They become immersed in the fun of it. They don’t know who they are. They know nothing of themselves, but they start to learn and evolve. They start to gain essences of characters and personalities that could be memories of who they were before, or newly formed judgements and decisions based on what they see and do now. They gain history too, things to talk about and joke about with shared experiences as they discuss situations that could have been done better.
‘So, perhaps Roshi was right to push her recruit…’ Pete says from a café on a London street, staring out the rain lashed plate glass window at Thomas delaying an Asian man getting the number 8 bus.
‘Roshi is a reckless little bitch. That said, yes, I can see some value to this exercise.’
Pete nods slowly, watching the bus pull away as the Asian man flaps his arms in frustration at missing it. ‘I think this could change things, yes?’
‘Perhaps,’ Jacob replies stiffly, going through the dog-eared sheets spread on the table-top between them.
‘They are not worried at failing,’ Pete says. ‘They have no stress of this…no judgements.’
‘Still part of the construct,’ Jacob murmurs.
‘Oui, I know this, Jacob. Do Langdon,’ he says, motioning at the sheets.
‘Langdon?’ Jacob asks with a bemused expression. ‘Pushing it a bit, aren’t you?’
‘Is fine, Langdon. We do that next.’
‘Claire Langdon will be convicted of theft at Westminster Magistrates Court at 13:30hours. She will use a fire exit to make her way to the roof to commit suicide but will be stopped and talked down by court security officer Odoni Umbella. You must stop Mr Umbella from preventing the suicide of Langdon. That’s sick,’ Zara says after reading it out. ‘I’m not doing that. It’s murder…’
‘I don’t think we have a choice,’ Thomas says gently. ‘They’re not telling us to kill her.’
‘No, they’re telling us to let her die,’ she fires back.
‘I’ll do it,’ Bear says simply, remaining passive when the other two look at him. ‘It’s not real. None of this is real…we came in that door from summer in New York and walked back out the same door into London in winter…’
They find the courts on Marylebone Road and find the court listings pinned to the wall and the court number for the hearing that convicts Claire Langdon. Within a few minutes they spot Claire Langdon walking out of the courtroom and never before has anyone ever been so bereft of hope and broken by life.
She stands out in the noisy crowd. Frail and timid. A figure of such abject pity that the mere sight invokes a desire to offer help and comfort, but they don’t.
Instead, they watch as Claire Langdon walks from the court door to another older woman waiting with three small children and they watch as Claire Langdon kneels down to kiss and hug them with tears streaming down her face before telling the older woman she needs the toilet and walks off into the crowd.
‘Nana, where’s mummy?’ the smallest child asks.
‘She’s gone to the toilet,’ the older woman says, her face etched with worry as she tries to see where her daughter went.
‘Oh, god no,’ Zara whispers, her hand covering her mouth. ‘We can’t…’
They watch with dread building as Claire Langdon comes to a stop by the wall. Wringing her hands while sobbing silently. Not one person notices or offers help. Not the staff or the people waiting. She is just another human being. Then, a fire exit door opens with a member of staff striding out who doesn’t wait for it to close securely behind and Claire Langdon slips out of sight.
The three then see uniformed security officer Odoni Umbella walking towards the door with a frown and they know if they do nothing, he will save her life. He will bring her back to her three children clinging to their grandmother’s legs in the noisy, aggressive air of an inner-city court landing. What a thing to do. What a nasty thing to do. A heart-wrenching sight of a woman and her children and the fact all three realise that’s it designed to be this way does not lessen the effect.
‘Now,’ Bear says.
‘I can’t dude,’ Thomas says, stricken to the core.
‘It’s not real,’ Bear says quickly.
‘Man, there’s three kids…’
‘They’re like the bomb kids…they’re not real…’
‘Just do it,’ Zara says, urging Thomas on. ‘Punch him…’
Thomas hesitates, even if it wasn’t a woman with three kids, he couldn’t punch Bear. ‘Dude…I…’
‘One of you bloody hit me,’ Bear whispers, seeing Mr Umbella almost at the door.
