A black car arrived at the South Gate. It came to an abrupt stop and Major Gordon quickly got out of the back. At the same time, Nathan Brook opened the other back door but had considerable difficulty getting his pudgy body out of the car and keeping up with his counterpart.

  A short while before, they had been informed of problems that had arisen with a group of foreigners at the South Gate.

  “A small army has arrived in London, sir,” a soldier had told Gordon.

  “How many of them are there? Any declaration of their intentions?”

  Three questions more were all Gordon needed to be convinced that the soldier didn’t have the slightest idea of what was going on. He considered ignoring the issue and letting the guard officials resolve the problem through the usual channels. But the mention of the word “army” brought back the shadow of past wars and made him think twice about that. He’d made a call to Nathan and they’d come straight to the South Gate.

  Gordon and Nathan now found themselves in the midst of the people crowded together at the entrance to the city. The soldiers guarding the rampart were gathered behind a makeshift barricade, their weapons aimed at the crowd that was becoming more and more unsettled. All sorts of protests could be heard coming from the disgruntled people waiting to get into London. Gordon asked to see the official in command and they made a pathway for him to the forefront of their formation. When they got close, they saw one of the captains arguing with a very short man dressed in a uniform of the North’s army. The epaulets on his shoulders indicated he was a general, which explained his haughty and arrogant demeanor. He was accompanied by two soldiers wearing the same type uniform.

  “We’ve been waiting nearly an hour,” complained the general, clearly irritated. “This is no way to treat an ambassador. I suggest you notify your superiors immediately.”

  “They’ve been notified, sir,” replied the captain politely. “I regret the delay but I cannot allow you to enter without authorization.”

  Gordon approached and stood next to the captain. Nathan stayed in the background, trying to catch his breath. The captain and the general both glanced at the spectacular limousine parked a few yards from them.

  “Report on the situation, Captain,” ordered Gordon.

  The captain looked at him with relief. It was clear that the situation was beyond his capabilities.

  “General Thomas and his escorts are requesting admittance to London, sir.” The captain stood firm after quickly but nervously saluting the major. “They have presented a letter inviting them to come here, but they do not have the required city pass.”

  “I demand to know who you are,” stated General Thomas bluntly, looking at Gordon. The major took the letter from the captain’s hand and opened it.

  “It hardly seems appropriate to make guests who’ve been invited to come here from so far away wait outside in this hellishly cold weather,” continued the general. “By now we should already be in our lodgings. Perhaps you’re afraid we’ll conquer the city with our little detachment? This man,” he added, pointing at the captain, “is refusing to permit us to enter. I do not understand how you can be so disorganized.”

  “I am Major Gordon, highest military authority of the Secure Zone of London,” declared Gordon, still looking at the letter. He lifted his eyes from it and locked them on Thomas. “What you don’t understand, General, is how to organize security in a city like ours.” He handed the letter to Nathan, who was behind him. “Excellent work, Captain. Fall back and continue coordinating admittance to the city while I clear up this misunderstanding.” The captain saluted again and stepped back, breathing a bit easier.

  Gordon glanced at Nathan. His signature was at the bottom of the letter inviting Thomas to enter the city. Nathan, looking rather uneasy, shrugged his shoulders then led Gordon away by the arm. Leaning his head in close to Gordon’s and speaking in a low voice, he admitted, “It’s my fault. I forgot to tell you about it, what with all the upheaval about the portal . . .”

  The major gritted his teeth and repressed a few choice expletives when he saw sincere regret in Nathan’s eyes. It was obvious he hadn’t done it intentionally and a public argument would not promote the image of control and authority he wished to project in front of their former enemies. He was not about to show any weakness; the three years that had passed since the last war were still not enough to erase all the scars. He’d need to whip up a quick excuse to justify the wait that General Thomas had been subjected to.

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  “This letter authorizes you to enter London, General Thomas. Naturally, we didn’t expect you to come alone, but my men have express orders not to admit anyone who is armed, and here you are with more than fifty heavily armed soldiers. Under normal circumstances none of this would have occurred. Your men just need to leave their weapons at the checkpoint and we’ll gladly escort you to where you’re staying.”

  “This is absurd!” roared Thomas. “Do you really expect us to go through your territory unarmed? If we hadn’t had weapons we would have been attacked a hundred times before even making it this far, and you should know that—being that you’re a security expert.”

  “I’m not suggesting you travel unarmed, only that you come through our gates unarmed. That truck with the massive cannon hitched up to it could destroy an entire building in a single shot.”

