The Power of Forgetting (48 page)

'Where did they
go?' I asked as we began to tighten fastenings and check the
linking tube for the small face mask. I felt back and released my
hood ready to pull up if needed. Amber stood with her weight
balanced on both feet. Then seeing what we were doing turned away
to a drawer just under the table. She pulled out something long and
stringy looking. It proved to be a fabric made of a honey comb
lattice and looped it over her head.

'They could be
back. But I doubt it.' said Oliver, 'either way we need to
move.'

The whitish
fluid fabric seemed to cling to her hair and spread down it. She
touched it just above her forehead; and then it tensioned and then
shaped seamlessly around her head. She turned slightly so I could
see. The tube at the back got narrower and narrower, constricting
the silky fine strands of palest gold into a neatly wrapped braid.
The honeycombing seemed to have shrunk proportionally too, so it
made a pattern in smaller figures all the way down the length of
the hair, compared to the hexagons on the top edge near the hair
line. She pulled the braid over her right shoulder and then curled
it neatly round and round the back of her head. The stuff seemed to
cling to itself and create a neat spiral. She took another thicker
fabric suit out of the large cupboard- unmistakably a version of
our ice suits with an integrated hood. It was a soft dark blue;
almost exactly like Lorraine's version. She quickly fastened all
the clips, and adjusted the wrist closures.

'You will need
a breathing set.' said Oliver, holding out the pack to her.

'Yes. Of
course.' She said, and took it and swung the whole thing onto her
back in one motion. She had it fastened and set up before I had
time to ask her if she needed help. She turned to me and met my
gaze. Oliver motioned with his hand. We backed into the corner near
the cabinets.

'They are all
empty- the rest of the pods.' He said, 'I think they were talking
about using these spaces as some sort of holding tank for our team;
and then to Amber: 'what is the last thing you remember before
being woken up by Jared here?'

She stared at
him, opened her mouth as if she was thinking for a suitable reply:
'I was waiting for the right moment.' she said, 'and before that
there was a fight on the entrance near the fence, in the way into
the base. It....hurt. I had another body, and they killed it....
killed me.'

'Amber I'm so
sorry....' I began.

'Shut up
Arden,' Oliver cut in, 'and then what happened?'

She glanced at
me quickly; a reflex that was a replay of Janey's reaction, but
answered without hesitation: 'I first took the form in this place;
it was the obvious choice to come back to this place to find a new
one. I did not think that there would be any more; but I found this
one.'

'And why did
you appear to Jared before?' Oliver asked with a slight edge in his
voice.

'I have a job
to help him and his sister. I am an old friend. But not, as you see
Human. But my desire is to protect and to help. And I will use
whatever means necessary to do this. I am bound by a code...as you
are Mr Reece, but my prime mission is a protective one.'

'Who sent
you?'

'I do not
understand.'

'Who asked you
to do this?' Oliver seemed satisfied with her previous answer, and
his tone was softer and more sympathetic.

'I was sent by
a Lady with whom we share a common friendship. She is called Auntie
Zee. She lives near Jared's home. A short distance.'

'You mean in
Yorkshire?'

'Yes of
course.'

'Not
London?'

'No.'

'Do you
ever....travel to London?'

'I have not
been to that place.'

'Do you know
what it is?'

She frowned and
seemed perplexed; 'I don't know this place...' she looked at me for
a clue to what this was.

'Okay Arden,'
said Oliver, 'I'm convinced. You can fill her in about the delights
of our capital city as we go. But just one thing?'

'Yes?' Amber
responded.

'Do you know a
way out of here?'

'Of course.
That is set on the edge of the hills about five miles away from
here. It is a doorway. It needs a key.'

'Let me
guess.... you have the key?' Oliver grinned.

'Of course. I
am as you say: being prepared.'

'It's "Be
Prepared" if you are talking about the Scout motto.' Oliver rolled
his eyes at me.

'Then I am a
Scout?' she said to me.

'Is the door
way visible to the people here?' I asked her.

