2 Minutes to Midnight (2 page)

"This thing seats four, and now that you're here I have a reason to
use it again. I found this hovercraft about three weeks after I got
here in an underground garage."
"Very cool! Let's get going." Lucy said.
Excitement ran high as Trevor flew over the foreign landscape
toward his home. They crossed the distance in under an hour and
when they reached Trevor's house, all breathed a sigh of relief. It
was dilapidated, covered in kudzu and broken down, but still
standing. He lowered the craft outside his front door and they got
out.
"Let's get to the basement!" Trevor said.
"I second that, grandpa."
The trio met no resistance from predatory animals as they
progressed through the house, but time and exposure to the elements
had rotted the staircase leading down, so they had to tie up to a
rope and lower each other down. Stagnant water pooled around their
ankles, soaking shoes and socks as they walked, but after a few
twists and turns the three reached Trevor's time portal. The
pedestal was broken now, but the protruding gear was still on top.
Trevor motioned for Phillip to give him the watch, and then took
the device over to its key. Trevor placed the watch in top and the
bricks were sucked away once more, this time the doorway showed a
pyramidal temple and some natives worshipping a golden idol.
"That's not home." Trevor said.
"Grandpa, if you take that key off the pedestal cold this time
travel watch be used anywhere?"
"I suppose so, but we'd need a doorway, and those can be drawn on
boulders, or a wall. What are you proposing?" Trevor said.
"Put the key around your neck, and let's go exploring." Phillip
said.
"We don't have to go home right now, and since we have a time
machine we could use it. It seems to be opening random windows
anyway, so who knows when our window in time will return?" Lucy
said.
Trevor smiled with his two conspirators.
"Are the two of you really OK with that? It could be dangerous."
Trevor warned.
They both nodded approval with a conspiratorial grin. Trevor cut
the gear off, hung it around his neck, and gave the watch back to
Phillip. With one final glance they walked through the portal and
into a jungle ceremony, taking place more than twenty-seven
thousand years BC.

Strangers in a bar

Edward Sheck had in his possession a small
device that could save the world, but would he convince a stranger
in a bar that his own life was worth saving?

Slow white flakes were falling silent
as the grave while Edward Sheck made his way home on a sidewalk
hidden beneath a three inch layer of snow that was getting deeper
by the minute. Edward was seven blocks from home and there were no
cabs running during the storm.
"The school kids are probably ecstatic about this." He mumbled to
himself.

Head down, hands in his
pockets, and fighting bitter cold, he cursed himself for walking
out into the snow for a lousy pack of smokes. The flakes were
stinging his eyes, obscuring his vision, and felt like daggers
against his exposed face. He noticed a green neon sign glowing
bright like a signal flare against the whiteout. It was Regal, the
local
no tell motel.
They had a bar and it would be a good place to stop and rest
before continuing the next six blocks. The hotel was known as a
dive for social rejects, drug addicts, and those cataclysmically
screwed by life. A sign on the door read:

Rooms to Rent
BY: Hour, Night, Week, Month
Inquire Within

Edward walked into an almost empty
bar. Two old barfly’s sat in a corner, one with his head on the
table passed out, and the other leaning back against the seat with
his mouth wide open, snoring. The joint smelled like old
cigarettes, cheap booze, and despair. Regal was the kind of rock
bottom you hit and never came back up for air. A flat screen
television above the bar was displaying the Weather Channel, and
Edward could see a mass of white covering the entire state.
The bar tender was a young Latina in her early twenties, with long
brown hair, and a face so pretty it reminded him how alone he
was.
"Good evening, madam. What do you have on draft?"
Tia was the name on her tag. She rattled off a series of domestics,
and a local microbrew called Scat. "With a name as hideous as Scat,
it's got to be good beer, right. I'll have a pint, and a shot of
Johnny Walker. No, make that two shots. I'm freezing."
"No problem, my friend. Scat's not too bad. It's a little like a
wheat pale ale. You don't have to drive anywhere do you?"
"Heh, in this storm? My car broke down a few blocks back, and I
think it'll be covered in a mountain of white a few hours from now
anyway."
"You need a room for the night?" Tia asked.

