Steve delivered the tea and as soon as he put the tray down on the work bench his mobile phone rang. He walked away from the other two to take the call. “Thank you for calling back.” “Do you remember whether either you or Tom had any cause to take the fourth one of those magnetic detectors from its box?” “Why did Tom do that?” “Did he check the connectivity for all three sensors that way?” “Did you fire up the Beast at any time whilst the fourth sensor was inside?” “Did either of you put the sensor back in its box?” “Are you certain of that?” “Did Tom ever mention the Quartermaster, Major Harry Brandon?” “Thank you for your call. Goodbye.” Steve rejoined the others.
“I’ve just spoken to Peter Boyde. He says that Tom used the fourth D23 in order to check that the cable loom inside the Beast was in good order. He had to connect it to each of the 3 connectors that the test instruments would use and make sure that the computer sensor circuitry could detect it. Boyde did not recall the D23 being put back in the box but, he said that it was not something that he would have noticed anyway. Oh, and he said that Tom had spoken to the Quartermaster several times, but Tom had said that it was to do with getting another desk or certainly more furniture.” Steve took a sip of his tea.
The Inspector had to decide what line to take in his report. “Do I say that we think that the Beast can make things move in time or do I say that it just makes things disappear?” His question was aimed at the Professor. “If that torch had been found 3 years ago then I would be go along with a speculative view of time travel.” Then Steve joined the discussion. “But surely it might be possible that the torch only went back a few weeks or it went back before this building was erected.” The Professor took the point. “Why not say that the Beast is capable of causing things to disappear and that we have one proven case of an object being found three years ago? That puts it at about two years before the object was manufactured.” The Inspector was happy to use something along that line, but first he decided to give his boss a verbal report.
The Inspector used his mobile phone to call his boss. “Sir, it’s Brian, can you go green?” There was an audible crackle and the link was encrypted. “What is it Brian?” said Chief Inspector Waverly. Brian Morton-Farrell outlined the situation and said that his report would mention time travel as a possible explanation of the disappearance of Tom Brooker and the sensor being found three years ago. “Just get that report to me as soon as you can Brian.” The call ended. At least the Inspector felt a little better about putting time travel as a possible explanation in his report. He was keen not to attract ridicule as his promotion was currently under review and something “stupid” could tip the balance in someone else’s favour. He had the opportunity to get his report done in 24 hours, ahead of the original deadline, which he knew would look good. He called across the room to the young Civil Servant. “Steve, is my computer on the internet?” It was and so he sat down to fill in a few gaps and write an executive summary for the report. He then established a secure, encrypted link to the Special Branch computer system and sent his report to Chief Inspector Waverly.
Steve was happy to go and buy sandwiches from the NAAFI shop in the Camp. When he returned, he quickly put the food down and took the Inspector to one side. “I had a call on my way back. The forensic people have come back to me with two bits of news. First, they say that the piece of flesh found in the bit of shoe was a small part of the right big toe of Tom Brooker. Then they mentioned a gold charm.” Steve waited for a sign of recognition from the Inspector. “Right, well this charm was examined under a microscope. It has SAFE on one side and then a number,” he looked down to the back of his hand where he had written something with a biro, “802701 on the other side.” The Inspector checked that the Professor was not in earshot. “Did they say anything about how the piece of toe might have been cut off?” he asked. “No, nothing. That was all they were prepared to say at this stage.”
The Inspector pulled out his mobile phone again. He called Waverly’s secretary. “Janice, has the boss read my email yet do you know?”, “Still at lunch?”, “Please delete my last email, I am about to send an amended report.” He went to his computer and changed the report putting in the new detail. The email was sent within a matter of minutes. He was pleased that he was able to update the report without his boss being aware. He warned Steve not to mention the ownership of the piece of toe to the Professor.
Lunch was next and this provided an opportunity for the Inspector to ask a few more questions. “So what do you make of this, James? That gold charm had SAFE on one side and 802701 on the other.” The Professor said nothing at first but looked troubled. When he did manage to speak his voice was shaky. “It is from HG Wells. 802701 is the year that the Time Traveller reached in the story of the Time Machine.”
This did not go down well with the Inspector. “That’s ridiculous. Someone is playing games with us, James. That is so definitely a wind-up or a blatant bit of manipulation. I think I’m rapidly going away from time travel as a possible explanation now. Don’t you think that it is too obvious?” The Professor was not sure what to say. “Well, I see what you mean but it may still be genuine. Tom was a great fan of HG Wells you know.”
The Inspector was getting annoyed. He had sent his report, had it deleted and sent another and now he would look a complete fool if he had to send a third version. “How bloody convenient that you happen to know this date. Put yourself in my shoes, James. Why shouldn’t I start to suspect that something fishy is going on and that Tom and you are part of it?” This mild attack was actually doing the Professor some good. He was getting a little colour back into his cheeks as he went about defending himself. “No. That is not fair Brian. I have always been an HG Wells fan and so is Tom. Perhaps it is a message from him to say that he is safe wherever and whenever he finds himself.”
