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  When the rice was done, she scooped it into a plate and raided the fridge for leftover beans. Even before El Monstruo, Sara never threw away food. She hated wasting things, a trait that had made her passionate about saving the environment. As she ate the rice and beans, she wished she had a joint of roasted beef or a chicken breast. Now the majority of people on Earth hardly ate meat. Most governments had banned animal husbandry in accordance with a UN resolution that encouraged mankind to stop producing meat, eggs and milk. El Monstruo had diminished food production and there was no food to waste feeding livestock. Livestock that can feed one person is reared with stock feeds that can feed six people. Mankind simply couldn’t afford the luxury of rearing livestock.

  The beans didn’t taste bad. They had been genetically modified to produce essential amino acids normally found in animal protein. Her tongue missed the taste of meat but her body didn’t miss meat. There was adequate protein in the genetically modified vegetarian food. Sara was against genetically modifying organisms but she knew that genetically modifying crops to produce animal protein was the only way the world could avoid protein deficiency. A year ago, fish used to be available on the market but overfishing and low oxygen levels in fresh water and sea water had wiped out fish populations. Oceans became warmer because of El Monstruo, reducing the solubility of oxygen in sea water. The drought had also dried the habitats of fresh water fish. Many fish species had disappeared altogether. Even when fish was still available on the market, Sara didn’t eat fish because she didn’t want to promote overfishing.

  Thoughtfully, she ate her food, trying without success to shake off thoughts about El Monstruo. She wanted to relax and enjoy her time home but she couldn’t stop worrying about the environment. She could take her body away from her office but she couldn’t take her mind away from her work. She felt it was incumbent upon her to rescue the world from El Monstruo.

  After two hours of racking her brains for ways to tackle El Monstruo, she seamlessly drifted from thoughts to dreams.

  * * *

  Sara woke up before the alarm rang and took a quick shower. The water from the shower came from a tank perched on top of the house. The tank was fed by a big condenser installed on the roof. Most homes used one huge condenser for their water but Sara preferred to have a separate smaller condenser for her drinking water. That way she avoided running the risk of using up all her water supply on laundry and toilette.

  She sped to her bedroom and quickly changed, itching to get to work and fight El Monstruo. She had a quick breakfast of leftovers and gave her dog a bowl of soya chunks and rice.

  By the time she finished brushing her teeth, the dog had finished eating. She fitted the dog with its breathing machine and led it out of the house.

  “See you later, Snoopy,” she said, walking away from the dog.

  The morning was very cold, so she decided to go by car. Shivering, she carried her breathing machine to her electric car. Although days were sweltering, nights and early mornings were cold. The dog followed her to her car, hoping to get a ride. Inscribed on the side of the car in bold letters were the words: Donated to GEMA by the International Green Movement.

  “You’re staying home, Snoopy,” she barked.

  The dog wistfully looked at her as she entered the car. She placed her breathing machine on the passenger seat and drove her car for the first time in two weeks. The car, like most cars manufactured during the past one and a half years, had an air-conditioner that controlled oxygen levels. Although she was more than forty minutes ahead of time she felt as if she was late. She and all mankind were behind time in the race to save the world from El Monstruo.

  The electric car transported her to the headquarters of GEMA in twenty-six minutes, eighteen minutes more than it took her to drive the same distance during the non-rush hours. Although traffic had reduced considerably when people parked their diesel and petrol cars, rush-hour traffic was still a nightmare.

  She popped her head through a car window and the security scanner on the gate scanned her eyes and recognized the intricate patterns in the irises of her eyes, prompting the gate to automatically open for her. Two officers from the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service manned the gate. Their uniforms and breathing machines made them look like robots. She drove through the gate and parked in the reserved parking space.

  “Good morning, Doctor Cummings,” the guard warmly greeted her as she walked to the building’s main entrance. “You decided to come by car today.”

  Sara smiled at the guard. She thought he smiled back but she couldn’t be sure because most of his face was covered by his breathing machine. “Morning, Mr. Sheperton. How was the night shift?”

  “Very cold. Nowadays nights are always very cold. It’s as if daytime is stealing heat from nighttime.”

  Sara felt her breathing rate rising as she breathed the oxygen-deficient air. “Everything has changed, Mr. Sheperton. It’s like we are living on a different planet.”

  “Maybe judgment day came and we’re now in hell,” the guard said, clasping his hands together as if in prayer.

  Sara felt a chill running down her spine. “I hope you’re wrong, sir,” she said, realizing this was by far the longest conversation she had ever had with the guard.

  She scampered into the air-conditioned building, her lungs screaming for oxygen-replete air. She got into an elevator and pressed button number seven. The elevator noiselessly transported her to the seventh floor of the GEMA headquarters. Pride always swelled inside her each time she read the word DIRECTOR on her door. When she was first appointed head of GEMA, the word DIRECTOR filled her with a sense of achievement, but as the environmental crisis facing the world continued to worsen, she felt more beleaguered by and less proud of her position at the helm of GEMA. She was heading the United Nations agency that was tasked with fighting El Monstruo but she had no idea how the world could be saved from the cataclysm.

