Some time later Sergeant Jones was sitting in his office reading the local paper and eating an elderly sandwich. Prawn it was, with extra mayonnaise. Unfortunately, Gwyneth at Jones's bakery had run out of brown bread and he had to make do with white. That was why he had held off eating it, but now he felt hungry. The cricket was on from Australia and in between overs he suddenly heard a faint voice. It sounded like a couple of drunks but it was a bit late for that - the pubs had shut an hour or so before. He was tempted to send Constable Williams but he was curious.
He went outside and found a young couple on the pavement. The girl looked flushed and was chattering loudly in a strange metallic voice but when they saw him they both quietened down.
"Sorry officer" the man said "but my wife has just ...."
He stopped as Sergeant Jones held his finger to his lips and beckoned them into the station. Joseph explained as best he could that his wife had suddenly regained her hearing after a lifetime of total silence.
Sergeant Jones smiled "I'm really pleased for you but maybe you could celebrate more quietly. Would you like a cup of tea?"
They both nodded and a few minutes later Constable Williams came in with four cups and a china teapot.
"I'll be Mother" announced Sergeant Jones and poured out tea for them all
"This lady" he announced thoughtfully to Constable Williams "has suddenly got her hearing after a lifetime without. What do you think of that?"
"Amazing" said the constable "I've read about such things but it's not something you expect on your doorstep. What will you do?"
Mary looked baffled "Well, I don't know ... but it's just so overwhelming ... I'm sorry we are wasting your time but it is so amazing I guess we had to tell somebody! Thank you for being so kind"
She started crying and the Sergeant felt his eyes moistening. Fortunately they left before he made a fool of himself but he noticed that Constable Williams went quickly into the other room and blew his nose loudly. When you spend your life coping with other people's screwed up lives it was nice to see a little gratuitous happiness and he wished them well. He went back to the cricket. Amazingly England appeared to be scoring runs - things were looking up - where, he wondered vaguely, is the Welsh cricket team? Still, maybe rugby was enough.
Two days later Mary and Joseph sat in the bar of the White Swan, known locally as the Dirty Duck, chatting to an old farmer they knew called Huw Davies. In the corner of the room was a TV set with the sound turned off. At 7.45pm, right in the middle of Coronation Street, the screen suddenly went blank and an ironic cheer went up from the bar. The picture then came back on saying URGENT NEWSFLASH. Somebody turned the sound up and the bar went quiet.
The scene opened to one of controlled pandemonium in a Newsroom in London and then cut to a reporter inside a small aircraft. They watched in a state of
shock as the reports came in of the twin monoliths at the North and South Poles and the apparent link between them.
Mary turned to Huw Are they serious do you think or is it some kind of joke? She knew that Huw, despite a lack of formal education, was extremely shrewd and knowledgeable.
Huw nodded "I don't know but it is either true or another War of the Worlds fiasco. If it's true then it's a demonstration of mastery over space and time."
But by whom? asked Mary
"I think" replied Huw carefully "that you know the answer to that"
Mary was baffled "What do you mean?"
Huw smiled and produced a battered leather-bound book out of his pocket and turned to the back. He began to read in a soft but authoritative voice:
And I was taken up onto a high place, even unto a mountain top, and spread before me was a multitude that filled the plain even onto the edges of the earth. As I watched there came a woman dressed in white, her feet shod with diamonds and her hair of burnished copper. In her hand she held a stone of black and all who saw the stone were troubled and bowed down to her, even unto the mightiest in the land. And I said unto the son of man what is the meaning of the stone and he replied that in the latter days a stone of black some seven measures by three and one measure thick would be set in the land and the woman would arise and have dominion over the land, the seas and all that were therein.
He closed the book softly. The bar was totally silent as all eyes focussed on Huw and Mary. He handed her the book and she took it from him. It was hard and cold and black. She gazed at it and then looked up at Huw but he had gone. The crowd was silent. Her long copper coloured hair hung down over her white dress and on her feet the diamond shoes sparkled in the light. She held out the stone and the crowd shrank back. As she looked the whole of the side of the building disappeared and was replaced with stars.
When she looked down again she was holding Huw's battered book and the crowd in the pub were as all crowds of people in pubs - chatting laughing and drinking. She looked at Joseph and they got up and left.
They returned to their office and made coffee.
"Did I imagine that?" she asked
"Well" said Joseph carefully "I heard Huw read from the book and refer to a stone seven by three by one. Where is the book anyway?"
She opened it and to her surprise found it was totally empty. Just page after page of blank sheets.
"Did you see what I saw? The stars ...?"
Joseph shook his head "No. But something very strange is happening. I feel a sense of ...". He hesitated.
"Yes. So do I ... all of this feels familiar. As though I'm playing a part in a play. My voice returns, not that I ever had a voice. And then Huw acting like John the Baptist. Joseph, I'm scared."
"So am I. But if this is some cosmic destiny bound up with these monoliths then I guess we had better just go with the flow. Who is Huw anyway?"
"Search me. I just assumed he lived round here. He seems to know everybody."
