Off The Wall
Sequel to Mirror, Mirror
Chapter 1
Nick Cutter hated days like these. Days when, once upon a time, he would have been stuck in a musty, university lecture theatre or cramped tutor room rather than a capacious, minimalistic office. To a man who was to the warm, dark, mysterious depths of a library or his university office, the clinical coolness and brightness of the ARC clashed with his ego.
He flicked the paper straight again and tried to read on. It was the latest report on the cleanup operation following their last anomaly. That had been a whole week ago now, but he was still getting reports in. On the good side, though, it did seem that his theory had been right and, unable to detect vibrations in Britain's shark and dolphin infested waters, the serrasalminids had been washing up on shores either emaciated through hunger or half eaten by predators they were not equipped to escape.
That was fine. He could get his head round that. No problem. It was the water level reports that were confusing him. In just one week, not only had the water levels subsided, but they were already back to normal. Once the storm had abated and the water had flowed freely through the Channel, the sea levels had dropped like a stone in just two days. He couldn't explain it, but he was no expert on geology or meteorology or whatever other 'ology' was responsible for moving water around.
He tossed the sheet onto a pile in his out-tray. Somebody would file it later, when he wasn't around to get in their way. He sighed and drummed his fingers on the desk. He was bored. Utterly bored. So bored he found himself longing for another anomaly, if only to keep his mind from drifting.
He got up and walked over to the window. He could see right down into the atrium of the ARC from here. That was a hive of activity. A complete contrast with the sterile serenity of his office. They were assembling the third version of the anomaly detector. They told him that this one was even better than either of the two that had gone before: it had all of Peta's team's upgrades, plus the ones they had added to their detector in Seahouses, plus a whole lot more that they had thought up on the way home, which Connor had expounded to them all at length until he eventually had to stop to breathe. He had even paused long enough in his explanations to let Cutter ask a question. Unfortunately the question was 'what next?' and had been answered with a fresh tirade of ideas.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Jenny's voice cut into Nick's reverie.
"Ah, I doubt they're worth that much," Nick sighed.
"I'm willing to be overcharged," Jenny smiled, walking up to stand beside him at the window. She looked down at the ant-like figures scurrying about below. "I hope they know what they're doing."
"I'm sure they do," Nick replied, confidently.
"Remind me: what did you once tell me you did with Connor's first report?"
Nick turned away from the window, grinning slightly in remembrance, and leant against the railing.
"I chucked it straight in the bin," he said with a laugh.
"And this is the man you are entrusting our future to?"
"He's always done good before, at least where technology is concerned."
"But we're talking about the kind of technology that can, and I quote, produce a black hole."
"Only a little one," Nick laughed.
"Glad I've cheered someone up this morning then!"
"Lester still giving you a hard time?"
Jenny sighed, then turned away from the window, copying Nick's action as she leaned back on the rail.
"You could say that," she replied, smoothing a stray strand of hair back into place. "Not that I blame him, of course: I should have come up with a better cover story."
"There was nothing wrong with your cover story."
"It started an EC investigation into all of our beaches before the public can be allowed access again."
"It keeps them away from the fish."
"It keeps them away from our most popular holiday resorts in the middle of summer."
Nick gave a short, sharp laugh and folded his arms. He looked up at the clock on the far wall. Nearly one o'clock. He looked over to Jenny.
"You know that drink you suggested, back at Stephen's funeral."
"Ah, that. Yes, it was rather inappropriate of me. Sorry."
"No, don't be. I was just wondering: fancy making it lunch?"
Jenny looked round, her surprise showing in her features. Nick felt the need to explain.
"I need to get out of here," he said, shrugging, "and by the sounds of it, so do you. It's lunch time anyway: Lester can't complain if we disappear for half an hour or so to get something to eat. Besides," he added, looking back over his shoulder at the window, "he's far too busy keeping an eye on Connor and his new toy!"
XXXX
"So," Lester said, his eyes fixed on the unfinished mechanism in the corner opposite the detector. "Explain to me again how this thing will work."
"We've got two options really," Connor replied, "we can either match the anomaly's magnetic polarity or oppose it."
"Which means?"
"When you talked to Nigel about this, did he use his seesaw analogy?"
"Yes," Lester said slowly.
"Right, well: that's the scenario where we oppose the polarity. When it goes north, we go south and vice versa. The theory being that the two cancel each other out."
"But?"
"Well, opposites attract and all that: it might just make the anomaly bigger."
"And the other option?"
"The imploder I told you about."
Lester's brow wrinkled ever so slightly.
"I'm confused: these aren't the same thing?"
"No."
"Then how is the imploder different?"
"Well, instead of opposing the force, and attracting it, we match it instead, and push it away. But since it's being pushed on all sides..." Connor paused expectantly.
"It gets squeezed," Lester finished.
"Well, pinched," Connor corrected, "but yeah, basically."
"Which will either shrink it, get rid of it entirely or destroy the entire world."
"Quite."
Lester stayed quite still for a few moments, then turned to look Connor full in the face.
"What," he asked, "is the worst that can happen with the first one?"
"Big, permanent hole in the space-time continuum?" Connor guessed, shrugging.
Lester nodded thoughtfully.
"Find a relatively harmless anomaly," he sighed, "preferably somewhere inconspicuous, and try the seesaw out on it."
Connor nodded and watched Lester stalk off towards Peta's team at the new detector. He turned back to look at the weird creation in front of him. It was nowhere near finished. Effectively, it was two, big, electromagnetic hoops, one within the other and sitting at right angles to each other. The idea was that they would, eventually, spin in the two different planes, creating a bubble of magnetic field. The polarity of the field would change in time with the anomaly. The only problem was they hadn't quite sorted out the spinning mechanism, or managed to synchronise the polarity changes in the two hoops, never mind matching it to an anomaly, or worked out how the magnetic field of one hoop would affect the other as they passed each other. At least opposing the field wouldn't create any black holes if it all went horribly wrong.
Connor was still lost in thought when he felt an arm loop itself though his. He looked down and grinned.
"How's Rex?" Connor asked.
"Still sulking," Abby replied, leaning her head on his shoulder. Connor nodded, silently. A smirk became visible on his face.
"What?" Abby asked, frowning.
"Nothing, nothing," Connor shook his head feigning innocence. Abby stuck an elbow in his ribs. He winced.
"Tell me," she said, glaring up at him.
"It's just slightly amusing, that's all."
"What is?"
"Well," said Connor, hesitantly, "he's not the only one sulking, is he."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Do you realise that every time you've come in here, the first thing you've done is grab my arm?"
"So what? I'm allowed, aren't I?"
"Yeah, course. It's just. Well. You don't do it when we're at home. You only do it here."
"And that's amusing because?"
"You're jealous," Connor grinned.
"Am not."
"Are too."
"Of who?"
Connor shrugged his shoulders and looked back at the machine.
"I dunno," he said, grinning. "But someone or something in this room."
"Why would I feel jealous, and I'm not saying I am jealous, but why would I feel jealous of a 'something'?"
"Just thought maybe I'd been spending too much time here, that was all," Connor shrugged. "So it's a someone then."
"I didn't say that."
"Didn't have to."