  The security scanners on her door recognized the patterns in her irises and the door automatically opened. She stepped into the large office and sat on her chair under the portrait of the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The burden of responsibility became heavier when she sat behind this desk.

  Before she joined GEMA she worked as a regional administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). She left USEPA for GEMA because she wanted to make a difference not just nationally but globally. Earth was one globe. She didn’t want to fight for the preservation of the Earth’s natural environment under a national banner. When she was appointed head of GEMA, she knew she was stepping into some really big shoes, but that was before El Monstruo reared its ugly head. The cataclysm had increased the weight on her shoulders. Billions of people on Earth expected GEMA to come up with ways to tackle El Monstruo. She and her colleagues had to do something to save the peasants in the poor parts of the world who were starving because of the drought, the nomadic herdsmen who had lost their herds to lack of pastures, the fishermen who had lost their livelihoods when El Monstruo wiped fish populations.

  She switched on her computer and opened the text document that was supposed to contain the speech that she would give to world leaders at the UN summit. She had only managed to write the heading. She couldn’t think of anything to write that she hadn’t said during previous UN environmental summits. She was sure that the world was bucking the wrong tree by concentrating on raising atmospheric oxygen levels with oxygenators but she needed proof to convince world leaders. The oxygen deficit was just a symptom. The problem lay elsewhere. Sara understood people’s preoccupation with raising the level of the atmosphere’s oxygen. Without oxygen, life would end. UVL plants and sand reduction plants were the only available means of countering the oxygen drain.

  Sara now believed that El Monstruo was the result of an extraterrestrial force or the result of changes in the Solar System. She couldn’t tell world leaders her theory without facts to support it. She had told her colleagues her theory and none of them though
t it held water.

  She stared at the blank page, wondering what to write. The blank page stared back at her, daring her to fill it with meaningful words. She typed the subheading Extraterrestrial Factors. She hadn’t managed to type a word under the subheading by the time her personal assistant, Nzue Nguema, arrived.

  “Morning, Sara,” Nzue said.

  “Morning, Nzue,” Sara said, smiling at the towering, muscular, coal-black Gabonese, noting how his perfect white teeth contrasted with the color of his skin. Sara used to tell Nzue that he was the first real black man she had ever seen. Most black men Sara knew were varying shades of brown, but Nzue was outright black. Sometimes Sara thought he looked purplish, like ripe grapes. “I’m trying to write my summit speech but my mind is as blank as the page in front of me.”

  “I can write you a good speech,” Nzue offered.

  “Nzue, I know you’re good at writing nice, politically correct speeches, but this isn’t the time for such speeches. I want to tell world leaders something that can actually help them fight El Monstruo.”

  “That’s easier said than done.”

  “Okay, Nzue. Go to your office and draft one of your politically correct speeches. Maybe I’ll get one or two ideas from your draft.”

  Nzue gave Sara a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.” He clicked his heels in theatrical fashion and rushed to his office.

  Sara’s deputy, Lee Wong entered three minutes later. He was a little Chinese with spectacles that gave him a professorial look.

  “Good morning, Sara,” he said with a slight, almost imperceptible, Cantonese accent.

  “Morning, Wong. There is nothing good about it.”

  “You’re right,” Wong said, tilting his head. “Each morning is a sad reminder that another day passed without any progress. Time is ticking away fast. We still haven’t drafted your UN speech.”

  “Time is ticking not just for the summit but for our survival as a planet.” Sara sighed and rubbed her hands on her desk. “In the past, they used to say that time is money, now we say time is life. We’re all sitting on a time bomb. Do you have any new ideas, Wong?”

  The Chinese shook his round head. “Nope.”

  “Me too. I’ve nothing new to tell world leaders except my theory about an extraterrestrial cause of El Monstruo.”

  Wong sighed. “I gave your theory much thought.”

  “And?”

  “I don’t think it holds water. I just find it unlikely that the Solar System changed as you hypothesized. How did the Solar System change and what do you think could have triggered such a change? Are you suggesting that the Earth’s orbit around the Sun changed? What exactly do you mean when you say that the Solar System changed?”

  Sara threw her arms up. “I don’t know. But I believe that El Monstruo has little to do with human activity here on Earth. I’m sure that the root cause of the problem lies out of the planet. A change in the Solar System was the best I could come up with.”

  “I give you kudos for trying to come up with new ideas but I find your theory preposterous.” Wong folded his arms and simpered. “The Solar System has been in existence for millions of years without any drastic changes. Why now? If you are right, then there is nothing we can do to save ourselves. If the Solar System changed enough in three years to bring such drastic changes in temperature and rainfall, imagine what will happen in the next ten or twenty years.”

  “I hope I’m wrong,” Sara said somberly.

  “You’re wrong. A change in the Earth’s position relative to the sun would affect temperatures but it would not cause loss of oxygen from the atmosphere.”

  “You’re right,” Sara relented. “My theory doesn’t hold water.”

  “Let’s concentrate on administration, Sara. Leave the formulation of scientific theories to the scientific community.”

