At Greenwich, Regalia Mason was talking to the Prime Minister. The Observatory was surrounded by police and the military, trying to keep order. The streets were full of demonstrators. Ordinary people were afraid. Religious groups were happily predicting the End of Time.
Regalia Mason had appeared on the BBC news, and explained carefully and simply why Quanta offered the best solution to the present problems. When she talked about her company taking ‘Shares in Time’, most people thought vaguely about a villa in Spain for three weeks every year. Others were excited by the idea of time machines and worm-holes, and all the paraphernalia of Star Trek.
Regalia Mason had the backing of many of Britain’s top scientists, who longed for the money to begin research into the mysteries of Time. Even those hostile to an American company heading the project had to admit that there seemed to be no other solution. If the Time Tornadoes and Time Traps were to end, special help was needed. Quanta could provide that help.
That morning the Prime Minister had agreed that Quanta would control any commercial interest in Time.
Privately, the Prime Minister did not believe that Time could be traded like a commodity. Nor did he believe in Time travel, Time Transfusions or teleporting. His view was that Regalia Mason and her company wanted to believe that there would be some return on the billions they would have to invest. The rest was science-fiction.
Possibly the research would generate some lucrative byproducts – just as nuclear power had been a by-product of the atomic bomb, and just as the microwave had been invented when a radio operator had accidentally passed his sausage or his peanut bar or his egg or whatever it was through the waves of his radio transmitter, and discovered to his amazement that his sausage or his peanut bar or his egg had cooked itself.
Well, let Quanta have its version of the microwave. What harm could it do?
‘Shall we sign the Agreement today?’ asked Regalia Mason, gorgeous in her white Armani.
‘Tomorrow, I believe,’ said the Prime Minister. ‘The European Parliament will ratify the decision tonight – as you know there have been disturbances in France and in Russia too.’
‘Yes, I have heard,’ said Regalia Mason.
‘And there are some strange unexplained events surrounding the recent hurricanes in New Orleans and Florida. People have disappeared.’
‘People often disappear,’ said Regalia Mason, mildly.
Micah, crouching behind the fireplace, heard all of this. His mind flew back to the dark days of Bedlam, when Abel Darkwater and Maria Prophetessa had worked through the night, night after night, on their ‘Experiments’. They had vowed to unlock Time’s secrets, and with it the power of the Universe.
Since Silver and Gabriel had gone away, there had been two more Time Tornadoes. Regalia Mason was about to get the power she wanted, and not by force. The world was going to give it to her.