‘According to this,’ Nava said, ‘Lambert Stenger stated that he was making a more detailed scan of the artefact’s interior using imaging radar. Then he blacked out. The video evidence shows him using the radar unit, but then turning to the cameras and blowing them out with Concussive Force spells. He claims to have woken up in a storage closet several hours later. The video evidence shows him walking to the basement where the cameras lose him. When his wife was discovered by Courtney, he “attempted to pull the same waking up con.” Courtney’s words. He claims to have no memory after using the scanner until he woke up against a wall in his house, but the medics say he’s probably been awake and active the entire time.’
‘That’s about the size of it,’ Mitsuko said. ‘I admit that it’s not easy to believe that an intelligent man such as Professor Lambert Stenger–’
‘He hates being called “professor,”’ Melissa said. ‘I know it’s the correct title, given his tenure, but he expressly forbade us from using it.’
‘Won’t even accept doctor as a title,’ Rochester added.
‘He’d say, “Mister is quite good enough.”’
‘Well, it’s difficult to believe a man like that would snap like this, but high intelligence doesn’t preclude mental instability.’
‘No previous indications of domestic abuse,’ Nava said. She was tapping away at Mitsuko’s ketcom screen and obviously accessing things she was not really supposed to. ‘The daughter’s teachers have noticed no signs of anything until today when Bethany suddenly began claiming that her father was not her father. There’s also the last words Lambert Stenger spoke before doing his “waking up act.” According to Courtney’s report, he said, “You can have him.”’
Mitsuko frowned. ‘Are you making a case for mind control?’
‘I’m suggesting that the case may not be cut and dried. If it’s mind control, I see no reason for an external agency to victimise a metaphysics professor and his family. If it’s mind control, that probably leaves us with a psychopathic mind controller among the staff or students, and then there’s the question of why they waited until now. We’ve been here for months and no one has decided to randomly torture a housewife until now. I’m not sure mind control works, but I’m also not sure that Lambert Stenger was in control when he did those things. And I can’t get over the weird feeling of unease I felt when I was near that artefact. The artefact Lambert Stenger was working on when he suddenly went crazy.’
‘I see. You think the artefact is somehow responsible.’ Nava gave a small shrug in reply. Mitsuko considered for a second. ‘But the first thing he did was to destroy the artefact. If it was controlling him, shouldn’t destroying it have removed that control?’
‘If. There’s another more specific piece of evidence suggesting that something is out of place.’
‘Oh?’
‘The video shows Lambert Stenger using Concussive Force to destroy the security cameras.’
‘Yes. So?’
‘Those cameras are mounted under hardened plastic domes. Concussive Force requires a permit if you know it at rank three or above. Lambert Stenger has no such permit. He has a licence for Slice and Sorcerer’s Eye, and a permit for Complex Illusion. He would need quite a high ranking in Concussive Force to destroy those cameras and I don’t believe he has that.’
Mitsuko’s frown deepened. ‘He could have kept it secret… I have no idea how I’m going to do this, but I’ll mention the inconsistencies to Courtney.’
‘So long as she keeps an open mind on the possibilities, that’s enough for me.’
‘She’s fairly wound up after finding Candide Stenger… I’ll see what I can do.’
~~~
‘All the scans were giving back the same information,’ Lambert said. ‘The density of the casing material was giving us some trouble, but even so, it was apparent that there was a… void inside the artefact.’
‘A void,’ Courtney said. She was spending her lunch hour on interrogation again and it did seem that something had changed. Lambert was giving more detail about the time before his supposed blackout anyway. ‘What kind of void?’
‘A spherical force barrier, I believe. It had to be of a type we currently can’t create because it was blocking all forms of magic as well as every other method of determining what was inside it. Well, visible light may have worked, but I couldn’t see through the case.’
‘A spell that’s lasted several tens of thousands of years.’
