“Where is Daddy’s work, Lena? Do you know how to get there?” An image flashed into his mind again. The girl’s mind power, even in waking-time, was impressive.
She shook her head. “No. Daddy drives there. I only recognise it when we get there. It’s a big, shiny building, with lots of black windows.”
He had enough information, but how would he—
An idea crept into his mind. He would find the building, and use the girl.
He leaned down to the girl. “Thank you, Lena. You have been most helpful. Daddy will be pleased. Now you may go back to sleep.” He leaned into and reached forward with one hand to stroke her chest with the back of his talon, but the girl screamed at the exact moment he experienced a searing pain. He looked down at his talons, confused.
“Mr Big Bird! What happened to your finger?”
His index talon was missing, leaving a bloodied and dripping stump.
~~~
Poor Mr Big Bird! His pointing finger—well they weren’t really fingers were they?—had dropped off!
He was so brave. If it had been her, she would have screamed until someone sent an ambulance, but he just seemed to breathe deeply and bear it.
He had wrapped a dirty cloth around his damaged hand, and now he was talking to her in a funny, sleepy voice. “Lena. You will hear only my voice now.”
She nodded.
“You will help me with a special surprise.”
She nodded again and said nothing.
“Close your eyes. You may sleep now, but when I tell you, you must open your eyes and find the surprise for Daddy.”
She closed her eyes and the creature picked her up, and before she fell asleep, she sensed they were on another flying adventure.
“Lena, wake up and listen only to me.”
She opened her eyes. It was still dark and they were standing in the shadows outside Daddy’s big building, with the shiny black windows.
“We are going to surprise Daddy and get the machine for him. I am too big to go in ...” the creature hesitated, “and you don’t want me to see the special numbers, Daddy wouldn’t want that.”
She shook her head.
Mr Big Bird held out his uninjured hand. Something was dangling from his talon. Clever Mr Big Bird! It was Daddy’s swipe card which he always wore around his neck. He must have known Daddy always needed it late at night, when the other men had gone home. She only knew herself because Daddy had forgotten some papers one day, and they had dropped by the lab after dinner out. She took the card from him, placed the lanyard over her own head, and let the card dangle below her waist.
“Now repeat after me your instructions.”
She nodded. His voice was so soothing.
“I will enter the building and find a bag for the machine.”
She repeated the words slowly.
“I will use Daddy’s numbers and get the machine. I will need to disconnect it. It will be quite safe to do so.”
Again, she repeated. This game was easy.
“I will leave quietly and hear only Mr Big Bird’s voice.”
After repeating the last sentence, she waited patiently.
“Now, Lena. You are doing this for Daddy and it feels good to play this game, does it not?”
Mr Big Bird spoke funny sometimes. But his voice did feel good. She nodded.
“You may begin the game. I will be waiting for you here.”
She nodded, and walked to the large double-glass doors, which were shut. As if in a dream, she held the swipe card against the black box, like she had seen Daddy do. The doors sighed apart.
The lights were still on, so she walked through the security gates and down the corridor, past the café, and into the kids cloakroom. The moment Mr Big Bird had said she needed to find a bag, she immediately thought of this room. Daddy had insisted on keeping spare backpacks there after he had seen little kids struggling home with books they had borrowed from the lab. She picked up a nice luminous green one for Mr Big Bird, and walked around the corner to the collider room.
She looked up and down the corridor. Daddy would not want anyone to know his special numbers. She hoped he wouldn’t be mad that she knew them, but Mr Big Bird was right. Daddy would be pleased she hadn’t shared them with him.
No one was around, so she stood up on tippy-toes, tapped in the numbers and pressed the button. The door slid open and she walked in.
She was pleased to see the machine was blinking a steady orange hello to her. She knelt down and methodically unplugged all the connections. Daddy had told her never to tug on the cables, but to clasp the plug itself and pull firmly. Mr Big Bird had told her it was safe to unplug it when she’d told him about all the wires.