'Oh, no....it
has a colour. But it is not Angel's colours or the scientists'
collapsible doorways that are very unstable. I have the means to
create invisible err.... Jared? What is the name for something that
links the past to the future?'

'What do you
call it?'

'I thought it
might help if I used your name for it rather than mine.'

'Yours will do
just fine.'

'It is a
Various Conduit in a Fake Construct Aperture.'

'Various....as
in it connects both past and future, as well as different
places?'

'Yes! Very
good...Mr Arden.'

'Please, called
me Jared and he's Oliver.'

'And I
am....Amber; when we are in company.'

'I understand.'
I took her hand, 'do you have gloves?'

'There are some
weapons here.' said Oliver peering into a cupboard.

'What kind?' I
asked him. Amber pulled out some fine dark material from a pocket
and slipped her hands in quickly and expertly.

'Not nice
ones.' said Oliver darkly, and pulled out a hand gun, and two full
clips of ammunition. He saw my face and continued pocketing more
clips. He handed four clips to me and then offered me another hand
gun. Our eyes met.

I think I knew
at that moment that day would be a day that would not end well.
There was something in his eyes; it was more than just
determination. But because he had been insightful about Amber I
trusted his judgement. I took the gun and automatically checked the
butt. No clip. I slid it into a right hand pocket. Amber pulled her
mask across her face then. The expression could not be read. She
straightened up and looked to Oliver.

'Here, take one
of these.' Oliver quickly took the belt and holsters from the
shelf.

'Is that all?'
I quickly stored it in my pack.

'Yes. I've
cleaned it out.'

'Okay. Where
now?' I pocketed the remaining clips and made ready to move.

'That
door.'

'Temperature?'

'It's cold.
There's a panel on this side, look.'

We moved to the
door; the first of three double doors. We pushed our way through
the first set.

'Zero.' said
Oliver.

'Yes. Same
here.' I was staring at the wrist viewer.

'The next wall
panel says minus nine.' Oliver sounded doubtful.

'It's a fucking
liar.' I said peering through the window. I tightened the mouth
piece. And felt the ease of the filter warming the air.

'He's right.'
said Amber, 'the crystallisation of moisture on the wall in the
next area indicates a temperature of minus twenty-one.

'I can here
you.' I said.

'Of course,'
said Amber, 'the hood and earpiece can automatically detect local
frequencies and lock in to com links.'

'Can anyone
else hear us?'

'Not at the
moment. There is no one else in range detecting communications.
It's very quiet indeed.'

'It's nearly
seven Am.' said Oliver.

'Not yet time
for rush hour.' said Amber.

'What's that?'
Oliver asked examining the doorway.

'Everyone gets
up. They run the water and switch things on and off. It's very
disruptive.'

'You can....
detect this?' I asked her. Oliver turned to me; 'I think this door
is fine,' he said, and added: 'Not alarmed.'

We pushed
through into the next space.

'Minus
twenty-one.' said Oliver, and to me: 'for once your tendency to
attract females is proving useful.'

'My what?' I
said, but Oliver ignored me. I couldn't see what Amber's expression
was as we examined the final door to the freezer zone in these
labs. She balanced her weight on both feet, and seemed calm and
alert.

'This is
interesting.' Oliver pointed, and I bent down to peer at a small
panel near the floor.

I saw those
same roman numerals meaning "Four" and a six-digit number
following.

'What does it
mean?' I traced it with a finger.

'It is a key
code.' said Amber through the com.

'A key to
what?' Oliver was sharp, and stood up suddenly. He looked through
the glass to the lab beyond.

'I think it is
the integration day for this section of the building.' She
said.

I was still
staring at it. The numbers teased me as if I had seen them before.
Something was familiar, and creepy.

'I think I
might have seen this pattern before.' I said.

'When did you
see it?' Oliver bent down again.

'At the base...
I mean before we went on the expedition. It was on something... but
I cannot remember what it is....' there was a crumbling of the
specifics the minute I tried to think about the context of the
message.

'I've never
seen it before.' said Oliver bluntly, 'which means...'

