New Pompeii by Daniel Godfrey Read Free Book Online

hand. Finding the name, he flicked through to the critical quotation:
    You might hear the shrieks of women, the screams of children, and the shouts of men. Some wishing to die; some lifting their hands to the gods; but the greater part convinced there were now no gods at all, and they would disappear into the final endless night which had come upon the world.
    For a time, it grew lighter. However, with sparkling flashes, the fire fell again and we were immersed in thick darkness. A heavy shower of ashes rained upon us, which we were obliged every now and then to shake off – otherwise we should have been crushed and buried.
    In the darkness, I was convinced by that miserable, though mighty, consolation, that all mankind were involved in the same calamity, and that I was perishing with the world itself.
    The words looked as familiar as ever. He’d read them many times. Somehow though, the account still made his heart race. Although writing some years after the event, Pliny had provided the best record of the disaster. The event wasn’t just some date on a calendar. It had affected real people.
    He read the extract again. Felt the words burn into his eyes. A man’s thoughts transmitted from the distant past. But could he trust them? Or had they been for ever mangled by the actions of NovusPart?
    He’d never know. Even though he was familiar with every line, he scanned the page again just to make sure. At least there was no mention of people disappearing into thin air. But what about the reference to sparkling flashes? It had never seemed strange to him before, but was this evidence of transportations?
    One of the girls at the far end of the table issued another excited shriek. Nick cast them a wary glance and then picked up another book. He flicked through it until he came to a photograph of a plaster cast of a dog. It had died still lashed to a post. Curled in a ball, the animal had suffocated just before the town had been buried. It was still choking, all these years later.
    Nick grimaced. The casts had been made by filling with plaster the voids in the hardened ash left by long rotted-away bodies. The archaeologists who’d first explored the site had recognised the pumice shells as natural sarcophagi. A true miracle, even though the resulting plaster casts were now nothing more than a morbid tourist attraction. And yet only a few hundred remains had been found. Where had everyone else gone? Had they deserted the town in the days before the eruption like so many researchers assumed? Or had they been transported?
    Nick shook his head. He didn’t know. Didn’t know enough about the technology. The debate had always centred on the ethics rather than the practicalities – and NovusPart didn’t exactly advertise how they pulled off their trick. Still, Whelan would contact him again soon for his decision. And that raised its own question: because they should have had him arrested, not offered him a job.
    Even if it was subject to a six-week trial period.
    Nick gave a sigh. Six weeks.
    Setting the book to one side, he stood up. His sudden movement caused the two girls to stop giggling. As he turned to the nearby window he could hear them whispering. He didn’t much care what they were saying.
    Although the number of books in Falconbrook University’s library made a good show of it, there was little to be done to hide the fact they were sitting in a cold, concrete shell. It was an unattractive working space – all fluorescent tubes and dry air. Poorly adapted to a world where everything was available online, and people could work from home.
    Six weeks.
    His mind swung back to the dinner with McMahon. The speed at which that protest had formed. The mix of desperation and anger in those people’s faces as they’d begged for the lives of their loved ones.
    But did they really expect NovusPart to rescue everyone?
    * * *
    Nick ate his lunch slowly. He’d headed to a small café just off campus but wasn’t enjoying any