Day of Rebellion (4 page)

T
he scene before Jack and Angus, from their position on the Taurus transfer platform, seemed little different from the one they had looked out on only seconds before. There was one other important change, however, and it only took Jack a single glance at his time phone to confirm the incredible truth. The readout winked back at him:

2046. That was the important number. The year. It meant they had travelled more than forty years into the future.

“You OK?” Angus said.

“That usual sick feeling. But I’ll be alright. The place looks empty – but there seems to be power.”

“Yeah. But we can’t be too sure.”

“Look – the blood trail again…”

Jack pointed to the entry gantry leading off the Taurus transfer platform. The thin spattering of blood, now dried, continued all the way along, then downstairs.

“I guess we follow it and we’ll discover something soon enough.”

“Or someone… we need to be careful.”

Jack studied the time phone readout. “The Taurus has sent us here on 16th July – that’s two days after Dad and a day after Fenton.”

“Yeah – but we don’t know where they’ve gone. They could still be here. We need to be careful.”

The trail of brown-red drops continued into the room below. It then traced its way through to the exit that led back through the library and into a whole separate area of the Revisionist underground complex. The place seemed deserted. There was no sign of Jack’s father or the mysterious ‘Fenton’. The complex contained a large storeroom, kitchen and sleeping quarters. But the trail led them to a small infirmary where it was evident, from some loose bandages and an open bottle of disinfectant, that someone had attempted a hasty patch-up job.

“The blood trail stops here. If it was him, it looks like your dad managed to stem the blood flow.”

Jack bit his lip. “That’s one conclusion…”

The library was the central hub of the complex and there were a number of further rooms leading off it. One of them was some kind of large laboratory. There were computer terminals everywhere, papers strewn around, whiteboards with diagrams and equations scribbled across them, and lots of scientific equipment. Amongst the mess, Jack caught sight of a few historical artefacts which looked a bit out of place. There was an earthenware pot, some medals and an assortment of old firearms.

“What a mess,” Angus said.

“The place looks deserted but something’s definitely been happening in here recently. Everything’s on standby.”

“Yeah – look at those screens over there, they look like CCTV pictures showing bits of the complex. But I can’t see any sign of life. And those ones seem to show the outside – see?”

“You’re right…” Jack’s eyes squinted as he stared at the monitors. “But it’s weird, maybe the colour isn’t right or something… looks to me like outside, well, it’s difficult to make anything out. It’s just white.”

“Maybe we should go outside and see what’s up there?”

“Worth a try.”

They entered the lift and Jack pressed the button that said
‘Top Exit – Rock’.
The contraption groaned and started to shake its way up through the shaft. After a few minutes it slowed.

“You ready?” Angus said.

The lift ground to a halt at the top of the shaft.

“There’s some sort of access hatch through there.”

They clambered up through the hatch into a short passage.

“Over there – a door.”

“Solid. We’re not going to get through that.” Angus said.

“Unless…” In his pocket Jack still had the access device which had opened the door from the Tantallon side. Taking it out he pointed it at the door and pressed.

“Works – nice one.”

It opened and they were suddenly hit with an icy blast of air.

“Geez – that’s cold!” Angus said. “Look – more stairs over there.”

They climbed up and stepped out in a strange room with curved walls. Ahead was a spiral staircase.

Jack reached out and ran his finger along the wall.

“I think I know where we’ve come out,” he said. “You remember when we were standing at the castle and looking out at the Bass Rock? I think we’re inside the lighthouse that we saw built on the rock. Those steps must go right up to the top. Up there we should get a view of everything around. Come on.”

They crept forward and slowly climbed the spiral staircase. They could hear nothing except for an occasional breath of wind that caressed the outside of the lighthouse. They reached a door at the top. Jack threw it open and gasped at the sight before them.

A few hours before, Jack and Angus had looked out from Tantallon Castle across the mainland, onto a glistening
blue-grey
sea. It had been a bright summer’s day. Now, the view was quite, quite different. They were standing above a desolate landscape of ice and rock. The sea that surrounded the island, and which extended off to the horizon and to the land masses on either side of the Firth of Forth, was completely frozen. It was as if they were looking straight down onto a vast glacier. There was ice and snow everywhere.

The sun blazed out strongly from a cloudless sky and Jack had to squint and then shield his eyes. He stared in disbelief, and then looked at Angus who wore the same expression of shock.

He felt himself starting to panic. “Angus – I don’t get it – it was summer when we left, I know we’re forty years in the future… but everything’s changed… it’s like there’s been a new ice age or something. The whole world’s changed – what’s happened?”

I
n the distance, far across the smooth landscape of ice, there was a single sign of life. It was a huge steel platform. The structure was supported by pillars, but tilted so that half the platform was buried in the surrounding ice.

“What is it?” Jack said. He shivered.

“It looks like some sort of oil rig.”

“Yeah, you’re right. But I can’t see if there’s anyone on it. Maybe they have a telescope or something inside the lighthouse.”

They climbed into the large room which held the huge old light. The windows were broken, the fittings were rusted up and all the paint had peeled away from years of exposure.

“What about this?” Angus scratched inside an old cupboard and pulled out a pair of old binoculars.

“Brilliant.” Jack took the binoculars and rested them on the frame of one of the broken panes. He pointed them in the direction of the wrecked rig.

“See anything?”

“It’s definitely an oil rig. Completely messed up. Looks like there may have been a fire or something.” Jack adjusted the focus. “Absolutely zero sign of life…”

Angus stood next to him, staring out in the same direction. “Hold on Jack! Bring them down a bit… look! There are footprints in the snow.”

