Rick Pickles' own office was a masterpiece of modern design and was equipped with every gadget and device known to man, and some that had not been imagined yet. The panoramic windows behind his desk that looked out over a very hazy River Thames, was also a wide angle COM-screen that still allowed light to traverse the multi-layer polymer. Rick swivelled his chair to face the window, and ordered, “COM connect Heidi Goldbloom.” The window turned opaque and displayed a small graphic that indicated the the connection was in progress, then flickered and was replaced by the Prime Minister of Israel.
“Hello Rick,” said Goldbloom, a little subdued. “Greetings Heidi, just thought that I'd see how you were doing, with all the problems you have over there, still getting grief from the Palestinians?”
“Rick, at this moment in time the Palestinians are the least of my worries.”
“Why, what else is there on your mind, anything I can do to help,” asked Pickles.
“Nothing I can talk about at the moment Rick.”
“Heidi, you know you can trust me, whatever it is, I am not going to tell anyone, remember who kept your secret about the Ark?”
“Well. . . It's that travelling fissure, it's not public knowledge, but it seems the ultimate destination is Mount Moyra, the Temple Mount, and you know what happened in Crete, the worst thing is, there is nothing we can do about it.”
Rick detected a tear in his friend's eye, and said, “Cheer up Heidi, something will turn up, your God has always seen you through, hasn't he?”
“Yes you are right Rick, I suppose, but this is my city, our Jerusalem, the real 'Eternal City'. Do you know how long this city has stood here, this city is our history, our home.”
“Heidi, I have just had a thought, it may not work but there is just a chance, do you mind if I bring Professor Gwilliam in on this,” Rick asked.
“Is he reliable, this can't get out into the public domain, Rick,” asked the PM.
“Owen can keep a secret, he's had enough practice over the years, and besides, I have him on a non- disclosure contract,” explained Rick, “let me see if I can reach him now.” The window panel next to the one Heidi was on , went opaque and ten seconds later Owen's image appeared.
“Hello, Rick, Madam Prime Minister, what can I do for you,” said Owen.
Rick quickly outlined the problem to Owen, and Goldbloom explained about the need for secrecy. “No problem Prime Minister, I understand what panic would ensue if the population found out.”
“Thank you Owen, and please call me Heidi whilst we are in private.”
“Professor, our ESD, would it be able to protect the Mount, do you think,” asked Rick.
“I have no idea boy,” answered Owen in astonishment, “we haven't tested it to its limit, or to be precise, we haven't found its limit yet, and I am not sure how we would test it against geothermal energy.”
“What about trying one out on Crete,”Rick suggested, “that one is still going, although much reduced, and I believe anyone can approach to within a kilometre now,” Rick continued, thinking out loud, “we could send a ESD in on a remote device, a drone or creeper, and switch it on remotely. . . “
“Well in this case, I'm willing to give it a try Rick, we have to save Jerusalem,” stated the Professor. “How long have we got?”
“The latest ETA is about seven to eight weeks, we have to start evacuation in about three weeks, but we can't surely stop the devastation it will cause between the coast and here, so we still need to evacuate,” said Heidi.
“Rick, if this works in Crete, I think we need to construct two ESD's with a souped-up power source and that hopefully will give us an increased range,” suggested Owen, “We use one where the fissure meets the coast and the other as stand-by at the Mount. Then link it up to the power source we discovered in the chamber underneath the Mount, with the device that is in the chamber we will have, hopefully, a impenetrable force field bubble.”
“Brillient Owen,” said Rick Pickles, almost jumping up and down and clapping his hands, ”lets do it!”