by Sharon Sant
Thirty-Five: Tessa
Braithwaite sat in a warm, perfumed office at the camp that made the one in the administration block look like a medieval hovel. It was reserved for his use only. He leaned back on his seat, hands behind his head, drawling a letter while his secretary, Tessa, sat at a small desk opposite, busily tapping down the particulars onto a laptop. A soft knock at the door interrupted them. Tessa glanced up from her work with a questioning look. Braithwaite nodded.
Tessa rose from her desk and opened the door. ‘Yes?’
‘Would you tell Mr Braithwaite that the research base on the mainland is ready? They plan to begin operations tomorrow, first light. Dr Stein asks if he can have the other things necessary to start testing.’
Tessa gave the caller a curt nod and closed the door. It had been a long day and her patience was frayed. She didn’t know what the other things were and she didn’t care. The only way not to betray emotion was to speak as little as possible and hope she could hold it together until bedtime. But bedtime, she knew from bitter experience, was a long way off. Braithwaite seemed to be superhuman when it came to empire building and money making; he never slowed down. And he expected the same from his staff. Many times she had stayed with him, exhausted, as he worked into the night.
‘Call for my car please, Tessa.’
‘Certainly, Sir. Where will he be taking you?’
Braithwaite rubbed a sinewy hand over his closely cropped head. ‘The hotel. I’ll see Stein in the morning.’
Tessa gave a silent prayer of thanks. ‘Yes, sir. I’ll arrange it.’
The rain pattered down through the canopy of trees as Braithwaite glared at Stein.
‘But… the equipment is not ready yet… we’ve only just begun!’ Stein pleaded.
‘I want to see where my money is going,’ Braithwaite snapped. ‘I want to see what results you have so far, and I expect your notes to be in a comprehensible state, no matter what time anyone demands to inspect them. And I certainly don’t want to stand around in this infernal rain any longer than necessary.’
‘I’ll see to them now, sir.’ Stein slithered off, snarling instructions at his team as he went.
Tessa appeared at Braithwaite’s side. ‘The car is ready whenever you are.’
‘Thank you, Tessa. Back to the hotel. I can’t bear nature. Perhaps you would be good enough to join me?’ His courteous tone had a subtly dangerous edge.
Tessa’s perfect professional mask hid the intense dislike she felt for Braithwaite. Only her iodine-blue eyes betrayed her loathing. If it wasn’t for her mother’s illness she would find another job. As it was, jobs like this were hard to come by and they needed the money.
‘Sir, perhaps it would be a good idea if I waited here for Dr Stein to come back with his report. That way I could bring it to you as soon as it’s ready.’ She smiled tightly. Any moment she could find during the working day to be away from Braithwaite was a bonus, even if it meant hanging around to be ogled by the odious Stein.
Braithwaite stiffly nodded acquiescence, his steely eyes glinting with slight vexation.
‘Please tell the driver to collect me.’
‘From the woods?’ Tessa began uncertainly. ‘I’m not sure the car –’
‘Yes, from the woods. You don’t expect me to walk, do you?’
Tessa was about to point out that he had walked into the woods, when she thought better of it. ‘Certainly.’
After Braithwaite’s departure, Tessa wandered around the camp for a while, silently noting what she saw and heard. Most of the intricate and expensive looking equipment that was hurriedly being set up was housed in a series of tents erected in a clearing, which was dominated by huge twin firs that seemed to dwarf every surrounding tree. One or two bits were being assembled outside, including slim metal posts spiked into the soft ground, almost mirroring the configuration of those two wooded giants. The whole scene reminded Tessa of pictures she had seen in history lessons of Napoleon’s army camps, minus the technology, of course. Black clouds continued to haemorrhage rain above the vast trees. Within the forest, the rain fell less heavily as the interlacing branches diffused it. She hated her job, but the one thing she did like about it was how close she was to top secret information – the sort of information that could be useful to someone like her when the time was right.
