by Guy N Smith
‘Somebody else?’
Again the question seemed casual. His gaze was averted, he was scanning the reports she had typed up yesterday. He might not even be interested in personal affairs.
‘Yes,’ a pause. ‘There is.’
‘Thank you for telling me.’ His tone never altered. ‘Now, I must compliment you on these reports. Concise and thorough. The experiments are shaping up nicely … with one exception!’
This time Ann Stackhouse did change her position, pushed back against the back rest of the chair, wished that it would drop right through the floor and out of this room. The other’s eyes were focused on her now, the glinting orbs of a hunting hawk that had just spotted a field mouse hiding in a tuft of grass below it.
‘Oh?’ Try to sound surprised. It came out as more of a guilty gasp.
‘Beebee!’ There was an edge to Morton’s voice now, a concealed anger. ‘I fail to understand why C-551 has not been administered to him. Or perhaps, for some reason,’ a hint of sarcasm, ‘the man is somehow immune to our hallucinatory drug!’
Ann was lost for words. If she had had an answer prepared in advance she knew that she would not have been able to lie convincingly. Damn it, the bastard knew!
‘Is he … so important?’ She steeled herself, was determined to make a fight of it.
‘Frankly, yes. We have here a young man of affluent parents who has chosen to follow a career in jobbing building when he has a degree in physics. A rebel, if you like. What makes him tick? There are an awful lot of things we wish to find out about him. But, of course, if his system is able to reject C-551 then that makes him all the more interesting. Why have you not administered it?’
She did not answer. A schoolgirlish reply like ‘I don’t know’ was on the tip of her tongue. It would have sounded foolish, put her even more at a disadvantage. She stared at the ashtray, a diagonal chunk of imitation cut-glass like an all-seeing eye attempting to hypnotize her. She shifted her gaze, felt a spark of anger somewhere inside her waiting to be fanned.
‘Well? Do you want me to tell you why you haven’t given Beebee the drug?’
‘Go on.’ Weak defiance. Sack me and free me.
‘You haven’t given it to him because you have become personally involved with him. You are having an affair with him. Which is of no consequence to me personally.’ It came out in a bitter hiss. It obviously was very important to Professor Morton. ‘But I must remind you that you have signed a number of documents upon commencing employment with our department. And your actions present a very serious threat to security, I hope I don’t need to remind you of that.’
‘I have not divulged any official secrets!’ The anger inside her was beginning to manifest itself. ‘I promise you that not one word of this has been leaked. Simply that I refuse to give him the drug.’
‘Oh, I see.’ He leaned back in his chair, took his time relighting his pipe. ‘So, carefully prepared dossiers and reports have to go by the board simply because you have decided to involve yourself in a romantic association with one of our … guinea pigs, you seem to like the word. You are, in fact, dictating to Her Majesty’s government whom they can and cannot experiment upon.’
‘I just want Jeff left alone.’
‘My dear girl,’ his tone was clipped now. ‘You have no say in the matter. Your actions so far have constituted a breach of regulations. You signed to the effect that you would obey orders without question and here you are contravening your pledge. As a result you have become a very serious security risk.’
‘Then sack me,’ she snapped. ‘Give me my cards and I’ll walk right out of here and you’ll never see me again.’
‘Unfortunately, for you, this isn’t just an ordinary job. If we just sacked disobedient employees then we should be releasing a host of spies bearing a grudge against us. You know full well the seriousness of this experiment, its consequences if it was made public.’
‘Then I’ll resign!’
‘Again, you can’t.’ He laughed, a sound which sent icy shivers up and down her spine. ‘We can’t let you go just like that, my girl!’
‘You’re threatening me.’ She was aware of how her heart was pounding, her pulses racing. She felt sick and slightly faint.
‘Shall we say, I’m attempting to persuade you to do the job you signed on to do.’
‘And if I refuse?’ Let’s all put our cards on the table so we know how we stand. She had begun to tremble slightly and she hoped the other did not notice.
‘Then we shall have to take the appropriate action.’ An ogre leering out of a cloud of tobacco smoke; something evil manifesting itself the way they did it with special effects in movies. She shuddered.
‘That’s a politician’s answer.’ At least she was angry, that was some consolation.
‘Well, I suppose, in a way, I am a politician,’ he spoke softly, almost a whisper. ‘I am a servant of the government, of Mankind, in fact. That is the magnitude of our task. We cannot fail over trivialities.’
‘It’s a case of human rights,’ she replied. ‘Come on, Professor, put it into words that I can understand and stop beating about the bush. Just what will you do if I refuse to obey orders?’
‘I’m afraid you will have to be … confined, for the sake of security.’ He spoke with a hint of regret but the threat was still there.
‘Locked up, eh? Put away in a mental hospital, like they do with dissidents in Russia?’
‘Broadly speaking, yes. We would have no alternative.’
‘I might go to the police.’
‘It seems I misjudged your intelligence.’ He leaned forward across the desk. ‘You don’t honestly think that would do you any good, do you?’
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake!’ She controlled a rising panic, an urge to leap up, to flee this room, the camp. ‘No, I guess it wouldn’t. Like I said, it stinks of Soviet methods. You’ve got the police where you want them, whatever I do you’ll use your powers to put me away. Or perhaps get me “taken out”. That’s the phrase they use these days, isn’t it?’
