Day Two 08: 12am
It was with some trepidation that Lucas, Malcolm and Jo had made their way back to the city of London that morning.
The reports from the military yesterday of the damage to the UK had been sobering in the extreme. Central London had been completely devastated as had the other cities and towns along the coast.
On the outskirts of London things had looked relatively normal but it hadn't taken them long to discover that there was no power, no water and no means of contacting the outside world as all the telecommunication towers had been destroyed.
Yesterday they had achieved virtually nothing in Lucas' opinion.
After traveling into Luton in search of an office they could use the team had entered the local Council offices only to find these without power and in a state of complete chaos. The rest of the town was the same. They had taken their car and journeyed further north, stopping at towns along the way and becoming increasingly concerned to find that they too were without power. After traveling for a little over an hour they eventually came to a village that did have electricity.
From there they had set themselves up as best they could and began to gather intelligence about what was happening and assisting their contacts at the military with the limited requests for assistance they received. Lucas knew enough about the British military to know that they liked to run their own operations – so they lack of contact didn't surprise him, though it frustrated him enormously and by the expression on Malcolm and Jo's faces they felt the same.
Something else that had been troubling him was that yesterday evening they'd lost contact with Harry. They'd tried his line three times that evening, and left two messages but hadn't heard back from him. This morning in the car as they drove into the city they'd tried again with no success.
As the moved farther into the city it was easy to identify the precise point at which the water had reached the capital. The force of the water meant that most of the buildings were now completely devastated, with only a few structures sturdier remaining.
From this point onwards it was obvious that a car wouldn't be of much use as the road had simply disappeared and been covered by a pile of debris. They were forced to abandon their vehicle and continue their journey on foot.
Amongst the ruins of houses and debris from the deluge were the bodies. He had seen Jo turn away when she encountered the first one, and Malcolm's mouth purse in silent distaste.
After a little while, as the fatalities became an increasingly familiar sight, he saw that Jo didn't turn away any more but just averted her eyes as best she could and kept picking her way through the rubble. He himself had learned to avoid looking at the cars as these had become a watery grave for many of the city's inhabitants.
Yesterday he'd asked Malcolm about his mother – and was relieved to hear that she was living in rural Dorset, and was therefore likely to be unaffected by the disaster.
Navigating the route into the centre of the city had been difficult, eventually they had found their way to the Thames and from there followed the course of the river until they reached Thames House. Remarkably, Thames House was one of the buildings that was still standing, though it was heavily damaged.
But once they reached the building they were unable to gain entry inside. The security system was electronically controlled and with no power there was no way to access the building. So, they had had to turn back the way they had come and spend a further four hours traveling on foot.
On the way back, Malcolm had entertained himself by randomly reciting verses from Shakespearean plays. After a while Jo had started chiming in to guess which play he was quoting from. It quickly turned into a little game between them. Jo's success rate wouldn't have been higher than 50% but she persevered anyway. Lucas was pleased to see her show an interest in something, given that she'd been remarkably quiet all day.
As they walked Lucas turned over the situation in his head, considering what their next move should be. By the time they would have returned to where they had left their car, he reasoned, it would be almost dark.
As there was no mobile reception, they had no way of contacting either Harry or the outside world, in Lucas's view their next move should be to make contact with one of the emergency reporting centers, in the hope that they may have information about the situation.
The day before they had learned that the military were planning to convert many of the schools outside the affected areas into civilian welfare centers and were encouraging people to report there if they were in need of assistance. The first centers had opened their doors yesterday afternoon.
Once they reached the car, Lucas announced his plan. Both Malcolm and Jo nodded their agreement to the idea. After driving around for some twenty minutes they had come across their first school. Upon entering the building they found it crowded with people rushing here and there, crying babies and general mayhem.
They located someone official looking who was wearing a fluorescent arm band marked 'Volunteer," and asked what the situation was.
"Chaos," was the brief reply. He didn't look like he was exaggerating.
"We've had about a thousand people turn up in the past two days here, and we just don't have the capacity to cope with anywhere near these numbers. The military have been moving people out but only about three hundred so far. They can't keep up with the demand."
