For once the weather forecast was right and the wind had changed over-night, and was blowing from the east, the air when dawn had broken was clearing of dust. Now, nearly three hours later it was clear enough to see the coastline again, so Jo Markson and John Moffat were loading their luggage into the trust's LIMO for the short hop over to Cyprus. The cataloguing and recording of all the relief carvings had been completed nearly a week previously but the poor visibility had caused a shutdown of the Air Traffic Control and Guidance Systems that managed the LIMO movements. Having not had the opportunity to analyse them, they now needed the specialised equipment that the Trust possessed at the Larnaca compound, so the past six days had been a frustrating time. However the delay had its advantages and the couple had taken the opportunity to spend some quality time together away from work.
John punched in the nav-code for the Larnaca compound and waited for the ATC to respond, the electronic handshake took rather longer than usual, but after three minutes the clearance came through and John switched the vehicle over to automatic mode. The LIMO jumped into the air and rose vertically until the island was laid out beneath them. Instead of heading directly eastward the LIMO headed south-west, John tapped a interrogation code into the computer, which responded with information about high levels of traffic from the nearby airport after the lock-down. Satisfied he took his seat next to Jo, and gazed out of the port window. The LIMO made a wide sweep from Crete almost over the North African coast then swung northwards, scribing a circle that took then off towards the Turkish coast. Twelve minutes into the flight John suddenly stood up and then knelt on the seat, staring at something below. He then took the pilot's seat and contacted ATC with a request to change over to manual control. Seconds later the LIMO was released from its automatic mode and John took the control diving steeply to the sea below.
"Jo, come look at this," John called back to disturb Jo from her book-reader.
"What's up," she said as she slipped into the seat next to John.
"Down there, the sea looks orange," he told her. John levelled out at around two-hundred feet and Jo saw what he was talking about.
"I see it," said Jo, "looks like another eruption."
"No," said John, "there's a trail heading roughly north- west, and I think it's moving toward the south. Let me get a GPS fix on the most southerly point." John hovered over what seemed like the end of the orange line and took a fix. Five minutes, exactly, he took another fix, the computer announced the result.
"Object speed is one point two, seven, kilometres per minute."
"That's over seventy-five kilometres an hour," exclaimed John.
"Where's it heading?"
"Let me plot it, computer?"
"Responding" came the voice of the on-board processor.
"Plot the course of object based on direction since first fix," ordered John.
"Processing," came the computers synthetic voice, "current trajectory will coincide with Crete in one hour and four minutes."
John and Jo looked at each other in disbelief
John switched on the emergency high band radio, trying to contact the Air Traffic Authority, within seconds a Greek accented voice responded, "ATA Emergency Service, how can I help?"
"This is LIMO three-delta-5272 of Jo Markson Research Trust, heading for Cyprus; we have just spotted a running fissure the head of which is extending at around seventy-six klicks heading for Crete."
"Thank you LIMO three-delta-5372, we are aware of the fissure and actions are being taken as we speak. Thank you again for your information, please resume your journey, ATA out," the channel went dead.
"What now," asked Jo.
"Now, we go back for the rest of our team, we don't know what will happen when that fissure hits the island." "We don't have clearance for that John, but let's do it." The LIMO, that was already heading towards Crete following the head of the fissure, swept upward to five- thousand feet and headed directly toward the Knossos site. John grabbed his COM-unit and opened a channel to the senior team member at the site.
"Ed, John, get the other team members together with their bags and be ready to leave in fifteen," John ordered.
"Why, what up," asked Ed.
"No time to explain, this is an evacuation, now step on it."
In the other front seat Jo was also on her COM-unit, "Dad, we are being delayed, there is a giant volcanic fissure opening up, travelling fast toward Crete, we're heading back to e-vac the team."
"Don't they have another LIMO there to use?"
"Yes, but there are eleven of them and the that LIMO only holds seven, we can take the other four."
OK Jo, just be careful."
"Right Dad, see you within the hour, bye."
As Jo closed her COM-unit the navigation screen was flashing red with white letters announcing, 'YOU ARE NOT AUTHORISED ON THIS COURSE - RE-ENGAGE AUTO IMMEDIATELY'. They ignored the message and pushed the LIMO to it's power limit. Four minutes later the emergency channel jumped to life.
" LIMO three-delta-5372, please respond." "LIMO three-delta-5372 responding, go ahead.
"You are on an unauthorised course, please return to your auto course, the area you are heading to has been classed as an emergency area."
"This is LIMO three-delta-5372, we are heading back to evacuate members of our team, you can either authorise us to do that or not, we will be going in anyway," announced John.
There was a brief silence, then the Greek voice returned, " LIMO three-delta-5372 we have designated you emergency traffic, you are authorised to proceed on manual control. Please advise when you are again airborne."
Six minutes later John was landing the LIMO back where their journey had started. Most of the team were ready and the first seven were boarding the LIMO transport. John opened the doors and called to the stragglers to hurry. Within the next four minutes all the team boarded the two LIMO's and John contacted the ATA.
"ATA this is LIMO three-delta-5372, we are boarded and airborne."