She found herself drawn to a group of three kids huddled together, conversing anxiously and casting furtive glances around. Two of them were definitely underage: a blonde girl who looked as though she had recently lost a vicious boxing match, and a floppy fringed boy. The black girl looked older. In better clothes, she could have been considered a beauty.
Unnoticed by the busy research staff buzzing to and fro, Tessa went over to them. She was stopped by two guards who had been speaking to each other in low tones.
‘I’m Mr Braithwaite’s PA.’
They seemed satisfied enough with this information to let her through and continued with their conversation.
As she approached to speak, all three kids turned in her direction at the same time, and all stared at her so intently, open mouthed, that she felt the colour rise in her face. She almost walked away again, when Rosa stopped her.
‘What’s going on?’
Tessa shook her head. ‘I don’t know what you mean…’
‘What are they going to do with us? What have they done with our friend?’
‘I’m sorry.’ She shrugged. ‘I really don’t know that much.’ They were so wet, and so dirty, and there was such a look of utter defeat about them that Tessa was touched by an emotion she didn’t understand, but stronger than any she had felt before. They were trapped in a situation not of their making, just like she was. A sudden reckless desire to help them seized her. ‘I’ll see what I find out,’ she promised.
Jimmy smiled weakly. ‘Thank you. What’s your name?’
‘Not now.’ She turned to go, afraid to spend too long with them. ‘By the way,’ she asked curiously, flicking her head back round ‘You looked as if you had seen a ghost when I first came over…’
‘It’s nothing.’ Jimmy glanced at the others as he spoke. ‘You just look like someone.’
Tessa wandered away, trying to look casual but her mind bristling with ideas, tugging a hand through her long black curls as she went.
‘Do you think she can do anything?’ Sadie asked.
‘I doubt it.’ Rosa scowled. ‘I wonder what they’re doing with Elijah.’
‘They took him off sharpish didn’t they?’ Jimmy ran a hand through his wet fringe. If Rosa had a reply, she kept it to herself.
Elijah was torn between a violent compulsion to break away and run as far as possible, or to smash his fist into the face of either of the two men that led him away from the van, away from the friends he had taken so long to find, only to be rewarded with a tense drive through the night which would end God only knew where. There had been a brief reunion, a fleeting moment of happiness when he had first laid eyes on Jimmy and Rosa as they were pushed into the van with him and Sadie. This was snatched away by muttered threats from the guards for them to keep quiet. Planning any kind of escape or swapping information had been impossible. And then he had been taken as soon as they had arrived at their final destination. Would this truly be his final destination? Elijah was unaware which of his emotions were uppermost in his trembling body: hatred of the men that were orchestrating what he felt sure was his imminent demise, or fear for his friends.
He was taken out of sight of the others to a large camouflaged tent and told to sit. There was no chair so he continued to stand. A heavy hand on his shoulder forced him to the ground where he kneeled and waited. Through the open entrance of the tent, stumbling over the soggy forest floor towards them, Elijah recognised the constantly breathless man he had seen briefly in the testing shed at Hayling Island. He was followed by a lean, muscular man with powerful features and closely shaved head, dressed in a sharp suit and Wellington boots, totally out of place i
n his surroundings, and wearing a contemptuous expression that clearly showed his distaste for them. A slim young woman with an incredible mass of black curls trailed behind, her face composed and inscrutable, one arm full of files and the other, overstretched arm, trying to keep an umbrella held over the tall man’s head.
Elijah found himself staring at her. She was like an echo of a distant memory. He watched them approach, unable to take his eyes off her. The moment the girl noticed him for the first time, Elijah saw it in her eyes too – there was no mistaking the sharp breath, the flicker of shock that was gone again in an instant.
‘Is this the one?’ Stein asked, eyeing Elijah like a snake eyes up its kill. One of the guards nodded. ‘What’s your name, boy?’
Elijah pursed his lips and stared hard in an attempt at defiance. If he was going down, he wasn’t going like a wimp.
The guard checked some paperwork. ‘This is Thackeray, sir.’
