Pietta Chong

Christopher Golde

  Chapter seventy five
     The Reflection 6

Date:               31st December 2026                                  Location:        Australia and Hong Kong

 

 Part One

              Johannes Swenson stood in front of Jason waiting for his reaction to the news he had just delivered. Swenson had been Jason’s head of security now for more than thirty years and even though he was ageing he was ageing well and still looked as fit as any soldier in the city.

              Jason got up from his bed. He looked at his alarm and it said just past midnight. Johannes had not waited for someone to wake him, he knew how urgent it was and had walked straight on into Jason’s bedroom. Jason had always said when they find Pietta, no matter what he is doing, tell him.

              “How long will it take you and your team to get ready,” asked Jason, not caring to hear the details?

              “We have been ready for days Jason, we can leave in thirty minutes.”

              “And how long will it take us to get there?”

              This was more of a concern to Jason. He knew they were running out of time.

              Svenson looked at this watch.

              “If we leave in thirty minutes we will arrive there just around about 9.00 am UTC, that is 5 pm Hong Kong time and only thirty minutes before we estimate the first of the one thousand foot tsunamis will hit. But Jason you cannot be seriously considering going.”

              “Go, go, get them ready,” Jason motioned towards the door, “ I will be there in ten minutes.

              Johannes looked at him stunned.

              “Jason, you can’t come on this mission.” His bodyguard was more pleading than demanding.

              “Of course I am coming,” yelled Jason.

              “But Jason,” Swenson tried to reason, “even if we make it, we will only have thirty minutes maximum to locate her and get out, the chances of survival are slim at best, we cannot…”

              Jason cut him short with a look that would kill.

              “Get you and your team ready and I will be leading them and we are going to make it.”

              Johannes knew it would be useless to continue, so left to get his team ready. Jason turned back towards the bed to see Julie sitting up staring at him.

              “Jason, I know how much you care,” said Julie softly, “but won’t the people of New Earth need you more in the future, not to mention myself and your new child?”

              Jason walked towards his wardrobe.

              “I know that not going is the logical thing for me to do,” he said, without looking and beginning to dress, “but I have always followed my instincts dear and I just know in my gut that our best chance of saving Pietta is if I go myself.”

              Jason was now sixty-seven but he had kept the fitness of a man half his age and most people had no idea what his real age was, as he still looked reasonably young. He had thought about what he would do if and when they did find Pietta and he had decided long ago that if it was a do or die mission, he must go. His first consideration was to his unborn child rather than the people of New Earth but he was sure he wanted that child to grow up knowing Pietta. He felt that with or without him, new Earth would survive. As always, Jason was confident he would succeed and to him, it was not even a risk. To everyone else it was madness.

              After he had kissed Julie he headed for the airfield where he knew Johannes team would be waiting and ready to go. Julie had restrained her tears but he knew she was very upset. It would all be over in twenty-four hours he thought to himself and then the new world would begin.

              On the way to the airfield in the driverless car, Jason spoke to Nigel Stansen.

              “You know I have to do this myself Nigel,” he said.

              Nigel knew Jason would never leave something like this to anyone else and did not bother trying to talk him out of it.

              “The full council was briefed yesterday,” continued Jason, “and all the outside ground forces are now all in our cities. Our population density numbers tell us that most of the coastal areas that will be worst hit are at their lowest population densities for centuries, thanks to our years of work convincing people to leave.”

              “Jason, you don’t have to justify your conscience, we have done everything we can to save as many as we could.”

              Jason listened, he was never satisfied that they could not do more.

              “You know that anyone outside of the cities will not survive,” Nigel continued, “if they do not perish quickly with the onslaught of Apophis one and two, then it will be slow and painful as the Earth freezes over, there is nothing more we could have done.”

              Jason knew Nigel was right, but nothing would ever make him feel any better about it.

              “We have saved millions of people and ensured the future of the human race. Now my concern is that you don’t perish yourself,” he added.

              There was a pause, as Jason thought about everything Nigel said and the underground city whizzed past him, outside the vehicle. He saw the air force base coming up on his right.

              “I will be back Nigel, and I will have Pietta with me. See you tomorrow Nigel and no need to tell the council what I am doing.”

              Nigel bid him a safe return and Jason hung up the phone and put it in his pocket.

              As they pulled up, Jason saw Johannes waiting in full battle gear and his team loading a huge stealth chopper. Jason alighted carrying with him just a small backpack.

              “I did not know you would be coming as well,” said Jason.

              “You don’t think I would let you do this without me did you,” was the big Swedes only reply?