" LIMO three-delta-5372, you are cleared to engage you automatic navigation," said the ATA controller, "you have a direct course set to Cyprus, have a good flight." "Acknowledged ATA, and thank you," responded John.
As the LIMO attained altitude they could see the column of steam rising far out to sea, from the super-heated water, but the sight soon fell behind them and everyone gave a sigh of relief. The short flight took just over twenty minutes and both Jim and Carol were in the landing area when the machines fell out of the sky.
Wednesday October 27th, 2032. 14:00 hrs (local time)
Unusually for the time of year the dining room was almost full, the staff cooks had been called into work to cope with the influx and the wall-screen had been turned on for the mid-day news from the BBC in London. A half an hour earlier Declan Brook, star reporter for the BBC, honorary member of JMRT and personal friend of the family, had called to find out if Jo were safe. Jim and John had related the story of the evacuation to him and Declan had asked permission to use the story in the mid-day news.
Declan's voice came as a voice-over to the aerial pictures of the fissure,
"Earlier today we received these pictures from a Greek TV vehicle over the south Aegean, the footage you are seeing is of a huge fissure that seems to have originated at, or close to, the island of Milos, connected with the continuing eruption at Thira; site of the famous Santorini volcano. Satalite images have shown the fissure heading south to Crete. These pictures, just in, show some of the devastation caused when it arrived at the town of Agios Nikolaos. The terminal of the fissure seems to have been the, so called, bottomless Voulismeni Lake, which has acted as an inner harbour for hundreds of years. It now seems clear that this lake is in fact a previously extinct volcano, which is now very active. Within forty minutes the town was almost completely destroyed, despite a quick response from the authorities and many thousands being evacuated to the north, the death toll is expected to rise into the thousands. The renamed Voulismeni Volcano is now producing enormous quantities of lava most of which is flowing out into Mirabello bay.”
“One daring rescue just minutes before the fissure arrived was affected by Doctor John Moffat and Jo Markson, the famous finder of the Crete Revelation, when they returned to the island to evacuate the resident archaeological team. Doctor Moffat told me earlier that. . . "
The report continued to expand on the rescue after which the team of eleven stood and gave Jo and John an ovation.
"Have we heard anything from the Control Room, John," asked Jim, "it's a few miles away from the volcano, but we just do not know what going on here at the moment." “I think they will be quite safe Jim, in fact I think it is about the safest place on Earth at the moment."
"What do you make of this latest development John, this travelling fissure seems a bit unusual."
"This sort of thing happens all the time, but the fissures don't usually travel so fast or for so long a distance," explained John, "they are more often smaller and they follow fault-lines, but we seem to be seeing a connectivity between volcanoes. We now have our own 'Ring of Fire' around the Aegean. There are people who believe the Moon was created in this way, that the Pacific ring was once a complete circular fissure that blew out to become the Moon. I know, we know better after the Revelation, but it has always been a possibility and chunks of the earth could blow out in that way. In fact the whole crust could theoretically crack away like an egg shell."
Jim turned to the gathered staff and tapped a spoon on the table, "Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please," he said, "I am sure lunch will not be much longer, meanwhile, can I ask us to bow our heads and pray for those people who have lost their friends and relatives or lost their homes today in Agios Nikolaos, let's just hand them up to the Lord.”
Ken Woods, opened the door to the small chapel in a quiet lane on the western outskirts of Liverpool, he was attending the regular Tuesday night prayer meeting that had been going for many years. This, Ken did every Tuesday evening, come rain or shine, it was important to him that he did not do anything that was out of the ordinary, he knew that he was being watched and had been for some months. Minutes later other attendees started to arrive, most carrying Bibles or brief cases, all looked innocent and fitted into the stereotype of prayer meeting attendees. However, appearances can be deceptive, in reality almost half of those who arrived went into the back room, rather than climbing the stairs to the more comfortable meeting room. There was no real deception, the people in the upper room were there to pray for those meeting in the back room, come kitchen. Those in that back room were representatives of eight churches from around the country, who were the organisers of the up-coming mass prayer meeting.
Of the eight Christians in that back room, five men and three women, of the five men three had earlier in their lives, been involved in covert operations. One had been a Christian for many years and the other two had recently come to be believers after the Crete Revelation. One of the three women was a former head of MI5 and of the others, one was a captain of industry and the other a member of parliament. All, being aware of the surveillance, had arrived in heavy disguise, including prosthetic masks, and of course all arrivals were scanned and their images recorded. None of those would be identified. The back room had been swept for bugs four times already, but a small instrument was on continuously, scanning for bugs and remote listening devices. Even so, no names were used during the meeting.
The discussion lasted for just short of an hour, as did the prayer meeting up-stairs, the meeting decided upon a final date for their prayer assembly and the venue. A logo or sign was agree on as a means of identification and a recognisable logo for the day, it was a stylised praying hands constructed from four lines, with a cross piece forming a cross. The means of invitation was to be via word of mouth with no printed matter whatsoever. The date was to be the date of the US holiday, 'Thanksgiving', which occurs on the forth Thursday in November, this year it would fall on the twenty-fifth. The venue, Hyde Park, London at twelve noon.