by Gabriel Kron
“Good, good. Keep me posted, Will. If Bateman is taken alive then we want him extradited here, not Germany, understood?
Sinclair Residence, 10:12am Day 34.
“Gharhhh!” I gasped and sat up in bed, I could still feel the arm around my throat.
It was still daylight out. I checked my watch, 10:12, and was at first confused until I realised that I had slept right through.
Everyone was in the lounge talking. I recognised the voices, especially those of Clive and Lee excitedly discussing what one of the drawings in the Locke notebooks showed.
“Morning all,” I said to everyone. “Lee, have you found anything useful yet?”
“We’re not sure. Some of these schematics just will not work from a conventional point of view,” Lee said and spun the notebook around on the table to show me the circuit diagram.
“Because of these two wires to the brushes?” I said recognising the drawing. I had had the same thought when translating. “I think I might know the answer to that. Where’s the tin?” I asked.
Lee handed me the tin, inside of which was one complete brush, several broken parts and the page of code that I had referred to in my notebook as the Locke Cipher. Each had now been separately wrapped up for protection.
Unwrapping the one complete carbon brush, I took a closer look than I had before. Cleaning off the carbon dust and polishing it with my finger, I could clearly see that the brush was split down its entire length and there was something being used as a separator. I handed it to Clive.
“Why would Locke have written this in code?” Lee asked.
“Maybe because he knew how controversial it was,” I said. “Or maybe he was given it by the inventor, D?”
“I’ll get one of my meters and we’ll see if that’s an insulating separator,” Clive said.
“Oh man, your meters!” I said. “They were in the hotel room. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault? And besides, it’s a small sacrifice in comparison for what we’ve got so far.” Clive left us to get a multi-meter so the electrical conductivity of the brush could be measured.
Lee started sketching out how the circuit would be considering a split brush. He tried a couple of variations, but he still looked puzzled. “I’m sorry, but I still don’t see how this is supposed to produce anything, let alone run itself.”
“It’s not going to be conventional, is it? Hopefully it’s going to look as if nothing is going to happen, but when spun up, starts producing the magic. To me this was obvious, but then I was the only one who had actually seen the device working. In fact, it was possible that I was the only one left alive who had seen the device at all.
Clive returned with a multi-meter and handed it to Lee as the front door bell rang.
“Ah. I think this is your nurse arriving Daniel,” Clive said as he went to answer the door.
“Nurse? You didn’t say anything about that,” I shouted after him.
A few seconds later and Clive’s little ruse was explained as Nurse Rebecca Taylor was shown in.
“Daniel! Oh my god, you look so thin,” Becs said as she came over and hugged me.
“Becs, wow, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” I said and grimaced in pain as she hugged me again.
“Oh shit, sorry. Sorry. Forgot. How is it?” she said referring to my wound.
“Still hurts a lot and itches like crazy.” I looked over at Clive. “Did you arrange this?”
“Well, sort of,” Clive said.
Other than my parents, everyone that was close to me was here, and they were here because of the Lockridge device.
I introduced Becs to Lee, Wendy and Brenda.
“So are you two an item?” Wendy asked.
Becs and I looked at each other and smiled. “We were, sort of, at times,” I said.
“We were always working different shifts and just couldn’t quite get our acts together really,” Becs said and squeezed my arm.
“What’s the latest with what happened to Jack?” I asked.
“At first they said that it wasn’t suspicious, but the coroner performed a post-mortem after the CCTV had shown that man entering his room late that night. Now they think it is suspicious, but they won’t tell us anything, other than an investigation is under way.”
“So there’s been no mention of my name then?” I asked.
“Nope, not that I know.”
We were all continuing different conversations in Clive’s lounge. Lee and Clive were studying the Locke notebooks and trying to make sense of the circuit diagrams Locke had sketched out. It was obvious that in the notebooks, Kaspar and Johann Locke did not know how the device worked and were trying to discover it. The mention of other units in the area that had stopped working was significant, but until we had translated the notebooks in full I felt that we were partly wasting our time. It was unlikely that we would work out how the device worked, but perhaps the notes would tell us why they had stopped working.
“The Lockes must have discovered something, they kept it running for over sixty years,” I said.
Suddenly, Brenda was calling from the kitchen.
“Clive! Quick! Look at this, on the news!” she called out.
My heart sank as we rushed into the kitchen to see the small portable TV high on a shelf showing Sky News covering the Locke murders and showing the same footage of the barn burning.
“...Scotland Yard, in conjunction with Interpol, say they believe Bateman has fled back to Britain. He is wanted in connection with five murders and a vicious gun-related assault whilst fleeing from police. Police say he is dangerous and that the public should not approach him, but should dial 999. He is believed to have had help from several people and police are particularly interested in interviewing a Doctor Lee Gregson...”
Clive picked up the remote and switched the TV off. Everyone was silent, and then what had just been said sank in for Wendy.
“What have you done? You said you wouldn’t be taking any risks, which you did and now the police want you in relation to five murders!” She pushed Lee back.