‘Quite amazing, I agree, but there it was. Information magic simply returned that there was something blocking the use of information magic.’
‘A scrying block.’
‘Presumably. With no other way forward, I was attempting to examine the imagery we had of the engineering around the void. I assumed that was powering the spell. It had to be collecting quintessence using a mechanism far smaller than anything we’re currently able to make. In one of the images, I saw a shape which, to me, appeared to be a switch. An old-fashioned, bar-shaped toggle switch.’
‘Inside the case?’
‘As you say.’
Courtney closed her eyes. She could tell that Kyle, standing beside the door of Lambert’s room, was having the same thought because he groaned. ‘Don’t tell me you toggled the switch.’
‘It seemed like the only course of action available,’ Lambert said. He did sound a little embarrassed about it.
‘If someone shows you a big red button labelled “Do not press under any circumstances,” do you press it to find out why you shouldn’t?’
‘I, uh…’
‘So, you flicked the switch. Then what happened?’
‘I think I saw the barrier disappear. Things get a little fuzzy around then. I think the barrier went down and there was nothing inside it. The next thing I remember is waking up with my face crushed against a wall in my house.’ Lambert flashed a look at Kyle and then looked away.
‘Right.’ The problem was that Lambert really did not seem to be lying. Not this time. And there were those discrepancies Mitsuko had mentioned in a message. Courtney had the distinct impression that Mitsuko had not come up with the list on her own. Nava, and possibly Melissa and Rochester, were involved. Melissa was part of the student council, but the other two should not have been involved. Well, there was one thing Mitsuko had mentioned which was interesting. ‘Professor,’ she began.
‘I don’t like using that title,’ Lambert said. ‘Mister is quite good enough.’
Courtney sighed. ‘So I’ve been told. Kyle, could you ask if Mercia Reynell is ready?’
Lambert blinked as Kyle turned and tapped on the door to be allowed out. ‘Mercia?’ Lambert asked. ‘She’s–’
‘She’s helping with the treatment of your wife. We’re going to have her look you over too, if you’re okay with that.’
For a brief second, Lambert looked a little afraid. Then he straightened his back and nodded. ‘If that’s the only way you’ll believe me, then I’ll do whatever is needed.’
~~~
Mercia Reynell was a small woman. Petite and slim, her black hair was cut into a tight pageboy cut which framed a face full of delicate features. Her eyes gave more away about her than her size; some people had described them as ‘cold as the darkest parts of space.’ She was actually a very compassionate woman, but she had a reputation. She was a brilliant psychologist and a powerful sorceress. Her speciality was magic dealing with the mind and, aside from working as the school’s head counsellor, she taught her speciality to the senior students. She had not had a date in five years, despite being objectively beautiful, because men in particular found her immensely intimidating.
She was, no matter what rumours suggested, human. As a result of that and having just come from interviewing Candide Stenger, Lambert had been treated to the full weight of Mercia’s bottomless black eyes when she had entered the room ten minutes earlier. Now…
‘He’s telling the truth,’ Mercia said. ‘He’s not repressing memories or plain
lying. He has absolutely no memory of what happened after he opened the artefact. Nothing until he woke up at home.’ There was an undeniable note of pity in her voice and her eyes had softened.
‘How is Candide?’ Lambert asked before Courtney or Kyle could comment on Mercia’s assessment.
‘Physically, she’s fine. No lasting effects of… what happened.’ There was a slight pause as Mercia assessed what else she should say and how. ‘Mentally is a different matter. I can now tell her that her husband did not torture her for hours, but it will take time for her to believe it.’ Another pause. ‘If she ever does.’
‘O-oh.’
‘Alright,’ Courtney said. ‘We can now drop the charges against Lambert Stenger, but that leaves us with a mind controller on the loose who–’
‘No,’ Mercia said.
