The Greek Myth of Daedalus and Icarus is one of the best known. The following is my re-write of the story: a sci-fi/Gothic take on the myth. It’s set in a future about fifty years from now, with Earth perilously close to climate collapse.

Icarus Falling

The first time I saw Russ, his face was an agonised roar, and the full rage of the sea was reflected in his eyes.

I knew him before I met him. He was a household name, especially in Lower Polton, the quiet coastal town where his family had lived for generations.

I had been sent to Lower Polton by my boss, Trevor, to investigate a possible story for the weekend tablet supplement. A seaside village under threat from worldwide aggressive storms and rising sea-levels, and a family with piles of money: old money, dirty money.

Diggory Bircott, the seventy-four year old man I was headed to interview, was not hard to track down on the web. He had gone into business with MinosCorp, a well-known global engineering powerhouse, at age 21. Together they’d built power stations the world over. Then things got shady – it seemed he turned on his business partners and turned instead to conserving the Earth rather than helping to destroy it (a little too late, I privately thought). Five years ago he’d recruited his renowned playboy son, Russell Bircott, and they’d returned to Lower Polton to the ancestral pile to put Diggory’s eco-friendly plans to action. Things had quietened down after that. It was actually only in the past few weeks that stories of discontent had began to trickle up out of the sleepy rural spot, and come to our attention at the news headquarters.

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