The Teleporter. (5 page)

It is now the
next day, when the lab has been repaired with great speed, and no doubt a lot of money spent, when FTR is … operating as normal? The team come into work and switch on the TV and they are all shocked to find that all of the planning and effort that they have been through has been for nothing.

“What?” Paul says as he is dumbfounded.

“I just don’t get it? Any reporter would have died to put that on the news!” Cat exclaims.

John, confused, decides to add 141 before the number and call the BBC Headquarters.

“Hello, BBC HQ, how may I help you?” the receptionist says

“Oh hi, yes if you could, I’m enquiring about a story that I left with one of your reporters yesterday, it’s quite a big story, and we’re wondering when it will be published?” John explains.
“Ok sir, bearing in mind that we have a lot of stories to cover…”
John then interrupts the receptionist “… Yes I understand, but this was more… headline material…”

“Ok Sir, let me see what I can do. Do you have a reference number or contact name there at all?” the operator asks.

“I don’t unfortunately have his name, I was in a rush yesterday, but it was a guy with brown curly hair, was wearing big framed glasses, moustache, quite skinny- and was wearing red shoes that didn’t really match the rest of his clothes… Ring any bells?” John describes.

The
receptionist then laughs, “haha, oh yes, that must be Tom, if you could please hold the line I’ll then transfer you to his office”.

“Thank you” John replies. John then puts the phone on loud speaker and the team gather around.

After a few minutes, the receptionist then return to the call “Oh hi there, sorry to keep you waiting, unfortunately we have some bad news, Tom is off sick at the moment. If you want to leave your contact details then I’ll get him to get back to you?”

… John then hangs the call up. “Off sick? That sounds very dodgy” John says in a sigh.

“It happens John” Alex tries to reassure him.

“No, not when you’re sitting on a headline, they’ll get off their deathbeds to publish a story as big as this…” John rants.
“I suppose you are right, something not quite right is going on here” Paul worries.

The next day, there is a story in the local newspaper, and Cat reads it out loud so the team can hear “Local Journalist, 28, shot dead in alleyway”.

John
’s, Alex’s, and Paul’s ears prick up as they have Cats full attention. She continues “A body , belonging to a Local BBC correspondent Tom Humphreys was found in an alleyway in central London last night. The cause of death was a single bullet wound to the head. The Metropolitan police have not yet given a statement into …”

Paul interrupts “Oh my god, that’s him! The lady on the phone from
the BBC said his name was Tom!”
“Somebody… didn’t want this cat to be let out of the bag… and I bet I know who’s behind it” Alex says.

“What now?” Asks John.

“We need a plan.” Says Paul.

“This is getting ridiculous” Exclaims Alex.

“Let’s spill the beans big style. Get the copies of the evidence and meet at mine tonight, 7pm” Cat Orders.

7pm comes, and the team have met up at Catherine’s house. As soon as they are all seated in her lounge, she begins with “They can kill people, but they can’t kill the internet” to which their faces light up. “We have to use an IP blocker and post through various proxies to ensure that they cannot tr
ace it back to us” Cat continues.

“We will have to keep spamming different websites, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, not to mention news websites and their contact email addresses” Paul says. He then continues “And if you need any
macros or other code written, pass it to me”.

John and Alex like the idea, but they want to be more ‘hands on’. John whispers in Alex’s ear “Babe, let’s go and compile the evidence down into a
page and throw posters and leaflets around? People are bound to see?”

“Good idea. Cat, Paul, Me and John are going to design a few posters and fliers to ‘distribute’ so people can find them.
Will see you at work tomorrow”.

“Ok, that’s a good plan. In no time ev
eryone will be talking about it and FTR will have no choice” says Cat.

John and Alex then went to Johns to use his printer after they had finished designing the posters. It is 03:00, and a late night trip to 24 hour Tesco to
search their ink cartridge collection later that they are finished. They begin dropping the posters anywhere and everywhere. They drive Johns old car around, stopping at bus stops, garages, landmarks and high streets to plant these message spreading posters. It is now just a waiting game until FTR is all over the news.

The next day comes, and John and Alex arrive a few minutes late, to find Paul and Cat sitting there in silence. “Everything we did last night
has been deleted… nobody has taken any notice of it whatsoever” Cat breaks the news to them.

“Not to mention the stories of the subjects murders… the pilot, the soldiers… nowhere to be found” Paul adds.

“Quick, turn on the TV” Paul then demands. As the TV is switched on, again, there is no news of FTR and their dangerous teleporters. The team are baffled and shocked that nothing has been surfaced at all, despite their best efforts. “But people have to had seen the posters! They can’t corrupt that…” John adds.

“Ok, so let
us take a step back for just a second, it seems FTR has their fingers in every pie. They have to be blocking this at every turn. It can’t be anything else” Alex summarises.

