leanings and instability of their boss, and believing they were clawing their way back into his good books, the dupes did exactly as Plazas had ordered, not realizing they were signing their own death warrants.
No sooner had he been advised that his mules were on site, than Plazas calmly made an anonymous call to police headquarters at San Jose, notifying them of a major cocaine haul, believed to be in excess of five hundred tons, that was about to go to the bottom of the sea five to ten miles out from Tambor, due to an unfortunate explosion and fire on board.
His tip-off had the desired effect. The authorities – recognizing who had made the call, and fearful of disappointing him – began simulcasting via radio, TV, satellite, and anything else they could get their hands on, pleading for the Guardian Angels to aid them in effecting the arrest of dangerous criminals.
Sure enough, less than three minutes later, a Guardian Angel response team attended the stricken vessel, only to discover that circumstances were drastically different to what had been reported.
Notice of the Guardian Angels arrival was immediately passed to Plazas by one of his faithful lapdogs, who, trying to think on his feet, threw his scroll phone into the ocean in an attempt to prevent any evidence linking him to his boss from falling into the wrong hands.
Spotting what had happened, one of the Guardian Angels rendered that man unconscious before subjecting him to an invasive mind ream. Needless to say, the truth of the matter was quickly uncovered, and the rest of the response team rushed to assist those villagers still trapped in the hold. Finding them padlocked to explosives, a full-scale emergency Bio-Port was initiated, whereby the powerful sensors of one of the Guardian observations stations locked onto the life-signs generated by the captives and whisked them away, leaving all inorganic materials such as clothes, jewelry, drugs and volatile compounds, behind.
Thankfully, this was accomplished within thirty seconds. And just as well, for Plazas had been spending the time following the notification of his enemy’s arrival, calling a series of numbers listed within his m-pad. Once connected, he’d then had to send a succession of validation codes to ensure the correct signal was generated to detonate all of the vests – and the rigged surprise at the bottom of the hold – simultaneously.
And that’s where his plan fell apart, for using the old cell phones as triggers had brought the Guardian Angels those few extra seconds they needed to get everyone away safely.
When the two lackeys comprehend they were as good as dead to their boss, and had been offered up as sacrificial lambs, they were more than willing to help identify Plazas, his top captains and their most likely whereabouts, to the authorities.
Guardian Inquisitors made a point of calling on Plazas themselves. When they materialized inside his bedroom only thirty minutes later, they found him totally absorbed in a movie on TV, and stuffing his face with an extra large anchovy and pepperoni pizza.
He was so shocked to discover he wasn’t as invincible as he thought, that he cried like a baby when arrested, and was still bawling his eyes out when locked in police cells under their strict supervision.
Fortunately, this was the only openly aggressive move against the Guardian Angels to make the headlines. There were some who watched the live newsfeed of later parts of that debacle, and who gained further intelligence of the complete event, via an extensive network of contacts in the days following the attack. What they uncovered was viewed with a mixture of interest, alarm and grudging respect, for it meant a hasty revision of their plans.
*
Undeterred by such instability, the Guardian Angels continued going about their business, leaving several additional resin encased messages in the care of survivors of some of the more serious disasters.
Then, just when the public seemed to be getting used to the presence of these godlike saviors, things changed. Following the evacuation of a chemical plant in Bamako, Mali – where a containment breach had threatened to poison a seven-mile stretch of the Niger River – something else was left for the authorities to consider: a startling invitation.
The invitation set the world buzzing as to its meaning and implications:
“GLOBAL EVENTS INDICATE IT IS APPROPRIATE FOR US TO INITIATE THE NEXT PHASE OF OUR INTIGRATION INTO YOUR SOCIETY. AN ESSENTIAL STEP, WE ARE SURE YOU WILL AGREE, FOR THE CONTINUED WELFARE OF ALL THOSE IN NEED.
HOWEVER, BEFORE THIS STAGE CAN BE IMPLIMENTED, IT WILL BE NECESSARY TO INSTITUTE A FRAMEWORK IN WHICH THE SUPPORT OF YOUR LAW ENFORCEMENT AND EMERGENCY SERVICES MAY BE PERMANENTLY ESTABLISHED TO EVERYONE’S MUTUAL BENEFIT.
AS SUCH, WE SEEK TO INITIATE FORMAL RELATIONS WITH YOUR LEADERS, AND WILL EXTEND THE OPPORTUNITY TO OPEN A DIALOGUE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
AN APPOINTED REPRESENTATIVE WILL CONTACT YOU SHORTLY.”
If this declaration didn’t cause enough of a sensation in itself, the furor that followed in its wake certainly did, for each and every TV, cable, satellite and radio broadcasting station around the world had their services interrupted for a period of thirty seconds, twice a day; once at 12:00 noon, the second at 9:00 p.m. GMT, with a simple worded announcement, which said:
“December 1st 2035 – 12:00 noon GMT – BBC World News”
That date was just one short week away. Understandably, the many-tentacled entity that was the media was reduced into an uncontrollable frenzy, and nowhere more so than at the BBC, whose Director and board members were in absolute raptures at being selected for whatever had been planned.
As most people were quite unaware of the clandestine methods currently being employed by their governments to procure an edge in the new Psychic Race, they were eagerly looking forward to whatever revelations December would bring.
Expectations of something wonderful, something amazing, were running high.
Those covert directorates tasked to give their respective regimes an edge were not so enthusiastic, however. Concern that their plans to get a head start might have been uncovered by the Guardian Angels, prompted a spate of furious activity to erase any and all links back to those departments responsible.
While several of the more amenable administrations took heed and reigned in their agents – these being the ones who had only stretched their human rights laws minimally – many carried on regardless, and in some cases, even intensified their efforts while preparing intricate cover stories for the inevitable day the brown stuff hit the fan.
To an outsider looking in, such agencies could be accused of suffering from a severe case of Ostrich Syndrome for thinking there wouldn’t be consequences. But as time went on to tell, they weren’t the only ones infected.