MESSAGE: Agent Lorenzo, meet me at Al's Burger Shack (opposite the Washington FBI Headquarters) at 1500 hours on Monday. Sit down at an empty table, and I will approach you. Don't be late.

" What the hell," David thought to himself. He tried to figure out what the subject meant, and realised that it was an anagram. He reversed the order of the letters and it spelt 'End Of The World". Then he looked at his watch, and it told him that the time was quarter past two. Then he realised if he was to make his meeting with the mysterious e-mailer then he'd better get a move on. As David was changing, he happened to notice his calendar, and was genuinely surprised to find that it was the twenty ninth of December already.
" Great, we're two days away from the new Millennium, yippee!" He said to himself, sarcastically. David got in his car, and drove towards Al's. He knew the place well, considering that was where he spent most of his lunch breaks, alone. Then it hit David that he was being stupid, rushing off to meet someone he didn't even know, and he knew why he did it. He was lonely. He had no family, no friends, or at least no real friends, and would jump at any chance to spend time with someone. The FBI were generous with their holidays especially when it came to special occasions, and in a perverse way, David always wished that something of criminal nature would turn up, because it would give him something to do.
When he reached the burger bar, he parked his car on the yellow line, which was another advantage of being an FBI agent. He found himself glancing at his watch, for what he felt was the umpteenth time in forty-five minutes. David Lorenzo walked into Al's Burger Shack and sat a table. Al soon came to take his order.
" Yo, Dave, what do you want today, same as usual?" Al asked.
" Whatever, man, I'm not bothered!" David replied.
As Al walked away, a man in a black suit walked towards David.
" He looks like someone from Men in Black," David mused.
" Agent Lorenzo, I'm agent Jones, NSA," the man said.
David was half expecting him to announce that he was agent Kay, and that he has come to ask for some help in saving the world from giant alien bugs. Still, the National Security Agency, that must be something big.
The NSA agent noticed that David wasn't paying much attention.
" Agent Lorenzo, I decided to contact you, because you are the best," Jones continued.
David wished he wasn't so quick in dismissing the man in black theory.
" You are renowned for being the best agent that the FBI has ever seen, and the world needs your help,"
David nodded, gratefully taking all the praise.
" The world will be destroyed on New Years Eve, at exactly twelve o' clock midnight." Jones finished.
" Hold on, the world is going to end on New Years Eve at twelve, just tell me, are we talking GMT or Southern Pacific Time," David asked, with a definite hint of sarcasm.
" Look, Lorenzo, this might seem funny to you, but I can assure you, this is no joke," agent Jones was not amused.
" So, the world will be destroyed. What do you want me for?" David asked.
" You are the only one who can stop this!" answered Jones.
" What is going to destroy the planet then, agent Jones?" David asked, trying to humour the CIA agent.
" On New Millennium Eve, the moon will be nearing the end of it's orbit, and it will be close to the earth. Because the earth will also be spinning on it's axis as well as orbiting the sun, the moon will go straight into the earth, and there will be total destruction," Jones replied.
" I'm supposed to believe that, I did see Deep Impact you know! I mean come on, even if it is true, what the hell do you expect me to do about it?" said David.
" You are supposedly a computer genius. We launched two satellites on both sides of the moon, and we need you to operate the computers and satellites to make them fire an ultra powerful ray, which will move the moon slightly, but enough to save us. The computers are so complicated that there is nobody at NASA who could operate it," Jones explained.
" It sounds like you were stuck for ideas to create a national crisis, so you twisted Armageddon," David said.
" Are you prepared to stand by and watch the end of the planet, knowing that you could have stopped it all?" That comment struck David.
" All right, I'll help you," David said, finally.
" You will report to the White House at seventeen hundred hours to attend an official briefing from the President," those were the last words of the CIA agent, then he left David to sit and wonder. Meanwhile, at the White House, the President was talking with his team.
" President Clinton, what are we going to do about the public?" one of the men asked. It was at that point that David walked in.
" Sorry I'm late, sir, I was held up trying to convince you guards that I am not an assassin!" David explained.
" Team, this is David Lorenzo. He is the computer expert that will be operating the satellites," the people in the room glanced at David, " now, back to the questions. We need to make sure that the public doesn't find out about this. You all need to do keep this to yourselves,"
" What, you want to deal with a possible world destruction, and not tell anybody. That's stupid, what, do you think that the press won't find out. They will, and when it happens, the whole world will be asking why you kept it a secret," David said casually.
" Agent Lorenzo, you are not concerned with internal affairs. Your job is to operate the satellites, and nothing else," the Secretary of State cut David off instantly.
" Look, it's been a busy day. I think David should have a look at the computers that he needs to use," the President said quickly, at which point the people in room arose and left, with only David and the President left.
David followed President Clinton out of his office and into his chauffeur driven limousine. The President was surrounded by security guards, and it was really annoying David.
The President sensed this, and was quick to apologise, " Sorry about the guards, David, but what with all the assassinations that go on in this job, the government are keen to avoid another Kennedy."
David had his own theory on the assassination of President Kennedy, but he kept that quiet. " That's fine," he said.