              Jason just smiled and kept walking towards the loading chopper.

              “This is one of latest new built craft, specially designed to handle the weather of the aftermath,” said Johannes, as he walked alongside him, “it travels at just over nine hundred kilometres per hour and can withstand blizzard conditions down to minus two hundred degrees Celsius and gratefully it has a range of ten thousand kilometres, which we will need every drop of for this trip.”

              Jason nodded appreciatively, as he saluted the waiting troops and boarded the craft. The engines began to roar, as the last of them sat down and buckled themselves into individual bucket seats that lined the walls of the giant craft. Svenson sat next to Jason.

              The crafted lifted off and headed towards the roof of the city which was nearly a kilometre above them. As they got closer, a portion of the roof opened and then another opened above that and then another above that. The underground cities were lined with three buffer zones specially built to keep out shock waves and allow humans to control the light and temperature of the massive cities.

              Once in the open air, Jason could see the clear blue skies of central Australia out through the windows of the craft as they drew back the heat and light filters that protected the chopper. He could hear the two jets either side of the craft begin to whine as the ship gained speed and he could see the outer wings change shape to more of a jet formation. He looked at his UTC watch, which said thirty minutes past midnight. He pushed the button for the local time and it said ten in the morning.

              “Now we sit back for the nine-hour flight,” said Johannes softly to him, “we will only be a bit over halfway when Apophis one hits the Mariana trench, then it will be a race between us and the first wave to get to Hong Kong.” He looked at Jason. “We will not have much time and when we actually see the wave coming, we will have less than fifteen minutes.”

              “Do you know exactly where she is,” asked Jason, looking again at his watch?

              “We know the building and the room she is living in, but we cannot be sure she will be there. The last group to confirm her location had to leave last night to get out in time. They spoke to her and she would not leave without her elderly mother and they could not possibly make it with both of them. We have a mobile number but she is not answering and we weren’t sure at any rate whether you wanted her to know you were coming.”

              Jason wondered about that himself. Last time he had spoken to her they had a fairly heated argument about this. She had a conscious, just as he had about leaving people behind. He was thinking that forcibly taking her may be the only way. Of course, he intended to take her mother as well and just maybe, with the wave bearing down on them, it will shock her into coming. He had no intention of leaving her there.

             

 

 

Part Two

Pietta sat looking out the window of her mom’s apartment, towards the shining South China Sea. She was deep in thought about her life and Jason and what she knew, and of course what was about to happen to her and her world. Six years ago, when Jason had revealed to them what was likely to happen, she had known immediately that she wanted to spend the rest of her days with her ageing mom, to look after her and be with her till the end. Of course, she had always loved Jason and she had been offered sanctuary in the underground city but since she was not able to take her mom, as she was just too old and unwell, she had decided that Jason and Julie would be far better off without her there and her mom would need her to be by her side.

The last time she had spoken to Jason, after their meeting in Tibet, they had argued and Jason had said she could bring her mom but then in recent times, living in Hong Kong and knowing what was about to happen, she could not bring herself to leave, especially when she knew so many would die. It was no longer just about her mom.

It was four-thirty Hong Kong time and she had just seen on the news the revelation that a part of the comet Apophis had crashed into the Philippine Sea and now a tsunami was bearing down on the Philippines and Taiwan, after which it was predicted it would smash into Hong Kong in about an hours’ time. The news was not giving much detail of how destructive it would be, only saying that people should stay indoors and leave coastal areas. She knew it was far worse than what was being reported and it would be the total destruction of Hong Kong as a city. She knew this was all part of the grand plan not to panic the population and that death to them all would eventually come anyway. She knew that the news was all broadcast these days from the underground cities and that the news teams were in no danger.

 She looked back at her mom, who was napping in her chair in front of the television, oblivious to all that was happening, or about to happen. Pietta felt some comfort that at least her mom would die with her, suddenly, and without the fear that she was now feeling.

 She looked back out across the shimmering sea and could see no sign of the imminent destruction. It all looked so peaceful. She thought back to her life and how blessed she had been. Her times as a young girl, growing up as a single child in Hong Kong. Her, then moving to Australia to study and getting the breaks she did in the IT world. The chance meeting with Bill Gatwick, which started her career and then the weird introduction to Jason King and the murder committed by Ieko Fujimo.

 She smiled. Life just got a whole lot weirder after that. Car chases in Japan, running the IT giant Trade.com with Jason and just about everything else she could think of including her celebrity status and her unrequited love for Jason. She had been lucky she thought, nothing to be sad about now. Sad for the world maybe but then again knowing what she now knew about Jason King and his dark mentor, the world will probably end up a better place after it is rebuilt.