‘Fuck’s sake,’ Zara hisses before walloping Bear round the face with a stinging slap. ‘YOU SLEPT WITH HER?’
‘Jesus,’ Thomas says, flinching at the ferocious assault.
‘MY SISTER! YOU FUCKED MY SISTER….’ She slaps again, snapping Bear’s head over.
‘HEY,’ Odoni Umbella calls out, his hand on the fire exit door.
‘HE FUCKED MY SISTER…’ Zara yells as the many women on the court landing draw breath while the many men wince and shake their heads. ‘I’ll bloody kill him…’ she leaps at Bear, taking him down amidst flailing limbs as the court security team rush in from all sides while on the top floor Claire Langdon climbs out of the window to stand on the ledge with the weight of the world crushing her soul.
Zara, Bear and Thomas are ejected from the court and told to piss off before the police are called and they rush off away from the scene as Claire Langdon steps from the ledge to drop headfirst to the hard concrete below.
Zara and Thomas hear the impact with both flinching at the noise and the screams that come after.
‘It’s not real,’ Bear says.
‘They did it,’ Pete says from across the road. ‘Less than ten percent stop the guard from saving her…’
‘I can see,’ Jacob says, equally as stunned, watching the crowd gather round the ruined body.
There’s nowhere to go from here. To keep going means to advance to more complicated scenarios, and to do that they need to return to Discovery and report to Martha but leaving it here like this just isn’t an option. It’s too good. The uniqueness of it and the lure to see how far they can push it.
‘We go on?’ Pete asks.
Jacob finally turns from looking at the body to stare at the Frenchman, ‘bloody right, we’re going on…’
‘Oui,’ Pete says slowly with a wide grin forming. ‘We will make history, my old friend.’
16
‘Oh,’ Zara says, coming to a stop after pushing through the door into the dingy room.
‘What?’ Bear asks, walking in behind her. ‘Oh…’
‘What?’ Thomas asks, walking in last. ‘Dude…’ he grins at the sight of three leather chairs and a jug of coffee on the side table next to three mugs. ‘Coffee break.’
‘I’ve given them coffee,’ Jacob says, striding along the sidewalk in Discovery with Pete at his side. ‘It is remarkable. Truly remarkable. Raw recruits, Peter. They don’t even have personalities yet. They’re blank slates…’
‘Oui yes, I think we…’
‘YOU TWO, STOP RIGHT THERE…’
They both blanch at the voice, spinning on the spot to see Allie marching towards them with a face like thunder. ‘Why the hell is James in my diner?’
‘Allie, my friend,’ Pete says with a beaming smile. ‘You look radiant today Mademoiselle. But James. He was sick. He vomit, yes? I took him there knowing you are a kind and caring woman.’ His accent thickens slightly, softening his voice that becomes deeper as Jacob starts discretely sliding away.
‘Stop flirting with me, Pete. And you can stand right there, Jacob…I know your bloody methods you two. I do meet and greet. I am not a day care centre for sick newbies…’
‘Allie, I can only apologise for this breach of etiquette but alas, we have something very special underway right now.’
‘And what am I supposed to do with him? I’ve got customers…’
‘Get him was
hing up,’ Pete says, waving a dismissive hand. ‘The other three, they are remarkable, no? They’re in scenario training and…’
‘What?’ she asks, blinking at him. ‘Operative training? You’ve put them straight into operative training?’
‘Well,’ Jacob says. ‘Peter and I decided to trial a new method and…’
‘They have done Langdon,’ Pete adds.
‘Langdon!? Did they let her die?
‘Oui, yes, they stop the security guard. They pass, one after the other. Frank Delaney, the zoo, ice-rink…and now Langdon, it is remarkable, yes?’
‘It’s something alright,’ Allie mumbles, shaking her head at them. ‘Oi…don’t just walk off! You pair of sods…’
‘Send him to planning,’ Jacob calls back.
‘He got lost going to the toilet,’ she shouts after them before storming back to the diner.
