Diamond Eyes (27 page)

In large letters, she scrawled out a short maths formula and drew a box around it:

(A + B
ⁿ
)/n = x

‘Hence God exists,’ Van Danik said, explaining why he’d written it there the first time. ‘That was the solution to an argument I was having with Hawthorn, but —’

‘You can prove God exists?’ Ben interrupted. ‘Mathematically? Are you kidding me?’

‘Indeed I am not. However, her eyes were stitched shut that day, and I wiped the board before we left, so when did she see it?’

‘I can see it now,’ Mira insisted. ‘As well as the longer one beside it.’

Without needing to be asked, she wrote R$$ — 1/2g$$R = 8$$GT$$ and underlined it.

‘Okay, hands up,’ Van Danik ordered flatly. ‘Who taught her string theory?’

‘The only string theory we do around here is macramé,’ Sanchez replied. ‘Sometimes a little knitting.’

‘She’s psychic!’ Neville cried. ‘She homes in on my family jewels with deadly accuracy every time!’

Van Danik snorted sarcastically. ‘I’d much rather identify a scientific explanation.’

Footsteps approached Mira swiftly and the chalk was snatched from her fingers.

‘Can you see this?’ Van Danik challenged.

The blackboard squawked, making her skin shiver. She heard a piece of chalk snap, but the sharp edge of the chalk kept moving and she knew that what he was writing now was twice as long as the first formula but not as long as the second.

‘I can’t see you,’ she said, ‘or your writing, just what was already there when we came in.’

‘Intriguing,’ Van Danik mused. ‘Considering the formulae you just wrote, I’d expect you to recognise your own name. So assuming you’re telling the truth and not withholding information, this is quite a puzzle.’

‘And I need it to be solved more than you do,’ Mira replied with more patience than she felt, ‘so please don’t assume that I’d be so stupid that I’d lie to you, especially today.’

‘That wasn’t meant as an insult,’ Van Danik assured her. ‘Let me take my foot out of my mouth and rephrase it: we need more data before we can attempt to pose a hypothesis to this conundrum.’

‘Was that English?’ Mira whispered to Ben.

‘Almost. Roughly translated, it means they need to start before they can finish.’

‘Would it help,’ Zhou asked, ‘if we moved the tables and equipment away from your ghosts?’

‘Maybe. I won’t be sitting inside Joan then, but if you make the tables and chairs invisible, it’s the same as making me blind to them.’

‘Well, that makes sense,’ Van Danik said flatly. ‘I’ll just put away my invisibility ray gun and shift them manually.’

‘There’s your foot again,’ Sanchez warned.

Mira frowned, but stayed near the blackboard, listening to furniture scrape across the floor. As she expected, not a single thing in the room appeared to move — except the ghosts, who made only small movements as they worked with their ghostly sensors and talked silently amongst themselves.

‘How’s that?’ asked Ben after they’d finished.

‘Invisible,’ she replied. ‘Ben, can you help me find the seat now?’

He did, and Van Danik assisted her in attaching the cold invisible wires for the heart monitor and the localised EEG sensors around her head.

‘We’ll need your sunglasses off for this,’ Zhou said.

Mira panicked, slapping her hand up to hold them in place. ‘Do you have to? Bright light hurts me.’

‘I need to see your eyes,’ Zhou explained, ‘so I can read the tiny changes inside them each time you answer a question.’

‘Through your ophthalmoscope? Is that how you say it?’ Mira pointed to the ghostly desk of equipment behind her. ‘That ghost was talking about it as we came in.’

Silence answered her for a long moment.

‘That funny binocular thing on the smallest tripod,’ she persisted. ‘Except it’s not like any scope I’ve ever touched at appointments with other eye specialists. They always used fat pen-like ones that are hand-held.’

‘I have one of those too,’ Zhou said. ‘This scope has been modified, though, to suit our special needs.’

‘Is that your ghost?’ she asked. ‘The one with long hair and scarred ears?’

Silence again.

‘Why’s everyone gone quiet?’

‘Because,’ Zhou replied, ‘they’re all looking at me. I’ve rarely let anyone close enough to see these.’

Mira heard a few gasps and guessed that he’d drawn his hair aside.

