THE TROUBLE WITH DECEIT

Part 11 Not quite to plan

The two colleagues who had let them into the huge building had in fact contacted security even though they knew Helen well, to make sure that it was, in fact, an arranged visit, especially as there were civilians accompanying her.  As Helen was running the checks to make sure that the portal really was still in working order, the security men arrived, three of them, along with her colleagues who had let them in.  The game was up before it had even got started. Professor Arnold turned and appealed to them all to let them continue.  Conti, one of her own, said,  "I'm really sorry Helen, you too professor, but it is more than our jobs are worth.  I have called the administrator, and I am sorry to tell you, the police."  Suddenly, and catching everyone by surprise there was a pronounced tremor, lasting only a moment but still shocking. One of the security men, looking as white as a sheet said: "since when do we get earthquakes in England!"

Gary Craven was carefully pulling out any tiny weeds that he spotted from around his little vegetable patch when he felt the tremor. He stood up straight and paused, then shaking his head he got back to his task.  This was a perk of his job because in these times there simply wasn't any spare land to grow things on.  All of the food was grown in multi-story nurseries that were kept automatically at the perfect temperature for maximum growth.  Each of these nurseries had forty levels of an acre each. The crops varied from wheat to pomegranate trees.  All of the rainforests and the lakes were gone and rivers were now all underground.  The world was starving for space and in their absence instead were giant efficient oxygen exchangers that purified the air for the worlds massive overpopulation. Only the oceans remained and these were no longer capable of supporting life.

The helipad to the rear of the huge facility consisted of a large circular landing/take-off area in a square quadrant with the perimeter being dead space.  One corner part contained first aid equipment.   A second corner contained firefighting equipment, while the third contained general stores and the last was just empty space.  Here, Gary had a few years back taken to growing seeds in the old way, in the soil.   As his little garden flourished it had become a talking point of interest to most.  Probably because of his high position as site administrator nobody had ever officially objected to it, and it was to here, his own little bit of paradise, that he came to escape the horrific events that were engulfing the world.  A triangular garden of around three and a half meters long on each side.  Resuming his careful weeding he was again disturbed, this time by his pager and a security man urgently requesting that he reports to the control room.

In the control room, Gary was confronted with the unlikely scenario of all three residing security staff plus one of the senior controllers Helen,  professor Tom Arnold who these days was a minor celebrity and a third person he didn't know.  This, in a building that these days was generally practically deserted.  Conti, the chief liaison man explained what had happened. Turning to Helen Gary Craven said, "why don't you tell me what's going on here Helen?"  Keeping it brief she quickly told him what they were doing and why. "I'm really disappointed in you Helen, and you professor Arnold, I can't imagine what you are thinking, a man of your stature letting himself become involved in this, this vandalism."  A policeman and a policewoman entered the control room and joined them. The man told the three of them that they would have to come back to the station to sort all of this out.  Right at that moment, there was another quake, only this one was brutal and lasted for a full minute.  The police were shouting in the middle of it "get outside, all of you, get outside!:"   "Wait!" Gary Craven said, "stop right now, thas was not an earthquake:"  "If that wasn't an earthquake of at least an 8 on the scale I would love you to tell me what it was," the security chief said.  Resuming Gary said, "I don't believe it would have even registered on the Richter scale. the water in that glass didn't even show a ripple. I think this was a time quake, and I have to believe it was caused by us interfering with these intruders plans. I am going to u-turn what I just said and instead ask that all of you good citizens give our three specialists here our full cooperation to complete their plan."  Nodding to Gary, Tom said, "what do you think caused the time quake?" The administrator gravely spelled it out. "I think your plan could save the world, and the quake happened because it was going to be diverted. I fear if you had been removed from this building we might all have blinked right out of existence. Therefore for reasons unknown to all of us you need to go back and follow your idea through."  The quake had been felt everywhere in the world, it transpired, in planes on ships and all buildings whether above or below ground, and there had been no damage and no recorded earthquakes anywhere.

Eventually,  all of the checks were completed, it had taken them a good hour to do so.  "Okay people," Helen said, "we are ready to go, technically all three of us could go through now, but I feel we should follow exactly our original plan and just send the two men, we don't want to be causing any more time quakes."  Five minutes later and with the powerful electromagnets powered up professors Arnold and Howard stepped through the portal and emerged in the small MOD building that housed the portal target zone in the year 2118.