They quickly found that although everybody knew Huw, the amazing thing was that nobody seemed to actually know anything about him
"Well" said their neighbour Mrs Jones "I always thought he was one of the Davies' from just down the valley but I don't really know, now I come to think of it"
Enquiries of the local postman drew a blank and even Sergeant Jones looked mystified.
"Well" he said slowly "I've known him for years but .... well, you've got me thinking now. I'll ask around"
Two days later they were no further forward but they had reached a breakthrough with their AI program. They sat in their kitchen next to the office. It was 2.00 am and they had been up for over
thirty hours but the atmosphere was electric.
"It's uncanny" said Mary "It seems to be finding extremely deep underlying relationships hidden in the data. I can sort of sense what it's doing but I can't really put it into words. It's prediction rate on one week time horizons is almost 80% right. It's useless on a time scale of minutes or hours but that's hardly surprising. I've always felt that was really just white noise, anyway."
"Do we go live?" asked Joseph
Mary gulped "Well, I'm tempted. It's just that even 80% bets can fail"
The next day she called the bank and bought £50,000 worth of US Dollars on margin. The bank was hesitant.
Well he said It's your money and we're happy with 10% margin but our economists think the dollar is due to weaken.
Two days later the dollar jumped and they switched out of US Dollars into the Euro. A week later thay had made 10% overall and their initial £5,000 margin had
doubled. Within another week they had made £50,000 and suddenly the pace quickened. The bank manager was unusually respectful and then the penny dropped
"Jesus, they're following us, don't you see! We buy and they're buying behind us on a huge scale. We get out and they follow. So even if we did random deals it would still work! We're
actually moving the market! It's like a flock of sheep. We run one way and they follow."
"Can that be true?" pondered Mary
They soon realised that it was true and the next day Mary called the bank
"Let me spell this out David so that nobody is in any doubt. When we buy we buy first. When we sell we sell first. I don't mind your people coming in on our backs but don't try and be
clever and jump in front of us or else we'll move our deals elsewhere"
The manager tried to act dumb "You think we're following your deals?"
"David she said heatedly I don't mind you following
our deals but don't fill your orders before us - you're moving
the price against us. Just tell them bluntly down in London that
if it happens again its goodbye for good. Goodbye for now!"
Two days later they shorted the Euro to the tune of $10m. Immediately it was hit with another $50m of short selling as their fan club followed and they covered and
made $200,000. They now had $500,000 on deposit. A week later that was $2m and rising by the day.
It was apparent that they had acquired such a following that the AI program was working on a timescale measured in hours if not minutes. This was an unexpected bonus.
They were now the major short term influence on Forex and the press had woken up to the fact that something was happening.
Suddenly there were reporters following them around and oblique stories in the Financial Times. Whenever the markets jumped it was attributed to the 'Welsh Wizards'. And then Huw turned up. He sat in their kitchen.
"You know he said conversationally Why don't you buy a really quick machine? No knowing what could evolve in something really quick!"
Mary's jaw dropped "Yes. We've been so busy making money we've lost track a bit ... But what about all the mountain top stuff? The woman in white?"
Huw smiled "Mary. I am just a messenger"
"From whom? And where are you from anyway? Nobody seems to know?"
Huw held up his hand:
In my dream I saw unto the furthermost reaches of the heavens and verily the stars were as the sands of the sea shore. And the woman took the stars and scattered them as the wind bloweth the sand. By her side was the archangel and at her feet the prophet and all who saw her were sore afraid saying what manner of being is this that the stars move at her bidding? And she spoke onto the people thus 'I am Alpha and Omega - the beginning and the end. The earth and the heavens are mine and who shall gainsay me? And the people were silent.
Suddenly Huw stopped "I must leave you but I shall return" He stood up and left abruptly.
Next day they set to in a fever and weeks later they were installed in ultra secure premises with the most powerful computer system anywhere in the world. Quite what they were looking for they were not totally certain. The machine was a hundred thousand times quicker than their old installation and suddenly ideas they had only glimpsed at were feasible. What used to take days suddenly took a few seconds and what would have taken years took just a few minutes.
At this point they accounted for 0.1% of the world turnover in FOREX. That may not sound like much but 0.1% of ten trillion USDollars is a big number - ten billion USD per day and they were skimming off about 1% of that as profilt - about $100m per day and rising. FOREX is a gigantic market.
But money was not their main concern - it was merely a tool in a quest for something much bigger
"You know" said Mary "This thing is evolving and I can see where it's going. It's risen up a few levels from just pure data relationships and it's becoming profound"
Joseph nodded "Yes. I'm suddenly beginning to see how it all hangs together. The key to power is understanding. Are we in a position to do anything physical yet do you think?"
Mary nodded "I think we are close. How is the lab coming on?"
"It's fine. We've spent a fortune but it's tricky when you're not sure what you're doing exactly. But once we know we can move quickly"
Bob Cory (written in 2002)
Modified on 23/08/2023 at 13:31:34 by ℗ Bob Cory