2084 The End of Days Read Online Free PDF Page B

yawned and went back to reading her celebrity gossip. Ewan whispered in Gary’s ear.
    “You’ve been farting around with that E2MSN system for over a week and the best that you’ve come up with is some pretty boring pictures of Mars and a couple of ship’s manifests for the space shuttle Oceanus. Come on, Gary, let’s just leave it alone. We’ll end up getting extradited to the US on hacking charges and for what – nothing!”
    Gary did not even look up and Ewan snapped in exasperation.
    “Oh, for God’s sake, Gaz - look, I’m heading off down to Brodie’s Bar for a drink. Are you coming?”
    Ewan pushed his cheap metal café chair back with a slight screech on the tiled floor which extracted a tutting rebuke from Michelle for interrupting her gossip read again. He started to push himself up when Gary raised his palm to stop him from leaving, swivelling his laptop round to face Ewan.
    “Mars and manifests? Mars and manifests is it? Well, just take a fuckin’ look at that then!”
    Diffidently, Ewan sat down and looked at the screen as indicated by his friend’s wagging finger pointing triumphantly at the webpage. Ewan seemed unimpressed with Gary’s apparent revelation.
    “It’s an email. So what – I’ve seen an effing email before.”
    Gary raised his eyebrows slowly, looked up and gave a slight shrug. He then answered in mocking repetition.
    “It’s – an - email. Just - a - fuckin’ - email. Seen – one - ah - them – before – huuuuh?”
    Gary hesitated for effect and then stabbed his finger at the screen.
    “Just read the fuckin’ thing!”
    Ewan began reading and slowly it dawned on him that this was certainly a bit more interesting than a few bland photos of canyons and craters on Mars or the Oceanus crew and passenger list for next week’s return trip to Earth. As he read the email his left eyebrow arched higher and higher and Gary’s smile kept getting broader and broader.
    From: [email protected]
    Cc: [email protected]
    Bcc: Internal Nimrod SH2 Contact List – Top Secret
    Subject: Nimrod SH2 scanning error
    Date: 23:32 January 21, 2081 IST
    To all concerned,
    I have to report that I incorrectly entered the wrong vectors for this evening’s scan for the Nimrod SH2 at 22:51:21 IST and this was not corrected until 22:53:32 IST. Please ignore this 2’ 11” of footage as the SH2 was not directed to the planned position within super-galaxy M-KON543 for this evening’s programmed terrestrial planet-hunting scan. Note that the SH2 was correctly repositioned at 22:53:32 IST.
    I realise that the SH2 budget is extremely tight and that this was potentially a costly error and I apologize profusely for this mistake,
    Ari Schenkler,
    Senior Astrophysicist,
    Israeli National Space & Cosmology Center, Tel Aviv
    Ewan looked over the laptop at his friend who had now stretched out his arms with the palms thrust upwards. Gary prompted Ewan.
    “Well?”
    “Interesting - someone’s going to get his arse kicked for that then?”
    “Too right he is, Ewan. But just think what ye’re wee friend down in London could do with that info?”
    He looked blankly at Gary.
    “My friend in London - who do you - ?”
    Before Gary interrupted him, Ewan’s eyes were already beginning to gape widely as it dawned on him who Gary was talking about.
    “Jill – Gary, don’t say you mean Jill Geeson?”
    “Yeah, that wee cracker of a journalist at the Times that you used to go out with. She would pay big money to see that email.”
    Ewan’s voice was beginning to rise and become slightly shriller, causing Michelle to shake her head a little. Those two were always arguing in here, she thought.
    “No way, Gary - for Christ sake, she wouldn’t be able to touch it with a barge pole. That’s a leaked document from a top secret Israeli – NASA communiqué. We’d all get thrown in Guantanamo and get hung by the Katangans!”
    “Look, calm down, calm down, Ewan. Nobody’s goin’ on their holidays to