I sat there in stunned silence for I don’t know how long. The nothingness just ticked in my ears. I didn’t blink. I didn’t swallow. I don’t think I even breathed.
Then I heard my own voice feebly stuttering, ‘What happens after the end of the world? What do you mean AFTER the end of the world? The end of the world is, “the end of the world” surely. I mean, there is NO “after the end of the world”!’
I just stood there, staring at her image on the screen. I was frightened of this woman - more frightened of her than I had been of Hali. He was greedy and he could be mean, but she was MAD!
She laughed at me. ‘Oh, my little gosling,’ she carried on and the hairs on my neck stood up. The gosling thing was starting to annoy me. ‘Imagine, standing on the edge of a black hole and watching everything melt into its liquid loveliness. Imagine seeing time stretching back and forwards in shimmering shafts across the universe. Imagine being reborn on the other side. It’s all possible, you know. You just have to believe!’
I gasped! I didn’t know whether I should believe what my ears were hearing - “You just have to believe…” Now I knew she was insane! I tried to go over everything in my mind. From what I understood, Katarina had planned everything. She had convinced Hali and his friends at King United Aggregates that she could bring the world to the brink of annihilation and then stop it. In their greed, they went along with her plan. From their point of view, it was a win-win situation. They could use this to persuade governments around the world to give them control of all of the world’s resources. To these greedy people this meant absolute power and wealth. But, they had not counted on one thing; Katarina Kreng was mad - stone cold, stark raving MAD! She had no intention of stopping the annihilation. She was going to go all the way. She would destroy the entire world!
I shivered as I realised that only one thing could stop her - US! Our plan was all that stood between her and the end of the world. The only problem was - it was a very loose plan with a lot of moving parts. If just one of those moving parts broke down, if any one of us didn’t do their job, there would be no tomorrow. I had to get in touch with the gang. They needed to know what was at stake and I needed to know how everyone was doing. But most of all, I needed to contact Charlie. I had to tell her that Hali was coming for her!
Katarina Kreng turned her back and walked away from the webcam. She kept the link open though. I suppose she wanted to keep an eye on me. Swivelling around, I slyly put my Bluetooth earpiece in my ear. I dragged out my phone and dialled Charlie. It took a few seconds and then she smiled at me. She tilted her head to the side, a question in her eyes. I almost forgot why I had called. For a second I just stared.
‘Hey Iago’
‘Hey Charl’’
‘What’s up?’
‘Where are you?’
‘Somewhere in the tunnel!’ She panned the camera around so I could see. That brought back my focus!
‘Listen Charlie, that weird guy – his name is Hali, by the way – he’s been sent to find you. You are in danger. You really need to find the fail-safe and then get out!’
‘OK Iago, I wish you were here with me…it’s kind of, lonely…’
She dropped her head so I couldn’t see her face. I felt so sad it hurt. But we had to be brave now. I had to make her feel strong. She couldn’t cry out now!
‘Charlie, this is really serious. This evil Kreng woman is going to annihilate the world because she believes she will be reborn on the other side. Probably thinks she’ll be stardust or something stupid like that. We are the only ones who can stop her now. We’re in this together but we all need to be strong!’
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. And, looking straight at me, she smiled bravely, saying, ‘Gotta go!’
‘OK, seeya!’
And she was gone.
The real world swam back into focus. Funny, even when we were only talking over the phone, the rest of the world just faded into the background.