‘The birds?’ Alyssa asked.
‘Oh yeah.’ He leant back in the seat and stretched his arms over his head. ‘Just the past few months, things have been messed up for the birds. Come and go at different times, you know, fly off during the wrong season. Fight each other. Found a whole flock of ’em dead one day, just scattered over the school playground, dozens of ’em just broken in bits.’
‘What’s causing it?’ Alyssa asked, seeing the link between other recent events clearly but still not sure if Miller was just making the whole thing up.
‘Damned if I know,’ Miller grunted and took another swig of his drink. ‘Only thing I know is, I lived here all my life, and I ain’t never seen anything like it. Whatever they’re up to, it’s confusing the hell out of nature, is all I’ll say.’
‘And I think you said just about enough,’ growled a male voice beside them. Alyssa’s head whirled round to see four of the men from the bar now right next to their booth. How did she miss their approach? But it seemed Miller had been right, about this at least. ‘Why don’t you move along?’ the man suggested, and Miller didn’t have to be told twice; he picked up his drink and got out of there as fast as he could.
The man who had spoken slid into the booth across from Alyssa, into the space just vacated by Miller. ‘And I think you’ve been asking too many questions, li’l lady,’ he said.
Alyssa noticed the tension in the other three men; they were like coiled springs. She was anxious, but she still didn’t feel true fear yet. What were they going to do, right in the middle of a public bar?
The man opposite her leant forward, his coat falling open to reveal a handgun in a shoulder holster. ‘What say we take a walk outside?’ he asked.
‘And what if I say no?’ Alyssa asked, the fear starting to creep up now.
‘Then I guess we’ll have to leave it at that.’ The man shrugged his large shoulders. ‘Can’t force a lady to do anything against her will now, can we?’ But as he spoke he pulled the coat further open, his other hand reaching for the gun. His message was clear, and Alyssa nodded her head.
‘OK,’ she said, the fear strong now, her heartbeat accelerating, the pulse thumping in her chest. ‘We can go.’
The man started to slide out of the bench seat but stopped when he saw that Alyssa was not moving. ‘Are we gonna have a problem here?’
‘No,’ Alyssa said hurriedly, ‘no, not at all. It’s just that if you work for the base, you know, for HIRP, I’m supposed to be here, maybe you can check or something. I’m the sister of Karl Janklow, he was . . . killed here in an avalanche a few days ago.’ She used the fear, letting tears start to fall down her cheeks. ‘I’m here to pick up his things,’ she whimpered.
The man regarded her coolly. ‘That may be so,’ he said eventually, ‘but I think we’re still gonna head on outside until we can clear this up. Now come on.’ He placed a large hand on hers. ‘Let’s go.’
‘Hey, hands off the lady,’ she heard a voice say from off to the side. Surprised, both Alyssa and the man turned their heads, to see the handsome guy from the other booth standing there, staring at them.
‘Why don’t you mind your own damn business, Jack?’ the man asked, as his three friends started to surround him. ‘We ain’t got no beef with you, but if you get involved, you know Anderson will back us and not you.’
Anderson. Alyssa recognized the name as the security chief Jamie had told her about.
‘Just don’t threaten her, OK?’ Jack persisted, moving closer. At his approach, the man opposite Alyssa swung round in his seat and swung a booted foot right at Jack’s crotch.
The kick connected hard, and Jack doubled over in pain before being brought upright by two of the other men, one wrenching his arm up his back whilst the other slammed a vice-like grip round his throat. They began to march him outside.
Noticing that the man opposite her was momentarily distracted, Alyssa grabbed Miller’s empty glass and smashed it across his face. The man was dazed but not out, and Alyssa instantly followed through, upending the table and driving it forward, smashing it hard into him.
The remaining man by the table reacted, going for his gun, but Alyssa was on him, driving the heel of her palm into his face, raising her knee an instant later to connect with his groin.
