‘My dad is not one of those people!’ Amber shot back. ‘He had a different plan in mind.’
‘Such as?’ Ethan asked.
‘My father was going to give the device away to the world for free.’
Ethan and Lopez remain silent for a long moment as they considered the implications of this. It was without doubt that anybody who could develop such a remarkable device, one that could power the world for free, would become incredibly wealthy in an instant. Like, Rockefeller or Gates or Branson wealthy. Literally every home and every vehicle in the world would want one of the devices, would relish being able to sever ties with power companies that made such gargantuan profits from the populations of so many countries. To give something so valuable away for free seemed literally insane.
‘Nobody ever does that,’ Lopez said. ‘Everybody sells out.’
Amber smiled up at Lopez as she replied. ‘So you’d imagine, but in fact the world is changing much faster than I think a lot of governments and corporations would like. Freeware and shareware is becoming the new norm, with people developing programs and software for computers and not selling them but simply sharing them for free across the Internet with peers.’
‘Software is a bit different from a world — changing energy source,’ Ethan pointed out.
‘Is it?’ Amber challenged. ‘Where do you think the World Wide Web came from?’
‘The United States military,’ Lopez replied. ‘They were using it as a communication device and the technology trickled down to the civilian realm.’
‘Wrong,’ Amber replied. ‘The World Wide Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners — Lee, a British scientist who developed it to communicate with other scientists quickly and then realised the potential of what he had created and resisted all offers from major American corporations keen to profit from the technology. It was he, one man alone, who gave us the World Wide Web and thus the Internet for free. He surrendered the chance of becoming a multi — billionaire in favour of returning something to the world that would benefit the public in more ways than even he himself could have imagined at the time.’
Ethan crouched down alongside Amber in fascination.
‘Your father was going to develop a device that would power the world for free and then he was going to give it all away. What’s his name?’
Amber smiled again.
‘Stanley Meyer,’ she replied, and then her features saddened once more. ‘And my mother is Mary. She’s also missing.’
‘You’re Amber Meyer?’ Lopez asked.
‘Amber Ryan,’ she replied. ‘I was adopted. Stanley and Mary couldn’t have children, so they adopted me at the age of two. Mary was an electrochemist and they met as undergraduates at university. I think that because they couldn’t have children they made their careers their priority, and then later in life decided to adopt me.’
‘Philanthropists,’ Ethan guessed. ‘They were giving things back all the time.’
‘They consider acts of such altruism as the future of our species,’ Amber said. ‘Dad said that corporate capitalism, a price and a profit for any service, had become so grotesquely mutated that it no longer served a purpose for those who needed it the most. He didn’t want his legacy to be a billionaire’s fortune — he wanted it to be a legacy that would last for all time.’
Ethan shook his head in wonder. ‘That’s pretty amazing.’
‘I considered him an idiot for even suggesting it,’ Amber retorted with a shrug. ‘He could have become a billionaire overnight. He deserved the success. I’d have taken the money and then handed the device to somebody else, let them duck the bullets, but dad isn’t like that.’
‘Fossil fuel companies would become worthless,’ Lopez pointed out.
‘Not to mention the collapse of oil — bearing nation’s economies,’ Ethan added.
‘That’s what he was afraid of,’ Amber said. ‘I think that he felt that governments and major corporations would seek to silence him if they had discovered what he was working on. It’s why he came back here from Chicago, back to our hometown. It’s quite remote and I think he preferred basing himself here far from the prying eyes of Washington.’
Ethan sat back on his haunches thoughtfully as he considered what Amber had told him.
‘So let’s say Stanley was successful, and that bright object you saw being taken away by troops was what he created. He must then logically have revealed the device to the townsfolk and helped them disconnect from the National Grid.’
Amber nodded. ‘That’s what I figured. He had to prove that the device works, because they wouldn’t believe him otherwise. So he disconnects the town from the National Grid and wires it up to whatever he created. It looks like doing that was enough to alert the government to what he was up to.’
Lopez joined them as she spoke. ‘The government sends somebody down to take a look at things, realise what’s happening here and decide to shut it all down before word gets out.’
‘They make Clearwater look like a ghost town that’s not been lived in for many years,’ Ethan went on. ‘But then what’s happened to the townspeople? Surely they haven’t decided to murder three hundred people to cover this up?’
Lopez shook her head as she looked around them.
‘I don’t doubt that the government would want to keep this under wraps, but I also doubt they would murder so many people in order to do so. Washington has been behind quite a few alternative energy programs for some years now and everyone knows about climate change.’
‘Then they must have bought them out,’ Ethan said in amazement. ‘Every last one of them.’
‘No way,’ Amber said. ‘My father would never have agreed to silence over this, not for any money.’
‘Then your father is in a great deal of trouble,’ Ethan said, ‘because whoever is behind this would likely go to any lengths to ensure his silence. The question is, who?’
Amber looked up at the surrounding hills.
‘There is a major company that was involved in a legal dispute with the town’s council over mining rights out in the mountains near here. It’s something to do with the new mining process which literally slices the tops off of mountains in order to gain access to coal inside. Apparently the process has poisoned the fresh water supplies to many towns, and our councillors were fighting the company for the right to maintain the pristine wilderness around here.’
‘If that company found out about your father’s device,’ Lopez said, ‘then they would have had a very clear motive for ensuring nothing ever got out of Clearwater.’
Ethan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. ‘Who was winning the legal battle?’
‘The corporation, predictably,’ Amber replied. ‘They had access to legal eagles far more powerful than anybody in Clearwater or even St Louis. There was no way we were going to win that case … ’
‘Unless your father revealed his device to the world,’ Lopez finished the sentence for her.
Amber reached into her clothes and produced a cell phone. ‘I could call my mother, she could explain everything to you better than I could but I haven’t been able to reach her and … ’
Amber went to activate the phone and Ethan lunged forward and caught her hand. ‘No!’
‘Why not?’ Amber gasped, shocked.
‘She’s not answering because she can’t or doesn’t want to be found, and I suspect if you use that cell phone the people who shut down Clearwater will come for you too.’ Ethan released his grip on Amber, cautious of frightening her. ‘What’s the name of this company?’
‘Seavers Incorporated,’ Amber spat as though removing something unpleasant from her mouth.
VII