by Mark Robson
Her memory of that instant was vivid. She remembered no sense of weird objects in the sky in Sam’s thoughts at the time of his disappearance. There was shock and confusion, but there was no question of anything alien . . . then, unbidden, an impossible face, scaled, with sharp teeth and a cold intelligence behind its dark eyes reconstructed in her mind and she shuddered. It was a face she had pictured clearly just the previous day. Could it be that this creature had somehow taken Sam and Callum? She scrunched her eyes shut even tighter as she focused on trying to feel a link between the face and the moment the boys vanished. Nothing came. Although the image of the creature had come from Sam, it had come long after she had sensed he was on land.
‘No,’ she sighed, causing the other two to pause in their argument. She could feel their eyes on her. It was hard to know how much she could tell them about what she had seen without sounding crazy. ‘Sam’s in a strange place, but I don’t think he was abducted.’
‘What about a sort of space-time warp?’ Carrie suggested. ‘I was just readin’ about this freaky thing that happened to a passenger aircraft where they apparently vanished off the radar screen for ten minutes and then suddenly reappeared again in the same place, carried on flyin’ and landed safely. Once they were on the ground, air traffic control asked the pilots where they went during that ten-minute blank period and the pilots denied having ever been off course, or having experienced anythin’ strange during their approach. The really spooky thing was that after landin’, the pilots discovered all the watches and clocks on the plane were ten minutes slow, yet they had only done a time check about twenty minutes before the incident.’
‘That is weird!’ Tony agreed. ‘You know, I never believed there was anythin’ in this whole Bermuda Triangle thing until I started readin’ these notes, Niamh. Now, I’m not so sure. There’s just so much stuff here. The thing that’s scary ain’t just the number of incidents, but the sort of people involved. It would be easy to laugh off a bunch of flaky wannabes lookin’ for a bit of publicity, but a load of the people in these reports are solid, respectable types.’
‘I don’t think Sam’s in a time warp either,’ Niamh said, shaking her head. ‘At least not one that just makes you lose track of time. I’ve sensed his fear at times. Wherever he is there are dangers. He’s not in some sort of stasis.’
‘OK, so we scratch UFOs and time warps,’ Tony said. ‘What about USOs?’
‘I think we can cross those off as well,’ Niamh answered. ‘At least for the moment. I suppose there’s a possibility that a USO could have done something without being seen by the boys. There was a sort of pulling sensation when I first felt something was wrong. It was almost as if he was being torn away from me. I don’t know how else to describe it.’
‘There’s an awful lot of stuff about magnetic and electromagnetic effects in these notes,’ Carrie pointed out. ‘Maybe the boys are still here, but sort of invisible.’
‘Have you been catchin’ sneaky Star Trek time again, sis?’
‘No!’ she replied vehemently. ‘You’re the trekkie, not me. It was somethin’ I read here in the notes.’
‘Strange!’ Tony said, his eyes going distant for a moment. ‘It’s just I saw an episode of The Next Gen a couple of weeks ago when somethin’ like that happened. Two of the main characters suffered a sort of phase shift. They could see the rest of the crew, but no one could see them. It was as if they were ghosts, except they were alive.’
Niamh began to shake her head, but Carrie nodded.
‘Yes!’ she said excitedly, pushing her brother aside and keying back up through the file levels before opening a different chain of folders. ‘Look at this. I read somethin’ similar just a few minutes ago. Let me find it. It’s here somewhere. I think it was called the Philadelphia Experiment. Yes. Look!’
Carrie sat back as the others scanned through the notes.
‘This was back in 1943, Carrie,’ Niamh said, shaking her head and pursing her lips. ‘And Dad’s noted the sources as questionable.’
‘Yeah, but look at the claim!’ Tony said, giving a whistle. ‘It says they were usin’ some sort of a strong electromagnetic field to make the ship undetectable to radar and instead, they inadvertently made the ship and crew vanish entirely!’
‘Riggghhhht!’ Niamh said. ‘Invisible. Like the invisible man invisible.’
‘And there were reports of it having teleported. There’s a cross-reference here to something called the Hutchison Effect,’ he noted. ‘Anyone seen that yet?’