Elijah wasn’t sure, but again, just for a second there was the merest reaction on the face of the black haired girl.
‘Interesting name - Elijah, isn’t it?’ The tall man spoke for the first time. Elijah showed a flicker of surprise that he knew his Christian name already. The man seemed satisfied with his reaction and smiled slightly. ‘Are you familiar with your literary namesake?’ Elijah remained silent. ‘Of course not. I don’t suppose you can read.’
Stein snorted.
‘You’ll do yourself a mischief, Dr Stein.’ The tall man fixed him with a cold stare. The girl suppressed a smile. ‘Dr Stein. Is all ready?’
‘Almost, Mr Braithwaite. We’re just trying to stabilise things now. The readings are still quite erratic –’
‘Don’t keep me waiting too long. I am not famed for my patience.’ The tall man, Braithwaite, turned on Elijah with a cold smile. ‘Nor my mercy.’
Braithwaite and the girl left the tent with Dr Stein snapping orders to people around him. Elijah sat on the floor in the middle of it all like a solitary freeze frame in the midst of fast forwarded action. Largely ignored, he sat on the cold groundsheet, blinking into the distance. His own reflections absorbed him and a tempered sense of panic began to bubble to the surface. He knew he had to master his fears if he was ever going to think his way out of this.
In the past, he had placed so little value on his life, had not cared whether he lived or died, but something had changed. Now, life was the thing he craved more than anything. And he was certain that it was about to be taken from him.
Things were going badly for Stein’s team. Whatever it was they were trying to do was being held up by glitches and setbacks that had Stein beside himself with inarticulate rage. Elijah, still on the floor - though now he had moved himself to a corner of the tent - caught snippets of events and tried desperately to piece together the puzzle that would reveal their plans. With growing disbelief, he began to recognise some of the terms that were being thrown about: channels and stabilising equipment, negative energy, people trying to pinpoint ‘the rupture’.
Could it be that Stein had somehow struck on the exact same phenomenon that Grace had done? If only he could speak to her again. Momentarily, he found himself dwelling on the impossibility of the situation. Right now, in his time, Grace was dead. Yet, somewhere, on the other side of the thing he suspected they were building, she was doing the same. Of course, that assumed that his hunch was right. The more he dwelled on it the more unlikely it began to seem to his logical self. Unless, somehow, the details had been given to Stein. But Grace had said that the weak spot had always been there, so perhaps it was easy to find with the right knowledge. Perhaps it explained so many of the disappearances over the years. If Elijah was right, and he was not entirely sure of anything anymore, Stein and his cronies were somehow using Grace’s research to stabilise the weak spot and create a route through space and time. Which meant that Stein knew what was on the other side, and that he would not stop until he got through. Elijah did not have much of an education, but he knew enough of the ruthlessness of men like him to know that.
And it seemed obvious who was pulling the strings: Braithwaite. Somewhere, dragged from deep in his consciousness, a realisation began to form. It was still a scattered jigsaw, but some pieces were starting to slot together. Elijah felt dizzy with the reckoning of it. But what had it got to do with him, or Jimmy, or Rosa, or Sadie? That was the biggest worry of all.
As dusk began to drain colour from the land, Stein’s team were clearly no nearer to their goal than they had been in the morning. It seemed to Elijah that Stein’s plans were being frustrated at every turn. And his people obviously didn’t think Elijah had understood any of what was going on around him. He used this to his advantage and continued to play dumb for their benefit, if only to encourage them to talk freely in front of him. When they finally packed up for the night, it gave him a certain satisfaction to be sent roughly back to join his friends, even if it did mean sleeping outdoors under drizzling skies.
‘Where have you been? What did they do to you?’ Rosa pulled him into a hug which took Elijah by surprise. He thought, ruefully, how it had taken the possibility of his death to finally get her to show any sort of affection for him.
‘Nothing.’
‘Nothing? Where have you been all day?’ Jimmy joined in.
Elijah shrugged and his eyes settled on Sadie’s bruised face. ‘How’s your head?’
