Poppy and Millar hesitated.
“What can happen in ten minutes guys?”
“Get going then.” Poppy stepped back. “But if you meet some hulking monster try and handle it on your own.”
“I thought you weren’t going downstairs, Poppy.” Millar said pleasantly, earned himself a quick slap on the head.
“I won’t be long.” Gene pushed past his friends before they could protest again and made his way down the inky stairwell.
“Can we go into the big room?” Millar pleaded, once his friend was gone. I think I’m having palpitations. I really hate it here.”
Poppy nodded. They returned to the Ready Room and sat on the chairs.
“So, who do you think is using this place?”
“The adults in the village, I guess.” Poppy played her flashlight around the empty room. “That might be the real reason we’re not allowed on Pittenhall Ridge. To stop us seeing them going in and out.”
“What do you think they do here? Have orgies?”
“Don’t be disgusting.”
“Then I don’t get all the secrecy.”
Millar tilted the chair back and put his feet on the table. Now that he was in a large room, his confidence was slowly returning.
“What do we care whether our parents come here or not?”
“My thoughts exactly.” Poppy’s black brows knitted together. “Gene should leave this alone.”
“Wait a minute.” Millar slammed the chair down. “What if it’s not our families who are using the base?”
“Why didn’t I think of that? It’s really a retirement home for goblins.”
“No, listen. You can’t get on or off Jackson head by sea because of the cliffs.” Millar stroked his chin, leaving black smudges down each cheek. “And the Fence cuts off the promontory from the rest of the island.”
“Your point?”
“We’ve always thought the barrier was there to keep people out of Jackson Head.”
“What else would it be for?” Poppy licked her fingers and wiped her friend’s dirty face
“Stop that!” Millar grabbed the girl’s wrist. “What if it was built to keep something in? You’ve seen King Kong a million times, right?”
“Is this another comment about my size?”
“It’s about an island that’s always shrouded in clouds, just like this one. And it’s terrorised by a monster.” Millar’s voice held no trace of mockery. “So the islanders build a barrier to keep it away from them. Only that isn’t enough.”
The boy took off his hat and rubbed his flattened hair.
“They also give it human sacrifices to stop it breaking out.”
“I see what you’re getting at. But nobody on this island has been sacrificed.”
“What about the Orbisons?” Millar scrambled to his feet.
“I think we better get Gene.”
38
Kirkfallen Island 2000
Poppy and Millar inched along the corridor, flashlights held in front of them. They had gone down two flights with no sign of their friend. Most of the doors were open and they shone their lights into each room as they passed.
“Can you take my hand?” Millar begged. “Please? I’m finding it really hard to breathe.”
“Jeez, you really are claustrophobic.”
Poppy reached out. It was the first time she had ever held a boy’s hand and it made her feel odd. But in a good way, she had to admit. She had a slight crush on Millar, though she would never dream of telling him.
“Notice something funny about this place?”
“Funny and this place are not compatible words in my head.” Millar leapt back as a rat scurried up the corridor. “Try terrifying.”
“I think I’ll shout for Gene.”
“Then stand at the end of the corridor. I want a chance to escape when some hairy beast attracted by the noise starts snacking on you.”
“That ought to give you at least half an hour.” Poppy flexed a beefy arm.
“You find humour in the weirdest situations, know that?”
“Boo!”
The voice came from right behind Millar. He spun around with a guttural cry, flattening himself against the wall.
Gene stood in the shadows, shining a torch under his chin.
“What the hell…!” Millar pushed the teenager violently against the wall. “I got a weak heart, you know!”
“I think a faint heart is the term you’re looking for.” Poppy let go of Millar’s hand, suddenly embarrassed. “You find anything, Gene?”
“Come with me.” Gene led his companions down the corridor, Millar still muttering curses under his breath. They came to a door marked Communications and stepped inside.
“Look at that.”
The Communications Room was bare except for one table and chair. On the table was a metal box with a small screen, the back a mass of wires leading to two car batteries. Poppy leaned over and peered into the workings.
“What is it?”
“Looks like a homemade sonar or radar device of some sort.” Gene tentatively nudged a couple of the wires. “But it’s not rusty. It’s getting used.”
“Fascinating.” Millar was still sulking. “Can we go now?”
“There’s a couple more rooms you need to see.” Gene reversed back into the corridor and the others followed. He led them a few more yards and opened a door marked Experimental Chamber 1. It had a narrow observation slit at head height.
The whole room was painted sky blue. In the corner was a bed. Next to that were sets of shelves lined with children’s books, while posters of superheroes decorated the walls.
“This is unexpected. Is it some sort of crèche?”
“With a lock on the outside of the door?” Millar asked. “That’s just creepy.”
“There’s identical room next door. Experimental Chamber 2.” Gene tugged Poppy back into the corridor. “And then it gets stranger.”
The next door was labelled Armoury. He pushed it open and the trio entered.