‘Where have you two been?’ Jennifer asks, standing up from behind the reception desk as the two men enter the planning offices. ‘Allie called…she’s got James in the diner throwing up and…’
‘Bonjour, Jennifer, you are looking very pretty today.’
‘Aw, thanks, that’s not creepy at all…where are you going? Pete! Jacob…fuck’s sake…’ she mutters, rushing out from behind the desk to follow them down the corridor.
‘Zara, Thomas and Bear have completed the first set of operative training scenarios up to Langdon…’ Jacob calls back. ‘We’re going on…’
‘What?’ she snaps, running after them. ‘You can’t do that…’ she comes to a stop as they push through the stairwell door, flapping her hands in the air before about turning and running on her heels back to the desk to grab the phone.
Two flights of stairs up and the two men push through the doors into the large open plan office buzzing with noise, phones and voices. A busy place with a hint of frantic energy hanging permanently in the air.
‘Where the hell have you two been?’ Martha demands, striding from her office.
‘Oh, that’s nice,’ Zara says, sinking into the chair with a mug of coffee clasped in her hands. ‘I wonder what the time is? Feels like we’ve been going for hours.’
‘Gone quick though,’ Bear says, taking a seat.
‘Hmm, yes, yes it has. Fun too, apart from…you know. The suicide thing and the big fight.’
‘I can’t believe this is happening man. It’s like my brain is going slower than everything else, that make sense?’ Thomas asks.
‘Totally,’ Zara says. ‘So, tell us again,’ she says to Bear. ‘What did you do on your circuit?’
‘You’ve been gone all day, where have you been?’ Martha demands again, the office falling quiet as everyone listens.
‘They pass stage two,’ Pete says, waving his hand at her. ‘Roshi, she trains Bear and he is something else. He killed over one dozen in the warehouse…’
‘Over a dozen,’ Jacob continues, knowing everyone in the office is listening.
‘Zara, she thinks to move the bombs not the children.’
‘Thomas works fast too, brilliant communicator,’ Jacob adds. ‘They passed so we er…’ he trails off, glancing at Pete.
‘We try a new thing; we try just one to see. Frank Delaney, yes? It is easy. We want to see so we put them through. They do it. Oui. They do it well.’
‘I don’t believe this,’ Martha says. Sharp eyes, sharp intelligence, sharp everything but then to make it to Operations Manager in Discovery means having a mind like a scalpel.
‘Martha,’ Pete says, holding his hands up while offering his charming smile.
‘Jesus, Pete, I’m gay. It won’t work,’ Martha says, groaning in exasperation.
‘I forget this,’ he concedes, affecting his best puppy-dog expression.
‘How? How can you forget I’m gay? You’ve tried it on like a thousand times and…whoa, that was good,’ she hisses, jabbing her finger towards him. ‘You actually got me distracted then, you little shit. How far have you gone with them? Where are they now?’
‘We did the zoo,’ Jacob says as though thinking hard.
‘And the ice-rink,’ Pete adds, also deep in thought.
‘Er…the City Hall annual waste meeting…’
‘How far?’ Martha asks, her voice dropping several notches.
A pause. A hesitancy. ‘Langdon,’ she groans, rubbing her face.
‘They passed,’ Pete exclaims.
‘You did Langdon with newbies. You actually did that,’ Martha says, shaking her head in shock.
‘Martha?’ Jennifer calls out, rushing across the office towards the rear cubicle.
‘What?’ Martha snaps.
‘I can’t reach the Old Lady.’
‘So?’ Martha asks.
‘I’m just saying,’ Jennifer says with a huff. ‘You’ll have to make the decision.’
‘Decision? What decision?’
‘To go on.’
‘On? Make sense, woman! Go on where…’ she glares at Jennifer then snaps her head over to the two operatives smiling nicely. ‘No.’
‘Yes,’ Pete booms, waving his hands in the air. ‘They pass, they must go on.’
‘I said no.’
‘I SAY YES!’ Pete shouts, in full passionate flow. ‘It is unique, Martha. It is a thing of excellence; this breaks the ground and we write new rules today…give them a harder scenario. Let them see history…it is safe, no? It is just training, yes?’