"Depends on how drunk I get."
"Well, if you need one it's 29.95 a night, and I wouldn't wave a
black light around in there. You know, if you actually want to
sleep." Tia said.
"Thanks for the tip."
Tia put his shots and beer on the bar, took his credit card for the
tab, and went back to cleaning. She did busywork to keep her mind
off of the stalled climb up the ladder of her career. Edward stared
at tiny beads of condensation rolling down the side of his bottle,
and then he noticed a newspaper lying folded in half on the
counter. He reached over and unfolded it to the front
page.

Record Numbers Lose Power as Freak Winter
Storms Pound Area

Edward shook his head, slammed his
shots, and chased them with the pint of Scat beer. He held up his
hand and motioned for another round as he read the paper. According
to the press, three people had frozen to death because their power
had been shut off due to payment issues.
"It doesn't have to be this way." He said to himself.
As he continued to drink himself into a stupor, Edward realized
that there was now another man beside him at the bar. A tall
gentleman, about his age with a dark wool coat was motioning for
the bar tender.

“
How’s it going?” The
stranger said.

“
Fine, and
you?”

“
Oh, not too bad. My car
got stuck a few blocks back and I saw the sign for this place while
I was calling for a tow.” He answered.

“
Yeah, the weather’s a
bitch. You see the paper today? Massive power outages all over the
place,” said Edward.

The man looked down at his paper and
nodded.

“
You know, it doesn’t have
to be this way.” Edward said.

“
It doesn’t? Maybe they
should pay their bills.” The stranger said.

Edward cocked his head from side to
side in silent disagreement, and said nothing more for some time as
the two men drank their beer watching the weather on television.
The topic of the evening news programming was the blizzard heading
their way, and an impending energy crisis. Edward lit up a
cigarette, grunted once in a while, shook his head and drank more
alcohol as he blew white halos into the air with his
smoke.

“
Sorry man, I just get so
frustrated. I worked on a project to create free, renewable energy
for Grudge BioSystems. It was classified top secret for the
Department of Energy, and let me tell you; this little device we
built could run your entire house and fit in a shoebox. Complete
freedom from the power company.” Edward nodded.

“
That’s a lot to tell
someone you just met.” The stranger said.

“
Well, what’s your
name?”

“
George Smith, pleased to
meet you.” He extended his hand and Edward shook it.

“
See, now we’re not
strangers anymore. Look, it’s just a shame that in this day and age
anyone has to suffer while this technology remains hidden from the
world. They’ll never release that device to us, and the good they
can do for people will be suppressed because of human greed. That’s
why I quit.”

“
Why are you telling me
this?”

“
I don’t know why, I guess
I just don’t have anyone else to tell, and you probably don’t
believe me anyway.”

George nodded. He regarded Edward with
the cold, calculating eyes of a man who has walked up on a snake in
the woods.

“
What’s that saying?”
Edward slurred. “Be the change you want to see in others? It starts
with us man, you and me having conversations about it. Not with the
government and their secret projects, you know? Now you tell
someone, and then they tell someone, next thing you know the whole
thing is on the Internet and people are starting to ask the
questions! We change the game.”

George drank his beer as he allowed
Edward to finish his speech.
“So, you quit your job?” George asked.
The amount of alcohol Edward had ingested combined with the speed
at which he drank, as well as his low tolerance for alcohol had
turned him into a flibbertigibbet.

“
Yeah, I did, and since I
had enough of the secrets I snuck one of them devices out, too
leaving the rats behind.” Edward said.

“
Wow, that’s incredible.
So, what did you do with it?”

