The Power of Forgetting

by A M Russell

  Rimmington held up his hands; and then backed off some more. When Oliver looked at him again, and his arm rose to the firing position, Rimmington held up his hands and stepped back to the end of the room. He glanced at the door. Oliver nodded. They retreated away from the Welsh man, as if they had seen a devil from hell appear in front of them. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lorraine collapsed in a sodden heap on the floor, with her hands over her face. Hanson was rather ineffectually trying to comfort her. Davey led me backwards to a seat. I think my knees were about to give way, and I sat down rather suddenly.

  As soon as the last of the bunch of Rimmington’s men left, Oliver went to door and dropped the bolt. He turned and quickly went to the body.

  ‘You fucking bastard! You’re out of your Goddam mind!’ Joe rose up towards Oliver in an aggressive stance. Oliver was pointing the pistol at him. I hadn’t seen him move, it was that fast.

  ‘Sit down!’ Oliver ordered. Joe blanched and backed off. Oliver flipped the body over and then laid the gun down on the floor. He took out his knife and quickly cut through the ice suit.

  I saw what he was doing and realised at once who it really had been.

  ‘What are you doing?’ said Hanson in a strangled tone.

  ‘Just look away if you’re squeamish.’ Oliver didn’t even look up. He pulled the remaining fabric down near the hip area, and felt around with his hand. Then stabbing the knife in, he twisted it.

  ‘Davey! Water bottle now!’

  Davey, to his credit, was quicker on the uptake than the rest of us. The fact he was Marcia’s friend and probably knew her better than most might have made him realise as Oliver had done that trying to kill Janey was a good indication that this wasn’t Marcia.

  He poured a little water in and dug around some more. Everyone except me and Davey looked away.

  Davey passed him a cloth and he tugged out a small tablet that was silver and rounded at the edges. He passed it to Davey. Davey held it carefully and rinsed it some more to get the blood off. Then he wiped it clean.

  ‘Are you seeing this?’ Oliver asked Davey. He pulled on a silvery thread that was embedded in the skin.

  ‘Yes. What is it?’

  ‘A network of connectors. Perhaps it helps the thing look more realistic. She certainly fooled us.’ Oliver sounded philosophical.

  ‘Is there any indication when it was initiated?’ Davey asked.

  ‘I think it would be safe to assume that she was inhabited by our Marcia up until the jump back here.’

  ‘No. I don’t think so.’ said Janey, ‘I’d know. There’s no way that I could carry a double and not know.’

  ‘So where you separated at any point?’ Oliver picked up the gun again. Janey eyed it as she answered.

  ‘It was in the outer lab. But it was only for a few minutes.’

  ‘Long enough.’ said Oliver, then to me, ‘help me will you.’

  ‘Yes. Okay.’ I helped him flip the body over. I couldn’t avoid getting blood on my hands. It made me feel light headed. I looked at Janey. Her eyes narrowed in discomfort, but she seemed reasonably calm. Lorraine had stopped crying.

  ‘How did you know?’ asked Hanson as Oliver went through all the pockets on the body; and Davey rifled through the pack.

  ‘I didn’t.’ said Oliver.

  ‘You’re a fucking psycho.’ said Hanson, but in a tone of admiration rather than criticism.

  ‘Would you really have shot Marcia?’ said Joe. He seemed to have grasped the fact it wasn’t her and was looking a little more in control.

  ‘It’s Marcia’s pack.’ said Davey, ‘we think it was in that outer lab near the entrance. It’s on the way out.

  ‘He will honour the deal.’ said Janey.

  ‘You think?’ said Joe, ‘After what just happened?’

  ‘No choice.’ said Davey. ‘Now please give us the deprogramming thingy Janey.’

  She handed it to me, ‘Just touch the skin and say the word.’

  ‘That’s it?’ I asked her.

  ‘You want it to be more complicated?’

  ‘No…. okay Davey.’

  ‘Right.’ He said and stood and shouldered Marcia’s pack as well as his own.

  I opened the case. There was a series of transparent cards inside the case with the name and a word printed on the centre part of each one. ‘Like that?’ I said. Janey nodded. Everyone made ready to get their “dose”.