The girls shook their heads.
‘Do we have to look at that now?’ Carrie asked. ‘My head’s spinnin’ with all this stuff. Who’s up for a swim?’
‘I don’t know,’ Niamh replied. ‘I think we might be getting somewhere here.’
‘It doesn’t have to be a long swim,’ Carrie said, stretching and arching her back like a cat. ‘I’m just gettin’ stiff from all this sittin’ and starin’ at the screen. I’m strugglin’ to concentrate and I think I’d be more alert after a quick dip.’
‘OK, you go, but I’d better stay inside. It’s probably better if I don’t risk being seen.’
‘Our pool’s pretty private,’ Carrie assured her. ‘There’s no houses overlookin’ us out back. It should be fine. Come on. I’ve got plenty of spare bikinis. What about you, bro’? You comin’?’
‘In a minute,’ he said, his eyes still glued to the screen. ‘I just wanna check out this Hutchison Effect. I’ll be right behind you.’
‘I should stay too. This electromagnetic thing looks promising.’
‘Oh no you don’t!’ Carrie chuckled. ‘If you stay, the two of you won’t come at all. Come on, Niamh! Take a quick break. The information will still be there when we get back.’
Carrie took her by the hand and led the way through to her bedroom where they pulled out Carrie’s extensive collection of swimwear. Her bikinis were rather more daring than Niamh was used to wearing, but she found one that covered enough for her to feel comfortable. She looked at herself in the mirror.
‘Dad would have a fit if he saw me in this! Especially if he knew I was going to be swimming with a boy I fancied.’
Carrie gave her a cheeky wink. ‘Less is more around here. You’ve got a great body. What’s to hide?’
Niamh put on an obviously fake posh accent and pointed at Carrie’s bikini, which barely covered anything at all. ‘One doesn’t flaunt one’s assets with such blatant exhibitionism in England.’
They both laughed.
‘Well, it’s a good job we’re not in England then,’ Carrie said. ‘Come on. Let’s go through the living area to the deck and do a bit of flauntin’. I’m bettin’ Tony will change pretty quick when he sees you go by.’
Niamh felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment, but she couldn’t think of a suitably quick reply. Tony was still glued to his computer screen and Niamh could hear a distorted voice coming from it. Niamh started towards him, eager to see what he was looking at, but Carrie immediately took her by the arm and steered her towards the patio door. Tony glanced round briefly and Niamh was sure she saw his eyes widen as he saw her. She felt her chest tighten. He was quick to look back at the screen. Was he worried that she might think he was staring?
‘You not comin’, then?’ Carrie teased.
‘Yeah. I’ll be right there,’ he replied, glancing round at Niamh again and flashing a smile at her. ‘I just googled the Hutchison Effect and found some videos of his experiments on YouTube. You need to take a look at this later. Experiments aside, this dude has serious mad scientist hair that’s bound to give you a laugh!’
‘So what sort of things does he do on these videos?’ Niamh asked, pausing by the door. She was tempted to shake off Carrie and temporarily abandon swimming to check it out.
‘He keeps on about somethin’ called zero point energy and by puttin’ different stuff into a strong magnetic field, he makes it do weird stuff. It’s freaky, but hey – the clips ain’t goin’ nowhere.’
‘So what’s the connection with the Philadelphia Project?’
Tony clicked the pause icon and got to his feet. ‘I’ll tell you in the pool,’ he said. ‘Be right there.’ And he left the living area at a run.
‘Told you,’ Carrie whispered.
‘I reckon he just needed the toilet,’ Niamh suggested, playing down his speedy exit.
Carrie gave her a knowing smile and although Niamh tried to remain outwardly indifferent, secretly she hoped Carrie was right.
‘Perhaps I should just take a look at the video,’ she added, taking half a step back towards the computer.
‘No! Swim! Now! Come on. The sooner we get in, the sooner I’ll let you come back and look at the freaky scientist!’