‘I’m sorry? You just cleared him of, well, everything. Someone had to be controlling him and that person–’
‘No, this was not simple mind control. Mind control is controlling the mind. It’s in the name. The mind has to be conscious, aware of what’s happening, in order for someone using any form of mental coercion to manipulate it. Lambert Stenger was entirely unaware for the duration. This was not done with mind control magic. I’m not immediately aware of any magic which works this way, but I’ll do some research.’
Reaching up, Courtney squeezed the bridge of her nose. ‘Great. So we have someone using an entirely unknown spell to commit crimes.’
‘Someone or something,’ Mercia said.
‘What makes you say that?’
‘Lambert Stenger’s memories end approximately three seconds after he moved that switch inside the artefact. If it had been immediately, perhaps the connection would be clearer, but the coincidence shouldn’t be ignored.’
‘The central part of the artefact was hidden inside a barrier,’ Lambert said. ‘I’m sure I saw that vanish when I moved the switch.’
‘You did,’ Mercia agreed. ‘And you were correct in your statement that there appeared to be nothing inside it. However…’
‘Why would you build what seems like a containment vessel,’ Courtney said, ‘without something to contain? Lambert Stenger, I’m officially releasing you from custody. I suggest you take the remainder of today to rest and I’d imagine the meditechs will agree with me. Tomorrow, I want you to begin trying to piece that artefact together’
‘I’ve virtually no chance of getting it working again.’
‘I understand that, but maybe if you can work out exactly what it was doing, we might be able to work out what, if anything, was inside it.’
~~~
‘If this is SSF business, what are we doing here?’
Courtney stared at Nava for a long second before answering, but Nava was just the kind of person who would not break, even under the deepest of intimidating stares. ‘Let’s just say that I don’t think Suki came up with all those comments about my report to her about Lambert Stenger. I’d rather cut out the middleman.’
Nava shrugged. ‘Fair enough.’ She walked over and settled down beside Mitsuko, but she did not look entirely happy. They had convened the impromptu meeting in Mitsuko’s apartment after dinner. Technically, this was nothing to do with Nava or Rochester. Melissa might have been involved due to her position on the student council, but they were keeping it all unofficial to avoid any difficult questions, most likely from Darius Miller. No one was taking minutes.
Assuming centre stage in front of the entertainment screen, Courtney began. ‘We’ve established that Lambert Stenger was not responsible for what happened in his lab or his home. The charges against him have been dropped.’
‘I knew he wasn’t that kind of person,’ Melissa said. ‘What about his wife and daughter?’
‘The daughter is staying with friends for the moment. Candide Stenger is under treatment for severe mental trauma. She… She’s unlikely to make a full recovery.’
‘O-oh.’
‘Setting that aside, we have the problem of an unknown perpetrator using a form of mental control which Mercia Reynell has never encountered before.’
Mitsuko started at that. ‘Seriously?’
‘Very seriously. She’s researching it, but the forms of control she knows would all leave an impression in the subject’s memory. Lambert Stenger has no memories of the period he was under control. None. They’re not buried away where he can’t access them or repressed due to the horror of it. They’re simply not there.’
‘That’s… weird and unhelpful.’
‘Right. If he remembered what happened, he’d probably be as traumatised as his wife, but he also might be able to tell us something about his attacker.’
‘It’s weird,’ Melissa said. ‘It kind of sounds like some of the ghost stories associated with Harbinger sites.’
Courtney frowned. ‘Explain, please, Mel.’
‘Uh, well, I’d have to do a search to find the details, but on several of the worlds which used to be Harbinger colonies, there are stories about ghosts possessing the living. A couple of Harbinger sites have been discovered by people who went to sleep in their beds and woke up having apparently dug up some bit of Harbinger architecture or technology. No one knew the sites were there before then and the people concerned have no memory of going to the site or doing the digging.’ Melissa’s cheeks coloured. ‘A-and there are a few stories about couples having, uh, wild nights of passion, only to discover that one of them doesn’t remember it in the morning. And a few other variations on a theme. I don’t know how many of them can be verified, but the main thing is that the people involved don’t remember what happened while the “ghost” possessed them.’