The original gun racks were there, bent and twisted. But hanging on the misshapen metal were weapons of every sort. Gene moved his flashlight across them.
There were at least a dozen rifles, a couple of shotguns and an array of handguns. On the next wall were catapults, bows and arrows and spears made from lashing spikes of metal to carved poles. The flashlights played across Zip guns and Molotov Cocktails – bottles filled with tractor fuel and topped with wads of cotton. Axes. Saws. Scythes. There was even some kind of flame thrower which appeared to be constructed from a propane tank and a weed sprayer. The last wall was lined with metal drums – a hazard label on the front.
“Like I said.” Gene pointed to the racks. “Everyone on this island knows how to build.”
Millar walked past the rows of deadly implements and gave a shudder.
“This is genuinely scary.”
“I’ll tell you what’s scarier.” Gene swung his torch round.
There was a table in the middle of the room. On it lay a huge Bible.
“We’ve got a room full of homemade weapons here,” Poppy snorted. “You’re worried about a Bible?”
“Check out the page it’s open at.” .
“The Book of Revelations.” Millar leaned closer. “And there’s a passage underlined.”
And I looked, and beheld a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death.
39
Kirkfallen Island 2000
The teenagers left the ruined installation, talking in urgent whispers.
“What did we just see back there?”
A seagull on top of MacLellan base gave a guttural screech and all three recoiled, bumping into each other.
“I got no idea,” Gene admitted. “But I’m really quite alarmed now.”
“So, what are we going to do?” Poppy blinked in the open
sunlight.
“Well, I’d advise getting out of here, pronto.”
“First smart thing you’ve said all day,” Millar turned to head for the Fence and fell flat on his face. He reached out for what had tripped him up.
“What the?”
Poppy gave a cry of fear.
The ladder was lying on the ground next to Millar.
“It’s certainly a nice bit of camouflage. “Then again, you were taught well.”
Gene whirled round, recognising the voice immediately
His father was sitting on a grass verge a few feet away.
“Dad?”
“Don’t worry, I’m not mad at you.” Edward Stapleton held a bulky object. He also had a walkie talkie clipped to his belt.
“Satellite phone.” He glanced down at the piece of equipment in his hand - a device none of the teenagers had dreamt existed on Kirkfallen.
“I keep it hidden in your mum’s underwear drawer.” He winked at Gene. “Figured you’d never go looking in there.”
“Dad? What is going on?”
“You three are certainly due an explanation.” Edward Stapleton walked over to his son and laid a hand on his shoulder. “I guess I’ve been putting it off.”
He gave an awkward smile.
“For about fifteen years, in fact.”
“Are you going to sacrifice us, Mr Stapleton?” Millar’s voice was a terrified whisper.
“Interesting question.” Edward motioned for the trio to sit down. “I have a something to tell you. When you hear it, I hope you’ll understand why I kept it secret for so long.”
Gene’s father wore only a shirt and jeans, sleeves rolled up over his brawny arms, but his forehead was beaded with sweat.
“But first you need to read this.”
He opened a leather bag and pulled a manila folder from inside. Emblazoned on the cover in red were the words TOP SECRET.
“It’s time you learned about the Stopwatch Project.”
The Stopwatch Project
The first insect pheromones were discovered by German researchers in the 1960’s. Then, a 1971 study by University of Chicago Professor of Psychology, Martha McClintock Stern, provided evidence for the existence pheromones in humans.
Since humans are vastly more complex than insects, these have been much harder to detect and categorise.
40
Kirkfallen 2000
TOP SECRET
The Stopwatch Project
Head of Project: Colonel Markus Kelty, MD, PHD.
Project Assistant: Dr Catherine Naish, PHD.
The Stopwatch Project was suggested by Dr Markus Kelty, and stemmed from classified research he conducted for the US Army during the Vietnam conflict. His work was based on the study of insect pheromones carried out by civilian laboratories throughout the 1960’s. The first human tests were carried out by Dr Kelty on Vietcong prisoners.
Pheromone Research
Pheromones are hormones - chemicals released by insects that allow them to communicate with others of their species. Pheromones differ from sight or sound communication in that they virtually impossible to detect and are effective over a long range. Most of the pheromones discovered so far have been found in social insects like ants and honeybees. These included…
The Alarm Pheromone: This allows ants to trigger alarm in other ants, who will then attack any perceived danger. The pheromones drive the insects into a frenzy and they will even attack each other in such an uncontrolled state.
The Mandibular Pheromone: This is a pheromone passed among worker insects, causing them to coordinate nearly all their activities.
However, there is evidence that humans also produce pheromones. Dr Kelty began to research this at Sheridan Military Base in the Mohave Desert. The Stopwatch Project (Mark I) was an attempt to see if the alarm pheromones in ants could be isolated and combined with human pheromones to trigger aggressive behaviour in people.
The experiments yielded partial success. When injected with a concentrated insect pheromone, volunteer test subjects became uncontrollably violent and had to be restrained, to stop them harming themselves and others. It was noted, however, that one soldier – Asher Wylie - seemed unaffected by the experiment.
