Chapter Fifty-One

The conference hall was quiet, but not from the absence of people. In fact, they filled it with more people than they had expected. The president sat at the head of the table. On his right-hand side were all the politicians who mattered and controlled their governments.

On the left were military personnel, each dressed in their uniform and their ranks clearly visible. If a bomb had been planted there, it would be the end of several world powers. Everybody who was somebody sat inside that room.

Evata and Rosa stood behind Edmund, sitting across from the president at the far end of the table. The meeting was exclusive, and the only reason they had been invited was that the project involved them.

If Edmund had not been overseeing the special project or reporting on it, even he would not have been invited.

The tension in the room was high. The important people, the ones who apparently had enough money to buy themselves a place at the table, were there, while those who were less fortunate were the outcasts, outside and dying under the Frost.

The influential men and women in there had at least one guard standing behind their chair. The president had two members of the Secret Service flanking him. Men whose skills had proven valuable to their leader and, in return, had bought them a ticket on the ark. The generals had their military guards behind them as well.

Edmund cleared his throat, then rose. He buttoned his blue suit jacket as he pulled a bunch of files from his bag, then made his way to the president.

“We’ve been studying the changes in the climate variations, temperature drops hurricanes, earthquakes—”

“Just get to the point, Edmund. We don’t have all day,” the president replied.

Eva rolled her eyes. Such proud men. Did they have somewhere else they would rather be?

Edmund pressed his lips hard against each other, then continued.

“The point is, Earth is dying as we all know, and we have about seven years left, or at least that was what we thought until recently.”

“What does that mean ‘until recently’?”

“There has been an unanticipated Earth outer-core solidification. We anticipate this frozen expansion will shatter the poles and shed them away from the planet. The additional loss of mass will cause Earth’s orbit to widen slightly more than we previously expected.”

Eva clenched her fist tightly, trying to keep herself still. It was all overwhelming. She couldn’t remain focused on what was being said.

“With the average trajectory change increased to one point zero-zero-seven, we have estimated another twenty-eight months before our planet becomes uninhabitable, frozen,” Edmund said. He had finished handing the paper-printed files to the team and returned to his seat.

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“Scan to holo, please.”

The team members flipped through the holo-files with keen eyes.

Eva stood there, unable to speak and not even allowed to, even if she could.

Rosa remained close beside her and the rest of the Halikkon members from left to right. They could not take part unless asked a question first. So far, none of the leaders had considered any of them qualified enough to answer.

They directed all questions to Edmund, who most times permitted them to speak, but only afterward.

“Twenty-eight months?” one general asked.

“Yes, this is confirmed, modeled data.” Edmund answered, nodding.

“Dammit!” the president exclaimed.

“And what of this location, the president’s emergency compound?” the Secretary of Defense, a slender woman with pronounced cheekbones, said pointing to the underground Washington D. C. location on their screen.

Eva interrupted. “His compound will not hold much further after. The Frost will strain all Northern America Power Grid systems at this rate and likely begin to fail at around thirty months. Once our grid fails, shortly afterward, the temperature will drop. No one can escape this, not even the presidents of the world.”

All eyes turned to Eva. She felt their piercing gazes hammering down for her crime of speaking out of turn. She saw the superiority displayed in their stares, scrutinizing her careless commentary.

“Excuse me. You were one of the participants that oversaw TITAN, I believe?” the slender blonde woman asked.

“Yes,” she said and nodded, almost choking on her words. She sensed the big hit coming, even though she was yet to say anything further.

“You are now on the team in charge of getting us out of here in one piece?”

It was a statement, or perhaps even a mockery, but she had posed it as a question.

Eva scanned the room for rescue, but the men continually stared at her, waiting for an answer.

She nodded again. She tried to speak, but her voice had abandoned her.

“Seems to me this team has a thing for disappointments,” the woman remarked and turned to the broader team again. “How unfortunate the salvation of the world now rests on the steps of failure, of these few.”

Eva felt the splash of shame cover her face. She prayed the walls would open and consume her, but she was not so lucky. She watched them roast her and go on like nothing had happened, leaving her to wallow in humiliation.

The floor beneath her feet suddenly felt too warm. The entire room was hot, and she felt a burning all over her body. She could not breathe. It was difficult to stand. It was as though the piercing eyes had given her a thousand cuts, then left her bleeding to death.

Rosa reached for her hand and squeezed it. He could almost see the shame emanating from her body. The woman had lost a lot of weight, working herself to exhaustion to get these people out of there. Perhaps they all deserved to die. Perhaps even he deserved to die alongside them because of their meddling.

Judgment day, he thought.

Eva clenched his hand even more tightly while the other tugged at her black jacket, trying hard to keep herself still and her breathing in check.

As they all waited for the next disheveled comment, the meeting still going in circles, the door swung open with a loud bang. The noise was harsh enough that they all quickly turned, the guards reaching for their weapons.

Their jaws dropped in awe as Viktoriya stood there, scanning each one of them with so much confidence that it would cause an adult to back away.

“Viktoriya,” her mom shakily muttered, entirely out of breath. Her dad could not believe his eyes.

None of them could.

“Someone, help!” her mom cried out. The air was being sucked out of her.

She could not breathe. This could not be happening. Was this really happening?

No, Viktoriya could not; she could not be here, not now. Standing in front of these people.

I can’t breathe.

Eva tried to move, but her knees had buckled. She felt gravity taking over, pulling her to the floor as everything tunneled and slowly went dark, as she muttered, “Viktori…”