“It’s me they want for the murders not Lee,” I said.
“Piss off!” Wendy spat out as she stormed into the garden. “Bastard.”
Lee followed Wendy into the garden.
By getting them involved I had unwittingly put them in grave danger. Whoever was trying to suppress the Lockridge device was more than prepared to kill for it, and not just me.
No matter what I hoped, this wasn’t going to go away. Whoever was behind it wasn’t going to let it. They wanted to suppress this in the most definitive way possible. They literally wanted to stop this technology dead.
After the news report, I asked everyone to the dining room. I needed to talk to them all at the same time.
“Firstly, I’m sorry for getting you guys involved. If I’d known what was in store then I wouldn’t have—” I started.
“Daniel, I’m sorry,” Wendy said. “I know it’s not your fault really, I just don’t understand what’s going on. Lee told me what's happened to you. He said that you actually—” she paused for not wanting to say it, “actually had to kill someone yesterday, in self-defence.”
I nodded. “If it wasn’t for Clive, it would have been me. But what I don’t understand is how they’ve linked Lee to this?”
“I do,” Lee said. “I hired the car you two drove back in. Those goons you had to deal with probably reported the licence number and have assumed that it was me travelling with Dan.”
“Of course,” I said and then I realised something. “Shit, do you think there's a tracker fitted?”
It was now common practice for car hire companies to fit GPS trackers in their cars, so they could keep tabs on their assets.
“Hopefully not,” Lee said. “It’s from our local garage rather than one of the larger companies. And anyhow, it’s been outside since yesterday, I think they would have arrested us by now if they knew where we were.”
Cliv
e checked out of the front windows but there wasn’t anyone or anything that appeared out of place “I don’t know what to look for anyway,” Clive muttered.
“Maybe you can report it stolen,” Brenda suggested.
“Trouble is, I should have done that in Germany,” Lee said.
“Well, it might not be too late,” Clive said. “Suppose you tell them you had gone to the Einstein Tower Observatory with Karin, and you didn’t discover the car was gone until you got back, and that could easily be later today,”
It was agreed that Clive would ask the Friedmanns to report it stolen. At least then it would have provided some sort of alibi for Lee.
“Okay, good, we can sort that one out, but listen guys, I need to clear my name somehow and I haven't a clue how at the moment. But I do know that I’ve had enough. Too many people have been killed and I don’t want any of their deaths to go in vain. In fact, at this point I want revenge on whoever is behind this and the best way, I think, would be to work out how the Lockridge works, disclose it and expose them at the same time.
“I’ve lost so much and I don’t see any way I can get my life back and live normally again. So I don’t have many options really. Give myself up or run and fight it. And from what’s happened so far, if I give myself up then I could well end up dead.”
Rebecca came and hugged me. I was so pleased she had decided to be here. It felt right. It felt more than right, and that was how it had always been with Becs. There was no awkwardness between us. Perhaps that was why over the years it had been so easy for us to just bounce in and out of each other’s lives.
“So what are we going to do?” Lee said.
“We?” Wendy said under her breath.
I nodded, “Wendy’s right, I can’t expect or ask any of you to help me any further on this. It’s just too risky,” I said.
“You don’t have to ask, I want in,” Clive said and then turned to Brenda who nodded.
“We’re in as well,” Lee said as he put one arm around Wendy and hugged her. “But only up to a certain point, we’ve still got young kids.”
“Well, if you report your car stolen you can give the police your statement and you should then be in the clear.”
“First we need to fathom out how it works, which means finishing the notebook translations and decoding that page we found. But do we all agree that we should disclose this only once we know how it works and we have a working prototype?”
“I’d go further than that,” Clive said. “We should get a good number of these built that work and then send them to the Universities at the same time we disclose it.”
“And in the mean-time, it remains secret. No on-line discussion at all. That sounds like a good plan,” Lee added. “I can certainly personally introduce it to at least a dozen EE departments when we're ready.”
“Okay, right let’s make this kind of official. I’d still like to use the name OTG as it no longer exists,” I said.
Becs said she would act as the minute taker, as by her own admission she knew little about engineering or electricity.
I was about to thank her for introducing me to Jack, without which the Lockridge would still be an internet myth. But if that introduction hadn’t started the chain of events that followed, the deaths of so many wouldn’t have happened. I decided not to say anything.
We continued discussing an action plan, one that would hopefully result in not only my name being cleared, but also the advent of new energy technology.
It felt like we could be making history.
“Come on you,” Becs said to me as Clive and Brenda went to prepare lunch for everyone. “You need those dressings changed.”
“Is that an order?” I asked and smiled properly for the first time in a while.
“As your nurse, yes it is,” she said and patted the sofa next to where she was starting to unpack her first-aid kit.
I let Becs remove my shirt, which she did a little more slowly than she probably needed to. She let her hands slide in between the shirt and my chest and shoulders. It felt really good. Over her shoulder I could see Lee look over and smile.
