The Anomaly

by Neil Carstairs

  The Anomaly

  By

  Neil Carstairs

  Copyright © 2017 by Neil Carstairs

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover Art by Ace Book Covers.

  AceBookCovers.com

  Acknowledgements

  Once again, special thanks to Emma Jaye without whose guidance and helps this novel could not have reached this stage

  Also by Neil Carstairs

  Scarrett & Kramer Novels

  #1 The Creator

  #2 The Anomaly

  #3 The Tomb

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Chapter One

  Ben Scarrett stood and shivered in a quiet English village as an early morning sun splashed shadows across a deserted street. A cool autumn wind blew in from the north. It carried the scent of the North Atlantic ocean that Ben knew lay out of sight over a rise in the land occupied by the local church. The main part of St Esric sat on a headland on the north coast of Cornwall above high, rugged cliffs. Ben’s check of Google Earth before he travelled down showed how a small, sheltered cove gave home to the oldest part of the village where its stone buildings clustered around a natural harbour. When nothing else could squeeze onto the steep sides of the bay, St Esric expanded up onto rolling Cornish countryside.

  Stifling a yawn, Ben tried to maintain an interest in the conversation taking place near to him. A group of about a dozen people had gathered in the chill morning air. Ben wished he could be back in bed. There were two reasons for that. The first stood about five yards away. Blonde, blue-eyed and beautiful, Joanne Kramer was talking to a British army officer, the kind of man who could charm women with a smile and a joke. The officer was the second reason Ben wanted to be back in bed, at least then Kramer would be with him and not chatting to the smooth-talking Lieutenant-Colonel Stanton.

  Ben took a look at the others in the group. There were a couple more military guys in addition to Stanton, the remainder research scientists, a fifty-fifty split between male and female, who waited on the signal for the morning’s demonstration to begin. A couple were professors, the others doctors and Ben felt very uneducated as they talked to each other using words that he didn’t recognise. Stanton said something to Kramer, who laughed and patted the Lieutenant-Colonel’s arm before Stanton raised his voice and announced,

  “We’re now ready for you,” he said, with a proud smile. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Anomaly.”

  Ben watched a Dragon Runner begin to trundle along the road towards them. Usually sent out for bomb disposal missions, the tracked unit was under the control of two men who stood a couple of hundred metres away. Stanton had already told the group to keep a close eye on the robot.

  Ben held up a hand to ask a question. Stanton almost laughed, as if he thought Ben was a schoolboy, “Yes, Mr Scarrett?”

  “What’s the red paint on the road for?”

  “To show the probable location of the Anomaly. It varies in position and width. Each time we pass the Dragon Runner through we mark any new boundary.”

  Either side of the Anomaly the red painted marks were both around five metres thick and the gap between them about fifteen. The robot crossed over from asphalt to paint. The group became quiet, everyone concentrating on the backpack-sized robot as it rolled forwards.

  For a moment, it seemed to shimmer as if seen through a heat haze before it blinked out of existence. The scientists gave a collective ‘ooh’ and a couple of them clapped as if Stanton had performed street magic. Ben tried to picture the movement of the robot, imagining its position so he could estimate when it would reappear.

  Right about now.

  And there it was, a brief distorted shape that became real again as the Dragon Runner continued its journey as if it had never disappeared. The scientists were jumping up and down like children at Christmas.

  “Is there a camera on the robot?” Kramer asked.

  “Full audio-visual package. At the moment the robot moves into the Anomaly any feed stops and only restarts when it comes out.”

  “How many people have been through it?” one of the men asked.

  “Five,” Stanton said. “All villagers.”

  “And have there been any physical effects?” The same man asked. His name tag read O’Hara. Ben guessed he was the oldest of the scientists. Most of them seemed to be in their forties, but O’Hara looked closer to sixty and seemed to have assumed leadership of the party.

  “Not to date. They’ve had CT and MRI scans, full tissue samples and are under twenty-four-hour observation.”

  “Will our equipment be here soon?” a woman standing next to Kramer asked.

  “It’s being brought in today. You’ll have as much time as you need to monitor this and carry out whatever tests you need.”

  The questions started getting more technical. It was all radiation, EM-spectrum and Compton scattering. Ben sighed, put his hand up again and waited for Stanton to notice.

  “Another question, Mr Scarrett?”

  “Sure.” Ben gave him a smile. “Can I ask why we’re here?”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Well, Kramer and I got called in like this is an emergency, but you’re sitting here studying it. I’m thinking, do you need us?”

  “We need Captain Kramer for her security expertise. You came as part of the package.”

  “I guess you don’t need an analyst then?”

  “No.”

  “I thought as much.” Ben nodded. “If you don’t need me it won’t matter if I go for a little walk?”

  “We do have our security to think about so...”

  Stanton never finished as Ben said, “Oh, I’m not going far.”

  He pushed past the scientists in front of him and strode towards the Anomaly. He got five paces before anyone reacted. First came Stanton’s voice.