She stood back and looked at the machine, which, despite her pulling all the plugs out, was still blinking the steady orange light. She supposed it must have a battery. She looked at the backpack on the floor. It would be a tight fit, but she would try her best.
She leaned over the machine and tried to lift it up. Mr Big Bird hadn’t told her it was this heavy! She wrapped her arms further around, heaved the machine up and staggered to the backpack.
She couldn’t lower the machine into the backpack, so she would have to pull the backpack onto it, then tip the whole lot over on its side to zip up the bag. Her arms were already aching, so she lowered the machine to the floor and picked up the backpack.
Carefully she pulled the bag over the machine, turned it over and zipped it up. She sat on the floor in front of it, with the backpack’s straps behind her, and reached around to hook each arm under.
She stuck her lower lip out. She would have to lean forward and bend over, to be able to stand up, but once she was up, she could probably manage. Hadn’t she helped Daddy like this before, when they had both gone to fetch firewood when they went camping? She’d lifted a heavy backpack then, hadn’t she? And this one wasn’t even as heavy, though it was a bit more bulky. Daddy would laugh when he saw her with it. He’d probably remember the firewood too!
She bent forward and raised the pack onto her back, then stood up. It wasn’t so bad after all. She’d have to lean forward a bit and walk slowly.
She left the room, remembering to press the button to close the door, and made her way down the corridor.
Turning the corner and coming towards her was Nathan, Sarina’s friend. She smiled at him.
Nathan looked like he was talking to her—at least his mouth was moving—and his eyebrows were up a little, in a question. She wondered why he was moving his mouth, but not making any sound, but instead smiled again and walked past him. She looked back and saw him shrug, then turn and walk off down the corridor.
Now all she had to do was take the bag to Mr Big Bird.
She wondered if she had to take the bag off, like she saw other people do when they went through the security frames. Probably not. That was only for big people.
~~~
After watching Lena enter the building, Valkrog had moved away into the shadows. Now he tapped one taloned foot and squeezed the now-bloodied rag against his throbbing stump. Where was the girl? Surely this machine was not that difficult to procure?
He started to move to the building, then quickly pulled back when he spotted a figure arriving, rolling along and standing aboard a wheeled plank. The figure stopped outside the doors and pulled something out of a pocket. Whoever it was intended to enter the building. The figure looked familiar, but it was too dark to move any closer and certainly too risky to step in and prevent the person going inside. He would have to gamble Lena would not be recognised as a threat.
The figure disappeared through the doors, then stillness returned. He stepped forward again, surely by now—
An ear-splitting siren wrenched the silence from the air at the same time as he saw movement at the doors. It was the girl. Why was she not running? Did she not hear the siren? He kicked himself. Of course she wouldn’t. He had tranced her to hear only his voice.
She walked slowly and
deliberately towards him, until he could bear it no more and leaped out of the shadows.
He ran to the girl and swept her up, ignoring the pain in his talon, smug in the knowledge that the pack on her back was heavy.
He raced up into the air and away from the building, clutching his prize.
He had the machine.
~~~
Nathan was puzzled. He had arrived at the labs after a very disappointing symposium. Honestly, did any of these so-called scientists ever read any science-fiction? They had all been intent on using their own theories to prove why some elements of science-fiction were of course totally impossible. He grinned when he heard them. If only they knew.
But he had managed to find two representatives from the Royal Society and badger them about the scholarship proposal.
They, at least, had appeared interested. But they would want more ... evidence. And that, he mused, as he’d skated to the labs, might take a bit of persuasion. Just how much information would the Prof be willing to relinquish?
However, that particular thought was not the one puzzling him.
He’d passed Lena in the corridor, walking strangely.
He’d asked her what she was doing in the lab so late, but she didn’t seem to hear him. She only smiled at him and walked right past. She looked glassy-eyed and was wearing a backpack clearly too big and heavy for her. He’d been so preoccupied, he’d shrugged it off and kept walking.