She could see Jack struggling with the other two men but it was clear he was getting nowhere. She started heading towards him but the man she had hit grabbed her ankle from his position on the floor, dragging her down with ferocious strength.
Alyssa kicked out at him, her boots lashing into his face once, twice, but still he held on, pulling her closer to him, until he they were face to face. She leant forward to bite him, but he anticipated this and thrust her head back into the floor, using his other hand to draw his gun and shove the barrel into her eye socket.
BANG!
The gunshot reverberated around the room, and everything came to a shuddering halt.
The gun moved away from Alyssa’s eye, and she realized she was still alive. She felt the weight shift off her, and pushed forwards off the floor to see three men in the doorway in military uniform, one – wearing a colonel’s insignia – holding a pistol aimed at the ceiling, where he had just fired his warning shot.
‘Stand down,’ the colonel ordered, and instantly the four men did as they were told, backing away from Alyssa and Jack as if they were diseased.
‘Now get out of here,’ the officer ordered, and the four men high-tailed it out of the bar as quickly as they could.
The two soldiers who had accompanied the colonel left with the other four men, presumably to escort them back to base, and the senior officer holstered his weapon and approached Alyssa, his hand extended to help her to her feet.
‘Please accept my sincere apologies,’ he said. ‘Elizabeth Gatsby, I presume. I’m sorry I missed you at the airport. I’m Colonel Anderson, head of security at HIRP. I’m so sorry for your loss, and I’m horrified at my men’s behaviour. They’ll be reprimanded, believe me,’ he said. Alyssa wasn’t sure whether he was being genuine or not. His words sounded sincere, but his eyes were cold behind the friendly veneer.
‘Colonel,’ Jack said, nodding his head in greeting as he approached. Alyssa noticed one eye was swelling, his nose was bleeding, and he was rubbing the back of his head. Not much of a fighter, but she appreciated the effort. ‘Your men could do with a few lessons in manners,’ he suggested, quite gallantly in Alyssa’s opinion, still pressing the issue despite his injuries.
‘Quite so,’ Anderson agreed. ‘I’ll see to it, Jack, believe me.’
At that, the injured man turned to Alyssa, hand extended in greeting. ‘Hi,’ he said with a quite charming smile, ‘my name’s Jack Murray. Sorry I wasn’t much help back there. Guess fighting isn’t really my thing.’
Alyssa shook his hand warmly. ‘I thought you were great,’ she said, meaning it. ‘My name’s Elizabeth Gatsby.’
She could see Jack thinking about it, then his head snapped up. ‘Karl’s sister?’ he asked.
Alyssa nodded. ‘Yes,’ she said.
‘I’m so sorry,’ he said, embracing her. ‘Karl was my best friend. I’m so sorry, really.’
‘I’ve got a car just outside,’ Anderson interrupted, putting a hand on Alyssa’s arm and gesturing to the door. ‘Shall we?’
4
ANDERSON SPENT THE next hour listening to Elizabeth Gatsby and Jack Murray chatting in the back of the big SUV he was using to chauffeur them back to the base.
He’d raised hell with Breisner when he’d found out that the woman had been invited to the base to collect her brother’s things. Why couldn’t they have just packed everything up and shipped it off? But Breisner had said that might seem suspicious, and in the end Anderson had been forced to agree.
But why had she stopped off at the Bear Tavern? And why had she been talking to Miller, that damned rumour-spreading drunkard? According to her, she had heard her brother talk about the place and wanted to have a look
at it, try and find some sort of lost connection with him, and although it seemed feasible, Anderson had a hard time buying it. Could Elizabeth Gatsby have been the woman at the amusement park? Her story checked out – his men had confirmed that she had been somewhere else at the time – but where would a schoolteacher have learnt to fight like that? He had already ordered his men to start looking into whether Gatsby was a high-ranking martial artist of some sort, or had grown up in a rough neighbourhood.