The elite 4 are struggling to see any other resolution whilst trying their hardest to understand exactly what is happening to the teleportation users. John and Alex are convinced that it’s their souls that are missing, however Paul cannot see the logic as they are still alive. Cat on the other hand is unsure of either theory.
From absolutely nowhere, whilst the team is focused on spreading the word, Cat bursts out “Maybe they have lost their souls you know… but not necessarily meaning that you can’t live, or the body can’t survive without one that is… Assuming that is the case, wouldn’t the primal instinct prevail?”. As she finished her statement, the other three look at her in a slightly confused look, but quickly then accept that idea as a possible explanation.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you two!” John explodes with joy as he sees that finally somebody else has clarified his and Alex’s original hypothesis.

Paul then says “Look, even if you guys are correct, which it looks like you may be, where are these ‘souls’’ now, and how are we going to stop FTR before they sell the 5 teleporters in 2 days’ time?”.
“We’re going to have to get serious. We’ve tried diplomatic, god only knows how many people are in with FTR on this” John says.

“Well, the people involved are probably convinced otherwise from any ‘rouge’ internet blog or poster they may see.” Cat rightly adds.

“How do you mean get serious John?” Paul asks.

“I’m going to make a phone call”

“To who?” asks Alex

“
My old mate, he’s special forces and he’s quite high up. He’ll know what to do” replies John.
“We can’t go round killing people! That would make us worse than FTR” Says Cat

“Oh, and what happens if we sit here and do nothing? How many innocent people are going to die? How many more teleporters will be sold?” John says in an elevated voice.
“That’s our absolute last resort, we cannot do that yet anyway” Paul brings the situation back down to earth.
“Let us research the weight loss problem first, if we can sort that out then we won’t have to do anything ‘drastic’ will we?” Paul cleverly suggests.
“Ok, let’s get to work”

The Elite 4 fall
silent, their brains are working overtime and they are taking into account every eventuality to figure out the solution. You could hear a pin drop the room is that silent. After a few hours, Alex says “Guys listen up. What if we’re not folding our universe at all? What if we are accessing a parallel universe, and folding that one, so when the process starts, the subject is transported to the same place in a parallel universe, that universe then folds, the subject goes through then it unfolds. The subject is then transported back to our dimension therefore completing the transportation… Their souls could be trapped in this parallel dimension? Possible?”

The other three look at each other and can all see the logic, and think it is actually highly possible. “My god babe you’re a genius” John says with a smile and a wink.

“Yes Yes Yes Yes, I can see this, it makes so much sense. There was a theory, back in 2011, that the Tachyon can actually access another dimension in order to exceed the speed of light… this ties in so well with Alex’s theory!” Paul says with excitement!

The team agree that this is the best explanation that they can come up with.

Now they have to figure out how to solve it.

There is now only a matter of hours before the 5 Teleportation units, or FTRTP units as they have been dubbed, are to be shipped to the customers.

“Paul, find out where the first 5 FTRTP’s are going?” Cat asks.
“Already on it” Paul replies as he rushes to his computer to check if the email has arrived yet. “Jesus Christ! They’re selling for £2bn each!” Paul yells as he is checking the Purchase Orders on the system.
“Two Billion Pounds?! That’s astronomical! Who can afford that?!” John asks, but then he realises something and continues “… Wait… If any governing bodies got a hold of it… that could be very bad…”
“Shit… John you’re right… Oh my God. Guys hurry up we need to know” Alex says in an urgent tone.

The elite 4 at the moment are trying to exceed every expectation that they have for themselves, they are trying to condense potentially years of research, testing, and development into only a few hours. At the back of their minds, with all of their experience they know that they are trying in vain but they still proceed to work,
but empty and heavy thought of the consequences makes them work even harder.

“This is ridiculous… We need to stop them, we’re not going to solve this in time” John desperately claims
as he is staring blankly at his pen.

“Just keep working babe” Alex says.

“We have just wasted 6 hours, the time now is 16:30… it’s getting too close.” John says again.
“Just keep working” Alex orders him.

The team have now worked s
olidly for 12 hours, with only 1 break for coffee and snacks, and with the occasional toilet break. They are all running low on energy, when Paul gets an email from Finance. The email subject reads;

Attached are
the buyers for all 5 FTRTP’s

Paul opens the email attachment and instantly hits the table in a pissed off manner. “
I knew it!... Guys, got the list here” he says. The team then gather around the screen that reads;

FTRTP01- American Government
FTRTP02- Russian Government
FTRTP03- European Union
FTRTP04- Japanese Government
FTRTP05- UK Government
(FTRTP06- Private Auction)

“Great, the worlds’ governments. This is going to be World War Three” Cat says.

“And, there are 6 there and not 5. For fuck sake. And why is it in brackets? ” John vents.