‘Accident when I was a kid,’ he explained, but she could tell from a darkness in his tone that he had a deeper secret. ‘Please allow me to see your eyes, Miss Chambers. If I wasn’t already intrigued, I certainly am now. How you can sense details so perceptively when you’re supposed to be blind is scientifically perplexing.’

‘I tell you, she’s psychic!’ Neville insisted. ‘There’s no science about it.’

‘Thank you, Neville,’ said the matron dismissively. ‘This is obviously going to take a lot longer than I’d expected. You can go back to the ward now and I’ll page you when we’re finished.’

Neville grumbled as he trudged out, just as a new, burlier ghost entered, tucking in his shirt and double-checking his fly as if he’d just been to the toilet. Then she heard more footsteps, followed by a cough, as if the new ghost had an invisible man in its shadow, just like the younger ghost in the hall. The cough reminded her of the deep voice of authority she’d heard the first time she’d met the doctors — the one she’d nicknamed Mr Authority. The sound of footsteps followed the silent brown ghost to a place by the window, where he stopped to look out as if watching for danger.
It’s time-delayed,
Mira thought. The sound of the footsteps had followed the ghost’s movements at the same speed and stride length, just like watching a movie where the footage and soundtrack had fallen out of sync.

‘Did you hear me, Mira?’ The voice was Ben’s.

‘What? Sorry. I got distracted.’

‘Dr Zhou just asked if you could turn your head back towards his voice and hold still while they finish applying the sensors for you.’

Mira nodded, but not with confidence. A cold shiver of fear rippled down her spine.

‘Would you like a jelly snake?’ offered Van Danik. ‘Only watch it, those things are addictive.’

Mira shook her head. ‘I only like chocolate for treats. I haven’t had any for years.’

‘Would it help if someone held your hand?’ asked the matron. ‘Ben or me? Or even both of us?’

‘I can’t. I need my hands on the glass, like Joan... don’t I?’

‘It’s a sensor for pulse and temperature,’ Van Danik explained. ‘And yes, you do.’

‘Amazing,’ Zhou said. ‘You must be able to see
something,
if not consciously, then subconsciously. I’d bet my life on it.’

‘Can I keep my hands on her shoulders without affecting your tests?’ asked Ben.

‘If you stand behind her,’ Zhou replied. ‘That should be okay.’

‘Yes! If the sky tries to suck me up, you can hold me down, Ben. Okay?...
Promise?’

‘You bet.’ Ben shifted into position behind her, rested his hands on her shoulders and massaged gently.

‘I’m taking off your glasses now,’ Van Danik warned.

Mira closed her eyes with another shiver.

‘She gets embarrassed when people stare,’ Ben explained.

‘I can understand that,’ Zhou said. ‘I have the same problem with my ears. Now hold still, please, while I shift this a little.’

She heard Zhou adjusting the ophthalmoscope until she could sense the cool metal almost touching her cheek. Then he gave the order that she dreaded more than anything.

‘Open your eyes for me.’

‘Are you sure I have to? It hurts. I mean it
really
hurts!’

Zhou sighed. ‘Well, I suppose we can ask the first few control questions without the scope. What’s your name?’

Mira replied, then Van Danik tightened a wire connection and confirmed her accuracy.

The next two questions concerned her age and the number of children in her family, then she sensed a renewed tension in the air.

‘It’s time, isn’t it?’

‘I’m afraid so,’ Zhou replied. ‘But take as long as you need.’

She removed the glasses and white pain pierced through each eye to the back of her brain.

‘Too bright!’ she screamed. ‘It’s burning!
It’s burning!’
She wrenched her face away, clamping her eyes shut, and saw soldiers wading into a flooded river, getting sucked under and drowning. ‘Not again!’

‘Matron! Dowse the lights!’ Ben yelled. ‘And, you — Hawthorn, is it? Close the blinds!’

Ben stayed with Mira, soothing her with his voice and his gentle hands, while Van Danik and Zhou spoke excitedly between themselves.

‘Brain activity just spiked off the scale,’ Van Danik reported. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it!’

