Chapter 9
It had taken most of the day to carefully remove the walls around the cupboard. Occasionally, someone would have to nip through and pick up the odd piece of masonry that had fallen awkwardly and landed in the Triassic. They could have done it quicker, but that would have risked a collapse, as the cupboard was in a supporting wall, which would have to be supported elsewhere now.
Pillars had been erected. The house itself was now home office property, along with the land around it, which included most of the valley. The imploder had been moved into place and now surrounded the anomaly. Computers had been set up at a safe distance, should anything untoward happen to the remaining structure of the house. The nothosaurus had been returned, minus samples of its blood and saliva. Everyone stood back and watched.
Connor sat at the computer screen and keyed in the last of the details. He stood up and looked round for Cutter. At Cutter's signal, he pressed the return key and the screen blinked. Silence fell as the whole company waited in anticipation.
For a few seconds, nothing seemed to happened. Then the two gigantic metal hoops began to spin, slowly at first but getting gradually faster. When the rings were no longer discernible in the blur of movement, Connor clicked another button on the computer screen and stepped back. A loud hum filled the air, increasing in volume and pitch until every person watching was bent double with their hands clamped over their ears.
Suddenly, without any warning, the noise stopped, leaving a void-like silence in its wake. The company straightened tentatively. Every person looked around as if checking that the world still held firm around them. Gradually, people began looking at the anomaly.
It was still there. It wasn't unchanged: there had been an effect. The anomaly was now larger by about half its size again. The remnants of the cupboard had vanished into the glittering mass and the edge of the ceiling was starting to shimmer. The imploder was gone.
Connor looked round and met Cutter's gaze. He shrugged. Even with the increase in size, the anomaly was not big enough to swallow the imploder. It should have sat just on the cusp of the sparkle. Becker signalled to one of his men. The soldier ran through the anomaly. A few seconds later, he returned, shaking his head at Becker.
All eyes followed the small group as they formed a huddle away from the main military crowd. Becker, Cutter, Connor, Abby, Jenny and Peta. They looked to each other for answers, but knew there were none to be found. Not yet. The result was unexpected, but still unanalysed. More information would be needed before any conclusions could be drawn and any ideas formed or reformed. Abby was the first to laugh.
"Lester's going to be really annoyed," she grinned. "Just think of all that paperwork."
XXXX
"Where did they take you?"
"I don't know," Helen made an effort to instil a tremble into her voice. She knew he'd watched her return, knew he'd gaped at her dishevelled state and the blood dripping down her cheek from the gash in the centre of the already swelling bruise. She'd heard him rail and shout at her guards as they shoved her roughly into the adjoining cell and locked the grill. She'd waited patiently as he scraped away the pile of chalk chips and dust that hid the gap in their communicating wall. "Another part of the caves, maybe. It was dark. I was unconscious for a lot of it. It smelt the same: stale, dank."
"What did they want?"
"I don't know. They just kept asking about you. What would make you talk. I said I didn't know."
"What did they do?"
"Sometimes nothing. They wouldn't let me drink or eat. It was hot. I was thirsty. They would ask me their questions, then they'd just vanish into the darkness, like ghosts in a nightmare."
"And other times?"
"There was a man. A tall man. The one in the suit who followed them down here when they brought me back. When I kept telling him I didn't know what he was talking about, he hit me." Helen gasped back a sob, making sure he heard her. "I think I passed out. The next thing I knew I was being dragged back here."
"Maybe they believed you and just wanted to knock you out to bring you back here," he said, searching for the silver lining in this chaotic cloud. "If they believe that, they might let you go."
"Maybe," Helen let her crocodile tears subside under his soothing words. "What about you though?"
"Who knows," he replied bravely. "Who cares!"
"But why are you so important to them?" Helen measured her tones carefully. "Why you? There are so many involved with the anomalies. Why you?"
"I don't even know anything about these anomalies," he sighed. "Not yet, anyway. Not according to you."
"You will though. You'll be a part of it. A part of the cover up."
"You sound as if I was one of the bad guys!"
"In my time, you were."
"I thought you were working with the anomaly team too?"
"I was. Then I found out more than I should," Helen sobbed again before adding carefully: "Now I'm here."
She heard him shift his weight on the other side of the wall and smiled. No good man could resist a damsel in distress. It worked every time. Every person had both hero and villain inside them. You just had to know which buttons to push to change them from one to the other.
"We'll get out of here," he said. "Somehow. And then we'll get back to our own times, and we'll fix this."
"I can't go back that far: not to your time. I might meet myself. It'll create a paradox. It could destroy everything," Helen let panic creep into her voice now. "But I can't go back alone. Not now. They know who I am. They want to destroy me."
"It's okay: you won't be alone. I can't create a paradox if I go back to your time. I've disappeared from my time. If I go back later than I disappeared I can't meet myself. Right?"
Helen let out one final sob and muttered an agreement. On her side of the wall, a satisfied smile spread across her features. It would still take time, but now she was getting somewhere. He was on her side now: willing to believe her stories. It didn't matter that he hadn't really disappeared from her timeline, but from another, alternate timeline deep within the multiverse. To all intents and purposes, he was the same man and he could be controlled in the same way. By the time he found out the truth, if he ever found out the truth, he would be too deeply embedded in her lies to see it for what it was.
It wouldn't be comfortable: she would have to spend some considerable time in the chalk cell. At least she would be more comfortable than him: her guards had placed a soft bed, water supply and other essentials in the room while he had been unconscious earlier.
A few more interviews with Cai or one of her army would harden his stubbornness. A few more disappearances where she returned looking badly treated would bind him closer to her. By the time she had engineered their 'escape', he would be wholly hers. In the meantime, though, perhaps a longer disappearance was in order. Something that would really worry him, but something that would give her the chance to collect yet another ace into her sleeve.
XXXX
It took most of the next day to make the structure of the house solid. There was talk of completely rebuilding, but someone suggested that presenting Sir James with a bill for architect's fees, materials, builders and various other extras involved, as well as the replacement cost of the imploder, would not be considered either wise or prudent. It was agreed that any major rebuilding could be done once the anomaly had been fully analysed and once they were sure that it was not going to disappear the next day.
Partly to be near the anomaly, partly to get away from Connor, Cutter had decided to make himself part of the team that would remain in the gully to guard the anomaly. The military guards were taking it in shifts to mount watches against the possibility of any other creatures coming through unseen. Cutter decided that there should be a scientist handy should anything appear in the middle of the night and promptly volunteered himself.
It only took ten minutes for Becker to brief the soldiers on procedures. Ten minutes with a team of military troops lined up in the front garden of the house, with their backs to the anomaly. Well, Cutter and his team were still over there after all. Except they were busy with the computers: they thought the military were watching the anomaly.
Ten minutes. Hardly much time at all, but long enough.
Long enough for something to sneak through unseen.
Or, at least, someone...
