The Cloud - 9. Chapter 9

Coolgardie, Western Australia

Graves Estate

Once again, Mr. Graves surprised Kelly and her cameraman. His lamb and rice stew was delicious. The three enjoyed dinner and a pint on the front porch as the shadows lengthened and the sun set.

Kelly excused herself, tried her cell phone and got nothing. She went to the Range Rover and got the satellite phone and dialed her editor.

True to form, he answered on the second ring: “Ian McAlister.”

“Ian, its Kelly.”

“Kelly! I was beginning to think you had gone walk-about, and gotten lost in the outback, girl. What’s the word from Graves?”

Kelly swallowed and said, “We have found the mystery object in his archival photos. As soon as it gets dark enough, he’s going to use his most powerful telescope on it, and we should get a good look at it.”

Ian said, “Look, Kelly, we’ve been hearing rumors about this thing all day. It’s supposed to come close to earth by early next week.”

“I can confirm that. Graves has tracked its movements.”

“Can you go live?”

“Yes, Jack from our local affiliate seems to be fairly competent.”

Ian sighed and said, “OK, here’s the deal. Call us when you are ready, and we’ll go live to you. Say what you’ve got to say and make it snappy, OK?”

“Why, Ian, what’s going on?”

“We need to get it playing and out there fast before the government shuts us down. You are sitting on the biggest story of the decade so far. Maybe even the century. This is one of those rare moments, like Murrow during the Blitz or Peter Arnett in Baghdad during the first Gulf War. No pressure, just get it done. The world will literally be watching.”

“Thanks boss. I’ll be back to you in about an hour.” Kelly hung up the phone. No pressure at all.

She returned to the table where Jack and Bill were chatting and said, “Guys, I think we just got handed the hottest potato on the planet at the moment. Can we turn on a television Bill, we’ve been out of touch all day.

They moved into Bill’s living room and turned on his satellite television. They turned to one of the all-news channels:

This is Philip Larkin reporting from Okinawa. Just south of the island, an enormous armada has assembled. American, Japanese, Chinese and South Korean ships are all participating in what is being called a disaster response exercise. We continue to receive troubling reports from high-level sources in Seoul and Tokyo that a mysterious object is approaching the earth from deep space, and the nations of the earth are banding together to defend the planet. Massive demonstrations demanding the truth have been seen in Japan, China and Korea and are spreading across the Western pacific…

Kelly gasped, “Oh God! What have we gotten into?”

Bill grinned and said, “I think we’re both about to become either famous or infamous. Let’s get the truth out before any more people get hurt. I’ll put a live feed of our findings on the observatory website, so everybody can have a look. Come on, Jack, we’ve got some work to do.”

As Jack and Bill stood and began to head for the observatory, Bill turned and said, “Kelly, are you all right?”

She said, “Sorry. I’m just a bit overwhelmed. I’m used to covering tech fairs and product launches. This is... too big for me.”

Bill crossed the room and took Kelly by the hand. “You can do it, girl. Just put one foot in front of the other. I used to tell my managers to act like you know what you are doing and people will never know the difference.”

She blinked a tear out of her eye and said, “You really are a good bloke, Bill. Why are you still single?”

He said, “I’ve been a widower since 2005 and never got back in the game.”

“Well, I think your prospects are about to get a lot brighter.”