 If she was to believe what Jason had told them, she would probably be back in another body anyway after not too long? Pity, she would not remember any of her incredible life. This life at any rate.

 She was sitting by the window and the side door was open to the balcony. She could smell the sea and feel the warm breeze coming in through the open door. That is why she felt the change. The air seemed all of a sudden to chill markedly and the breeze strengthened to the point where she could see the dust from the balcony swirling around. One of the outside furniture cushions then suddenly lifted off and hit the balcony rail startling her. She slowly stood looking out to sea. The ocean seemed to be moving but she was not sure in what direction. Something was different and she noticed large numbers of birds heading for the skies.

She looked back into the apartment and still, her mother did not stir. She started to feel fear creeping over her skin. A tear formed in her eye and she wiped it away quickly. She thought about making her last cup of tea but then thought how ridiculous that was. She went to sit back down when in the distance she saw three large black clouds rising vertically above the ocean. A darkness seemed to grow all along the horizon. Her stomach tightened as her natural instinct to survive struggled with her commitment to die.

 It was then she noticed another noise growing in the background of her consciousness. It sounded like a jet but she knew all air traffic had finished leaving or coming to Hong Kong hours ago. She jumped backwards away from the window with fright when a large dark shadow blocked out the sun and the noise came like a hurricane against her balcony, booming into the apartment through the open door.

She could still not understand what was going on when she noticed that out on the horizon of the ocean, the darkness had turned into a steadily building wall of water. It was as if the sea was being lifted horizontally towards the sky. It distracted her momentarily from the outside confusion of noise and light, but she was instantly brought back to it by an even larger crashing noise, as something landed on her balcony.

 The door to the balcony then burst even further inward and a black creature was moving towards her.

“It’s me,” said a voice in the confusion.

One of the black figures that entered the apartment was ripping at its head and all of a sudden her Jason appeared.

“Oh my god,” she screamed, running forward towards him embracing him and crying.

Two more figures had also run into the apartment behind him and were making a beeline for the sleeping old lady in the chair opposite them.

 Jason pulled her back from his chest looking into her tear-streaked face.

“No time to talk dear or explain, we literally have less than five minutes, that wave is travelling faster than we expected and is ahead of schedule.”

 Jason and his team had been able to see the tsunamis as they were approaching Hong Kong and had done all the calculations necessary to know when they touched down on the thirty-level balcony of the apartment, they would have less than five minutes and would be sitting twenty levels under the crest of the first wave. It would literally take them another minute at least to get back into the air higher than the approaching wave. That gave the rescue team about three minutes to swing onto the balcony, get the two women and somehow catapult back out with their load. There would not even be time to be hoisted back up to the helicopter.

 “I am going to harness you to me and then jump off this balcony,” he yelled, while he wrapped a harness around her, “the other guys will get your mom.”

 Pietta had no time to even answer and she knew something was happening also behind her. She heard a scream from her mother.

 Jason lifted her off her feet and ran out onto the balcony. They bumped heavily into the other three who were also preparing for the dive. Jason looked up towards the sea which now was just a wall of water approaching at a little over one thousand kilometres an hour and was already beginning to swallow buildings closer to the shore. Pietta saw the others jump off the balcony and felt Jason running with her braced in front of him. Suddenly, they were weightless and falling. The falling was then suddenly replaced by a jerk that almost snapped her neck as she struggled to hold tight. The side of the building whooshed passed them and she was sure they would hit when an upward motion replaced the fall and they were now climbing the side of the building.

 She managed to look up and saw Jason’s chin as he also looked up. She could see a large black helicopter and another group above them swinging wildly from side to side and a wall of water that it seemed the chopper would not make it over. The chopper changed direction as she watched and now raced in front of the water and she and Jason hit the wall of water causing her to breathe in and swallow. It was salt and she gasped for air which only made it worse.

 Then light returned and she shook her head to clear the water in time to see below her a building disappear and then the water was replaced by blue sky. Jason still had a firm grip on her and she knew they were still alive. She could now feel they were getting closer to the aircraft and it seemed to be slowing. She could feel now the downward force of the wind from crafts rotors and she could see the black bundle above them being sucked into a cargo hold.

 Soon they too were sucked into the belly of the black beast, hitting the floor hard. She could feel hands grabbing them and pulling them to safety. It stopped, the light disappeared from the outside and all she could do was lie still and hold Jason.

 She tried to stop thinking just for a minute but then came the overwhelming urge to cry. She knew in those minutes the world had changed forever.