Chapter 5
Becker's version of the Anomaly Detector was certainly the epitome of streamlining. Connor decided that he would have to start thinking about modifying his own version once they got back to the ARC. Some of the additions included in this model would be more than a little useful.
"Mr Temple?" Becker's voice intruded upon Connor's meandering thoughts as he surveyed the new AD. Connor looked round, still grinning with the enthusiasm of a child presented with a surprise new toy.
"I'd like you to meet the member of our team responsible for most of the work on our version of the detector," Becker continued. "A Lance Corporal Jones in our information technology department. Lance Corporal Jones is currently involved, along with others of our IT team, in moving all our computerised equipment to the Panorama Bar on the top floor of the hotel."
As Becker was speaking, two plain clothes soldiers began shutting down and dismantling the detector another soldier arrived and helped them load the component parts onto a porter's trolley.
"Please forgive the lack of uniform," Becker observed as he and Connor followed the industrious trio to the lift. "It was necessary that we arrive here incognito and it was only once the magnitude of the threat was established and the town evacuated that I myself have had time to change back into my official clothes. The members of this department have been the busiest and, therefore, unable to do likewise." The lift shuddered to a halt and Becker stepped out into the Panorama Bar. "I hope you like what we've done with the place."
Connor's jaw dropped. He'd been impressed by the anomaly detector, but apparently that was only the tip of the iceberg. Spread out along one glass wall were a dozen computers and their operators. Hanging from the ceiling, a plasma screen TV showed the inside of a boat, its crew in a frenzy of activity and its military passengers attempting to maintain a hold on their desks. Several tables had been joined together to form a conference sized table, upon which a large map was weighted down by glasses. The far end of the room held another stage, in front of which the soldiers were now setting up the detector. Upon the stage, a large screen was being lined up with the beam from a fixed point projector hanging from the ceiling.
Becker raised a hand in the direction of the stage and led the way. Connor followed him, still looking around at the work going on. When Becker came to a halt, Connor nearly walked into him.
"Mr Temple, allow me to introduce Lance Corporal Peta Jones and her team." Connor's gaze followed Becker's outstretched hand as he pointed out one of the IT specialists arguing with the projection board. At the sound of her name, a dark green jumper and black jeans retrieved a head of flame-coloured curls from behind the projection screen and blinked green eyes in the direction of Becker and Connor.
XXXX
Jenny watched Abby's eyes follow Connor and Becker to the door of the hall. The entire room was in the process of being dismantled but, between being distracted by Connor and trying to prevent anyone noticing this, Abby had failed to notice this. She was still standing looking at the papers she had been handed by one of the home office staff collating the incoming details from the research vessel.
"Something interesting?" Jenny asked, when Abby's gaze switched back to the papers. Abby looked up, noticed the table that the papers had been on was now empty, frowned, then looked round at Jenny.
"Where...?"
"They're moving upstairs," Jenny answered her, "Just in case."
"Oh." Abby paused, considering this, then waved her papers at Jenny. "Have you seen what these?"
"Not yet. What are they?"
"An inventory of the species found in the samples taken from around the anomaly site."
"And?"
"There's nothing there! Well, nothing out of the ordinary anyway. I mean, I'm guessing they can't do a microscopic analysis on it because there's none of our own plankton there, but all the macroscopic animals and plants are normal!"
"Isn't that good?"
XXXX
Quietly and without incident, he carried out his tasks. He was lucky that there were so many new faces around: fewer people who might have met him before and fewer who would notice yet another new face in the crowd. He didn't need orders: he'd been watching the kitchen worker for most of the day. He knew his part inside out. All he had to do now was wait until he could easily slip away unnoticed. He had an objective to achieve and he knew what was at stake if he failed.
XXXX
Jenny Lewis hurried along the corridor of the ground floor of the hotel. She was heading for Lester's office. It wasn't a difficult route. That explained why, when she should have been looking where she was going, her head was bent over the sheet of paper Abby had given her. She was heading one way in search of Lester. Abby was heading up the stairs to find Cutter.
Nick Cutter.
Such a mystery.
