After the Truth (Book One)

Eleven

Tomorrow I will face a sea of world leaders, or their representatives. I never been in any situation like that before, but I have been face-to-face with one leader of a country once before.

That day everyone thought the danger had been halted. Yet, for a few moments, I thought the British Prime Minister was perhaps someone of power who realised the true difficulty of what humanity faced. I even thought he grasped just how difficult it would be to stop.

In total I spent three weeks in quarantine on Edwards AFB. During those weeks, two more of the children confined with me died. Shannon Ford died at the end of the first week. She was lying about being a virgin during a conversation with another girl. Tabatha later told me Shannon had once confided to her she had had sex with a boy from the varsity football team. Three days later a boy, Gary Fields, died lying about not being one of those who had smoked cannabis.

I take those deaths the hardest. I felt the only one who really understood what they were going through. I tried over and over to impress on them all the significance of what we had been exposed to. There was not choice now, we always had to speak the truth, no matter how hard.

If I could not even stop the deaths of Shannon and Gary, will anyone will listen to what I have to say tomorrow? If those innocent young children couldn't, is anyone able to live under the burden of the truth all the time?

When Hiro left after his first visit, I knew he didn't, that he couldn't, believe what I had said. It would take twenty-seven more people dying, all but one of which were unconnected in anyway with the children in quarantine, before Hiro and members of the US authorities finally began to accept there might be something in what I was telling them. They still refused to believe a single word could be the reason people were dying. However, it was discovered other victims had visited the same Ten Commandments website.

At last there was a common factor between the victims. Even if it made no sense.

A computer forensics team in the FBI quickly tracked down who owned the website: a Malcolm Privet. He lived in Manchester, in the North of England. The team found the server hosting the website was also in England, which meant shutting down required the involvement of the UK authorities.

After the disaster of Covid-19, the merest hint of a possible pandemic injected urgency into the US response. An immediate take down order flew up through the Department of Justice and across the Atlantic to the UK police.

In parallel, Hiro fought to have me released from quarantine so I could aid the UK authorities in their investigation. The US was only too happy to get rid of me and within hour of being told I would be leaving the isolation facility I was wheels up on a military transport plane bound for RAF Brize Norton.

On arrival I was debriefed on all I knew about the deaths in California and the link with the Ten Commandments website. The Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK government, Sir Robert Newbury, was even there to meet me. The presence of Hiro and, via video link, Deputy Director Fallows, coupled with the nature of the deaths and the weight of my own personal evidence finally convinced an initially incredulous Sir Robert of the potential public health threat and an appointment with the Prime Minister was arranged. By this time there had also been three suspected cases of DDD in the UK as well. Everyone was on edge.

A legal process had to be gone through before the website could be shut down and Malcolm Privet taken into custody, but this was expedited and within two days I was sat in on the police interview with Malcolm.

The whirlwind of activity since leaving the US had, at times confused me, but at least I knew why everything was happening. Malcom, sat hunched on the other side of the interview room table was a fear laden figure of despair. He was forty-seven, slightly built and utterly overwhelmed by being brought into a police station in the middle of the day. The police officer I sat with was too overbearing and Malcolm sank further back into his chair with each question the sergeant asked. Eventually I stepped in, offering a more sympathetic interrogation.