"On top of that we don't have running water and only limited bottled supplies. We have an emergency generator here which we're been using for cooking but that's not nearly enough for this amount of people. We're ok for food for the meantime as the army have requisitioned some. But overall its chaos – pure chaos."
Lucas, Jo and Malcolm listened to his comments in silence. It was obvious from even a cursory glance around them that he was telling the truth.
"Lucas," Jo said, catching his attention, "I think we should talk to him," she finished, pointing.
Lucas looked in the direction she had pointed and saw a stocky figure dressed in a military uniform.
They walked over to greet the soldier, introduced themselves as MI5 and asked him what he knew. His reply indicated he knew very little more than what the volunteer had told him. He had virtually no knowledge of the situation affecting the wider region and could comment only on what was happening at the centre and on the frequency of military transport in and out of it.
After he'd finished speaking he saw Jo look up hesitantly and ask if they'd kept a record of all of the people coming in and out of the centre. The soldier nodded in reply, "paper records only seeing as there's no electricity."
"Could I have a look at them?" she asked quietly.
"Sure can," he replied, and took them both over to a desk manned by a rather harassed looking elderly man clutching a pile of papers.
"They want to look at the list of names," he said shortly.
Jo picked up the papers and began scanning through them intently, her attention completely focused on the list. After reading through all of the papers once and then going back and re-reading them again she put them down - disappointment clearly written on her face.
Lucas frowned, but said nothing, then turned back to the soldier, "I don't suppose there's anywhere we could sleep here?."
"No spare beds here, sorry," he said apologetically, 'We're packed. But maybe we could set you up somewhere else."
He thought for a moment, "Classrooms are full, so is the gym and the library and the teachers lounge is a makeshift hospital. You could have the supply room, if you liked, its not spacious I'm afraid but its quiet."
Lucas nodded, "That would be fine, thanks."
Once they entered the room Lucas came to the view that it was doubtful whether the supply room could really be called a room – it was really more of a closet. Without electricity they had had to borrow a torch from their car for lighting.
After lining up at the communal kitchen for some dinner - which made Lucas feel very much like he was back at boarding school once again - the three of them retired to the supply room to get some rest. The silence in the room was a welcome respite from the hustle and bustle throughout the rest of the building.
Malcolm dozed off to sleep relatively quickly, but Lucas stayed awake considering the day's events.
After a little while, he was interrupted by the sound of Jo whispering, "Lucas, are you still awake?"
"Yes," he replied quietly. It was not yet nine o'clock and despite the fact that the day had been exhausting, his body wasn't yet ready to sleep.
"What do you think we should do next?" she asked softly.
"I was thinking about that. Our options are limited really," Lucas answered.
"I want to go and visit some more reporting centres tomorrow," Jo whispered. "To see if they know any more."
It was true that she wanted to visit other centres to see if they could gain any further intelligence about the situation. It was also true that she was desperate to scan through other lists of names to see if any ending in "Portman" were amongst them.
"Fine," Lucas replied briefly. It made sense from an operational point of view to carry out further visits, but Lucas was smart enough to be able to predict that that wasn't Jo's only motivation.
"Lucas," she continued, "did they have any blankets left?"
"No – they're all gone I'm afraid," he replied quietly. "Are you cold then?"
"A little," she replied.
He wasn't surprised. The night was cold and she had on only a short sleeved blouse and skirt on. Malcolm was fortunate enough to be wearing a three piece suit and a trenchcoat and he had on a long sleeved top and jeans.
The room was dark but there was a full moon outside and light filtered through the window to illuminate the room. Lucas reached out his hand to catch her arm and pulled her over so that she lay against him with her head resting on his chest.
"This should be warmer then," he said quietly.
He couldn't read her expression but he could feel the tension that been apparent at first in her body gradually disappear as she relaxed and then seemed content to lay there quietly with his arm around her.
"Best to get some rest Jo," he said in a soft whisper a couple of minutes later, "You'll need it tomorrow."