THE ETHEREAL VISION
LIAM DONNELLY
Published by Liam Donnelly
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Copyright © Liam Donnelly, 2015
Cover design by Andrei Bat
Ebook Formatting by Guido Henkel
This is a work of fiction. However, many locations throughout this book are real. The names, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person’s, (living or dead) or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
PROLOGUE — NEW YORK, JANUARY 2028
Lucas Johnson sat in his dimly lit office and sighed deeply as he stared out at the green space in front of the facility. He glanced at the large monitor on the wall, waiting for his A.I. assistant to indicate a call was coming through from Denton. It was something he had been told to expect, but he hadn’t been given a specific time during which he would receive it. It was now quite late, and Lucas had been sitting in his office for an hour, doing almost nothing. When the call finally came through, he jerked his head around towards the monitor, took a deep breath and accepted it.
The screen lit up and showed the basic interface of their internal network. Then Denton’s face filled the screen. Lucas felt the muscles in his body tense, but he smiled and stared straight at the monitor.
“Mr. Denton, how are you?”
Denton sighed. “The Atlantic Object lit up again, Johnson. I’m sure you got a reading on it over at your end,” he said, his face virtually expressionless.
Lucas stood from his chair and fastened a button on his overcoat. He walked around the front of his desk and faced the large monitor. “Yes, we did,” he replied. “Another-”
“Another spike in Ireland. I believe there was a young girl…?”
“Yes. Jane Connor. I recall.”
“Of course you do, Lucas,” Denton said in a mocking tone, a lopsided grin spreading across his face. “Well, this time the energy readings went off the chart, and we still have no idea what it is.”
“The manned sub?”
“Retrieval process is underway. All systems shut down at a distance of two kilometres. They’re lucky they survived. We got no useful readings at all.”
“Did she cause it?”
“We’re not sure yet. It’s possible. The thing lit up, sent out some kind of shockwave and blew all of their electrical systems, but it wasn’t electromagnetic. It was something else—some kind of advanced security device, they think.”
“What about unmanned? Have they come up with anything else?”
“They’ve sent every kind of drone they have at it: all different compositions—alloys, metals, plastics, you name it. Everything goes dead at a distance of two K.”
Lucas nodded his head and watched the screen as Denton merely stared at him.
“Go to Ireland, Lucas,” he said then, after a pause that caused Lucas’ chest to tighten. “Find her. Get her to the facility. We were obviously right about her back then, and whatever reaction she’s having to this thing now, we need to find out what it is.”
Lucas couldn’t hide the shock that spread across his face. He moved towards the screen, ready to protest. He was about to reply when Denton spoke again.
“Go. Now,” he said in a tone that denied the prospect of retorts or questions. Then the man swiped his hand, and the video link was terminated.
Lucas gasped as the room once again went dark. “Damn,” he whispered to himself as he turned and looked out onto the well-kept green that stretched in front of the facility. It took him a full hour to accept that he would be returning to Ireland, searching for something that they had once thought could be significant: a girl with massive psychic ability. It had, however, turned out to be very little, or perhaps nothing at all.
“Damn,” he said again.