“All we have to look forward to now is a nuclear war. I knew it would be the worst buyers possible…” Paul says in a very unoptimistic tone.

“Look, it says there set up and configuration time is approximately 5 days…” Cat notices.

“5 Days? We did it in 5 hours! Pricks!” John vents again.

“It gives us more time!” Alex says optimistically. She then leans over to John and whispers in his ear “Let’s go back to mine, you need some attention”.

This instantly cheers John up and he rushes to get her car keys. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow at 6:30, we need a lot of time on this remember” Paul says to Alex. “Understood, see you tomorrow”.

Alex and Joh
n then arrive at her house. “I still think you should buy a new house, we’re filthy rich now! I’ve got two!” He exclaims.

“
Haha, I don’t need two. I just need you at the moment… Listen John… I’m a little scared right now” she admits as they both sit on the sofa. It is just then he moves close to her and holds her tight, and gives her a kiss on the forehead, as she buries her head into his shoulder. “I don’t know how this is going to turn out… I’m worried. How are 4 scientists going to stop a possible judgement day?” she asks.

John thinks for a second
, caresses her head gently and promises in a serious but cheeky tone “Look, I will do everything I can, until my last breath to ensure that you are safe. If that means casually saving the world from World War Three then count me in!”

Alex then giggles and has a huge smile on her face at this point and starts kissing John. It is a matter of seconds before they are tearing
each other’s clothes off and making their way to the bedroom. This time the sex is different, it feels more like they need to do it and not just want to. There is an amazing amount of passion and this is reflected by how full of colour their faces have now become.

Alex uses the remote to activate the newly installed mood lighting to a romantic deep yell
ow and red fiery glow. He then starts running his fingers through her soft long blonde hair and kissing her neck very gently, whilst pulling her hair.  He then provocatively moves his attention down her body, very slowly, until he reaches her soft, passion red French knickers. He moves them to one side and starts to lick, she is squeezing and scratching his head in pure ecstasy whilst grappling onto the bed sheets once again as his tongue goes in deeper. “Oh GOD” She screams as she comes to a climax only minutes later. John then gets on top and takes control of her, thrusting hard. This then forces her to climax once again shortly after, but this one is different. She is shaking, her legs have weakened and her voice is quivering as she is struggling to do even a basic function like control her breathing. To her, she hasn’t ever climaxed this many times consecutively and is amazed at the feeling. He keeps a steady rhythm whilst caressing her, pulling her hair and kissing her neck… she can’t handle it any longer. She climaxes for a third time, but this time so does he. A few minutes later they both lay there as she is still shaking, and John is looking incredibly proud of himself as he switches the lights off and holds her tight.

The next mornin
g, they get rudely woken up at 5:30am by the alarm clock, and Alex’s first words are “Last night was awesome!” to which John replies “Tell me about it!”. They then remember the current situation which brings a reality slap to them. They both rapidly get washed and ready for work, but skip breakfast as they are so eager to get to work.

They both arrive at work to which Paul greets them
“Ok guys. We have an extra 5 days, but I want to act like we only have 1 extra day, so we work faster”

The team are now working hard, so much, it is almost inhumane to try to contemplate the amount of information that their brains are coping with at this moment in time
. This is the case over the next couple of days also. The team have made one major discovery, they have now proved Alex’s theory of the other dimension to be conclusive- everything that the team are doing can relate to a parallel dimension. It is only yesterday that they have had confirmation from their friends at CERN about the Tachyon particle disappearing from our dimension and reappearing again without the loss of any energy. This, along with the discovery of the Higgs Boson particle has recently meant that every physics book has to be revised, therefore changing the world. It means there are potentially endless possibilities to what technology can achieve- even time travel. The elite 4 cannot wait to prove the soul-loss theory correct as this will spark an interesting integration between science and religion. It may even prevent future wars between religions; well, one can only hope.

The team have made more major, world changing scientific discoveries in 2 years than any other team of scientists- ever!

Regardless of how much progress they have made, it is unfortunately in the wrong direction. On the other hand, Paul did admit to secretly believing that the human consciousness loses the ability to decipher right and wrong after the teleportation, which is creating many theories in his mind.

Another long week passes, but the world still seems eerily calm. The most talked about thing in the world is the FTRTP and that has not changed.
There are multiple videos that have popped up on the internet of VIP’s, including World Leaders, using the FTRTP’s. FTR’s stock market value has increased by another ridiculous amount with another 50+ orders rolling through the door. However, the Elite 4 still continue to try to solve the massive problem that they have. They have tried everything; and this is no overreaction. Every theory, every possible outcome seems to have been covered. Other top scientists have even been contacted, and long discussions have been had over conference calls to try to prompt a solution.

All they are able to do is to look for a solution.
This is proving impossible.

The team are in angu
ish, constantly watching the news in the background, with little hope but to await the worst news possible.