‘Martha,’ Jacob says formally. ‘They have no self or sense of character, they’re blank slates which means they have no preconceptions of anxiety. How many do we fail every year? Bloody Roshi was the last one through…’
‘WE GO ON,’ Pete booms, making his presentation to the office at large. ‘Three new recruits who want to succeed. They are hungry for this. They want this. They are fearless and bold. We have much work, yes? You are busy and we are down on operatives, yes? WE GO ON!’
‘So fucking dramatic,’ Martha mutters, rubbing the back of her neck.
‘Martha, Peter and I are getting older now. We cannot keep working at the pace you want. Three new operatives will spread that workload by a great deal and may I take this opportunity to remind you that none of the operatives have had our allocated vacation time for the last three years…’
‘Holidays? Are you taking the piss? I’ve never had a bloody holiday…where’s the Old Lady?’
‘Er…I just said?’ Jennifer states after a pause of being glared at. ‘I can’t reach her.’
‘Say yes, Martha. Say oui and we go on…we make history today.’
‘My god, you are tiresome,’ Martha says.
‘Try working with him,’ Jacob says.
Stunned silence. Heavy and charged as Bear sips his coffee. An exchange of looks between Zara and Thomas, both wide-eyed.
‘She stabbed you?’ Zara breaks the silence.
‘Loads,’ Bear says, nodding amiably.
‘And you stabbed her?’
‘Loads.’
‘Fuck man,’ Thomas says. ‘She sounds messed up.’
‘God, yes,’ Bear says, thinking back to last night.
‘And you’re okay?’ Zara asks.
‘Yeah, it was nice,’ Bear says, still thinking of last night.
‘Nice?!’
‘What? Oh, I meant…I mean…er…yeah, not nice, but…bad, very bad but erm…so I mean, I think I’m okay.’
‘Right,’ she says slowly.
‘Like dude…you got urges to…you know…like kill people now?’ Thomas asks slowly, eyeing the door.
‘Only Americans,’ Bear says seriously, lifting the cup to his mouth then grinning in the silence.
‘Dude,’ Thomas laughs, ‘but you are joking, right?’
‘No, I’m being serious,’ Bear says, letting the smile slowly fade as Thomas laughs again while still looking slightly unsure.
Silence. Heavy and charged as Martha glowers at Jacob and Pete while everyone holds their breath. Apart from Jennifer who tuts and taps her foot.
‘Fine,’ Martha says simply, striding from her office to a locked cabinet on one side of the big open-plan room. ‘Someone organise a screen, I want to watch it…’
‘Yes!’ Pete says, punching the air.
‘For the record,’ Martha says, unlocking the cabinet. ‘I did not know you put them into operative training in the first place…’
‘It was entirely Pete’s decision,’ Jacob says.
‘Oui,’ Pete says seriously before realising what Jacob just said. ‘You are a fucker, my old friend.’
‘They can do two harder training scenarios but I’m choosing them,’ Martha says, running her fingertip over a line of thin manilla coloured folders on the middle shelf within the cabinet.
The air thickens and charges and the tension mounts as everyone stares at Martha running her fingertips along the folders. She pulls one out, checks the cover then seems to change her mind and pushes it back in. Pete swallows while Jacob’s upper lip twitches with anticipation.
She draws two, opening the covers to read the sheets inside. Thinking hard, thinking long. ‘How good are they?’ she asks quietly as every head turns to look at Pete and Jacob.
‘They’re good,’ Pete replies.
‘Okay,’ she says, pulling a folder out.
The air in the room changes from the dozens of people drawing sharp intakes of breath as they read the word across the front cover, while one snorts a dry laugh that she quickly hides when everyone looks at her.
‘Sorry,’ Jennifer murmurs.
‘Jefferson?’ Jacob asks.
‘You said they’re good,’ Martha says, arching an eyebrow. ‘Let’s see how good.’
17
‘That’s it,’ Zara says, her voice trailing off as she reads back over the printed sheet.
A Town Called Discovery Page 16