And now his brain was frying itself.
He scratched his head, trying to understand what was bugging him so badly, then froze with his hand in the air. Lena! What was he thinking? Or apparently not thinking. Had some moronic part of his brain just assumed that Agent Blanchard had found her? One of these days he would get lost in his own head and never get out. He spun around and raced after the girl. The Prof AND Lena were missing and she’d just walked right past him under his nose! Idiot. He slapped his face as he ran.
He ran around the corner of the corridor that led to the foyer, then had to stop and cover his ears when the siren began screaming. The building alarm!
He stumbled out of the building and released his hands. The siren was still loud, but that wasn’t the problem.
The problem was Lena was nowhere to be seen. He sat down on the hard paving-stones outside the door. How could she disappear like that? And what was she doing here?
A car screeched around the corner. He groaned. Security. How was he going to explain this? “Ah, yes, sir, ah, an invisible missing six year old girl tripped the alarm.” He got up and walked over to the security guard, who was stepping out of his car. At the very least, they would turn off the alarm and he would be able to think again. He sighed. He had no option other than to call Agent Blanchard.
“Good evening young man. Were you the cause of the alarm being triggered?”
“Yes, sir. I mean no, sir. Actually what I mean is I was here when it went off, but ...” He gave the man a weak smile, but the man wasn’t smiling.
“But what?”
“But I think we’d better go in while I explain. And turn the alarm off.”
The security guard said nothing, and swiped his access card to open the doors. They walked in together, the man pulling a pair of head-mufflers from his jacket pocket and putting them on. Nathan made do with his hands. The guard moved over to the alarm panel, opened it with his master key and punched a few buttons.
Silence blissfully returned.
The guard turned to Nathan. “Where do you want to start, Mr? ...”
“Goldberg, sir. Nathan Goldberg. I’m one of Professor Harrison’s research assistants. You see there’s a missing girl—the Prof’s daughter actually—and also the Prof, he’s missing too, and I came here late after the symposium and the girl was here, but she didn’t hear me and the Prof wasn’t here, and ...” the words tumbled out and came to a halt.
He took a deep breath and continued. “We need to contact a certain Agent Blanchard. And before I do, I’d better check through the premises to see if anything has been disturbed. I think you had better come with me.”
The man stared at him. “Mr Goldberg was it? You’re not going anywhere else, that’s for sure. And as for going through the building? I was about to ask you to do the same thing.” He pointed to Nathan’s swipe card. “Please verify your security access for me.”
Nathan showed the man the photo ID on his card, then walked over to the front doors, which opened on his approach. He stepped outside the building and waited for the doors to close, then held the card up to the box. The doors opened and he walked back in to the man.
The guard nodded. “Good. Now walk me through the premises. After you.”
They checked the entire building together. No locked doors had been opened. No breakages. No signs of anything missing.
On the way back to the foyer, they passed the collider room. Nathan stopped, struck by a sudden intuition. “Wait one moment. I have to get something.” He ran at speed down to the storeroom, grabbed a couple of headshields and returned to the guard, panting. He thrust one at the man. “Here, put this on. We have to wear them as protection from the ah ... microwave radiation in this room.” He couldn’t really say ‘rem-particles’, could he?
The security guard had started to put the shield on, but removed it as soon as Nathan said ‘radiation’. “Sorry, son. That’s not part of my job description. I’ll wait in the foyer while you do what you need to do. Nothing personal, you understand.” He gave the headshield back to Nathan and walked off.
Nathan shrugged, tapped in the code and thumbed the button. The door slid open and revealed the evidence of Lena’s work. He stared at the empty space. “Cripes alive!”
He raced out of the room, remembering to close the door on the way out, and sprinted to the foyer. He was shouting before he came to a halt. “Do you know how to get hold of Agent Blanchard?”
