Ice Planet Page 24

  The operation went as smoothly as Simon had suggested it would. A transporter was placed silently in the sitting room of the President’s house when the particle viewing system showed that he was asleep and his bodyguard napping in the kitchen. Two groups of three men each slipped silently from the transporter into the bedroom, where one man clamped a cloth soaked in chloroform over his mouth and nose while three of the men immobilized his arms and legs and the remaining two kept watch over the bodyguard. It required only a minute for the obese man’s struggles to subside. He was placed on a stretcher the six men had brought and carried to the transporter, where two of the men transported out with him, followed by the remaining men in two groups.

  When the President awoke from what seemed like a bad dream, he found himself in a hut in the Arabian desert, a short distance from several other such huts. He struggled erect, and staggered out into the open, seeing that the sun had barely risen, although the heat was already severe. He heard a sound, and saw the General staggering from another hut, looking around wildly as he attempted to make sense of what he saw. He could find no possible explanation for what seemed to be fact. And much worse was to come as the sun rose higher in the sky, flattening the landscape, which seemed to be an endless expanse of yellow-red sand. Slowly, it penetrated the minds of the President and his General that this was their final reward for a life that both of them knew to be less than good, in abstract terms.

  Chapter 23

  The work advanced well on all fronts. The new government was elected, with the new political Party headed by Professor Netteos gaining a vote of a little over forty per cent of the votes cast, followed by another Party, one of the leading Opposition Parties before it was banned by the President, gaining twenty-three per cent of the vote. The manifestos of these two Parties differed only in certain nuances, and they experienced no difficulty in agreeing to vote together on most of the proposals that the voters wanted to see put into effect soon. One of those was a new constitution that strengthened the provisions to ensure that no strong man would come to power again. It also implemented criminal liability for members of the Cabinet who failed to stand up to wrongdoing by the President or the government as a whole, and, most importantly, it provided for a referendum to express or withhold approval for the actions of the government. If the referendum failed to give a majority approval, it required that a new general election be held within one month. New laws were passed to ensure that freedom of speech and movement prevailed. The first act of the new government was to call a referendum on the proposed move of the seat of government to Munich. There was some agitation for legislation to make the move to Munich mandatory or all citizens, but Professor Netteos, now the new President, refused even to put it to Congress for debate.

  “Our citizens are adults, with freedom to choose where and how to live. Most of all, they have the freedom to exercise that choice. If they fail to make the right decision, it is not the right of government to force them to choose wisely, nor is it the obligation of government to support them in their folly. If they choose to remain in Kinair, they cannot demand any more support from the nation than is given to others.” His statement attracted some criticism from sections of the media which saw it to be the duty of government to support all who could not or would not fend for themselves, but the overwhelming majority of the citizens supported his stance that government should intervene in the lives of the citizens as little as possible. As one commentator in the newly-free Press put it: ‘After all, where would we be now if we had waited for government to save us? Waiting for the cold to kill us all, that’s where.’

  The news reporter could not resist the temptation to head the article with a photo of Aria, Cora, Benia and Hera, all four of them beautiful women, standing with linked arms at the opening of the new Congress in the old Bavarian seat of Government in Munich. The reporter knew the adage that a beautiful woman always makes a story, and he believed that four of them would make the story so much stronger. The response to his article seemed to vindicate that belief.

  Thank you

  For reading this book. One small request – please return to the site where you purchased this book (you can click on the link below) and post a review. Both the author and other readers will be grateful for your trouble! Nicole will be delighted to hear from you.

  Other books by this author are listed below, for your convenience. Pleasant reading!

  The Author and her Work

  About the Author

  Nicole Stuart graduated with degrees in Commerce and Law, and, after gaining experience in banking, industry and commerce, started work with an international company as a Management Consultant. She rose rapidly through the ranks, and was seconded to operations of the company in Australia, Britain, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States of America for lengthy periods. This gave her the opportunity to experience where and how others live and work as well as an insight into a wide array of businesses. It also helped to lift the veil that obscures our views of other people, and revealed to her the ‘blinkers’ that so many people have, limiting their ability to see things the way they really are.

