22nd April
‘Hello, this is a lovely surprise,’ said Duck when he opened the front door of the farmhouse to find Jenny standing outside.
She stepped towards him and gave him kiss. ‘I wanted to talk to you as soon as possible,’ she said. ‘Where’s Robert?’
‘He’s out checking the sheep,’ Duck replied. ‘Did you want to see him too?’
‘No,’ said Jenny, ‘I want us to be alone.’
Duck and Jenny walked into the farmhouse kitchen, and Duck switched on the kettle. ‘What’s all this about?’ he said.
Jenny explained that she had obtained approval to brief him on the asteroid and proceeded to explain the details as she had done at Thames House on the previous day.
‘I’m glad you’ve told me,’ said Duck when Jenny had completed her explanation and answered his questions. He then sat in silence for some while, shaken by the implications of what he had heard.
Finally he spoke: ‘If they’re trying to keep this secret, why did they agree for you to tell me, and why did you rush to tell me so soon?’
‘It was something Swan said at yesterday’s briefing,’ Jenny replied. ‘It’s strange,’ she continued, ‘but all the while I’d been researching the asteroid, I’d been thinking about it as an investigative job like any other. It was only when Swan pointed out that the world might end in five months, and he wanted to spend as much of that time as possible with Helen, that the significance of it all came home to me.’
‘It certainly makes you think about your priorities,’ said Duck.
‘Exactly,’ Jenny agreed. ‘Joan wants me to follow up leads about ARK in this country and try to find out more about their missile plan.’
‘And that’s what you’re going to do, I guess.’
‘It depends.’
‘Depends on what?’
‘It depends on you.’
‘What do you mean?’ said Duck.
‘I love you,’ said Jenny.
‘Duck reached for Jenny’s hand. ‘I feel the same way about you,’ he replied. ‘I hope we get more than five months to try and make a go of it.’
‘So do I,’ said Jenny, ‘but in case that’s all we’ve got, I want to be with you.’
‘What about your role for MI5?’
‘I’d need to visit various locations to investigate ARK,’ she said. ‘You could come with me and help with that. A lot of the things that need to be done could be done by you without any specialist training.’
‘But what about the farm?’ said Duck.
‘Exactly,’ Jenny responded. ‘You’d need to close the place up for a bit. I’d understand if you didn’t want to do that,’ Jenny continued, ‘in which case I’d want to quit MI5 and spend the last weeks before Armageddon as a shepherdess.’
They sat holding hands in silence for several minutes while Duck tried to take in all that had been said. ‘I haven’t started growing the next batch of cannabis yet,’ he commented as he pulled his mobile from his pocket.
Duck keyed a number into the phone. ‘Hello, Walter,’ he said. ‘I want to bring some sheep to market on Friday. … All of them.’