  I leaned over and whispered the keyword in Davey’s ear. He blinked and breathed in. ‘Okay.’ Was all he said.

  I went round everyone. And then flipped the case closed.

  ‘Is that it?’ asked Joe, ‘it doesn’t seem to be making any difference.’

  ‘It won’t.’ said Janey, ‘Not yet. There is a return that is complete in 24 to 48 hours from now. You may get a sudden rush of several things at once but otherwise it is so gradual that you won’t notice that you had formally forgotten what it was you are now remembering.’

  ‘Very clever.’ said Oliver.

  ‘Yes, what about him?’ asked Joe pointing at Oliver.

  ‘Let’s get moving.’ Oliver stood and sheathed his now clean knife, ‘they may change their minds.’

  As we started to move down the corridor I fell into step with Oliver.

  ‘Tell me Reece,’ I began, ‘would you….’

  ‘Yes.’ Oliver answered firmly, ‘if her life was threatened, I would not have hesitated.’

  I saw that we had come to the edge of the complex. The group were behaving with a sense of solidity at last. We came near to the outer lab. It occurred to me that this may be the place that the group in the pod room spoke about while we were hiding from them.

  Lorraine came along side me; 'I'm sorry about Marcia.' she seemed cautious. And when I didn't respond, dropped her eyes to the patch of floor in front of her.

  'I....err, thanks....' I said then. The truth was that I felt a truck load of guilt about Marcia; for at least four reasons. I felt confident that she would turn up soon however. There was a tragic inevitability about the whole "Rimmington" thing. We were nearer the mountains here and up towards the higher reaches of the river. I guessed that he would go after us again. And now I was prepared. There was a dampening field over the whole base. We could not jump from here. It was only the marble hall that allowed you entrance. I caught up with Janey, who was standing looking surprized. The corridor abruptly ended. I don't mean we came to a door... But that there was just a space, with grass and beyond that some bushes.

  'Don't!' said Janey sharply as Davey moved forward to her side. He glanced across at me.

  'Could be an illusion.' I said.

  Oliver was tapping the hilt of his hunting knife lightly on the walls and listening. He backtracked down the corridor.

  'I'm sure this is the place.' said Joe.

  Oliver ignored him, stopped; listened again. He turned the point to the wall and jabbed firmly.

  It was kind of weird how sets of doors were there. You knew they were there, and yet they had been passed unnoticed a moment before.

  Hanson seemed the most perturbed, eyes round, with a kind of horror. 'What is this place? Why build it like that?'

  'I don't think any of this was built like anything in the ordinary sense.' Oliver was already working on the nearest door to get in. He grinned then when it swung outwards instead of inwards.

  'Simple enough to fool most people.' Janey stood with her arms folded in thinking mode.

  'It not that big either.' said Oliver peering inside.

  'A bit like an old classroom again' said Davey.

  We began to search systematically room by room backwards from the weird corridor end. Hanson seemed to be having an attack of the jitters and was sticking to me like glue. I had to say that Davey was the calmest next to Oliver. He seemed far more in control and self-possessed; he searched thoroughly the next room with Oliver then joined me and Hanson in the corridor again. Janey was gripping her arm, and seemed tense. Joe looking flushed concentrate
d on ministering to her with Lorraine assisting.

  ‘There’s about four rooms left to search.’ Oliver emptied the clip and reloaded the pistol. Lorraine looked at me meaningfully.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ I said to the assembled company, ‘Oliver knows what he’s doing. We all need to trust his judgement….’

  ‘I really need to know what the fuck is going on!’ Hanson sounded out of control, ‘we were dragged from the woods… and then we were back here. I mean it’s not even possible!’

  ‘He doesn’t know.’ Janey said wincing slightly. Joe looked at me expectantly. Oliver nodded a fraction.