Stepping out from the air-conditioned living room, the heat hit like a sledgehammer. Niamh wasted no time in heading for the water. The Dales’ pool was a similar size to the one at her father’s house in Summerland. Without knowing how deep it was, Niamh did not want to risk diving in. Instead, she walked to the edge and stepped straight off the side to drop into the water. Allowing her legs to fold as her feet found the bottom of the pool, she stayed under the water for a few seconds before drifting back to the surface.
The temperature of the water was perfect. Cool enough to be refreshing, yet warm enough not to take her breath away. As she broke the surface, she stroked her hair back out of her eyes. It felt a guilty pleasure. Leaping high and curling into a ball, Carrie bombed into the water beside her with a tremendous splash for her size.
‘You’re a maniac!’ Niamh gasped as Carrie surfaced. ‘You couldn’t have got much closer.’
Carrie just grinned and pushed off into an easy crawl stroke to the deep end of the pool where she paused, holding on to the edge. ‘Race?’ she asked.
It felt frivolous and wrong to even contemplate having fun while the boys were lost and her dad was being held by the police for a crime Niamh knew he hadn’t committed, but it did not look as if Carrie was going to let her get back to the search without letting off some steam. Niamh paused a moment before answering. Perhaps if she raced, that would be enough.
‘You’re on,’ she agreed. ‘How far?’
‘Four lengths OK?’
‘Sounds good to me.’
Niamh swam to the deep end using a gentle breaststroke. No sooner had her hands touched the end than Carrie said, ‘Ready set go!’ as fast as she could, and pushed off.
Taken by surprise, Niamh took a split second to react and follow. Cheat! she thought instinctively. Then she mentally laughed at her reaction, realising that she would probably have tried something similar if she’d known Carrie a little better.
Concentrating, Niamh powered forward, digging hard with her cupped hands and kicking as fast as she could. Without goggles, it was hard to see much. She squinted, trying to assess if the water was going to be deep enough at the shallow end for a tumble turn. It was and she flipped, pushing away hard from the wall and giving several strong dolphin kicks before breaking the surface again.
She could feel that she had pulled alongside Carrie, but it was hard to tell if the American girl was aware of her yet. The pool was not long. She barely took a handful more strokes before she flipped again. Although Carrie wasn’t using tumble turns, she was knifing through the water at an impressive pace. As Niamh flipped through the final turn, she could tell she had the edge, but without her superior turning technique, it would have been much tighter.
Touching first, Niamh looked up to see Carrie make her final stroke and touch. The sound of clapping made her look round. Tony was standing on the side with a broad smile on his face. He was wearing a pair of Bermuda shorts with a tropical beach pattern. They suited his golden skin and bleach-blond hair perfectly.
‘Nice win!’ he said. ‘There’s not many girls around here that can beat Carrie in the water. You swim well.’
‘I like swimming. It’s one of the few sports that I get on with.’
‘It shows,’ Carrie panted, placing a friendly hand on Niamh’s shoulder. ‘Great swim! You’d give Tony a good race. I never beat him, but I think you’d have a chance.’
‘If you think I’m good, you should see my brother,’ Niamh replied. ‘He’s far better than me. In fact, he’s irritatingly good at most sports.’
‘Good-looking?’ Carrie asked, tilting her head slightly to one side and giving a suggestive smile.
‘He’s my brother! How do I answer that? If I say he’s drop-dead gorgeous, will it help you stay focused on looking for him?’
Carrie laughed. ‘Of course!’ she said.
‘In that case he’s drop-dead gorgeous and a sucker for a blonde with an American accent.’
‘Now you’ve got her attention!’ Tony laughed.
He jumped into the pool to join them, and for the next twenty minutes the three of them played a variety of games that involved either chasing a ball, or each other, around the pool. All were noisy.
Despite Niamh’s strong initial desire to get straight back to the search, she found the laughter and enthusiasm of the Dales infectious. It was not long before she was drawn fully into the games and laughing along with them, especially whenever she and Carrie ganged up on Tony to beat him. He pretended to look hurt at times, but he was clearly play-acting. Indeed, it was such fun that she stayed in the pool far longer than she intended and with all the noise they were making, none of them noticed the front doorbell ring.