Jack lowered the glasses, “You’re right! I can see them. Maybe Dad is out there. Maybe the Fenton guy has followed him or something. He could be in trouble. We need to go and check it out.”

“I’m not sure, Jack, out there on the ice we’d be sitting ducks.”

“But we can’t just stand here and do nothing.”

Angus grimaced. “OK – but let me at least get some kit from the stores so we don’t freeze to death. Let’s see if there’s some outdoor clothing we can use.”

Their climb down from the main lighthouse door to the ice below was not easy. From the castle on the mainland, the rock had looked precipitous and craggy, but that was nothing to what it was like close up. There were massive cliffs on all sides and the concrete walkway had crumbled away. With trepidation, Jack took a final step from the rock down onto the ice field. They had been right. There were clear footprints in the crust of snow that covered the ice.

Walking was not too difficult using the boots they had found in the stores, and they quickly reached the middle of the glinting ice field. It was not long before they arrived at the rig. Snow drifts had built up around the bottom of the rig and they could see where steps had been cut into the ice leading up onto the main platform. They peered up at the huge structure that loomed over them.

“What a beast!” Angus said.

Jack was still breathing hard from their hike across the ice. “I know rigs used to come into the Forth here for maintenance
but I’ve never seen one this size.”

He craned his neck up to stare at the rig. “Look at that – the lettering – up there at the top of the accommodation block…”

Angus followed Jack’s eye-line. “Yes, I noticed on the way over. It’s like a big sign… and it’s got that funny logo… but I don’t understand what it says; it looks like it’s written in Chinese.”

“I think you’re right,” Jack nodded. So how does a
Chinese
oil rig end up wrecked in the Firth of Forth in Scotland, forty years in the future and half a planet away from China… in a world that’s turned to ice?”

Gingerly, they clambered up onto the metal surface of the platform and crept forward towards the middle of the giant rig. Jack found that using the railings was not much help because the metal was so cold his gloves would stick. After a few minutes of slipping and scrambling it became apparent that the structure was older and more precarious than they had first thought. The cold breeze that whipped around the old steel towers and cranes caused an eerie whistling sound.

“Look – the footprints go that way.”

Jack pointed along a metal walkway which led to a block of dilapidated cabins built one on top of the other. The building was intact and seemed to have avoided the fire that had obviously torn through the rest of the structure.

They approached the door. It was metal and had an opening in its top half where there would have been a window – but the glass had long since fractured and gone. There was a sign on the wall next to the office that had been badly eroded.

“Some of this is in English,” Jack said.

There was a string of lettering in Chinese, but underneath was an English translation, although it was hard to decipher.

Jack rubbed a finger over the sign, trying to read it. “Think I’ve got it:

H
EAVENLY
K
INGDOM
I
NDUSTRIES
H
YDROCARBON
G
ROUP
– A
RCTIC
D
IVISION
A
RCTIC
H
ORIZON
P
RODUCTION
P
LATFORM
– C
ONTROL
C
ENTRE
B

Beneath there were more words in a strange italic script:

Jack was bewildered.

“Heavenly Kingdom Industries? Doesn’t sound like an evil global oil company,” Angus said.

Jack was deep in concentration. “It says Arctic. Arctic division… but we’re hundreds of miles from the North Pole. And how can it move around, if everything is iced up?”

“Maybe it came here for repairs or something and then all this ice came later? But is that possible? I mean, can an ice age happen that quickly… like just in a few years?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve heard stuff about ocean currents pumping warm water up from the equator into the sea around Britain. I read once that with global warming, ice melts and dilutes the salt content of the sea, so the water from the equator stops pumping up our way. Then because there’s no warm water,
everything ends up freezing – it can tip the climate. Maybe that could cause a whole new ice age?”

Angus shrugged and pointed to the door of control centre, “You going to open it, then?”

Jack pulled open the door and then he screamed.

The body had been mummified with the cold. The lifeless eyes stared directly at Jack as he stood over the body in the doorway. Bizarrely the man was still wearing his blue overalls, and sitting in his swivel chair in front of two large computer terminals. But he looked like he had not moved for a very long time.

“That’s gross,” Angus said, turning away. “It’s like the poor guy is still at work…”

Jack felt his stomach turn. “And as if he’s staring at us.”

Angus pushed the chair gently away. It was only a slight movement, but it was enough to disturb the position of the body in the chair, so it slipped, disintegrating as it fell face down on to the floor.

“Nice…”

They looked around the tops of the desks and in the drawers. Jack tried to keep his eyes away from the body.

“What about this?” Angus held up a dusty looking report, “The title – it’s like the sign outside – half in Chinese but there’s an English translation as well…”

“What does it say?”

“Health and Safety Inspection. Thirty-first of January 1976.”

“But that’s impossible,” Jack said. “Look around… these computers – nothing like these existed then…. And the rig itself,
all this technology, I’m sure it’s too advanced… North Sea oil exploration didn’t even start until the 1970s and I’ve never heard of anything going on in the Arctic.”

“Weird. Hey – look at that?”

Angus nodded to a painting on the wall. It was completely out of place with the rest of the office – a crude black line drawing of a Chinese man. He wore a loose-fitting robe with a dragon on it and a strange-looking hat. Underneath the portrait were the words:

“It’s the same picture!” Jack exclaimed, “Remember? At the museum in Edinburgh, the woman giving the presentation about the Taiping Rebellion… she showed a picture… it’s the same guy. I’m sure of it. He’s the leader of the Taiping.”

“Yeah – you’re right. The Chinese seem to be following us around.”

“Come on. I’ve had enough of this place and we still don’t know what’s happened to Dad. Let’s head back to the rock, before it gets dark.”