  She has a voracious interest in how things work, as well as in writing, with a considerable fiction and non-fiction output, with over a hundred publications to her name. She takes pride in basing her writings on a foundation of real life, finding existing conditions that pose real threats or opportunities, and extrapolating them to produce exciting and entertaining reading, usually with the result that the reader asks “How would I have handled that?”

  Her email address is: NicoleAStuart@gmail.com, and her books can be viewed by clicking here.

  Novels by Nicole Stuart

  Integra Series

  Integra is the forerunner of a popular series of books related to the Integra theme. Others in the series include a wide range of subjects:

  Integra: Ken Robson, an environmental scientist, sailing alone across the Atlantic, sails into an unexpected storm. A day into the storm, he receives a faint Mayday call from a yacht sinking some distance away. He hastens to the rescue, arriving in time to rescue Erika, the beautiful young wife of the owner of Integra Corporation, a very large privately-owned corporation in Germany, but her husband is lost with their sinking yacht in the storm. Ken returns with Erika to Germany, where they are both plunged into a fight to save the company from the results of the criminal actions of a rogue Manager.

  The book describes in detail the horrifying problems of rescue in heavy weather at sea in a small boat with real knowledge, and with a number of aspects of business and places which the author knows and describes with insight and clarity.

  You can buy Integra by clicking here.

  Run! Surviving a high-speed crash on the German Autobahn is only the first trial. Sandra awakens in a hospital, with no memory, no money, no contacts. Now, alone in a foreign country, she finds herself trapped in a web of organised crime on an international scale and participants who have the resources of governments. A brutal gang with unlimited means and a lot to lose is determined to ensure her silence. They will stop at nothing to do so.

  You can buy Run! By clicking here.

  Ransom! Marianne Elsner, a senior executive of the Integra Corporation travels to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to investigate the purchase of a cobalt and copper mine. On the way to investigate another mine in Uganda, her charter flight crashes in the jungle. She manages to escape from the wreck, and finds herself alone in the jungle with a severely wounded pilot. Her plans to make her way to civilization are foiled when she is captured by ‘rebels’, who plan to hold her for ransom. She escapes, and fights her way through the jungle, evading pursuit by her former captors, to where a rescuer can find her. Her return to civilization does not end her battle against the men who hunted her through the wild. Savagery is not confined to the jungle!

  You can buy Ransom! By clicking here.

  Tsunami: A huge slab of rock hangs precariously on the side of a volcano in the Ca
nary Islands, threatening to slip into the sea and precipitate a tsunami which will destroy the East Coast of the United States. Jason Fairfield, a geologist who has been studying the rock for several years, travels to the island with Jenny to continue his investigations and notices a strange box in the trunk of a car on the ferry to the island. That starts them thinking, and the process is helped by further events.

  Before long, they realize that a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda is planning to precipitate the rockslide and destroy the economies of the Western World. They don’t have the time to bring in the CIA to avert the danger, and they are forced to act alone.

  This fast-paced story deals with a real threat to the Western World, presently existing, and describes a terrorist plot to make the threat reality! If you live on or near the Atlantic coast, you need to read this book!

  You can buy Tsunami by clicking here.

  Lost: Sally Harper is on the way to Australia with Don Bennings to investigate a large hotel group, for investment in it by Integra. Their aircraft runs into a cloud of volcanic dust over Indonesia, and they are forced to ditch hundreds of miles from land and far off their course, in the middle of a hurricane. Overcoming enormous difficulties, they make their way to a deserted island, facing the prospect of spending their lives there.

  The situation strains their adaptability, their ingenuity and their sense of optimism to the limits. They work together to survive the numerous challenges they are forced to confront, and to make their way back to civilization.