“Rubbish. How would Tom know that you would get to see the charm? If he buried it sometime in the past he would have no way of knowing that it would ever be found.” Steve interrupted the Inspector. “But Tom Brooker did know that the Professor would see the charm because they dug it out of the hole together.” The Inspector calmed down and replied with a simple grunt as he realised that he did not need to intercept his report again. He changed the subject. “What do you think about doing an experiment to see what would happen if something was half in and half out of the Beast James?
The Professor was happy to try another experiment, but what would they use as the test piece. Steve’s suggestion of some sausages was not approved but this was quickly followed by rope. “It could go in through the door and back out again.” They had no rope and so they looked around the building for something else. “I think that we should be a little more rigorous.” The Professor said. “We should try an organic item and then a metallic item and see if there is any difference.” They discovered that non metallic items were cut through at the point where the effect took place whereas metallic items would either disappear or remain but not be sliced through. Towards five o’clock, the Professor received a call from Alison who wanted to know whether Tom had been found and at what time they wanted to be picked up. The Inspector could tell that there was still some bad feeling between the two Gordons. He resolved to try and cheer them up that evening. Alison was to collect them at six.
At 5.30 pm, the Inspector received a telephone call from Chief Inspector Waverly. He had to report to London as soon as possible and there was no need for the Professor to be in any form of custody. Some major development had occurred that could not even be discussed over a secure telephone. The Inspector decided to take the car that Steve had used to travel down from London. He was to be left plenty of work to do and the Inspector would be back by the morning.
Halfway to London, the Inspector took another call. “Change of venue, Brian. Go to Thames House.” His boss said. The Inspector headed for the Headquarters of MI5.
Chapter 7 – Helping Tom
The Inspector hated trying to park anywhere near Thames House.
He had no permit for any of the Government car parks in the Millbank area and in the end he was forced to use a parking meter, several hundred yards away. At least at 8pm the streets were relatively quiet. He went to the reception desk where he was expected and a security guard checked his ID and ushered him through the security doors. To his surprise they did not go upwards in the lift, but descended several floors to an underground conference room. In the room was Chief Inspector Waverly, Alan Fredericks or Alfred to his friends, and a man he did not recognise. A projector was displaying a PowerPoint slide on the wall which said simply “TOP SECRET”. It was the unknown man who spoke first.
“Thank you for doing your best to get here so soon Inspector. I am Julian Gaskin and I am a section chief in this building. You know the others, but none of you knows the detail of why you have been called here at such short notice.” Gaskin was a very senior man in MI5 and even Chief Inspector Waverly was using body language that combined school boy trying to impress with rabbit in a lion’s cage. Gaskin continued. “Now I have to take the unusual step of …”
He had to ‘read them in’ to an area of Very Restricted Knowledge or VRK, reserved for subjects of immense sensitivity. Gaskin explained, “Although cleared to access Top Secret information, you still need to be ‘read in’ to this VRK. I have to do this to ensure that you only have access to the very minimum of sensitive information. That way the chances of any individual causing catastrophic damage are reduced.”
Each one of the other three had to sign a register to say that they had been read onto the VRK. After the last signature was completed, Gaskin continued. Now let me give you a brief history lesson.” He paused only to press the mouse button to advance the next slide which revealed an aerial photograph of Stonehenge. “No prizes for guessing where we are. On the night of 31st December 1900 there was a massive storm that rocked the south of England. That night, one of the Stonehenge Sarsen stones, which was known to be unstable, toppled over. In the following years, restoration work was started to reseat the stone and make others safe.” He advanced to the next picture of a particular standing stone. “When this stone was moved to one side to repair the hole into which it was to be reset, a team of archaeologists were allowed to investigate the immediate area and what was previously the buried base of the stone. There is no picture left today of what they found but it was recorded in the notebook of Professor William Gowland, the chief archaeologist at the time. He said, and I quote,
‘Imagine our astonishment to see, before our very eyes, an inscription that had been buried, away from the gaze of man for well over 3000 years. We worked for hours to clear away calcium deposits, lichens and the stains of time. The inscription was found to be in a Latin Alphabet with Arabic numerals. The forming of the letters and numerals was crude but deeply made to stand against time. Both Robson and Sir Anthony Horn expressed concern that this inscription was modern, but the evidence of time was clear. This was a very curious message in stone.’
The find was deemed by the Society of Antiquaries to be of ambiguous age and it was not published in any journal of the day. But then in 1958 the discovery was made afresh by Professors Richard Atkinson and Stuart Piggott, during restoration work supervised by the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works. This time a consensus of the archaeological elite agreed that the carving of the inscription had been done at the time that the stone was originally placed in the soil. This was backed up by the examination of a nearby Long Barrow in which was found the skeleton of man who had, without doubt, been interred for a very long time but whose frame and height was similar to modern man. Beside the skeleton was a sealed earthenware jar which was subject to the closest scientific scrutiny. They discovered a short length of graphite of the size, shape and composition of that found in modern pencils. There was also evidence of several objects made of high carbon steel which had almost completely disintegrated. One of these objects was thought to be the head of a hammer. There was no question that any of this was either faked or recorded erroneously. Somebody had travelled back in time to the era when Stonehenge was being built.”