After a battery of tests, it was discovered that Wylie suffered from a form of sociopathy. Another pheromone experiment was then done on a sociopathic inmate from Dobson State Correctional Facility. He too was unaffected. It appeared that a lack of certain human characteristics, such as empathy or conscience, in sociopathic individuals, rendered them immune to the alarm pheromone.
Dr Kelty then proposed a two pronged approach to his research. He devised a test for schools that, on the surface, would appear to be a teaching aid. In fact it would allow the US Military to ascertain which children in the state school system had sociopathic personalities. It was hoped that these children could be recruited by the armed forces when they graduated. Their lack of societal checks would make them excellent covert operatives, who would be banded together to form an elite squad called the Stopwatch Unit. As well as a ruthless fighting force, they could be used as monitors, or even test subjects, for further clinical trials into the alarm pheromone’s effect on humans.
In the meantime, research continued at Sheridan Base, using long term prisoners from the state penitentiary.
In 1980, tests were conducted on a 15 year old sociopathic volunteer named Daniel Boone Salty. The effects were catastrophic. Unlike previous test subjects, the boy somehow spread alarm pheromones to the rest of the base. Protective suits had no effect, for the pheromones were amplified to astonishing proportions by swarms of ants, attracted by Salty’s hormone release. In the ensuing frenzy, the entire complex wiped itself out.
Dr Kelty hypothesised this incident was the result of a one in a million chance. Daniel Salty was injected just as puberty was bringing on enormous changes to his own hormones. Somehow the alarm pheromones reacted with these changes to produce a massive and deadly emission, attracting and amplified by thousands of ants. One so overpowering, it spread through the base like a virus.
After a change of Government administration, it was decided that these experiments posed a threat to national security - a repeat of the Sheridan disaster might result in pheromone emissions reaching a population centre. Since these were amplified by both humans and ants and, given that ants are indigenous to 95% of the earth’s surface, the result could mean a nationwide epidemic. However, it was recognised that Dr Kelty had discovered a devastating biological weapon.
It was at this point that Dr Kelty proposed a safer alternative to the project. He would set up another base on the isolated island of Kirkfallen in the Atlantic. Key personnel, including the Head of Security and the Communications Officer would be from the newly formed Stopwatch Unit. Their sociopathic personalities would leave them unaffected by an outbreak of alarm pheromone and enable them to contain any potentially hazardous situation.
The base became operational in 1996.
While the teenagers finished reading, Edward Stapleton plucked tufts of sea grass and let them fall through his fingers.
“I was one of the Stopwatch Unit,” he said softly, glancing at the concrete structure behind them. “In fact, I was the Communications Officer for this base, when it was still in use.”
“You used to be in the army?” Gene spluttered. He didn’t even want to think about the reason his father had been recruited. “You used to be stationed here?”
“I’m still in the army.” Edward held up the Sat Nav phone. “And I just been talking to my boss. She’s on her way.”
“What happened to the base dad?” Gene whispered. “Why was it abandoned?”
“There’s no point in hiding the truth anymore, so I’ll tell you.”
Edward tossed the satellite phone contemptuously onto the grass.
“Because life, as we know it on Fallen, is about to end.”
41
MacLellan Research Base. Kirkfallen Island
> 1996
Edward Stapleton sat on a hillock gazing out to sea. The wind came in gusts, surprising him with sudden changes of direction. Waves careered up the beach and then retreated, watery children playing a game, leaving frothy ridges in the sand.
He heard a polite cough behind his back.
“You found my favourite spot.” Dr Markus Kelty was standing a few feet away, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand. “Mind if I sit?”
“You’re the boss, Sir.” Stapleton began to get up but Kelty motioned for him to stay where he was.
“How come you’re not in the mess with the rest of the men?”
“I like it here and I’m not exactly a team player.”
Kelty stood a while longer, eating the rest of his lunch. Edward didn’t know how to make conversation with a superior officer, so he stayed quiet, wishing the doctor would go away.
“Mind if I ask you something?” Kelty said eventually.
“I guess not.”
“How come you joined the army?” The question came out of the blue.
“Is this some kind of check?”
“No, soldier. It’s one human being curious about another.”
“Before I left school I was approached by a Major Whittaker, who suggested I might like to sign up.” Stapleton stretched his legs. “When I told him I planned to be a fireman, he gave me the old importance of defending my country speech.”
Stapleton gave a resigned shrug.
“Whittaker then told me how much money a person with my… special talents could make.”
“That convinced you?”
“He also hinted broadly that a fireman who had tested positive for a sociopathic personality wouldn’t have much of a career arc.”
“I’m sorry.”
“No you’re not, Sir. You designed the test.”
Kelty ran a hand down his face.
“Do you know what we’re doing here? You’re the Communications Officer, so don’t pretend you don’t.”
The Kirkfallen Stopwatch Page 13
