Dear Reader!
Thank you for opening this last chapter of my serial Would You Like Some More Help?
Whether you have been here since the beginning or joined a bit later, this chapter concludes a journey I have started in September.
Needless to say, this chapter includes huge spoilers. You might want to start from the beginning. In the Table of Contents linked above you’ll find the story as individual chapters or two long posts for part one and part two.
I am excited to have finished this story and can’t wait to tackle the editing and polishing part of this project to get it ready for publishing - after a break!
Thank you for reading and supporting me. It means a lot. Some of you have made their way into the acknowledgments. Your feedback and comments have been so valuable. I already look forward to sharing the finished book, once it’s ready.
Kind regards,
Ian
Seven red lights were blinking across the map on the screen. The gates were locked. Everything was ready. Monitors around the room showed each one of the locations and rotated between the gate, the unassuming camp dwellers and the water.
He sent the woman away and pulled up his pants. A woman a day for forty years had been fun, but everything can be optimized and cataloged. Both he and God liked the same number. It would be enough and have a better outcome than the man-in-the-cloud’s plan. Every step had been important, but none would be greater than the gift of his genes to the world.
His phone chimed, Internet 2.0 up and running. Confirmation messages kept coming in.
66° 38' S / 81° 55' E - confirmed
69° 13' S / 36° 21' E - confirmed
48° 57' S / 31° 47' W - failed to detonate
65° 35' S / 57° 50' W - confirmed
72° 03' S / 178° 55' W - confirmed
47° 7′ 21″ N, 8° 47′ 8″ E - confirmed
No matter the effort, he still wasn’t completely immune to emotions. Sure, plan B and C were options, but there was a reason why nobody started with them. That last message allowed him to breathe a sigh of relief: he couldn’t count on icebergs and oceans to take care of Zurich.
The rest of the messages came in, the success rate better than calculated, which always renewed his feeling of destiny being fulfilled. Not that there was an alternative: destiny was just another tool for him.
There was no way back, now. A calm washed over him, the crescendo of the last months culminating in two dozen text messages. He wondered about the phrasing in future history books, he didn’t want this climax reduced to a man sitting behind a screen. He’d think of something.
The Zurich screen switched to what remained of the dam. The beauty and power of water. You could always find a group of scientists, military personnel and engineers who were really just kids with a magnifying glass, sun rays and ant fetish, but in a grown-up’s body. At the end of the day, men just liked for stuff to go boom.
The man leaned back, enjoying the visual symphony of what was playing out. Miami would be the last after Zurich. The easiest part. After a slight delay, the others had been taken care of. But what were mere days compared to history?
Of everything he did, the greatest single thing remained convincing everyone that there wasn’t a single person behind all of this. Acting like he didn’t know had become an entertaining hobby. Next to silencing whoever came even an inch closer to understanding.
This was it. He got up. He deserved some fresh air and maybe the next repopulation session, as he liked to think of them. Smirking, his eyes did one last round from screen to screen. Something grabbed his attention and his stomach dropped.
Two lights were blinking green.
- The End -
Oh wow, it sounds pretty intriguing. I will definitely read it.
Finishing a complete novella or novel is always a huge accomplishment, Ian. Congratulations, sir!! I am inspired by you.