“What’s this?” Brydon called over, as he approached the point of impact.
Parker cleaned dirt from his clothes, while he wondered what the other scientists thought had taken place. Brydon acted as if they had had an accident making a bomb or something there, and he seemed to be searching about for evidence.
“What were you doing there?” Brydon asked, pointing at the spot.
They all crouched over it, and slowly examined it closely.
“What was ...?” Brydon calmly asked Carlton, confused.
“It was that glowing rock – from the island ...!”
The scientists began sweeping and cleaning up the debris around them, and Parker placed the rest of the glowing rock away in a safe place in the supply room.
“What’s your opinion of it?” Parker asked Carlton.
“It’s incredible!”
“But what is it?”
“I’ve never come across anything like it before!”
“It must be artificial! Nothing like that could natural occur.”
“The Japanese might have had it during the Second World War, and under that building.”
“Old military technology!”
Chapter 7
The Substance Investigation
Parker realized that his scientists never had the facilities to investigate the substance any further, and that it was being investigated for them.
“Have you found anything new about it?” Parker asked, entering the laboratory, and moving up to Carlton.
“We have given some to various groups – including military sources. If anyone can put some light on things it could be them.”
“It may be so secretive that military sources may not know it is even theirs or they may deny knowing it.”
“It could be or have been part of the space program. It has more potential for rocket propulsion.”
“Or, as we originally thought, due to the location it was discovered at – under that building – have been Japanese. They could have used or tested it on that island.
“It could have caused that fifteen-mile round cavity on the island. They could have been testing it out there. Out of the way!”
“As an explosive! Or some form of massive rocket propulsion!”
“Give me what you have on it so far then.”
“It could be the same substance found in Cornwall, and in that case a lot of research could have already been carried on it.”
“If it is military or Japanese what was it doing at Cornwall?” Parker silently asked himself, in confusion – as someone that normally evaluated and found answers to everything and was consequently being confronted by the unsolvable.
“It has incredible properties!” Carlton continued. “They have studied the energy force from it more than anything. Yet they are not yet able to figure out what it is ... Or what reactions cause its existence ... They have found many unknown elements within it, which are far more powerful than anything heard of! Yet they have been unable to detect any high radioactive emissions ...”
“They believe it is unknown?”
“The substance is extremely powerful! The composition and properties of the substance are fascinating! They have observed elements in it that actually stop other elements in it reacting together – until ignited!
“An inconceivable amount of energy is produced – and it gives out more energy than they thought possible!”
“Perfect! So far we have not found any connection with it to this country, to that island, or anything. However, the Japanese having a connection to it has not been checked!”
“You have a point! They were on the island, and they must have found the substance – it was under their building. So we can take that line of investigation.”
Chapter 8
The Scroll of the Island
Parker did not believe that it would take long for military scientists to realize the substance’s incredible properties. So when he received a call, announcing a meeting, with its discussion, he knew that it was something.
However, it was only at the arranged conference, with stage lectures, with his introduction of the substance for investigation, attended mainly by leading scientists, that Parker fully realized that he had something. Their queries, querying, replies, with detailed findings, and costly investigations of the substance, from people that he knew were above repute, especially in their fields, were staggering.
He had expected not to be given normal attention, and then ignored. But he had to answer questions, giving detailed reports, and even needed the help of Brydon, and then Carlton, and other scientists, on the substance, for well over an hour, and they still were not satisfied.
Another surprise was that it was in newspapers, and appearing in science publications. With it, and the amount of publicity, he was not surprised to receive a call from Hawaii, from a group claiming to have information of the building on the island.
Their description of the location of the building was far too detailed and accurate to be wrong, and he immediately jumped on a plane to Hawaii, to meet them, with Brydon and Carlton.
What they actually wanted from the meeting was left open by them, and it had them wondering. They had gone to lengths not to give any real explanations.
After their arrival and rest in a Honolulu hotel, Parker arranged a meeting with them in his hotel restaurant, on the phone.
The restaurant was empty, and they filled in the empty time before the meeting with a large overdue meal.
Their arrival was swift, and he almost never recognized them.
Even though the three of them there were clearly of partially Japanese origin, as suspected, he never thought they had any military connections.
They were silent, and held him in suspense.
The tallest, introduced himself as Gorman, and their apparent leader, or boss, and he seated himself directly opposite Parker, with a blank firm stare on Parker mainly. While the other two sat at ease at his sides.
One seemed to be Gorman’s son, while the other seemed to be employed or working with him, perhaps as part of some organization.
