Deep Down Under

Chapter 31

Cecilio Homes, Milan, Italy, 12:24 am

Sophia didn't know what drove her to believe that the premonitions were going to come to true. It was her intuition that compelled her to believe and do what she was going to do.

That was the funny thing about the human brain; it would make you do incredible things.

A soft knock hit the locked door of the room in which Sophia's grandfather locked himself days ago. As expected, there was no immediate response.

She decided to let the words convince her grandfather to do the right thing. "Papa? Are you there?"

A faint breathing sound brought relief to her ears but not for long. "Papa! Please listen to me!"

"I know something terrible is going to happen! But we can't just sit here and do nothing!"

"You think I am sitting here and doing nothing?" came a grumbled reply.

Sophia froze, but the reassuring voice allowed her to regain motion, "Don't let it happen like it did in New York. Don't let that city suffer the wrath of radicalism once again."

"I see that you have understood, my little princess."

Sophia nodded her head, although she knew that her grandfather couldn't see it. "Nostradamus predicted the exact same thing. It can't be a coincidence."

Inside, the grandfather gradually got up and unlocked the door; it creaked open slowly, revealing an old and wrinkled face with fear written all over it. His eyelids were only half-open and he looked as if he hadn't slept in weeks. His once shining silver beard was now fading white. The dry lips and throat were hesitant to make a move or a sound.

"I'd like some water," he croaked.

Sophia immediately rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a glass of water and placed it gently in her grandfather's palms. He drank it slowly, one sip at a time. It felt like forever for Sophia before he could finish his drink.

As he relished his last gulp, Sophia immediately brought the issue back to relevance. "Let's inform the authorities, now!"

She was about to run and grab her phone when her grandfather gripped her arm, locking it firmly so that she couldn't move any further.

"What?"

His grip didn't loosen. He did so in order to talk some sense into her, "Have you lost your mind?"

Her expression morphed into that of confusion, "what?"

"If you go to the authorities and inform them of a nuclear attack, will they buy it? Yes? Will they?"

"Um..." Sophia had no reply.

"What proof will you give them? That me and some sixteenth century prophet predict that the New York is going to face their worst terrorist attack and that to a nuclear one?"

Her eyelids tried to hide her eyes, all the awkwardness it held, but doing that only made her feel more stupid.

"I...uh..." Once again, nothing.

Sophia finally had all the sentences assembled in her mind, ready to be spoken out loud, ready to prove her point. "Fine, maybe. But it's better than not trying at all! We are talking about the lives of millions of people here."

That was enough to make her grandfather stay at a loss for words.

"Could we warn them through the phone without giving away the sources?"

He shook his head, "no, they'll track us down and arrest us for issuing terror threats." His stomach grumbled, "I need something to eat," he requested, clutching his abdomen.

"Right away, I've got some spaghetti leftovers," and left for the kitchen.

She returned minutes later with a bowl of spaghetti and a silver-coated spoon. The two of them settled on the dining table.

"Papa, do you have any idea how you got your amazing ability to predict the future?" Sophia asked, voicing her thoughts aloud.

He stopped slurping his spaghetti, clearly startled by the unexpected question. He had delayed the answer for almost fifteen years now. His granddaughter had asked the exact same question after Nine-Eleven; she deserved a proper explanation.

He wiped some sauce off his lips and began, "Sophia, remember when I was an archaeologist?"

She nodded rapidly.

"Well, I had once gone on an expedition to Antarctica in 1999. Over there, we came across an unusual rock fragment embedded in the ice. It was like...like a meteorite! The moment we went near, all of us immediately felt a strange aura emanating from the rock fragment. We took a few pieces off it for further research." He paused to take a breath.

And then continued, "Everything was fine until the return trip. One of my colleagues began having strange dreams in the night. He behaved like a psychopath until...until he finally jumped off and drowned to his death. Another day went by, and we were still shaken up by what had happened. The day after that however..." he trailed off, still forming the words up in his mind.

"However?" Sophia demanded impatiently.

"Our dead friend returned the next day, or to be more precise the whole day did."

Sophia raised an eyebrow, "Are you implying that the whole boat travelled back in time?"

He took a moment to reply, "That is exactly what I'm saying,"

"What? How?"

He waved his arms furiously in the air, "I don't know! The physicist said something about a time flux or something. All these scientific things never went through my head!"

The grandfather decided to shift the point, "Forget about that. How do we stop the world's second nuclear attack?"

For the first time in her life, Sophia had no idea.

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