“
It powers my house. Ha,
ha, ha! I connected the main line to that little device I named
“Zero” and it runs everything. No more power company stealing money
from me. Look, the point is people need this device, and if we
could just let it out we'd solve the world’s energy problems
overnight.” Edward said.
"Do you even know how it works?" George asked.
Edward shot him a cautious glance. Perhaps he had said too
much.
"Hey, you started the conversation. I was sitting here drinking a
beer." George said.
"OK, well, they're zero point energy devices. To put it simply,
each one pulls limitless energy out of the quantum field, and we
figured out a way to harness that power." Edward explained.
"What's your company doing with it?"
"I don't know, exactly, but there's always contracts for the
government. Black budget BS. I basically work for the think tank,
but that's about it."
"What would you do with it? I mean, you're just one guy." George
asked.
"I'd like to find a venture capitalist to help me reproduce these
devices and sell them to third world countries for enough of a
profit to pay back the loan with some interest. The only
stipulation I have is that the countries we sell them to give it to
the people for free. If this happens you'll see massive, wide
sweeping economic changes, and people who were once being crushed
under the thumb of corporate greed will have an opportunity to
thrive. This could also work in the United States."
"So, mass-market devices that take energy from the quantum vacuum
freely and supply it to us? Sounds like a revolution."

"We need a revolution of ideas to save
this planet, George. With fossil fuels dwindling and pollution on
the rise we're going to be dead if we don’t turn this
around."

"You think they know you have the
device attached to your house?" George asked.

"Maybe, I’m not sure. I've it rigged
so that it looks like the meter is still running, in case the meter
guy scans it."

"You ever tell anyone about what you
know, besides me, that is?"

For the first time since
he had opened his mouth to George, Edward had sobered up a bit. Who
was this man, and why
had
he told him so much about a subject that could
get him thrown in jail, or killed? How many people just walking
around were using terms like quantum vacuum?
"Who are you, George?"
"I'm just a guy who came in for a drink to get out of the snow. How
would you do it? I mean, build it so that the world could have a
piece?"

"Well, I'd film the entire
process in a live internet stream twenty four by seven. That way
everyone could tune in any time of day and see what we're doing. I
want full disclosure, because so many people have tried this in the
past and lost their lives. They get killed
mysteriously
and their work
disappears." Edward replied.

George nodded, considered Edward for a
moment, and then got up from his bar stool.
"Do you think you could do this?"
"What, mass produce free electricity?" Edward asked.
"Yeah, can you do all that shit you just said?"
"With enough time and money, yes I can."
"Edward, it was a pleasure to meet you. Have a great night." George
said.

George dropped a business card on the
counter, shook Edward’s hand, laid down a twenty-dollar bill and
then turned to walk out into the snow.

"It was good speaking with you as
well, George. Safe travels."

As George left, Edward got the feeling
that he just had a conversation with the Devil. As Edward picked up
the card, a thin bead of perspiration broke across his forehead.
The card read:

Tim Taylor
Venture Capitalist

1-904-321-1000

"Did you know that guy?" Tia asked.
"No clue who he is, but I think I'll walk the rest of the way home
tonight. I've got a lot to think about."
"Good luck." Tia said.
Edward paid his tab, pulled his coat tightly around himself and
walked out into a night of magical falling flakes. Edward felt
renewed, and alive.

Dan Louis, (aka, George Smith) had
been hired to kill Edward Sheck by the same people he had taken the
quantum energy device from, and was warming his engine up as Edward
walked outside. Dan rolled down his window and spoke candidly to a
shocked Edward Sheck.
"They know what you've got, Edward, and they sent me to kill you
for it. You have a golden opportunity to do something special, man.
You could undo a lot of what's wrong in this world, and I can't, in
good conscience, snuff that out. I refuse to, anyway. I've seen too
much of what war produces in Special Ops."
"You think we're in a war?" Edward asked.
"It's bigger than you realize, and it’s all around us--in the
shadows."
"I'll do what I can. Thank you for not...killing me tonight?"
Edward said.
"The people who hired me may send another operator to kill you, so
in return for sparing your life, make it public, like you said.
Don't try to profit off of this in any way, and you may be alright.
Be seeing you."