  This adventure makes enthralling reading, giving new insights into what drives people to achieve against all odds. It is a tale of ordinary people forced to do extraordinary things.

  You can buy Lost by clicking here

  Hydrocarbon: Jim Orwell and Dianne Richards, both Chemists, see a glass fiber boat parked at the jetty in Lake Misty disintegrate before their eyes. Their interest piqued, and suspecting that some chemical has been introduced into the lake’s water, they investigate and discover a bacterial infestation that has the potential to destroy the world economies. The bacteria are proliferating quickly, spreading throughout the waters of the world and feeding on the hydrocarbons present in the water. They realize that immediate action is required to defuse the threat before the bacteria overwhelm Humanity. Their attempts to inform the Authorities bring them into conflict with a fanatical religious cult that is intent on bringing the world back to a ‘purer state’, destroying the development that they see as an affront to God’s plan for humanity.

  Their search for help leads them to Integra. Together they establish an organization to save the waters of the world, racing to beat the threat that is spreading rapidly around the world, invading the heartland of civilizations. In order to achieve this, they are forced to overcome threats against their lives, and political inertia, to destroy the threat before it destroys them. Their work forms the foundation for capabilities that will save millions, even those far removed from the threat.

  You can buy Hydrocarbon by clicking here.

  Population: Jeff Tobin, a mathematician, becomes obsessed with the predictions of Thomas Malthus. He develops a means to intervene in what he sees as the unchecked growth in the population of poor people, people who have no means of dragging themselves out of the poverty trap. Max Walton, a successful serial entrepreneur, is working with Ann Markgraaff to develop an affordable and palatable food for the poverty-stricken of the world, but they are waylaid by Joseph Mbonani, a ruthless man who exploits his position of power and influence with banks and Government to demand a majority shareholding in their company, threatening various actions by the Revenue authorities and the Police if they fail to comply, as well as a refusal by the banks to provide funding. Reluctant to accede to this demand, they turn to Integra Corporation to assist them to realize their business plan. Believing that they have a moral obligation to act on their knowledge, they turn their attention to the companies where Mbonani’s blackmail has succeeded, and find that he and Tobin are involved in genocide on a continental scale. They set about a daring plan to bring about the collapse of Mbonani’s empire.

  You can buy Population by clicking here.

  Meteor Impact: Jeff Ambrose, an amateur astronomer, is scanning the night sky when he spots an anomaly. He applies all his knowledge to find a reason for it, and discovers a large clump of very large asteroids. Concerned, he reports his findings to the authorities, only to find resistance to the notion that such a discovery by an amateur could be of value. He enlists the aid of a young astronomer, and they complete the calculations, to find that the Earth is destined to collide with multiple large objects, each bigger than the object that terminated the rule of the dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago.

  In the face of active opposition by powerful interest groups, they manage to escape to Europe, where they enlist the aid of Integra, a privately-owned corporation with the ability to gain the attention of the major world Governments. Together they race against time to put together an organization with the capability to ward off the danger, and to develop a plan to counter the greatest threat that Humanity has ever faced.

  You can buy Meteor Impact by clicking here.

  Recovery! Although the majority of the meteors have been diverted or destroyed, three huge lumps of rock moving at tens of thousands of miles per hour have impacted the Earth. The destruction is immense, with ash and dust clouds covering practically all of the northern hemisphere and large parts of the south. The entire west coast of the Americas has been devastated, the Pacific islands virtually wiped off the map, New Zealand wiped clean of most traces of humanity, the east coast of Australia destroyed, China’s industrial capacity decimated. A team under the banner of Disaster Monitoring has been working for months to prepare the world for the damage and the massive recovery effort that must take place if civilization is not to enter the downward spiral of economic destruction. This is the story of how thousands of dedicated people set about the largest recovery operation ever attempted!

  You can buy Recovery! By clicking here.