“Is this appropriate Nurse Taylor?” I laughed.
“Probably not,” she said and then whispered, “God I’ve missed you.”
I leaned in and kissed her gently on the neck just below the ear and could smell her subtle but distinctive perfume.
“Right. Let’s get this redressed,” she said sharply and began removing my last attempt at dressing the wound.
I looked around as Becs cleaned and redressed the exit wound from the 9mm slug. Lee and Wendy were sitting at the table deep in discussion. There was the tantalising smell of onion, garlic and herbs being fried in the kitchen.
I was with friends. Good food with good friends.
As we sat around the lunch table, Brenda placed a large pan of savoury mince and a bowl of buttered crushed potatoes in the middle and invited everyone to help themselves.
“Guys, please, before we eat,” I said standing up. “This is so nice being here all together, eating good food at Clive and Brenda’s table. I feel there are faces missing though. I feel a deep sense of gratitude to Karin and Henrik, as they should be here also. But there are those that can’t be here, who I would have loved to have introduced to you all... Jack, Sophia, Johann and Dominik.
“I’d like to raise a toast to them. It’s not right that they have paid the ultimate price.”
There was rushed activity as glasses with drinks were handed out before we actually raised them in toast.
Could this really be the beginning of a new era for decentralised energy production?
Folkestone, England. 8:30pm Day 34.
Lee and Wendy, drove the BMW hire car back to Folkestone and parked it in one of the town car-parks. Lee deliberately left the keys in the ignition and one of the windows wound down. Hopefully it would only be a couple of hours before it was stolen for real.
At about that same time in Stuttgart, Germany, Karin Friedmann telephoned first the local police and obtained a crime number, and then the rental company and reported the car stolen from outside the Friedmann’s property.
It was then that the next stage of suppression was discovered.
After abandoning the car, Lee and Wendy walked the short distance to Folkestone railway station. Lee inserted his bank debit card into the automatic ticket machine and selected two single tickets to London Bridge. The machine promptly ejected the card with a message on the screen reading:
Invalid card
Please contact your bank.
“What!” Lee exclaimed. “Wendy, have you got your card?”
“Sure, try this,” she said as she inserted her card.
Invalid card
Please contact your bank.
“Must be the machine,” Wendy said and started walking over to the ticket office. It was closed.
Lee tried his card in the ATM whilst another passenger walked up to the ticket machine and successfully purchased their ticket. The ATM also rejected Lee’s card with a similar message. They shrugged at each other, but despite trying both their cards again, they would not work.
“Err, okay, this is an interesting situation. Got any cash?” Lee asked as he systematically searched each of his pockets for change. Between them they managed to scrape together enough for the train fare back to London.
“I better call Clive and see if he can collect us from London Bridge then,” Lee said.
The phone bleeped three times and terminated the call. He checked the signal strength, which was good, and tried again… Three bleeps.
Wendy tried her phone as well and found the same problem.
“Just what is happening here?” Wendy asked.
“I don’t know, I don’t know. I hope it’s paranoia on my part, but it seems as if someone is screwing with us,” Lee said looking around the station for the public telephones.
He dialled Clive’s number but was greeted with the automated operator voice saying �
�The number you have dialled has not been recognised.”
“What the!” Lee started to shout, but then quickly lowered his voice. “It’s saying the number is invalid.”
“What about his mobile?” Wendy asked.
“Clive doesn’t have one.”
“Okay, I’ve got Brenda’s,” Wendy said and read the number to Lee as he dialled. It rang about eight times and then clicked to voice-mail.
Lee quickly readied himself to leave a message and rolled his eyes at Wendy. “Brenda, Clive, it’s Lee. We’re having some real difficulties here and can only get back to London Bridge for ten thirty five. Sorry to ask, but is there any chance you can come and get us from there, please? We can’t use any of our cards or phones for some reason. Hopefully see you there. Thank you.” Lee hung up and they made their way to platform two for the next train.
~~~
Brenda was already waiting outside London Bridge railway station when the 10:35 arrived at 10:42. Lee and Wendy walked outside and scanned the waiting taxies, cars and people, hoping that their message had through.
“Lee! Wendy! Over here,” Brenda called from her Ford Kia hatchback.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Wendy said to Brenda as they climbed into the car. “Our cards don’t work, or our phones, it’s crazy.”
“It’s not just you,” Brenda said as she drove along Tooley Street. “I went to get some cash out on the way here, but my card doesn’t work either, so I tried to call Clive, but the number doesn’t work!”
“That’s what we got when we tried,” Lee said. “It’s why we called your mobile.”
On the journey back, Lee used Brenda’s pay-as-you-go mobile to call his bank to report the issue. The issue itself didn’t need much description from Lee. It became apparent quickly as soon as Lee read out his card number.
“What’d they say?” Wendy asked as soon Lee hung up.
“That our account has been scrubbed,” Lee replied.
“Scrubbed?”
“Yeah. The account is there, but all the details have been deleted.”
“And?” Wendy pressed.