‘There’s something wrong here,’ Zhou replied. ‘Her eyes opened momentarily, but the scope didn’t catch anything — no rolling image and no still shots. It’s all blurred.’

‘I’m sorry! So sorry!’ She fisted both hands over her eyes. ‘I’m trying to be good, I am, but it hurts so much! And the soldiers. Ben, I can’t stand to see them drowning!’

‘What soldiers?’ asked Ben and Sanchez in chorus.

‘Don’t answer that yet,’ Zhou snapped — but not unkindly. ‘She’s lost a few wires. Let me hook her back up and see if we can figure out what’s happening.’

‘Is the natural light in here enough to work with?’ asked Ben.

‘My screens are illuminated,’ said Van Danik.

‘Mine too,’ said Zhou. ‘The scope also generates its own light with a low-intensity laser.’

‘A laser?’ Mira complained. ‘That will burn me!’

‘No,’ Zhou crooned with a voice almost as soothing as Ben’s. ‘It’s so cool it couldn’t melt butter. Just relax, Miss Chambers.’

Yes, Ben’s here,
she reminded herself.
I’m safe when Ben’s here.
Tension ebbed from her eyelids a little as she relaxed and focused inwardly on the weight of his hands on her shoulders; so large and yet so gentle despite all those rough calluses.

‘That’s it,’ Zhou said. ‘Now, when you’re ready — as slow and as steady as you like — open your eyes again.’

All of us who live
are nothing but images or
insubstantial shadow

Sophocles

Z
hou felt guilty for pushing Mira so much. He watched through the ophthalmoscope as she complied with his request to open her eyes. Ever so slowly, he saw her magnified lashes rise to reveal a pair of blurred opaque discs that soon filled his field of vision. He tapped the side of the scope, thinking that it wasn’t working properly. Still nothing. He glanced over the top of the scope to make sure she hadn’t closed her eyes again and …

‘Whoa!’

Her irises weren’t opaque at all. They shone like mirrored diamonds. He stared at them for a long moment, speechless.

‘Greek Gods in Tartarus!’ Sanchez muttered. ‘They’re stunning!’

‘They’re starting to ache!’ Mira said. ‘Please hurry?’

Ben patted her shoulder. ‘She’s something, isn’t she, Doc? Didn’t I tell you?’

‘I’ll say,’ said Van Danik from his side of the table. ‘EEG readings are spiking off the scale again. You need to see this, Zan. There are segments of her brain that just blinked with signs of activity in patterns I’ve never seen before … What have you got?’

‘See for yourself,’ Zhou replied. ‘You’d never believe me.’

Van Danik’s chair squawked as he stood up. ‘You’re the eye specialist, Zan. Can’t you … Whoa!’

‘Exactly. I think she’s reflecting the laser back on itself.’

‘Is that from the tapetum?’

‘Possibly …‘ Zhou leaned closer; so close he could have kissed Mira’s cheek.

She leaned away from him. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked again.

Zhou flinched away from her. ‘Can you see me?’

‘No. I can’t see anything. Which is really weird. I always see
some
thing with my eyes open.’

‘If you’re properly blind now, how did you know when to pull away from me just then?’

‘Don’t take offence,’ she replied, ‘but you need to brush the salmon out of your teeth.’

Laughter rippled around the room, the loudest from Van Danik. He clapped Zhou on the shoulder and sat down again. ‘And I’ll bet he’s been worried all these years about his scars scaring girls away. All this time it’s been your breath, Zan!’

‘Very funny.’ Zhou switched off the ophthalmoscope and Mira screamed.

‘What did you do? Stop!’ she cried. ‘Put me down! I hate it up here!’

Zhou snapped the power to the scope back on, just as she began to hyperventilate. As soon as she caught her breath, she muttered her thanks at being let down.

‘It’s okay,’ Ben said, stroking her shoulder, ‘I’ve got you, Mira. You haven’t moved from the chair. Honest.’

‘Invisible chair,’ she panted. ‘Invisible
everything
up there!’

‘Up where?’ asked Zhou. ‘If you can’t see, what makes you think you went anywhere?’

‘I couldn’t see anything a second ago. It was just like … like having my eyes closed, even though I knew they were open. Then someone switched on a light or something and everything turned blue.’