  Virus: A deadly infection is sweeping the world, and there is no cure. Even the terrorist group that deliberately spread the infective agent has misjudged the potential effect of the disease on themselves, and the disease is running rampant – the daily death rate is already over two thousand, and climbing each day! A young virologist, Robert Svenson, has designed a radical new medication that can stop the disease, but he becomes the target of the terrorists as they scrabble to save themselves from the consequences of their actions, and to prevent the cure being disseminated. He and his associates race to perfect the treatment as they fight off the terrorists at the same time.

  You can buy Virus by clicking here.

  Kidnap: A terrorist gang kidnaps the pregnant wife of a gifted engineer, to hold her as a guarantee that the man will deliver a fleet of explosive-laden drones for them to launch against unsuspecting American cities. The intervention of a young boy disturbs the kidnapping, and sets off a hunt to save the woman and capture the terrorists. The action ranges across the United States, the Bahamas, Germany and Italy as each side makes its moves in the deadly game of ‘catch and kill’ until the final, spine-chilling resolution.

  In this fast-paced action thriller, Nicole Stuart demonstrates her mastery of the written word, to bring the reader along, with real characters doing real things! This is a worthy addition to the acclaimed Integra series of books.

  In a review of Kidnap, Ward Orndoff wrote: “I just finished reading Kidnap, and I wanted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. I've read all your books available to date on Kindle at Amazon.com, and without exception have found them to be highly entertaining. The premises are sound, the story lines are intriguing, and it's satisfying to see good people overcome challenges through hard work. [..]

  It's an added bonus to see mention of areas I know (I live in Jupiter, Florida).

  In short, another excellent story; I'm looking forward to your next book!”

  You ca
n buy Kidnap by clicking here.

  Extinction Event Series

  The initial books in this series describe the events that lead to the destruction of the world as we know it. These are Extinction Event, Chain Reaction, and Survival! And Escape. Subsequent books take the stories of the people you have come to know further in a best-selling saga of the world

  Extinction Event: The time is now.

  John Carter has sold his IT business, and is relaxing at Yellowstone to consider what he should do now, when he meets Helen Lindstrom, a young scientist who is studying the volcanic magma cauldron underlying Yellowstone to complete a Ph. D thesis. They realize that humanity is facing an extinction event, an event that has the potential to destroy the entire human species.

  Their attempt to warn the officials is fruitless in the face of political thinking. John and Helen decide that their only alternative is to find a place where they can survive. They do this in Montagu, an idyllic location in the Western Cape Province of South Africa, and they set about making the preparations that will enable them, and a select few others, to survive the worst catastrophe ever faced by humanity.

  The threat is present and real. The explosion of the volcano at Yellowstone could happen tomorrow. The story of how Helen and John build a survival team and prepare to be tested is one that will make you think: ‘How would you react if you knew that the end of the world will happen next month?’

  You can buy Extinction Event by clicking here.

  Chain Reaction: Ron Carstens arrives at his vacation hotel in Paradise Island, Bahamas, and meets Jane Smith, the former roommate of Helen Lindstrom. Her room booking, won as a prize in a TV contest, has been bumped as a result of overbooking of the hotel. As a struggling doctoral student, she cannot afford to rent another room. On an impulse, he offers her a berth in a rental boat he will be using to cruise the islands. She accepts, and their week on the boat together leads to a strong attraction between them. After their return to the US, Jane investigates further, and obtains a copy of Helen’s Ph. D dissertation, still under consideration by the University. They decide to extend a planned test cruise of Ron’s new catamaran, and are sailing west from Hawaii when the eruption occurs, creating a huge rockslide, followed by a gigantic tsunami. As a result of their knowledge of what to expect, they are able to survive the waves, and to rescue a small family whose boat was pitchpoled by the waves. They sail on, seeking any surviving remnants of civilization. It takes them three years of trial to join up with Helen and John Carter’s group.