The next day
is one stormy one in central London. The clouds are dark grey and menacing, threatening every second to open up a relentless downpour. The clouds keep their promise; rain is now beating down outside, so much so that drains are slowly filling up and over flowing, gutters gush water onto the pavement below which contrasts the chilling growl of thunder. Now, the storm seems to be directly above London as there is no time gap between the blinding flashes of lightning and the defining bellow of the thunder.
The hustle and bustle of London does not change, but it seems to look more beautiful. Because it is dark, and sheet rain is assaulting the ground, glare from shop windows and vehicle lights is highlighted and this is visually pleasing to Alex who is staring out of the lab window with her head in her hands.
The noise of the rain beating the lab’s window is perfectly contrasted by the sound of dripping water as it can be heard rushing in the gutters above. This temporary peace is totally annihilated when one of the BBC presenters announces the dreaded words that will echo in eternity from this day forth;
“We interrupt this program to bring you some breaking news”

The Elite 4 are all like rabbits caught in headlights. They all turn to face the television with wide eyes and inquisitive expressions.

People in bars, shops and their own homes are have just been silenced, all staring at moving images on a box. You can feel the suspense, you can hear the silence; you can see people hanging on to the moment and trying to speed it up in order to know sooner what the breaking news is.

The presenter then breaks the news to the world in a very
gloomy tone “At approximately 13:05 today, international relations were at breaking point as world leaders were threatening hostile action, seemingly from nowhere, over something that we are not able to confirm at this time. This has led to… Standby… Japan has declared war on Russia. I repeat, Japan have just this moment declared war against Russia. The European union is yet to make a statement…”
The world is in shock. War has reared its ugly head.

Tears run down from Alex’s watery blue eyes, onto her pink cheeks and onto the side of her soft red lips before rolling off and plummeting to the ground just like a single rain drop. Much like the weather outside, every single droplet of water represents a single persons’ tear on this day.

“… It has begun. I’m making that phone call we talked about” John says with conviction.

“I’m going to call him now”. John says, he then goes on to explain to his friend, David Smith, who is now in the Special Air Service (or SAS) about everything he and the others have found, including telling him that the reason why Japan and Russia are at war is because of this…
“Bollocks mate, so you’re telling me these people are still alive after losing their souls? That’s a load of wank if you ask me mate, they’ve probably just gone mental from the thrill of somethin’ different” Says Dave whilst on the phone to John.
John then replies “Yes. Yes I am. I need to meet with you in person, and I need you to bring some gear, we need to act and we need to act now”.

“Whoa Jonny boy, I don’t even know what I’m letting myself in for here mate I don’t want shitty protests or any
gay showboating, tell me, how many explosions will there be?”
“Loads”
          “…How many people can I shoot?”
“Loads”
          “…How much gear do I need?”
“A lot”
          “…How many guys do we need?”
“As many that are willing, it’s going to be very dangerous” John adds.
“I like the sound of that… One final thing…” Dave says
“…What’s that?” John asks

“
What’s the probability that we are going to get blown the fuck up?” Dave asks.

“
Well, it is actually quite high but…” John starts

“
… I’m in. You know how to sweet talk me don’t you mate?” Dave says in his suave but slightly mad manner
Dave then adds “I’ll parachute in to your back garden at 21:00 tonight, make sure you’re there sweet cheeks” and hangs up.

“Ha, he’s coming over at 9 tonight. By parachute apparently…” John tells the team.

“What? By Parachute?” Cat asks as she and the others are confused.
“Don’t ask, he’s SAS, he’s completely fucking lost the plot and he’s got a lot of time on his hands.” John replies.

“He is the perfect man for the job then!” Paul adds.

“We need a plan tonight. Everyone at mine tonight for 20:30 not a minute later, and be prepared” John says.

“Prepared for what?” Cat asks in a questioning tone

“Prepared for anything” John responds

That
day, 20:59
The team then gather and watch the moon lit skies outside Johns back garden. All of a sudden, under the cover of darkness, three black parachutes appear far in the distance… followed by 3 more…. Then 3 more… this goes on for a while and is only visible because of the glorious silver moonlight prevailing in the black night sky. There must be no fewer than 20 or 30 parachutes in the sky that seemingly spawned from nowhere. As the guys land 1 by 1, the rest circle above until their slot to land. There seems to be more organisation in their landings than that at any major international airport. It looks flawless to the elite 4 as they observe this performance of discipline and accuracy.
“Dave, you crazy fucker!” John whispers in an elevated tone “Shhhhh! There are bodyguards out front”.
Dave’s expression then changes to a determined one and asks “How many” to which John replies “eight”… It is at this point he signals to his friend and he casually nods, before signalling to the others. They all instantly react by changing their stance to be lower, more stealthy as they attach silencers to their handguns…
John instantly worries “No No No don’t kill them!”