'What?' I asked
him.

'That they know
what happened. That the conditioning didn't work on me. I wasn't
given this information and then made to forget it. So I don't
recognise it.'

'That means
were in trouble big time doesn't it?'

'Yes.' He seems
unfazed.

'Perhaps I can
help?' Amber said, 'if we get through here there may be a chance to
find the information; on the computer.'

'Davey?' I
said.

'He's already
got it.' said Oliver. There's everything on the hard drives you
say.

'Not yet.' Said
Amber, something is due to be uploaded at five o'clock today. It is
a set of instructions. It recalls all the experiments. There is a
place where this will issue from, but no one has access to
there.'

'How do you
know?'

'Because Mr
Rimmington told me this before he killed me. He thought I was Janey
still and was in pain. And that once her double was dead she would
lose the capacity to remember any of that information. She is very
clever though and has not tried to override her conditioning. She
has added another layer on top the original. I helped her to do
this. It isn't easy... the mind starts to fragment quite badly. She
needed me to stabilise her mind so it could hold two conflicting
sets of instructions at the same time.'

'Why tell us
this?' Oliver said his hand on the door ready to pass through
it.

'Because until
now I did not remember myself; the initial impression is one
personality. But then after ten to fifteen minutes the sequence
reinitialises.'

'What does that
mean?'

'It means Janey
can access this body if she chooses. But she has to be near
enough.'

'In this
base?'

'No, in time
frames. We are out of phase right now. She is too far away. And we
have been compromised before. There is something fighting to get
through. I cannot keep it out if I try to make the link with Janey
here. It will know. It will find me.'

'What will?' I
asked her.

'The monster.'
She whispered and her voice was filled for the first time with
fear.

I had seen it
before, and it troubled me deeply. Roman numerals, six digit
numbers; things swimming in the well of darkness in that forgotten
place. Trying to remember was making me feel sick. Oliver prodded
me on the arm, ‘Ready?’ and I nodded, Amber straightened herself
and likewise tipped her head and regarded him with a keen-eyed
brightness. She was becoming more like Janey by the minute.

We entered the
furthest lab; which was really a gigantic freezer. In here were
rows and rows of study dark shelves. The light level was quite low
and the effect was so much more like a place underground that any
we had so far visited. We spread out and examined each row
systematically. Oliver and I clicked on our torches and began a
sweep.

It was really
weird. Row after row of boxes on shelves; they were about the same
size and shape as standard box files. The labels were neatly placed
on the spine and on the front of the box. Lots of letters and
numbers. Every so often there was a label on the shelf that
changed. We went further in. a different series, this time prefixed
by “III”. There were quite a lot of those files. But there were
also some gaps. Oliver pointed his torch, ‘Look at that.’ I saw
there was something on the shelf where a file had apparently been.
It was small, and easily overlooked. A little slip of paper it
first appeared.

‘Bag it?’ I
asked him. But Oliver already had a pair of tweezers out.

We crowded
round to see what the slip had on it. I held the torch in my hand
steady. It was a plastic tag. And it had again those letters and
numbers. But this time also a name.

I was still
staring when Oliver spoke again. He pulled me down, dousing the
light. We crouched in the semi dark. Oliver pressed the tag into my
hand and flattened himself to the floor. We could just make out
three sets of boots; a humming haze of warm light issued from a
lantern one of the three carried. Amber caught hold of my wrist.
Above the mask her eyes were worried. She pointed at my jacket. I
slid the little piece of evidence into my left breast pocket
through the side zip and slid the closure gently into place. Oliver
tapped my knee. I got down and watched as three pairs of feet
circle the open area near the doors. No one spoke. And the visitors
didn’t seem disposed to move. I knew this game. The hunter waits
for the prey to break cover. Or to get restless and think the
danger had passed. Fortunately, we were all of a mind to wait it
out. Unless their suits were extraordinarily well-made they would
have to get out of these freezer soon. For the second time in a
year I was amazed by the incredible marvel that I wore. The
material reacted to the cold and became more insulating.