The Cure, стр. 43

The room was silent, and everyone paused to hear exactly what was going on outside of the walls of the underground community.

‘So, I know that you have heard rumors. Rumors that some of the younger members of our community had left the base and attempted to stop the operation to poison the water supply to the outside cities. This much is true,’ said the President. This drew gasps from many of the people in the room and muttering among those who held higher ranks. ‘You may have also heard that these kids are being led by my son Logan and helped by Danny. This is also true.’

Goldsmith balked at this comment, bearing in mind he had known about Logan’s plan long before The President had known and had attempted to stop them at any cost, even death. ‘And what exactly was this plan of theirs?’ said Goldsmith, already knowing the answer and knowing that the President didn’t know the full extent of the group’s involvement.

‘All we know at this point is that a group led by Logan has gone off base to stop the operation. We can only assume that they have headed to the reservoir to stop our troops delivering the toxin. We cannot be sure if they are still alive at this time. We’ve had no communication with our military to confirm that they have made contact. All I can tell you is that Tallulah Wanikiy was part of this group. She returned to the base and has used our communications to the outside world to warn them not to drink the water,’ he replied.

‘Why would they do this? She has to be punished,’ said Franklin J Pitkin.

‘At this time, she has ingested some of the poison and has been moved to the infirmary. We have no idea if she will come through and we do not have the necessary medical supplies to help. With regards to punishment of her or any of these children, including my sons, we need to understand why they have done this and what they have done. All of us, in this room put into place a plan to kill off half of the remaining population to save ourselves. Each one of you voted unanimously for this to happen based on the findings of two men. We took this decision upon ourselves and we neglected to share this information with the rest of the base, which included the children. We thought that what we were doing was right, but it wasn’t, and this should have been a democratic decision across the whole base as to whether we should go ahead.’

‘Who are children to decide what is right and what is wrong?’ said the General ‘They have no life skills and no knowledge of the outside world.’

‘But they are still a part of THIS world, whether above ground or below and they should have been allowed to put across their input, before we sat around a table and decided their future in less than an hour. You Franklin, Linda, Goldsmith, everyone in this room decided in less than 10 minutes that people should die so that we might live and based on what?’ said the President, leaving those last three words hanging in the air like a bad smell.

President Mathers stood and walked halfway around the room to where Goldsmith sat arms cross like a petulant child who had just been scolded. ‘If this operation doesn’t happen then we will die Nathaniel. It is that simple. If this band of humanitarians have stopped this happening, you may as well start digging a six-foot hole for yourself.’

‘How do you know they haven’t stopped it?’ said the President.

‘Don’t be preposterous,’ said Goldsmith moving uncomfortably in his seat.

‘What if I told you that the operation has already been foiled?’ he said putting his hand on Goldsmith’s shoulder.

‘How? Never? That’s a lie. If that’s true we’re as good as all dead,’ Goldsmith said.

‘What if I told you that I stopped the operation from happening before it even started. What if I told you that I conspired with Wanikiy to make a toxin so deadly that it would poison someone within hours, but when mixed with high volume of water it would be like dropping a grain of sand on a beach?’ said the President.

‘If what you’re saying is true,’ said the general ‘You’re talking about treason.’

The room was filled with noise from everyone talking over each other, arguing and on the verge of pandemonium. Then a clap of thunder pounded down on the table and the noise stopped as quickly as it had started.

‘Do you know what this is?’ said The President, everyone looking at the large wad of papers he had brought down on the table. A second clap came along with another large file of what looked like data print outs. ‘Or this?’ Everyone was shaking their heads waiting for more to come.

‘I know what it is,’ said a voice from the corner of the room.

‘Stand up please,’ said The President. ‘Tell us your name please?’

‘My name is Martin. Martin Miller.

‘And what do you do Martin? Here on the base. What is your role here?’

‘Since The Cure I have worked on The Census Project,’ said Martin.

‘Can you elaborate Martin. Tell us a little more about exactly what The Census Project is?’

‘Since The Cure started the government knew that there would be some kind of consequence, but obviously didn’t know what the upshot would be, hence being unable to provide sufficient food to sustain the country and the wider world. Whilst they didn’t know the impact it would have on the food supplies they did know that there would be an impact to the population and a subsequent increase. More so, they overlooked the fact we wouldn’t be able to