“You said on the phone you had information on the build that we discussed?” Parker asked directly, getting to the point.
“We do!” Gorman replied.
“When was it built?”
“Around 1940.”
“Used by the Japanese military.”
“It was one of a few small bases used on the island.”
“What were they experimenting on there?”
“There were no experiments – that I have heard of. What experiments? Why do you believe experiments took place?”
“Were there any atomic experiments or explosions carried out there?”
“I never heard of any.”
“Were they using any secret technology on the island or in that area?”
“No! I’ve not heard of anything.”
“Why did you contact us?”
“We want to find this island, for someone …”
Parker was surprised, and confused – especially with the realization that they never knew where it was located – which surprised him a great deal more the more he thought it over.
Why did they not remember where it was?
Why did they not know it?
“I thought you had been to this island?” Brydon asked, with a glint of amusement on his face, as he moved his head close, and peered at them.
“We never. It was an ancestor of ours that was there.”
“I see what you mean now!” Parker answered.
“He was a soldier there. There was a round cavity next to this base?”
“Yes.”
He observed all the people sitting around the room in the center of the room, and he anxiously took out an old scroll, with a typed label on it, by his fingertips. Then he partially unrolled it, clearly covering something on it, as he showed it, with a glint of prudence in his eyes, followed by a quantity of dejection, as he rolled it up and put away in hi
s pocket.
Parker and Brydon stared at each other in confusion.
There were signs of deterioration, and by the colors of it, it clearly was old, and of the stated time – and connected to the base.
“We just want to find it!” Gorman’s son announced, annoyed.
“We are also historians and wish to investigate it – for part of a book that we are having done,” Gorman explained blankly.
Gorman signaled a waiter, and he ordered them all drinks.
Neither Carlton nor Brydon believed them, but they never knew what they wanted, and they knew they would not tell them.
Chapter 9
The Discussion After
Parker placed his head hard against his hands, tightly pressing his elbows into the table, at the window of his hotel room, and then relived his stress, by ignoring the mounting amounts of irresolvable problems, and viewing a miraculous beach out of the window.
Brydon had displayed signs of strain, and the stress was evidently all the events of the past day. The first meeting with the Japanese had confused things further. What they wanted was not entirely coherent! Was it the substance that they wanted, and the fact that they never knew precisely what it was.
They had the look of being connected to the Japanese military scientists or intelligence agents, but there was something not right. The way they reacted, and the way they were more orientated in business and money. Did it have a great value to someone? They may believe that they could remake it – which was logical – especially if they had not seen or had the stuff examined. It was clear to them and all the scientists that they could not reproduce it. However, ideas, by experiences in the past, would surely emerge that would come up with ways to reproduce other substances, mimicking the effects.
Their hunger for the location of the island was clear and perhaps the major factor that they wanted. Why they never gave it, or any suggestion of it was just them being defensive, and protective in not allowing things to occur that could have disastrous effects. This material was dangerous, and the fact that they would not be able to reproduce it made it a concern. The amounts available would do little! But if this stuff were available in vast amounts the situation would be very different.
How had they known so much of the island, concerned them. It was as though it had been in someone’s files, as an unsolved mystery, and that they had just found a way to solve it. Or was it just the fact that they had investigated the news stories, and found some facts in their files.
But, again, they never knew what they were up to or connected to.
They could even be just responding to the events, after all the publicity, and had information on the island from someone such as the pilots, and wished to get involved, or find the full location of it – as it was uncharted.
The island had been mysteriously uncharted, and nobody knew why! Why did they not buy the island and make it private property, and just carry out what they were doing there, and get it over with.
Nonetheless, he took it that everyone was running out of proper ideas – with increasing problems – and the grim reality of the situation.
A firm knock announced Brydon had arrived, and he opened the door, and Brydon and Carlton entered the situation.
They seemed more silent, and used short bursts of mutters, only about the meeting, with their discussions noticeably avoiding talking in any depth of the situation.
Carlton occasionally fought to rectify a smile, which kept emerging at the side of his mouth, while Brydon kept pulling his chair near to him.
“Do you know someone broke into the laboratory?” Brydon spoke, shuffling a napkin around, and folding it.
“What did they get then?”
“Nothing as far as anyone has found!”
“It sounds as though they were searching for something in particular!”
“That rules out kids breaking in!”
“Kids! They could never have entered a secured building, with security guards roaming about …”
“You are right they were professionals!”
“Great! Perhaps they had a connection to them at that meeting!”