When the limo arrived at the NASA headquarters, it was dark. David stepped out of the vehicle, and walked, with the President and his guards, towards the huge building that was the NASA headquarters. The guards approached the door and punched in some numbers, and then the President spoke over the intercom.
" Hi, Chris, it's the President. I've got David Lorenzo with me," the President said.
" All right, I'll open the door, sir," a voice replied.
The door slid open quickly and they entered. David marvelled at the smooth, futuristic look of the NASA building. The President led him to the main room, and left David there.
" Alright, David, I've got to talk to Chris Reed upstairs, but you should get to know the controls. If there is anything that you don't know, ask one of the team in that room," President Clinton said, ask he walked towards the elevator.
David stepped into the main room, and he was astonished at its size. He was standing on the second floor of the room, and could down to see all the super computers downstairs, and there was a floor above him. David caught the eye of a young woman, who signalled him down the stairs. " David Lorenzo?" the woman said to him inquiringly. " That's my name," David replied.
" My name is Lisa Smith, I'm the head of computer operations at NASA," Lisa informed him. David took one look at Lisa and was stunned. She was beautiful, she had the nicest smile, and David couldn't take his eyes of her.
Lisa escorted the dazed FBI agent to a computer, in the centre of the huge room. " This will be where you are working, David," she said.
David sat down at the computer and began. He looked at the positions of the satellites, and began to get a feel for the keys. David was only twenty-eight, but he was experienced when it came to computers. Before joining the FBI he trained for being a NASA computer engineer, and if he hadn't dropped out of the course, on the day of his final test, he was confident that he would be in Lisa's position.
David began powering up the satellites, when suddenly something strange turned up on the radar.
" Lisa," he shouted, " come over here, there's something weird on the radar," Lisa walked towards David's computer.
" Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that that blinking dot on our radar is a meteor, and it's heading towards our satellites," David said.
" Oh, my god. People, we need a picture of the satellite B orbiting the moon. Get it up on the screen!" Lisa shouted.
The picture on the screen confirmed their fears. A meteor was hurling quickly towards one of the satellites.
" Can we do anything about this?" David asked.
" No, I don't think we can. We didn't prepare for something like this to happen!" Lisa said, obviously thinking frantically.
" I've got an idea," David said, rushing to his computer, " we can make the satellites fire on the meteor, break it into tiny pieces, and we might just get away with it!"
Lisa nodded, so David got to work. He set about realigning the target of the satellites, and adjusting the force of the laser beam.
" All right, let's do this!" David shouted.
He set the beam to full power and fired. All of the people in the room held their breath, closed their eyes, and bit their lips. Suddenly David shouted out.
" Yes, it's been destroyed,"
But, quickly, they noticed that thing were not as they seemed. The pieces of meteorite fragments were smaller, but they covered a larger area, and we still heading towards the satellites.
But, when the crowd noticed it was too late. They has just seen the meteorite fragments on the radar when suddenly, the alarm sounded. The second satellite had been destroyed. The President and Chris Reed ran into the room.
" What the hell is going on?" Reed asked, although he thought that he already knew.
His fears were confirmed, when he looked at the main screen. Debris from the satellite was floating around in space.
" What are we going to do?" the President shouted.
" We're going to have to avert to plan B," Reed said.
" What is that?" David asked.
" We're going to have to nuke the piece of crap," Reed replied.
David was so shocked that he couldn't speak. When he finally regained his voice, all he could do was mumble. However, everything that he wanted to say was summed up by Lisa.
" Every heard of nuclear fallout?" she asked.
" The nuke will be so far into space that it won't affect us," Reed answered.
" OK, there's no nuclear fallout, but the missile will just burn up in the atmosphere," finally, words were coming out of David's mouth.
" The nuclear missile has been enforced with a protective layer. Any other flaws you'd like to pick, Lorenzo?" Reed asked, being rather defensive.
" We don't have the time to launch a missile, it won't arrive at the moon before impact, it will take two and a half days" David said.
" We fitted the first satellite with a nuke. The second was destroyed, but the nuke is still there. We can launch the nuke from the satellite and have this sorry affair over in minutes," Reed answered.
" That's rather convenient, isn't it?" David said accusingly.
" I don't play games with the end of the world. I'm not going to take the lives of six billion people in my hands," Reed replied.
Chris Reed sat down at the computer and brought up the nuclear missile activation screen. He typed a long code, and then stood up, allowing for David to operate the satellite.
David began typing furiously, and the President followed Reed out of the room.
" Hey, Lisa, maybe, if we don't all die, I could take you out to the fireworks?" David asked nervously.
" Sure," Lisa answered.
David brought up the launch screen and began to set the targets.
" This is it people, the end of space as we know it. We are about to say game over to the moon!" David shouted.
And the countdown began; a ten-second fuse was put on the missile before it was launched. They sat, watching the main screen and there came a huge explosion. The crisis was over. The moon was gone...
The century was nearing a close. It was twelve fifty nine, and David was out with Lisa at the fireworks show. And then the huge bell rang. The new Millennium had begun. People were celebrating, little did they know, that the world was on the verge of destruction. Then a lonely FBI agent came along and save the human race.
The world was still there, people were celebrating, and as Lisa Smith kissed his cheek, David Lorenzo was alone no more.