  “I need something to tell world leaders at the summit. I feel helpless. As GEMA, we should help the world fight El Monstruo but I feel we are going nowhere.”

  “We’re doing our best, Sara.” Wong finally sat down. “World leaders followed our recommendations and their governments are now building standalone UVL plants throughout the world. Although we can’t see the results yet, I believe we’re on the right track.”

  “Some force out there is taking our oxygen,” Sara mused. “It could be aliens. Maybe some aliens with more advanced technology than us want our oxygen for industrial use.”

  “Aliens,” Wong scoffed. “Don’t let your frustration get the better of you, Sara. We’ll find something new for you to tell world leaders at the summit. Don’t tell them about aliens for God’s sake. They’ll all think you have gone nuts. The answer to the problem lies here on Earth. I believe that if we look hard enough, we’ll find it.”

  “Wong, we can’t leave anything to chance. The countries of the world have to create a space force to protect our atmosphere against possible alien activity.”

  Wong snickered. “A space force?”

  “Yes,” Sara said with unflinching conviction.

  “Sara, I hope you don’t plan to tell that to world leaders.”

  “That is going to be one of my recommendations to the world leaders at the summit,” she declared.

  “They will scoff at you. The world’s governments need money to build dams, sand reduction plants and UVL plants. I don’t think they can spare money for a space force, not without tangible proof of alien intrusion.”

  “So what do you suggest I tell world leaders?” Sara demanded.

  “Tell them to speed up the construction of dams, SR plants and UVL plants. To minimize water loss through evaporation, they must build dams with retractable roofs that automatically open when it’s raining and close when it’s not raining.”

  “Building dams with retractable roofs is a great idea,” Sara agreed.

  “You see? We can come up with good ideas without resorting to alien tales.”

  “I believe that some extraterrestrial force is taking oxygen from our atmosphere,” Sara said adamantly.

  Wong’s face broke into a sardonic grin. “Volcanic lava is reacting with oxygen.”

  “Why hasn’t it happened before?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe it happened before in prehistoric times. Who knows? Maybe the atmosphere had more oxygen than nitrogen and volcanoes absorbed some of the oxygen.”

  “All volcanic lava comes from the Earth’s magma,” Sara reasoned. “What makes lava from one volcano react with oxygen and lava from another volcano unreactive toward oxygen?”

  “When the lava from these particular volcanoes rises, it passes along sediments of a reducing agent which evaporates or melts in the lava. When the magma rises and comes in contact with air, the reducing agent reacts with oxygen. That is clearly explained in Doctor Hitchcook’s theory.”

  “I still go with my theory about an extraterrestrial cause.”

  “There is no extraterrestrial cause,” Wong said with exasperation.

  “Give us a better theory,” Sara challenged.

  “The better theory is the volcano theory.”

  “The axiom about oxygen-sucking volcanoes hasn’t been proven yet. And that makes it as good as my theory. Unless we come up with a better theory, I shall tell the world leaders about my extraterrestrial theory.”

  “Don’t make a fool of yourself in front of the world.”

  “Don’t worry about me, Wong. Worry about the world.”

  “I’m worrying about the world. The world will be in greater danger if you send the world’s policymakers on a wild goose chase.”

  “Wong, I’m going to include my theory in my speech,” Sara said with finality. “I’ll send you my first draft when I finish it.”

  Wong shook his head. “Suit yourself. Tell world leaders about your outlandish theory.”

  Wong left the director’s office. She returned her eyes to her computer and the blank page stared at her. She took turns between staring at the blank page and browsing the internet. She hadn’t managed
to write anything under the subheading by the time she left her office.

  As she drove home, she noted that there were thin clouds in the sky. The clouds used to give her hope, but now she knew they didn’t signal an end to the drought. She went straight home as always.

  Her social life ended the day she broke up with her boyfriend, George, three years ago. Her two best friends had married and moved on. She wasn’t good at making new friends and she avoided men because she didn’t want her heart to be broken again. She last went out to have fun when she was still with George. He was an outgoing, fun-loving guy whom she now loved to hate.

  Snoopy welcomed her with his front paws when she got out of the car. The dog happily followed her into the house where he knew he could stay without the burdensome breathing machine. Sara obliged the dog by taking off its breathing machine. She fed the dog before she fixed herself a dinner of tofu with fried rice.

  Although she was now home, her mind was as much engrossed in her work as it was when she was in her office.

  Sitting on the floor, she ate her food, throwing bits of tofu at Snoopy. She switched on her laptop, hoping the home environment would unblock her mind, but after thirty minutes of staring at the blank page, she gave up and opened her web browser. She randomly looked at real-time satellite images of parts of the Earth. When she was tired of looking at the satellite images, she maximized the Word document that was supposed to contain her UN speech. She looked at the heading Extraterrestrial Factors. The heading looked back at her. She knew her assistants could write a politically correct speech for her, but this wasn’t the time for politicking. It was time for action. Her speech had to contain practical advice for world leaders. She switched off her laptop with a sigh of surrender and hauled herself to her feet.