  “Mr Scarrett? Ben? What are you doing?”

  Ben carried on. Another four steps and Kramer shouted, “Hey, Scarrett, don’t be an asshole.”

  He turned but continued walking backwards towards the Anomaly. Kramer had taken a couple of steps his way but stopped now with her hands on her hips and gave him a glare.

  “Scarrett, there’s a chain of command here.”

  “But I’m not part of it. I’m surplus to requirements, remember?”

  “Scarrett, don’t do this.”

  Too late.

  Ben turned again, just to make sure he was still heading in the right direction. He still couldn’t quite figure out why he’d started walking towards the Anomaly. The scientists bugged him for one. They lived in their own world, and all their talk seemed to suggest that all they would do was take readings and talk about them. For years. Then there was Lieutenant-Colonel Stanton. As soon as Ben and Kramer had walked up to the group the British officer had been all over Kramer. A little touch on her arm, a laugh at her joke, introducing her to the eggheads and ignoring Ben like he didn’t exist. Kramer lapped it up, too easily impressed by an English accent and an oily smile. So if Stanton didn’t think Ben existed, he did now.

  The two men who’d operated the Dragon Runner wer
e on the far side of the Anomaly. Ben gave them a smile. He glanced back to see Kramer watching him. He gave her a quick wave. She shook her head, but he saw a smile on her face that vanished as soon as Stanton appeared next to her. Ben faced front and stepped onto the paint. He thought about slowing, to take a moment and understand the experience of entering the Anomaly. But by then he felt a slight tingle on his flesh, like a static charge, and the world he knew ceased to exist.

  He stopped. He no longer stood on asphalt. The ground looked more like a dried river bed, a patchwork of grey-brown fragments that crumbled under his shoes. Ben knelt and broke off one piece. He held it in his hand as he stood. The air around him didn’t move. It lay like a hot blanket pressing in on his body.

  “Hello?” Ben spoke out loud. His voice seemed muffled, like back when he was young and had visited a sound proof room. The sound waves hit a wall and were absorbed. Just like now. “Hey, Kramer? Can you hear me?”

  He listened. No reply.

  Ben walked forwards studying the land around him. Like the reports said, the topography was recognisable. The ground rose to his left where the church stood in the real world. When he reached what he estimated as the midway point of the Anomaly, Ben paused.

  Analyse.

  The sky is the same colour as home. The land seems familiar other than it’s burnt and dry. The air pressure is the same, but the temperature is higher, and I wouldn’t want to be out in this sun for too long without protection. There’s little wind and no other sounds like birds or animals.

  But given all that, this place is weird. I’m standing in what can only be another world. An alternative Earth. If I go a few steps in any direction I end up back in Cornwall. But why can’t I see the village? And why can’t they see me? Or hear me? And if I came from this world what would I be seeing right now? The English village? And could I talk to them? And could they see me? Is this like an intersection in space where worlds collide? And that’s too many questions without any answers.

  He sighed and squinted up at the hot sun. Not a place to linger but linger he did, because right then Ben didn’t want to head back into the real world. He could imagine what was coming. Ben had no doubt Stanton would blow up. He’d got the measure of the Lieutenant-Colonel the day before when he and Kramer had arrived in the village.

  Ben shook his head and wished he could start all over again. From the moment he and Kramer had arrived in St Esric.

  ***

  “You know, I don’t think anyone does quaint and traditional quite like the British,” Joanne Kramer said as she dropped her bag in the living room of the cottage she and Ben Scarrett had been allocated.

  Ben looked around. “I assume by quaint you mean so small no-one can live in it and by traditional you mean so old nothing works properly.”

  “You’re very cynical, Scarrett.” Kramer pushed the door to the kitchen open. By the look on her face, Ben guessed she wasn’t impressed by what she saw.

  “Are we eating out tonight?” he asked.

  “And the one after that.” She closed the door and headed out of the living room and upstairs.

  Ben shook his head. The cottage summed up some of England’s villages. He seemed to remember seeing bigger houses in a model town his parents had dragged him around when he was a kid. With a sigh, he followed Kramer up the steep, narrow stairway and heard her say,

  “I found the bedroom.”

  Ben looked in. “Wow, lucky we don’t own a cat, but the bed looks nice and snug.”

  “I thought you might like it.”

  “I like any place where you are,” Ben said.

  Kramer looked over her shoulder at him. “How sweet.”

  “So d’you want to test the bedsprings now?”

  She laughed. “No, I want to find somewhere to eat.”

  “You could eat in bed,” Ben said.

  Kramer’s reply stopped as someone banged hard on the front door. “Oh, dear, it looks like that plan’s on hold,” she said with a grin, and pushed past Ben.

  As Kramer headed downstairs Ben checked the bathroom. He winced, glad for once that Kramer had been distracted from her tour of the cottage. He decided to be somewhere else when she took a look at that room. Maybe the Moon would be far enough away.

  By the time Ben made it downstairs Kramer had figured out how to open the front door. The guy on the doorstep gave Kramer an appreciative smile when he saw her.