‘Ghosts…’
‘Ghosts, spirits, whatever you want to call them. I think there has been some research into the possibility of immaterial beings like that.’
‘Yes,’ Rochester said. ‘During the early period of metaphysics research, it was theorised that “beings of pure thought” were possible and that such entities might be the basis for ghosts, spirits, and even gods. However, no such entities were ever observed on Earth and research along those lines is largely regarded as fanciful.’
‘But we have ghost stories associated with Harbinger sites matching Lambert Stenger’s experience,’ Mitsuko said. ‘And we have a smashed Harbinger artefact which appeared to be designed to contain something. Sorcery was no use in penetrating the interior of that artefact, so we can assume that the barrier within it would stop anything magical getting out.’
‘Until Lambert Stenger turned it off,’ Courtney concluded.
‘Just so I’m clear,’ Kyle said. ‘We’re saying that a two-hundred-thousand-year-old ghost was locked up in an equally old magical device. Lambert Stenger freed it and it possessed him to destroy its prison and then do things I’m not going to mention to his wife. Is that about the size of it?’
‘Well, you have to admit that it fits the available facts,’ Courtney said.
‘Yes. Yes, it does. But it’s really out there, Courtney. I just, um, can’t come up with anything more reasonable right now.’
Courtney actually grinned. ‘I’m sure there’s some quote about impossible answers being what you have to go with when nothing else works.’
‘Yeah, but there’s also the old adage about extraordinary claims demanding extraordinary evidence.’
‘You’re not wrong.’
‘It’s only a working hypothesis,’ Rochester said. ‘That adage is entirely wrong. Even if a claim is beyond normal, any evidence which supports it irrefutably is sufficient, no matter how ordinary. However, more evidence is needed. As with any hypothesis, we can only progress through testing it against observed reality. I’ll see if the library has any of the old papers on non-physical entities and see whether that gives us anything new.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ Courtney said. ‘Lambert Stenger will be trying to work out what the artefact actually did tomorrow. That may give us something.’ She turned her gaze on Nava, who wa
s sitting quietly on her sofa. ‘You usually have more to say, Nava.’
Nava looked up, a slight wrinkle touching her brow. ‘I don’t have anything to add.’ She looked down again and went back to her thoughts. Something was bothering her. There was something… unsettling about the conversation, or the room, or… She felt nervous. And Nava never felt nervous. Well, not since she had seen the artefact in Lambert Stenger’s lab…
‘We’ll wrap this up, then,’ Courtney said. ‘Chess, if you find anything, message me. Any time. I don’t care whether I’m in bed or a lecture.’
‘I’ll do my best,’ Rochester replied.
‘I’ll see if I can find out more about those ghost stories,’ Melissa said. ‘The library is bound to have some papers on “space folk tales” or something. Some sort of comparative study.’
‘Right,’ Courtney said. ‘And I’ll… be at a loss for what to do while you people do that.’
‘Get a good night’s rest,’ Mitsuko suggested. ‘If something does come out of all this research, I suspect you’ll need to be fresh to make use of it.’
‘Yeah. An early night sounds good. If I can sleep. Kyle, let’s get out of their hair.’
Kyle nodded, a smile touching his lips. ‘An early night sounds good to me too.’
~~~
‘I’m going out for a while.’ Nava was obviously going out since she was walking toward the apartment door.
‘Okay,’ Mitsuko said. ‘Is there a problem?’
‘I don’t know. I’m going out to find out.’
‘Uh, okay.’
‘You haven’t upset me or anything. Don’t worry about it.’
Mitsuko brightened a little. Nava had been very quiet since Courtney and Kyle had turned up. There was something of a natural tendency to wonder whether one had inadvertently upset one’s partner when they went all quiet on you. ‘I’m glad to–’
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