  ‘The reason Rimmington wants me….’ I fished around for the right way to put it, ‘is that I am; well, I have always been something that the company who set us on the expedition calls a “Traveller”. There are other names for this… but it means that I can control, Umm…. The things that happen to me; the order they happen in…’

  ‘It is a skill,’ said Janey in a loud voice cutting across me, ‘that allows the user to control Time itself. Yes… I know that is mad, impossible, insane and generally not a good idea, if you ever want to make sense of what is after all a complicated enough situation already; but we…. As in Jared and I are “Time travellers”. I can’t explain much to you all at the moment. I think that will have to wait. But the problem for Rimmington is that we could go back and stop him. So he needs us to be enmeshed in his little scheme so that if we stop him, we also stop ourselves…. It’s a puzzle and no mistake. And since he thinks he has already neutralised me; he wants Jared. Jared hasn’t used his skill often you see…. And is therefore a threat to Rimmington.’

  There was a collective pause. I suppose that everyone was thinking about what question to ask; but then Oliver turned and opened the next door along.

  ‘Jared!’ he said sharply, effectively leaving the forest of questions springing up and left unharvested.

  I went to the door. There, slumped against an old desk was Marcia. We went forward to her straight away. Oliver checked her for signs of injury. I took her head in my hands. Her eyes flickered opened, for a moment then rolled shut. We pulled her onto the floor and checked her neck and wrists. She didn’t appear to have been drugged. And there were no other sign of injury or struggle. I thought of the marble hall and how the two minders had incapacitated me. I wondered if this was the same. Joe came to my side, ‘Let me see.’ He said. He looked pale now and back in control. Something was flickering in the back of my mind, like a flame licks over paper and then it becomes dust. There was a curtain dissolving; I saw it now. Hanson was kneeling next to Joe. He held her wrist feeling round for a pulse.

  ‘It’s slow.’ He said, ‘as if she’s asleep.’

  I stood up. Davey caught my eye. ‘We must get out of here soon… but I have a feeling that something is going to hold us up.’

  ‘Yes.’ I said looking down at Marcia. I went back into the corridor. Oliver was already there with the rest of them.

  ‘She’s good to go.’ said Lorraine, who was checking Janey’s arm.

  Janey grimaced, ‘You have my thanks Lorrie. I guess were even now?’

  Lorraine shrugged, ‘I guess,’ she looked at me. I wasn’t keeping up. Davey stood near the door to the room, alternating his gaze between Janey and me. He turned then as Oliver prowled back a few yards the way we had come.

  ‘Time is now.’ Oliver warned, ‘I can hear funny sound.’

  ‘What time is it?’ I asked suddenly.

  ‘Ten to five.’ said Davey, then: ‘She coming round!’

  I went back in the room. Marcia was sitting up holding her head in both hands, with Joe on one side and Hanson on the other. They both were smiling.

  ‘Come on Annie! You’ll do alright now.’

  ‘She’s getting there.’ said Joe. He noticed me then, and said in a studied neutral voice: ‘She just needs two minutes, and we can leave.’

  ‘Oh…. what was in that?’ Marcia said, shaking her head.

  ‘A mild stimulant.’ Joe smiled at her, ‘You’ll be fine Ellis. Something made you fall asleep.’

  ‘I was in a room…. No, I was in this room. And then I saw…. I don’t know. Something odd. It was…. odd.’ she tried to scramble to her feet. Hanson and Joe helped her; both being overly solicitous.

  She stood up swaying slightly. They were both talking to her softly and kindly. She seemed to blink a few times. And then she straightened up. ‘I’m okay now…. Thanks boys.’

  ‘You sure Annie?’

  ‘Sure thing Andrew.’ said Marcia and smiled at him in that clear eyed way I knew so well. I guess I was jealous; which at that moment seemed like a stupid distraction. As a second later Oliver shouted from the corridor; ‘Shift it Idiots! Right NOW!’

  Davey stood by the door until we were all out of the room. Marcia was not going that fast so I grabbed her round the waist and ran with her. Joe and Hanson were right behind, Janey and Lorraine in front of us, making for the square of afternoon illumination under a cloudy sky. Oliver and Davey followed up the rear. Davey caught up with me and shoved Marcia’s pack into Hanson’s hands as he passed us.

  ‘Pistol!’ he ordered.

  Joe took Marcia forward as I stopped. I slid the gun out and loaded it in one swift movement. Davey took it out of my hands.

  ‘Davey?’ I felt the swift yielding to terror as a darkness that wasn’t a natural diminution of the light rose like a wave towards us on the distant corridor. Oliver was just back coming up from behind.