‘It’s been better.’ She smiled sadly. ‘I thought I’d lost you again.’
‘I’m like athlete’s foot. You think I’ve gone and then I’m back to annoy you.’ The joke was made with more bravado than he actually felt. ‘I’ve been over the far side of the camp, sitting in a tent.’
‘Why?’ Rosa pursed her lips.
‘I don’t know. And if I tell you what I think is going on here… well, it’s gonna sound mad and I’m not even sure that I’m right.’
Rosa took a quick look at their guards and could see that they were distracted by a flask being passed round. ‘Let’s hear it.’
‘Well, I’ll tell you one thing I’m pretty sure about, even if I’m wrong about the other stuff; I don’t think drug testing is the only thing they use kids for…’
Saying it out loud, telling them where he and Sky were as the others got captured, the story sounded crazier than ever. And Sky wasn’t there to back him up. He could sense the disbelief in the whispered questions of the others, even though their faces had fallen into shadow. Of course they didn’t believe it. He wouldn’t have believed it. But he felt convinced that he needed to make them understand the danger they were all in and he wasn’t sure he was doing a very good job. The alarming thought of spending eternity in a floating, featureless limbo suddenly wormed into Elijah’s head and he shuddered, trying to shake it.
‘But what I don’t get is, how this guy, Braithwaite, fits in?’ Elijah concluded.
Jimmy lowered his voice even more. ‘We’re not quite sure… but he seems to be top dog.’ He glanced around before continuing. ‘We spoke to his assistant. She says she’s going to try and help us.’
‘Really? The girl with black hair?’ Elijah couldn’t imagine her offering to help anyone, certainly not a bunch of Runners. She had seemed like an automaton, cold and distant. He shook his head. ‘No. I think we’re on our own.’
‘Wish we knew where Xavier and Francois were.’ Jimmy chewed a nail and gazed into the dusky distance. ‘Do you reckon they’re alright?’
Elijah felt that, somehow, Xavier’s disappearance was his fault, and he had tried not to think about it. ‘I don’t know… maybe Xavier got away.’
‘Maybe. What about Francois though? It’s weird how he got called.’
‘What did they say again?’ Rosa asked.
‘Just that he was wanted in the admin block,’ Jimmy replied.
‘For all we know, he might be back in the caravan then.’ Rosa yawned.
‘But why would they round us up and not him? It doesn’t make sense; they know we’re all friends.’
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‘No idea.’
They lapsed into silence.
‘There isn’t a lot we can do about it now. We should try to get some sleep.’ Rosa shifted to try and get more comfortable.
‘Why?’ Elijah demanded.
‘Because it’s night… because… I don’t know. Because we might as well.’
‘There’s no way I can sleep.’
Despite his words, Elijah did drift, along with the others, into fitful bouts of half sleep, punctuated by torturously long periods of wakefulness which provided plenty of unwanted opportunity to wonder what morning would bring. He determined to face it without fear, yet his soul screamed against the idea of walking so helplessly into such uncertainty. Whatever they had planned, it was connected to the rip in space-time that Grace had told them about, and it was dangerous. Why else would Runners be there if not as guinea pigs? They were worth little as anything else. And the day’s many failures for the research team did little for any confidence Elijah might have had that they had got it to work properly. Nor did he believe that they cared enough about any of them to worry about losing a few along the way.
The pieces were slowly fitting into place. Everyone had heard stories of people disappearing around the area for years, but the Vanishing Woods was just an urban myth, like the Yeti or the Loch Ness monster. It was a tale children told each other for cheap thrills, or a threat, like the bogeyman, to arm tired parents. The only truth in it was that an unfeasible number of people were reported missing and were never found. But perhaps Elijah was about to find out where they had gone.
The morning found him in a morose mood. They all woke early but Elijah spent the first hours of the day lost in hollow silence, unable and unwilling to find anything to say. The others seemed to understand and respectfully left him in the solitude of his thoughts.