But now, as she sat in the back of the car chatting to Murray, she seemed perfectly harmless, quite the little school ma’am. And it was clear that she was genuinely upset about her brother. Upset enough to try and cause some sort of trouble at the base? Anderson wasn’t sure, he would have to be on his guard. That was his job, after all. And with Spectrum Nine so close to completion, he could not afford to take chances.
Murray had invited himself along for the ride, saying he’d had too much to drink to drive himself back to the base. Anderson had agreed, thinking he might learn something from listening to the two of them talk. For his part, Murray also seemed to miss Janklow, and Anderson found himself worrying about whether Janklow had ever said anything to Murray about the base’s secret project. But Janklow had been closely monitored after he had found out, and it was evident that Leanne Harnas had been the only person he had confided in. No, Anderson decided, Jack Murray was no kind of security risk; he was just an overqualified desk jockey, a nobody.
But he still had to make his mind up about Elizabeth Gatsby. As the gates opened and they pushed on through the deep snow into the complex itself, Anderson determined not to let the woman out of his sight for a second.
As Alyssa spoke to Jack in the back of the car, she was aware of Anderson listening closely, probing the conversation for any hint of untruth. She played the role she had assigned herself, and felt she had done a good job; she’d known Karl well enough to share anecdotes with Jack like only a sister or close friend could.
She was glad when Anderson suggested that they all retire for the evening, saying that because it was late, she could go to Karl’s office to sort through his things the next morning. It would give her more time at the base. But she didn’t want to go to her room right away, so she had said she was hungry, and Anderson agreed to escort her to the cafeteria. It was clear he wasn’t about to leave her alone. Jack offered to join them, which pleased her. He made her feel at ease, and he was undeniably attractive.
They continued to chat, Alyssa working hard to ignore Anderson’s presence, and she started to wonder if Jack knew anything about the covert research programme which was supposedly going on here. Was it possible that Karl had told him anything? Or was Jack in on it anyway? She felt she might be able to get somewhere with him if Anderson wasn’t there, but still the man stayed, preventing her from asking any important questions.
A vibration caused Anderson to check the pager on his waistband, and he looked up at Alyssa and Jack, obviously unhappy. ‘I’m afraid I’m being called away,’ he said. ‘May I escort you to your room?’
Alyssa gestured at her unfinished meal. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, ‘I’m still really hungry and I’d like to finish this.’
‘I can escort her back when she’s done,’ Jack offered instantly, and Alyssa tried to suppress a smile, watching as Anderson’s eyes narrowed, calculating his options.
Finally, he nodded. ‘Very well. Thank you, Jack. She’s staying in Room E14, common dormitory block. Her bags are already there.’
‘Just across the hall from me,’ Jack said happily. ‘No problem. See you in the morning, Colonel.’
Anderson pushed himself away from the table, nodded, and was gone.
As he made his way back to the base’s military command post, Anderson wondered if he’d been right to leave them alone.
But he had no reason to suspect she wasn’t exactly what she claimed to be, and Jack Murray was a known womanizer; he’d probably decided to try and add another notch to his bedpost. That probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, Anderson reflected; it would distract her from being too curious about the base whilst she was here. Besides, he’d had no choice; the message had requested his urgent presence back at the command centre. He wondered what his men had found.
He burst through into the busy command post, scanning the faces around him. He caught the eye of his chief analyst. ‘What do you have for me?’ he asked.
The man smiled at him. ‘We cracked the system,’ he announced proudly. ‘The search on HIRP originated from the research computers of the New Times Post.’
Anderson stopped dead in his tracks. So, the woman in the amusement park was a journalist; his worst fears were confirmed. ‘Who is she?’ he asked.
‘We’re still working on that,’ the analyst replied. ‘Each reporter has a personal access key but we don’t have a list of whose key is whose. Sometimes these guys log on under other people’s keys anyway.’