Jenny let her footsteps slow as her thoughts slipped off track. She just couldn't keep him out of her mind. She paused, thinking back to her walk through his house: the photographs on the wall, the haphazard scattering of clothes, books and papers in his bedroom and study.
His study.
That photograph.
Claudia Brown.
Who was she?
Jenny Lewis shook her head and started walking again, trying to focus on the paper and how she was going to explain the situation to Lester. She turned the corner and collided with someone walking the other way with equal rapidity. The collision knocked Jenny off her precarious balance and she flung out a hand to steady herself, landing on it with a sharp cry of pain. In an instant, strong arms were lifting her to her feet and a soft voice was asking her if she was okay.
Jenny looked up.
"Nick!" Jenny was genuinely surprised: she had thought, as had Abby, that Nick Cutter was upstairs in his room or up in the new operations room on the top floor. She saw a smile flit across his face and realised that she had let her daydreaming get the better of her. "I mean... Professor Cutter: what are you doing here? We thought you were upstairs."
"We?" Nick tried to turn his grin into a puzzled frown.
"Abby and I: Abby thinks she's spotted something."
"Oh?"
"I, um, I'm just going to find Lester. Have you seen him?"
"He's in his office. I was just speaking with him. You know you should really let me take a look at that wrist."
Jenny looked down at the wrist she was cradling and flexed her fingers.
"No it's fine. I've probably just staved it. Look: I can move all the fingers."
"Can you move the wrist?"
"What do you mean?"
"Try moving your whole hand up and down."
Jenny tried but, apart from an involuntary twitching of the fingers, her hand remained stubbornly still.
Nick winced in sympathy.
"It's probably broken near the end of the bone. Do you have a medical contingent in this army of experts here?"
Jenny frowned and realised that Becker and Lester had organised most of the people in the hotel while she had been busy rounding up Nick, Abby and Connor.
"I would assume so," she replied, sighing, "Lester would know."
"We were always well equipped before, but we only needed really serious medical care in the field once or twice and we always had an ambulance available. The most serious injuries, the ones that weren't fatal anyway, included a centipede bite and a knock to the head by a sleepy pteranodon. At least if you don't count the occasional Connor-inflicted injuries."
"No ambulances here I'm afraid. Although Leek always did make sure you had a good medical team on hand."
"Oh, no, this wasn't Leek: this was... someone else."
"What was she like?"
"Who?"
"Claudia Brown. That's who you were thinking of wasn't it?"
Nick sighed and rubbed a hand across his eyes. Eventually he looked up at Jenny, pulled at his chin and sighed again.
"She was... I don't know... At first, she was very like you are, but without the short skirts and high heels."
"Thanks!"
"I just mean her fashion sense was different. More... Down to earth... Practical. Anyway: the point was that she was very direct. Especially when we first met!" Nick laughed at a private memory then looked up. "But as I got to know her, and as we both got to know more about the anomalies, I saw another side to her. Lots of sides to her. She was fragile, but she was also strong. She was confident, but also insecure. She was practical. She was kind. People always came first. She had so much courage. Even when she was terrified, she wouldn't give up."
"You loved her." It was a statement, but spoken so quietly that Jenny almost thought she had simply heard her own thoughts inside her head.
"Yes." Nick smiled and looked away. "Yes I did."
XXXX
"How is the Boy Wonder settling in upstairs?" Lester looked up as Becker entered the office and sat down.
"He's making new friends. Between Jones, her team and Temple we have enough computer geniuses to build an anomaly detector that can go global!"
"You say geniuses, I say geeks." Lester rolled his eyes and twirled his fountain pen between his fingers. "Besides: I'd rather have an anomaly controller than yet another detector, even if it's range stretches out to the farthest moon of Neptune!"
"They have their uses, James: you know that as well as anyone."
"As do you 'James'!" Lester replied, emphasising Becker's first name with a raised eyebrow. "What did make you pick that name anyway?"
"Which one? James or Becker?"
"Both."
"Becker was the name of the surgeon who operated on me after our last mission. James was the name of the man who saved my life on that mission, as you well know."
"I had considered the possibility, but one doesn't like to be too egocentric."
"I just thought it would be easier for you to remember."
"I thought that was their argument for keeping your own first name!"