Julian Gaskin paused to take a sip of water from the glass on the table in front of him. Nobody dared break the silence. “By Spring of 1959, MI5 had the whole matter under its control and each of the people involved was read on to the newly created VRK which was given the code name Stone Message. Having what appeared to be a large group on the VRK proved useful as we had some very eminent high priced help to gather all the facts together. What nobody knew then was the date that the time traveller had come from. Everyone agreed that it could be tens, hundreds or even a thousand years on in time. But now we know the answer.” He paused again to glance down at his notebook.
“You may be aware that we have a clever new computer program that has revolutionised the way that intelligence work is handled. Late this afternoon Cora spotted some information that had been placed in a database on the Special Branch computer system. That information was part of the report that you, Inspector Morton-Farrell, had sent to Chief Inspector Waverly today. The particular expression that caused an immediate end to my routine work today was found on a gold charm discovered in the foundations of the Dagger building at Larkhill Camp.” He pressed a button and a PowerPoint slide was displayed on the wall beside them. It read simply “SAFE 802701”. That, gentlemen, is exactly what was carved into the base of that Sarsen stone which is only two kilometres away from the Dagger Building. Cora already knew about the Stone Message, but now it had cropped up independently of the original find. It has come to light thanks to some thorough work by your chaps, Chief Inspector.”
Gaskin looked down and turned the page of his notebook. “I mentioned the skeleton in the Long Barrow. It was taken to a secure vault in the British Museum and a few years ago, using newly devised techniques, it was possible to remove sufficient DNA to aid the detective work. Gentlemen, the DNA of that skeleton and that of Tom Brooker are a close match, if not the same. The skeleton may be that of Brooker, but it is also possible that it is a son or grandson of his. The current best guess is that Tom Brooker is alive, I’m sorry, was alive and well when he was transported back in time and that he somehow became part of the community that he found himself in. There is a chance that he may have had a son or grandson. Either he or one of his offspring was buried in that Long Barrow.”
This time, Julian Gaskin paused long enough for Waverly to ask. “Sir, did that skeleton have part of its right big toe missing?” “Good point. At this stage I don’t know. That will be examined.” Another question came from Morton-Farrell. “Sir, when I was chatting to Professor Gordon the night before last he said, almost in passing, that he had read speculation in a leading science journal that some of the experiments at Cern, in Switzerland, could produce space-time anomalies when anti-matter is created. Is that suspected now?”
Julian Gaskin did not address anyone in the room but said, “Graham.” A loudspeaker in the ceiling responded with “Yes Sir.” Gaskin continued. “Graham, make sure that anti-matter, space-time anomalies and Cern do not appear in any of the notes that you are making. Is that clear?” The loudspeaker relayed “Right Sir.” Gaskin turned to the three in the room. “I don’t want Cora tilting at windmills or for any of you to be read on to another VRK. We have a man on the Cern team and there is thought to be no link whatsoever.”
“Right let’s get on. So much for the background that has brought us together this evening. Is there anything that I need to be aware of that was not in the report that Morton-Farrell produced for you Waverly?” Gaskin looked at Waverly who immediately deferred to Morton-Farrell. “If I may answer that, Sir. I have had no opportunity to brief Chief Inspector Waverly since that report was sent earlier today. I am sorry but, as you can understand, I have no slides prepared. I had put in my report that a small magnetic sensor, built by Professor Gordon at the beginning of this year, was found 3 years ago in the Dagger Building. There was also a screwdriver which appears to have only gone back in time by a
few weeks. The Professor has now put several other objects in the Beast and successfully made them disappear but there has been no indication to what time they were sent. Although this proves that the process can be repeated there may be no way of knowing just how far back objects may go. My next point is about the Professor himself. He is the bastard child that Angus Merchant is seeking.” Morton-Farrell was interrupted by Fredericks. “We actually know that already, Brian.”
Morton-Farrell was slightly taken aback, but not really surprised at that news. “Oh fine. Are you aware that Merchant has a notebook that once belonged to the solicitor…” Fredericks was nodding and so he skipped to his next point. “Professor Gordon wants to stop Merchant from publishing his story and had hoped to enlist Tom Brooker’s help. The Gordons are childless and they both have grown very fond of Brooker in the short time that they have known him. Alison Gordon will take some time to forgive her husband for pressing the wrong button that sent the boy away. I think that Professor Gordon has taken it quite badly, but I don’t think that he is likely to be a security liability. Oh, that number is from HG Wells…” he was interrupted again, but this time by Gaskin. “Yes the year the Time Machine got to and the number of the combination lock that the Professor and Brooker have set up for the Dagger Building.” Morton-Farrell was again impressed by the depth of knowledge of MI5. He had no more to add and Julian Gaskin continued.
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