The man shook his head. “No. I know someone who does though,” and he pulled his walkie-talkie off his belt. “What shall I say is the problem? What message shall we pass to this Blanchard?”
“Tell him ...” Nathan racked his brains for a secure, yet urgent message. “Tell him Nathan spotted Lena leaving the cold-room with the Professor’s favourite toy. And now she’s playing hide and seek. Can you join in at your earliest convenience?”
The man raised his eyes. “As you wish.” He pushed a button on the radio, all the while staring at Nathan.
~ 8 ~
Rats
Agent Blanchard stood. “I must leave to coordinate the search, but of course I will standby for any news you have. Anytime.”
“But how will I reach you?” Sarina said, puzzled.
“This.” He held out a phone. “It’s okay, take it. I have several, and this one is cleared for ... public use. Don’t worry about phone reception. These are ... more powerful than most.”
Sarina reached over to take the phone when it rang. Blanchard looked at it, puzzled, then held it up to his ear.
“Blanchard.” He nodded. “Yes. Who? Yes. I have the number. Tell the guard to take him to the phone at the front desk.”
He took the phone from his ear and stared at Sarina. “It was the security company that looks after Professor Harrison’s lab building. The alarm was triggered a short time ago. When the guard turned up to investigate, he discovered your friend, Master ... ah, Nathan. Apparently he’s saying something about Lena and playing hide-and-seek.”
Sarina rolled her eyes.
The Agent punched some numbers into the phone and held it up to his ear again. “Yes, Master Goldberg, is that you? Yes it is.”
As he listened, Sarina watched his eyes harden and his face pale. Whatever Nathan was telling him had to be serious, because she couldn’t imagine anything that would shake Agent Blanchard.
“No, don’t tell the guard and certainly not the police. Wait there. I will come as soon as possible—within the hour. Did I find who?—Oh yes. I’m with her now. No, I don’t have time to explain—you what? Y
es, of course. Wait one moment.”
He held his hand over the phone. “The machine I was discussing with you has been stolen. Master Goldberg ... I’m sorry, Miss, force of habit. I don’t believe I can sustain using Master Goldberg’s first name. It’s not in our nature. Anyway, Master Goldberg believes it was the Professor’s daughter, Lena who took it. Apparently he witnessed it. Miss Metcalfe, I cannot impress upon you enough how serious this is. I must leave immediately, but Master Goldberg has asked to speak with you. Please be quick.”
Sarina took the phone. Her head was spinning. “Nathan! Lena took the machine? But how? And I still don’t know what this machine is. Agent Blanchard won’t tell me.” She looked up at the Agent, who nodded and motioned with his hand for Nathan to go on. “I think he is saying it’s okay to tell me, but be quick.”
Nathan’s voice sounded anxious in her ear. “Sarina, it’s really bad. You see, the Professor has this project—you know, the one I wanted to tell you about, that I’m helping him with? Anyway—”
“Nathan! I don’t have time to hear about your project. Agent Blanchard has to go. Get to the point.” She imagined him nodding.
“That is the point, Sarina. You see, the Professor discovered a new particle—the rem-particle, but you know that already—and the machine is a kind of collider that can manufacture these particles, only it’s potentially unstable and anyway, the universe is losing rem, well maybe in our solar system it is, and we’re all getting more stupid, and if that collider gets into the wrong hands, well ... we’re all doomed.”
“Nathan, slow down. Doomed? What do you mean? Will it explode?”
“I don’t exactly know. It might start some horrible chain reaction. But whatever it does, I’m pretty sure our creative abilities would be badly affected.”
Sarina snorted. “Bah! Geek-talk. Spell it out, Nathan. What do you mean, ‘our creative abilities’?”
Nathan was silent for a few moments. “No more painting, Sarina.”
She gasped and felt her world falling away from her. “Nathan, what have you done?”
“It’s not my fault, Sarina—”
Agent Blanchard was tapping her on the shoulder.
The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults) Page 37