  “The cannon was for fending off any attacks on the way here—and there was more than one, I assure you,” clarified Thomas. He was obviously proud of this piece of heavy armament. “Here it poses a threat to no one.”

  “I can’t allow such a weapon to travel through London,” replied Gordon flatly.

  “I haven’t been without a weapon in ten years. I have no intention of being without one now,” declared Thomas defiantly. “I don’t think it’s good for our diplomatic relations if I go back without having even been able to discuss the issue they’ve entrusted to me.”

  “In London, I’m the one who maintains order. You will be protected,” insisted Gordon inflexibly. “Turn over your weapons so we can put an end to this little misunderstanding.”

  Nathan stepped forward, poised to intervene. Gordon’s diplomatic skills would end up causing another war.

  “Allow me to introduce myself, General Thom—”

  The general was interrupted when a tremor shook the ground, forcing everyone to struggle to keep their balance. Some people fell to the ground; others hugged one another. The portion of the wall closest to the gate leaned dangerously outward, threatening to crush anyone who didn’t get out of the way. A soldier who’d been positioned on top of the wall was now hanging from it, his hands clinging to it for dear life. The ground opened up with a sickening rumble and a crevice split the road in two, zigzagging its way toward the gate. The back wheels of the limousine were sucked into the crooked fissure as people scrambled away from it. Then the crack stopped spreading, and everything was suddenly quiet again.

  They looked at one another, stunned and frightened, searching each other’s faces for some explanation, as shock and confusion spread. In spite of the climatic changes that had plagued London since the Wave, there’d be no record of any earthquakes. The city had never even experienced a slight tremor.

  An explosion boomed below the surface and searing light burst through the length of the crevice. Several bodies were catapulted through the air.

  Gordon fell to the ground and was pummeled by people trampling over him. He had to pull his leg out from under someone who’d fallen on him, and slowly struggled to pull himself up. A section of the wall collapsed with a thunderous roar; a second later something massive came crashing to the ground to his left, shooting out chunks of broken glass. When the cloud of dust and snow cleared, Gordon recognized the remains of his limousine, totally obliterated after its crash landing.

  The road was split in two. A crater the size of a swimming pool marked the spot where the explosion had occurred. Gordon slowly made his way over to the edge and peered down into it. The hole was between twenty-five and thirty feet deep and its sides were perfectly smooth with no signs of the kind of unevenness one would expect to see in a chasm left behind after an explosion. If it hadn’t been for what had just happened, Gordon would have sworn that such perfectly finished surfaces were the result of a hard-working, professional mason. The air coming out of it was quite hot and brought along with it the nauseating stench of the sewers.

  At the bottom of it were two bodies whose limbs were bent in unnatural angles though they were still in one piece. One looked like a bum; he was filthy and covered in mud or something worse. He looked tall and thin, but his face was hidden beneath a thick mop of matted black hair so his only distinguishable feature was the huge nose that stuck out from under the dirty hair. The other body was of a blond man whose clothing was spotless, completely in contrast to the other man. Something was shining in the black-haired man’s right hand. Gordon tried to see what it was, but he couldn’t tell for sure. Then right before his eyes, the shining faded until it disappeared completely, and something in the shape of a cylinder that appeared to be covered in drawings was now visible in his hand.

  The major moved back from the crater and yelled for someone to help pull the bodies out; he was sure they were the reason for all of this. Nathan came over to him with two soldiers.

  “Good God!” exclaimed Nathan. “Are you all right? What happened?”

  “I’m fine, I’m fine. Calm down.” Gordon, feeling exhausted, bent over, resting his hands on his knees. He took a deep breath as he pointed toward the crater. “There are two people in that hole. I don’t care if they’re alive or dead, I want you to get them out of there right away.”

  “Who are they?” asked Nathan, going over to look into the crater.

  “That’s what we have to find out,” proclaimed Gordon.

  “I think you’re mistaken. I only see one man—a guy with a huge nose. He looks like a bum.”

  “That’s impossible!” Gordon shot to his feet and went back over to look in the hole.

  One of the bodies had indeed disappeared.

  In that very moment, a few hundred feet behind them, the back end of the last of the trucks from General Thomas’s convoy suddenly sank into the ground. All that was left in sight was the truck’s cab and the massive silver cannon sticking out on top of it, pointing straight up to the sky. It shuddered slightly for a few seconds and then disappeared completely, swallowed up by the earth.

  Gordon’s lips curved up into a timid smile. At least he wouldn’t have to worry about a cannon that size driving around his city.

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