NaNo'27 Part 6

 – Friday, 26^th September, 2025 –

– 06:30 –

– Anthony –

The first problem was the protesters. He had expected them, of course, but it didn’t make it any easier. The police were here, but this wasn’t the usual formation to keep the peace. They were trying to move the protesters on. One officer waved Anthony down. He slowed and stopped, the gaggle of men and women on the opposite verge, hooting and joking about the car covered in shit.

‘Need access, Mr Sandhurst?’ the officer asked, as Anthony showed his pass. They knew each other by sight; they had needed a police presence ever since the government gave approval back in 2024. Energy independence was essential, they said. Why should we be beholden to price fluctuations of foreign imports? Anthony didn’t have a strong view on the matter. He was simply good at what he did.

‘That’s it.’

‘There’s a bit of a panic, Mr Sandhurst, what with all the tremors,’ the officer went on, and he leant forward so he could lower his voice. ‘I’ve orders to turn back all traffic, but I think you might be able sort whatever it is that’s gone wrong.’

‘Go frack yourself, you bastard! You fucking, planet-killing bastard!’ someone shouted from the verge and the crowd took up the chant. The police redoubled their efforts to the crowd back.

‘What exclusion zone were you thinking of?’ Anthony asked, his voice also low.

‘Shitty car for a shitty fracker!’ someone else called from the verge.

‘Normal fall-back position to the village up the road,’ the officer replied, once the cackle of laughter subsided. ‘Why, do you think we need more?’

Anthony stared up the road. He was less than half a mile from the plant, and he did a quick bit of maths in his head. The goal had been the large chamber they had discovered recently. It was quite a way down, and mostly beyond the coastline. ‘Maybe a bit more,’ he hedged, and the officer nodded.

‘Will do, Mr Sandhurst. Good luck. I hope you get that stuff washed off the car quick,’ he added. ‘You know it’ll do the paint no good at all.’ Anthony smiled grimly and drove slowly on. The police officer wound the tape across the road and tied it off.

He didn’t even reach the site. Barely a hundred metres on from the cordon, he braked hard as the dawn sky exploded like the fireworks they launched from Prince’s Quay every November, but a hundred times brighter. He skidded hard and came to a stop in the verge. He knew what it was. He knew what it meant. The sound caught up and thudded through the sky.

He leapt out of the car, and felt the pressure wave roll over the country side. A great sheet of flame erupted from the plant. The heat was real, even at this distance.

Birds flew angrily from their nests, screeching at the clamour.

He got back into the car. His phone was buzzing insistently.

‘Steve?!’

‘It’s… it’s alright, we got most people clear.’

‘Most people?’ Anthony echoed in alarm. He pushed the ignition and set off again, phone wedged against one ear and shoulder. ‘Steve, what the hell happened? I said you just had to shunt the pressure off to the emergency valves.’

‘We didn’t know about…’ and he twitched as Steve coughed down the line. ‘We couldn’t have known…’

‘Known about what?’

But he had reached the gate. The whole plant was on fire, now, burning freely some five hundred metres away. The blue lights of the fire engines strobed brightly against the orange. He parked up and sprang out, feeling his chest working hard. Emergency services were running to and fro in the distance and, from this distance, he could not tell which particular part of the plant most at risk. A little gaggle of soot-blackened engineers and workers were gathered by the fence.

‘Tony, am I glad to see you.’ Steve stepped out of the line and shook Anthony’s hand with both of his. He looked dreadful, like he had been awake for days. ‘We did everything we could. Chirag… He… he…’

‘Where is he? What’s happened?’

But another blast rocked the wreckage; one of the largest conduits had sheered, and the contents burned freely. Emergency workers ran back towards them.

‘We’ve got to pull back!’ one of them yelled to the group.

Anthony was already trying to direct his staff to do just that. The line now on fire, he knew, fed back to one of their main containment vessels. He got more details from Steve as they headed up the road. The new chamber, the one they had been aiming at, was responsible. The pressure within had been greater than expected and, seeking any way to escape, pushed back up the main shaft.

‘We thought it was under control, but then it started spiking,’ Steve explained. ‘We called Chirag in, and he got down into the Pit to see what was going on.’

‘Then what?’

Steve looked shell shocked. ‘We found out what the spiking was…’ he said, wringing his hands. ‘Pressure was looking for another way – any damn way it could. Chirag got on the geophys and started looking…’

‘And…?’

‘And with the pressure starting to leak out, he saw it.’ Anthony waited for Steve to go on. They were now half way back to the cordon. ‘I was on the phone to him while he was down there. He tried talking me through the readings. Bloody hell… we thought the chamber we were aiming at was big? It’s bloody tiny, compared to what’s below. And it’s just … just a lid. Now that the little one’s popped open, the rest…’

Anthony thought he had a pretty good idea. ‘But what about Chirag?’

‘The… the Pit,’ Steve said in a hush. ‘The pressure was looking for any way out, right? Well, it found one. Came in through the side wall. Damn near pulled the whole plant down into the thing, but Chirag he…’

Anthony understood. Chirag had been in the Pit, the point where all their equipment burrowed into the earth in order to pump in water to force the shale gas out. It was a rather cramped space, accessed from above via a steel staircase. It was twenty metres down. If the walls had caved in, there would have been very little time…

And the last few minutes suddenly rolled over Anthony and he staggered. Steve caught him just in time, and helped him to a sit on the verge. ‘Tony? Mate, you alright?’

His breathing was wheezy, and he clutched his chest. ‘Sp-sp..’ he tried to say.

‘Tony, tell me what you need? Want me to call Kay?’ His colleagues crowded round. ‘Give him some room!’ Steve demanded, and they shuffled back. ‘Hey,’ he said, turning and looking to see who was close by. ‘Hey! Some help over here!’

‘Spr…ay,’ Anthony managed. The paramedic that Steve had summoned raced over.

‘It’s his heart,’ Steve explained. ‘He’s only been out of the Infirmary for a month.’

‘Are you okay, sir?’ the medic began. ‘What’s your name?’

‘He’s Tony,’ Steve put in. Anthony tried to mutter again.

‘Got your spray on you, Tony?’ the medics asked, now helping to support his weight. Anthony was fumbling for his jacket pocket, but Steve helped, and soon fished out the little spray bottle. With assistance, they directed the nozzle below his tongue, and Anthony felt the tightness fade. Lying on his back, staring at the plume of smoke far above, he felt like he’d just been punched in the chest by whatever ancient pressure had just punched its way out from beneath his employers’ hydraulic fracturing facility.