‘OK,’ Anderson said, ‘get a list of everyone who works at the Post, and I mean everyone, from the owner right down to the janitor. Then cross-reference the names with everything we’ve got on file for Janklow, see if he knows, or used to know, anyone who works there.’
The analyst smiled again and pointed at the computer in front of him. Anderson looked, saw huge swathes of electronic information racing down the screen, and understood.
The search was already under way.
5
JACK ESCORTED ALYSSA back to her room just as he promised, but they were both reluctant to part so soon. The connection was there and they both felt it.
‘Well, I’d better be getting back to my own room now, Liz.’
‘Yes, and thanks again for helping me out at the bar earlier.’ Alyssa smiled and turned to her door.
Jack turned away too, but then his head snapped back. ‘Hey, have you ever seen the Northern Lights?’ he asked.
Alyssa looked at him. ‘No,’ she said. ‘Although I’ve always wanted to.’
Jack checked his watch. ‘Well, they’re supposed to be happening tonight,’ he said. ‘These things are never exact, but they’ll probably be starting about an hour from now.’
‘Really?’ Alyssa asked, very interested now. Her desire to see the lights was one thing, but she also recalled what Miller had told her at the bar, how the lights were somehow linked to, or affected by, whatever secret programme the base was running. Did that mean that something would be happening tonight?
‘Absolutely,’ Jack said. ‘You should even be able to see them from your room. They’re pretty amazing.’
Alyssa knew Jack was probably trying to get her to let him in, so they could watch them together, which in itself wasn’t a bad idea. But she sensed a further opportunity here, and hoped Jack would go along with it.
‘I’ve wanted to see them all my life,’ she said earnestly, ‘but I don’t want to see them from inside. Is there any way to get out of here, see them properly?’
Jack frowned. ‘Not really. At these hours, base personnel are kind of confined to quarters, it’s a long-standing rule.’
‘Why?’ Alyssa asked.
‘Not sure really,’ Jack had to admit. ‘That’s just the way it is. They say it’s too dangerous to leave the buildings at night, you know, due to wolves and bears, but I’m not too sure about that.’
She looked Jack in the eye. ‘I’m not scared of wolves, Jack,’ she said.
Jack laughed. ‘After seeing you in action in that bar, I believe you.’
‘So how about it?’ she tried again.
‘How about what?’
‘Getting out of here to see it properly. I’m sure a guy like you knows a way.’
‘Just what kind of schoolteacher are you?’ he asked with a smile.
They arranged to meet outside Jack’s room in thirty minutes; he said he had to take care of some things before they could go.
Alyssa decided to use the time to have a shower, and reached into the cubicle to turn the water on. It came out cold, and she let
it run. The last thing she wanted was to freeze to death; it was cold enough outside as it was.
She had discovered that Jack worked in the base’s computer section and ran all of HIRP’s operating systems, many of which he had devised himself. The image of computer genius didn’t seem to gel with his appearance or manner at all, but Alyssa knew you couldn’t judge a book by its cover. She had genuinely enjoyed her evening so far and she found herself actually wishing she didn’t have a job to do.
Since Patrick’s death – nearly six years ago now – there had never really been anyone else in her life. For the first few years she had concentrated on Anna; then after her tragic death, she had just wanted to be alone. In the last couple of years, she had tried dating a few times but nothing ever came of it, and she wasn’t sure she wanted it to. But there was something different about Jack, she thought as she stepped into the shower, stretching the kinks out of her aching body.
She tried to dismiss such thoughts and focus on the reason she was here. After tonight, she would probably never see Jack again.
She sighed.
Anderson strode back into the control room. ‘Do you have a name?’
The analyst looked up at him with a wide smile. ‘Alyssa Durham,’ he said. ‘Senior investigative journalist at the Post, and ex-climbing partner of Karl Janklow. From what we can see, she hasn’t seen him for years. But it’s a clear link. She’s the one.’
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