Tessa could hear squeals of laughter and splashing noises coming from the Dales’ pool. She rang the bell again, but knew she was wasting her time. Tony and Carrie would never hear it above the racket. Was it just the two of them making all that noise? She couldn’t tell. Still angry with Tony for abandoning her in Key West yesterday, she turned to leave.
‘Damn you, Tony!’ she muttered. ‘Why do I keep chasing you? You’re not that much of a catch. I can do better than you.’
Tessa strode away from the front door determined to leave, but she only got halfway down the driveway when she paused. Where else would she go today? Annoyed as she was with Tony, she itched to join him and Carrie in the pool. She was wearing a bikini under her clothes. Surely it wouldn’t hurt to slip around the house and join them? Hesitating a moment longer, she made her decision.
Doing her best to paste a friendly smile on her lips, she turned and marched back up the driveway and round the side of the house.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The eyes were racing towards them through the darkness. Sam raised his rifle, gritting his teeth and feeling for the safety catch.
‘Don’t shoot!’
The voice in the darkness was Nathan’s and the two raptors speeding along the passageway towards the beleaguered party were Edison and Crick. A red-filtered torch rounded a corner and danced along behind them. Sam heaved a sigh of relief and lowered his rifle, his heart pounding.
‘Nathan?’ Claire shouted between firing controlled bursts down the passageway ahead. ‘Give me some good news. We can’t go this way.’
A sudden flash of bright orange light flared along the subterranean corridor behind them and a deafening BOOM echoed in its wake. A sudden blast of dust and small debris driven by the shock wave blew through the party. Sam barely managed to keep his feet under him. Others were not so fortunate. Sherri tumbled backward, colliding with David and Callum and taking all three of them down to form a shadowy heap. As he reeled, Sam shook his head to try to clear the ringing in his ears from the shock of the explosion, while a glowing after-image of the flash moved wherever he looked. With their extra bulk and low centres of gravity, all of the raptors held their balance.
‘I’m sorry, Claire, but I lost Watson,’ Nathan gasped, staggering to a halt about ten paces away. ‘There was nothing we could do to save him. There were too many of them. That blast should’ve slowed ’em. With any luck, the charge will have collapsed the passage and trapped them on the other side.’
‘Damn it, Nathan!’ Claire cursed. She fired a longer
burst that spoke volumes about her frustration. ‘You should have been more careful! You were supposed to be investigating the alarms, not engaging in firefights. Not only that, but you’ve just sealed our only way out of here.’
‘No,’ he replied. ‘The ancillary southern loop should still be open. I blew the tunnel beyond the entrance. Follow me, but be ready in case any of them were quick enough to make it through.’
‘OK. In that case, you take the lead. Me ’n’ Alex’ll hold this lot off,’ she ordered.
Everyone was back on their feet again and they began to move. But even with Sherri and Nathan shining their filtered torches, it was hard to see more than a few metres through the dust that now filled the passageway in the direction of the blast. Sam held his arm across his mouth and nose, using the sleeve of his shirt as a filter. Although it made a difference, there was no avoiding the dust. His eyes streamed tears and he blinked and squinted in an effort to see what was happening.
Within seconds, everyone was coughing, including the raptors. The sound they made was short and sharp, sounding more like a bark than a human cough. Between the noisy, sporadic gunfire, all the coughing and the oppressive, dust-filled darkness, Sam began to imagine the walls of the tunnel squeezing in on him.
It was horrible. The more he coughed, the more he wanted to cough. He heard someone retch, though he couldn’t tell who it was. Following the dim light of Nathan’s torch through the murk, he stumbled forward. They moved slowly. Cautiously. And it was well that they did.
Without warning, a dark shadow leapt towards Nathan’s torch. It was unclear how Nipper anticipated the attack, but somehow he did. Exploding forward in an astonishing dive past Nathan, the raptor intercepted the attacker in mid-flight, deflecting its charge into the wall. The impact was brutal and both went down in a dark, rolling mass of teeth and claws. Sam did not see how Nipper dispatched his opponent, but whatever he did was quick and effective.
With the Imperium raptor dead, Nipper got to his feet slowly and raised his hands in case one of the humans with guns mistook him for the attacker in the poor light.