  ‘Run!’ he screamed. I didn’t argue. The last thought I had before we leapt for the strange gap was “I hope Davey can shoot straight!”

  There was a rush of noise like trains in tunnels and a brief flash of brilliance like the glancing of light from a window of a passing vehicle reflecting the sun. For some reason I was thinking of the Art Gallery back at home and my agent looking at the canvases and going “Hummm….” in the softly unaware way that he had. He would sigh and say something cryptic and weird and then tell me to get the bubble wrap out. His name was Howard Logan, and he claimed he was related to royalty; but was never too specific in what way. “It’s all a game Jay!” he would say; “All a game for dummies. Just stay out of the game Jay. Stay out of the game.” Then he’d offer me one of his horribly aromatic roll ups which I always refused, put on his bush hat over swept back hair and sweep out on a cloud of Yves Saint Laurent. All things considered we got on really well; he was one of those incredibly self-absorbed people who were really appreciative of good quality art. He spared me the trouble of having to reveal anything telling about myself by constantly regaling me with tales of terrible clients and loose moraled PAs. He made me laugh…. which was unusual. I suppose I missed the irreverent silliness and the buoyed up feeling of confidence he always left me with. I suppose I never thought about it before; how people who are in your life in a peripheral way are actually essential to the working of the whole fabric of your reality.

  We ran as fast as we could towards some rough ground. I saw that Lorraine stumbled and was helped by Janey. They ran between two trees and immediately made a sharp left. Joe and Marcia followed. Hanson hung back and pulled me along by the arm… I was slowing and turning to see where Davey and Oliver were. But yet I felt as if something was holding me back. I was turning, looking back… and then I saw a fantail of colour; a rainbow of light the spread out across the ground. And there was a shimmer of the faint traces of low buildings; it was as if there were two things there at once. Then out of the centre of the colours came spider tendrils of darkness. It was as if I was drawn to them; like a moth to a candle; but its inversion. The darkness was beckoning me like a drug I could not resist. Worse than any compulsion I had ever felt… stronger than Love, or Hate, or my suicidal obsession with dangerous driving speeds. Or even perhaps… grating at my soul like some humming sound that got inside your brain, like the smell of a woman when you know she wants sex with you… that musk, and the glitter of her eyes at a party… fuelled partl
y by drunken loss of inhibitions.

  Hanson grabbed me and forced me to the ground as I took a step back towards the aperture. There was a rush of sound and a high wind that blasted outwards from somewhere above and buffeted and blinded us. I could feel Hanson’s grip on my forearm tighten as we laid there as the sound and the air stirred up dust and plants and debris. It was cold too.

  ‘We must go to the cave!’ Hanson was shouting at the top of his voice, and I could barely hear him. My eyes were streaming I wasn’t sure which direction I was facing. He grabbed my other arm painfully as well and half pulled me, half dragged me upwards. We staggered through the roar of a tornado. There were pieces of wood and chunks of trees and bricks and sharp looking shards flying in all directions. I started to cough. Hanson pulled the scarf across my mouth from the neck of the suit. We entered the furious tossing of leaves. I couldn’t see six inches ahead. Hanson moved slowly then crouched down, pulling me with him. He crawled forward then turned sharply to the left. By this time the noise and the wind was so strong that it wouldn’t have mattered how loud you shouted you wouldn’t have been able to make yourself heard. I had to trust him. We kept crawling along.

  We were lower and the sound was above our heads. The air was swirling around slower as if we were in a hollow below the level of the uninterrupted wind. Plants brushed by us on both sides. Then all at once Hanson put his arm on my shoulders and pressed me down to the ground. He was shoving me forward by unceremoniously heaving me like a sack of spuds. I was splayed on my stomach and had no leverage at all.

  Suddenly another pair of hands grabbed my wrists and I was pulled through into a small dark place. I felt dizzy and disorientated and there was grit it seemed, on every bit of me. A few more moments of being dragged and the sound suddenly lessened. Beneath me was loose earth. I could hear Hanson grunting and scrambling up behind me in an ungainly way. He bumped into me and then seemed to sit back heavily. There was a moment or two of groaning behind and then the sound cut almost completely.