‘It happened just before I started working there,’ said Serena. ‘Apparently, there was a leak in one of the helium coolant tanks. The whole operation was closed down for over a year and every part of the collider was checked over with a fine-tooth comb. I can’t believe it’s happened again.’
‘We’re not sure that it has, not until we get the final police report,’ Tom reminded her. ‘Have there been any other incidences that you’re aware of?’
‘You’re beginning to sound like the investigation team,’ she said, flashing a smile at Tom. ‘We’ve had minor breakdowns, but nothing more than you’d expect from such a complex piece of technology.’
‘And what about the data readings during the test and the experiment?’
She reached down and retrieved a file from her briefcase.
‘I’ve summarised the output from both days,’ she said, handing a single sheet of paper from the file, across the table, to Tom.
He studied the data in silence, until he’d reached the end of the document.
‘Temperature readings normal. Detectors registering intensified activity as power increases, which is what you’d expect. Kinetic energy levels normal. Direct correlation between electromagnetic radiation and power output. All seems to be in order,’ Tom concluded, passing the paper back to Serena. ‘So, what do we put these malfunctions down to? Coincidence?’
‘It certainly looks that way,’ replied Serena.
‘Coffee or digestif?’ Pierre appeared at their table with his usual discretion.
Tom looked around the restaurant to see that they were the last ones there. He hadn’t even noticed Frederick or Deiter leaving.
‘I think we’d better be going,’ he said. ‘We wouldn’t want to outstay our welcome.’
‘As you wish, Sir. I’ll bring you your bill.’
Tom turned his attention back to his date. ‘Are you staying on the complex, or do you have an apartment in town?’
‘That’s a bit forward of you, Professor Halligan,’ she teased.
Tom blushed again. ‘I only meant that we could share a taxi if you were going back to the complex.’
‘That would be appropriate,’ she said, continuing the pretence of being straight-laced.
‘Well, we wouldn’t want to do anything inappropriate, now, would we?’
Tom paid the bill and they left the restaurant, giggling like teenagers.
‘Thank you for a very pleasant evening.’ They were standing outside Tom’s door. ‘Are you sure I can’t offer you a nightcap?’
‘Professor, sahib! Professor, sahib!’ They both turned in unison to see Ajay running at full pelt towards them down the corridor. He just managed to stop short of them in time. ‘Have you… seen the… TV? It’s… it’s Shiva,’ he gasped, bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
‘Ajay, slow down and tell us what’s wrong,’ Tom said, trying to calm him down.
‘…the earthquake.’
Tom let them into his apartment, switched on the television and flicked through the channels to find an English-speaking news programme. Tom stood to one side of the TV, whilst Serena and Ajay positioned themselves on the couch, his earlier phobia almost forgotten as he focused on the images of the holocaust being broadcast.
All eyes were glued to the set as a young woman, who looked tired and drawn, was being interviewed by an ABC News reporter. ‘We have with us Dawn Spencer, a local radio station presenter, who witnessed the devastation first hand. Tell us what it was like, Dawn.’
‘It’s Maria.’
‘Sorry?’
‘My name is Maria.’
‘Sorry. Tell us what it was like, Maria.’ The runner was going to get it in the neck for that cock-up.
Maria had lost count of the number of interviews she’d done over the last twelve hours; the questions were always the same. She had formulated the answers in her head and could almost deliver them verbatim, like a script. She could also anticipate the next question before it was asked.
‘We were reporting on the early morning traffic, in our helicopter, when the first of the tremors shook the city. Initially, we thought it was a localised gas explosion, but then we soon realised it was an earthquake. We were just above the clouds when the whole city got flattened. As we descended, we could see the full extent of the devastation. The quake must have shaken the buildings to their foundations, because all that was left were piles of rubble.’
Ask me about the casualties.
‘And did you see many casualties?’
‘Because it was so early in the morning, a lot of people must have been trapped in their houses as they collapsed. I could see men and women digging in the ruins, dragging individuals out by their arms and legs. But it became obvious, quite quickly, that the majority weren’t so lucky, as bodies littered the streets. Makeshift bandages were being tied around the injured, but as there were no hospitals and no medical treatment available, they were left to suffer in agony.’
‘Did you see any emergency services on the streets?’
‘Most of the roads were inaccessible. Even if there had been any ambulances or fire engines still running, they wouldn’t have been able to get through. Fires were burning out of control. Some survivors did try to douse the flames with buckets of water, but it was futile.’
‘And how long was it before you saw any assistance from outside the city?’
‘Military helicopters were the first on the scene. They managed to land on some of the parks that hadn’t been affected by the quake. They were carrying medical personnel and supplies, which they administered to whoever they thought needed it the most. The helicopters took off, evacuating the most seriously injured, whilst the walking wounded were being treated on the ground.’
‘Thank you, Maria.’ The reporter turned back to face the camera. ‘There you have it, a harrowing account from an eye-witness to what is being described by experts as a mega-quake. It’s difficult to say, at this early stage, what the final death toll will be, but it is likely to run into the millions. This is Celia Burrows, ABC News, reporting from a city that has been wiped off the face of the earth. Over to you in the studio, Bryan.’
‘Thank you, Celia,’ Bryan spoke into the camera, his voice grave. He turned his focus to the screen behind him where his guest, a professor of seismology from Harvard University, was waiting patiently for his cue.
‘Professor, we’ve just heard from our correspondent in Istanbul. She is describing this as a mega-quake. Would you agree?’
‘The scientific name for it is actually a megathrust earthquake,’ replied the professor. ‘It is the most powerful kind of earthquake on the planet. The magnitude of the one that hit Turkey measured 10.5 on the Richter scale, the largest earthquake since records began.’
‘What could have caused such a quake?’
‘The surface of the earth is divided into giant plates of rock — and most earthquakes occur at faults where two of the plates meet. Where the plates are colliding, one of the plates usually gets pushed down under the other. Not surprisingly, this process can be very violent. The two plates can get stuck together and the result is that the area around gets compressed. Eventually, the strain on the fault becomes too much. The plates suddenly slip past each other and the result is a megathrust earthquake.’
‘Could we have predicted this happening?’
‘Earthquakes, by their nature, are very unpredictable. You never know for sure where the next one will occur. But we have been aware for some time of the possibility of one occurring again in Istanbul. The city is situated near the North Anatolian Fault, close to the boundary between the African and Eurasian Plates. This fault zone, which runs from northern Anatolia to the Sea of Marmara, has been responsible for several deadly earthquakes throughout the city's history. Among the most devastating of these was the 1509 earthquake, which caused a tsunami that broke over the walls of the city and killed more than 10,000 people. More recently, in 1999, an earthquake, with its epicentre in nearby Izmit, left 18,000 people dead, including 1,000 people in Istanbul's suburbs…’