“They never found any real evidence!”
“They’re doing their best!”
“They’re carrying out their investigations,” Carlton continued.
“I didn’t know that!” Parker replied, almost yawning.
His watch told him that it was later than he had imagined.
It would not be very long before they would be back on a plane going back to the laboratory.
He was still thought Carlton and Brydon were planning to stay up late, and have a night on the town.
“Where are those guys at the meeting from?” Brydon asked, trying to find some more information.
“They never gave an exact location,” Parker replied, but I have their number.
“Well, perhaps we should have them investigated. They have more reasons than anyone else to be behind the laboratory break in, and they look like they have something planned.”
“We do not have their names, or, in fact, even their country …”
“Their number may be enough! We phone them and arrange a meeting – and have them followed.”
“Good idea!”
“We’ll have to have something to talk with them about there?”
“Well it will have to be about the island!”
“We could claim we are going to return to the island!”
“And we could also try and get more information about it,” Carlton continued.
“Likes of where they found that chart,” Brydon continued. “And why they have such an interest in it.”
“And even why someone kept it for so many years …!”
Chapter 10
Unwelcome Visitors
At the door to his hotel room, Parker instantly turned silent, startled, for an instant, but holding his composure, as he entered.
He proceeded in, creeping, not making any sound, and Brydon and Carlton followed him in.
Everything was shifted around, and his case forced shut, after clearly being rummaged through.
He stuck his hand into the case and pulled it opened, and promptly shoved it shut.
Brydon, in one movement, shifted in front of him.
“They are the people that entered the laboratory!” Brydon confirmed, moving into a seat, slightly surprised that there was no damage anywhere.
“Did you move the furniture over there?”
“No!”
“Are we still going to meet them – as you arranged with them on the phone?”
Parker nodded in agreement.
Parker saw by their tenseness that they were starting to worry over the situation. The men had broken in to the room and his case, and had not even tried to hide what they had done, and they were going to meet them.
“They may now be dangerous – especially if they don’t get what they want!” Brydon announced.
“Have you considered the fact that they may force us into giving them what they want!” Carlton continued.
“You do have a point there!” Parker replied. “We had better be prepared for such confrontations.”
He looked about, with a worried glare.
“Do you have the coordinates of the island?” Brydon asked.
“Yes.”
“So do I!” Carlton echoed.
“Yet we have arranged for them to be followed,” Brydon replied, “and we will meet them in the public bar – which will not be empty.”
“I could contact the police if you want. But we do not have anything on them.”
“Correct!”
Chapter 11
Hijacked
There were buried rudiments in the whole affair, and, in fact, in all the events since this island appeared out of the horizon that made normal logic not exist, and they just could not grasp anything, or even know how to approach things.
Brydon opened his hotel room, and in rushed six large Japanese gunmen, with com
bined looks, in various degrees, of mobsters and soldiers.
Then in marched the three Japanese men that they had the meeting with.
“Move over there!” Gorman called out, swiftly and viciously removing a handgun, and waving it about him, occasionally pointing it at Parker, Brydon, or Carlton.
They moved over to the other side of the room, and he relaxed his grip on the gun.
“Well, now what!” Gorman’s son asked Gorman.
“Now we are going to get this affair settled!”
“What do you want?” Carlton asked, confused.
“We are going on a trip – so pack up your things – and get ready to leave.”
They shrugged at each other and Parker started packing his stuff away, and their six assistants started throwing things for him in his case, and they left the room, going to the other rooms for Brydon and Carlton’s stuff.
They were then rushed out the building, with hidden guns on them, and forced into cars.
They arrived at a small airport, on private ground, and were forced on a plane – and they left Hawaii.
From the start to the finish not one word was given to them about what was occurring, or what the possible outcome would be.
Their only way to survive, especially once on the plane, was to give them what they wanted – as there was no way out of the situation, and attempting anything was almost impossible.
They were all ordered out of doing anything, and the gunmen ignored all forms of persuasion.
Chapter 12
Back on the Island
The plane flew in low, and landed next to the island, on the sea, almost at the precise spot the other airplane had sunk.
Parker had given all the details of where the island was, and had chosen the landing site.
Their attitude visibly altered once they had confirmed it was the island. They grew more confident of achieving their goal.
There were clues all over the beach that indicated they had been on the island, and Parker told them where various things that they had left there were, and they searched and found them, hidden away. And there was also the remains of the team that had lifted the sunken plane out of the water, and shipped it out.
From Beyond Reality (Novelette) Page 3