  “You must be Joanne Kramer?”

  Ben sniffed. Although he wore civilian clothing Ben pegged him for a British Army officer. It was the way he spoke and held out his hand. He knew Kramer would be impressed by the accent and the smile. He half expected the guy to kiss her hand as well.

  “That’s right,” Kramer said. Ben could almost hear her giggle.

  “Lieutenant-Colonel Alec Stanton,” he said with another smile. “I’m running the military side of the operation down here. Is your accommodation suitable?”

  “We were just taking a look around,” Kramer said. “It’ll be fine, won’t it Scarrett?”

  “Good,” Stanton said, before Ben could speak. “We’ve had to evacuate the locals and requisition their properties for the duration of the op. We’ve put most of our military and scientific contingent up in multi-bed properties. This is one of the few one-bedroom houses here and I understand that shouldn’t be a problem for you?”

  “No problem at all,” Kramer said. “Scarrett can always sleep on the floor. I’ve had you do that in the past, haven’t I?”

  “I’d have thought it was your turn for the carpet,” Ben said as he gave Kramer a nudge so that he could stand alongside her.

  “A gentleman wouldn’t expect a lady to do that, would he Lieutenant-Colonel?”

  “No, he wouldn’t. I’d let you have the bed and I’d even help tuck you in at night.”

  Now Kramer did giggle and Ben sighed. “Do you get extra training in how to impress women?” he asked.

  “You must be Ben Scarrett.” Stanton’s handshake didn’t impress Ben.

  “Not difficult to work out since Kramer’s already called me Scarrett.”

  “I’ve heard a lot about you,” Stanton said.

  “You have?”

  “Full briefings have been held so I am aware of your service records with both military and intelligence organisations,” Stanton said. “Your recent exploits at Darlford were also reviewed.”

  Ben got the impression, from the look on the British officer’s face that Stanton didn’t approve of those ‘exploits’. “You have a problem with them?” Ben asked.

  “Within this exclusion zone you fall under my direct command. I cannot comment on Darlford but if you act in a similarly reckless manner here I will not hesitate in reporting you for disciplinary action.”

  “Wow,” Ben said with a glance at Kramer. “Your reputation precedes you.”

  “What about yours?” she asked.

  “Oh, my reputation is in tatters, isn’t it Lieutenant-Colonel?”

  “This isn’t a joke,” Stanton snapped at them. “I’m sure the deaths of both civilians and military could have been avoided at Darlford if you had both been kept under a tighter rein.”

  Ben looked at Kramer. He couldn’t respond to Stanton and saw that she had the same memories in her eyes that he did.

  Kramer said, “You weren’t there.”

  Stanton sniffed. “The same outcome would have been achieved without causing so many losses.”

  “And like Kramer said, you weren’t there.”

  “Let’s just suggest we work together and hope that the riddle of the Anomaly is easily solved,” Kramer offered, in an attempt to defuse the sudden tension.

  Stanton’s demeanour changed, a smile lit up his face and Ben saw a different man.

  “Indeed.” The officer nodded. “Well said, Captain Kramer.”

  “Call me Jo,” Kramer said. “I’m working with spooks now so my rank doesn’t come into it.”

  “That might take some getting used to
but Jo it is. And you can call me Alec.” His smile came again and Ben saw a man who could use his looks and charm to get anything he wanted. “We’ll be working closely together on this project so I know we’ll be seeing much more of each other over the coming days.”

  “Not too much, I hope,” Ben said under his breath as Kramer gave Stanton one of her eye-jolting smiles.

  “Can you recommend anywhere local for us to eat? We never had the chance to pick up supplies on our way down.”

  “Try a pub called the Countryman. It’s about five miles that way,” Stanton said with a gesture to his left. “It’s outside the exclusion zone and better than the catering units we’re setting up.”

  “And when do we get to work?” Kramer asked.

  “First thing in the morning. Meet up at zero-eight-hundred by the church. I’ll be briefing in some other new arrivals.”

  “We’ll see you then,” Kramer finished with another bright smile that made Stanton grin in return.

  As Stanton left,Ben stuck an elbow into Kramer’s waist and whispered, “You’re too easily impressed by English accents.”

  Kramer looked Ben up and down. “He’s good looking, smartly dressed and polite.”

  “And I’m not?”

  One eyebrow rose a fraction. “You might hit one out of three from time to time but I can’t recall you ever getting two or more.”

  “I must try harder.” Ben tried to smile but it didn’t quite come off. That hurt.

  Later in the evening, after a pub meal that Kramer said was the best food she’d had since coming to England, they lay together in a bed that Ben decided must be a third of the size of an average one. Not that it bothered him too much. It meant that Kramer had to lie close to him, and Ben liked that enough to think she should be closer.

  “If you roll over you might fall out,” he said.

  “So why don’t you make some room for me and sleep on the floor.” Kramer sounded sleepy.

  “I was thinking we improvise and make our own bunk bed. I’ll lie on the bottom.”