‘Let’s not go off at tangents.’ Morton stood up suddenly, walked across to the window and stood looking out across the main car park, hands thrust deep into his pockets. Unruffled, a man with some everyday problem that simply needed a little manipulation to sort it out. ‘Look, Ann, we don’t have to go to extremes. Either of us. You’ve worked well, I couldn’t have asked for more, and now you’re going to ruin a marvellous future with the department, all over nothing.’
‘Over nothing!’
‘Exactly.’ He turned to face her, an affable smiling man. ‘Look, Beebee won’t come to any harm, he will merely live out a few … fantasies. In all probability they are extremely harmless ones. A few days and he will revert to his normal self, totally unaware of what has happened. Or, if we choose, we can administer the antidote and return him within a matter of hours. So what is anybody going to lose? He certainly will not suffer any ill-effects. The only loser in this will be yourself if you refuse. At the very least you will be transferred to a routine job in some laboratory, we might even send you to the States. So you won’t be able to see Beebee anyway. He’ll find himself another girl and you’ll be left with nothing. Be reasonable, Ann. If you don’t give him the drug, then somebody else will. By your stubbornness you will have been punished but Beebee will be experimented upon anyway. So, wouldn’t it be better to slip him the drug and in a few days you will be able to carry on with your romance? Indeed, it might not even interrupt it. We don’t know. Come on, Ann, be sensible. I’m throwing you a lifeline. If this reached the ears of my superiors I don’t think you’d get a second chance. Even if it’s over between us, I want to do my best for you. But I have to have a definite answer, one way or the other. Now!’
She sunk her head. He spoke the truth, there was no getting away from that. Give Jeff C-551 or we will. He gets it anyway. And be punished for a futile refusal.
She said, ‘I hate this job and I hate you, Tony. But I guess
I don’t have a choice.’
‘Good!’ He was stuffing long-stranded Cavendish tobacco into the bowl of his pipe, a sure sign that he was well pleased with the outcome. ‘I hadn’t misjudged you, after all. A little emotional hiccup, shall we say. Let’s forget that this conversation ever took place, and you give Beebee his pill tonight. Is it a deal?’
‘I guess so,’ she got up and hurried from the room.
Chapter Eleven
Al was somehow different from what she had imagined him to be this morning, Sarah Mace decided. Gone was the vivaciousness, the eagerness to chat and laugh. Not exactly reserved, more morose. As they wandered down to the lakeside jetty her own enthusiasm waned. Perhaps this date was not such a good idea after all. Her thoughts turned to her parents sitting in the Adelphi, the hot stuffy atmosphere, a video film which you had to strain your eyes and ears to follow; the contrast too dark, the sound distorted, children chattering, a baby crying somewhere. If this was to be a one-off date then it was a welcome interlude in a holiday with her folks, which really was not any different from being back home.
Most of the rowing boats were moored to the jetty. A young couple were obviously on their last lap, and some silly boys were trying to chase a pair of mallard and threatening to capsize their own craft; serve ’em right if they did, they certainly wouldn’t get near the ducks.
Al was untying one of the boats, letting the rope unfurl. A strong silent man whose only garment was a pair of ragged cords. Sarah followed his every supple movement, he goose pimpled her. The feeling that she wanted to be seen with him, the envy of other girls. She never felt that way with Norman, he was so ordinary.
Al inclined his head, held the boat steady for her to clamber aboard. A fear that she might slip and fall in; she could swim well but the water was dark and muddy, litter floating on it. Ugh! He pushed off, leaped over the stern, rocked the small craft. And still he made no conversation, taking the oars, slow rhythmic movements that propelled them away from the side.
The sun was just dipping below the western mountains and there was a soft welcoming breeze blowing in from the coast. Balmy, the kind of evening you could spend in a T-shirt and shorts right up until bedtime. Sarah tried to relax; she couldn’t, but it had been like this on her first date with Norman. If only Al would come up with some small talk.
‘It’s warm,’ she spoke at length because she could not stand the silence any longer.
He nodded, the only sign that he had heard. She began to fidget with her fingers.
‘Where are you from?’ She tried again.
‘No particular place.’ He looked up at her and she thought that his eyes seemed glazed as if he was troubled with cataracts. A vacant expression, his thoughts elsewhere. ‘I keep on the move, just holidaying here.’ He pulled the oars in, fished a polythene tobacco pouch out of his pocket and began to roll a cigarette. ‘Smoke?’ He offered her the makings.
‘No, thanks. I don’t smoke.’
‘You ought to,’ he smiled through his beard as he cupped his hands to shield the match. ‘Particularly these.’
‘Where are we going?’ It was more than just a casual question, he was rowing again, seemed to have a definite destination in mind.
‘We could take a walk on the island. More interesting than just rowing round in circles like everybody else does.’
She nodded. She didn’t have much choice and it seemed that everybody else had given up boating for the day. The ducks had finally flown off and those youths had lost interest. They were almost back at the jetty.
The water did not look at all appealing in the evening sunlight. A dank expanse, a man-made lake that was probably no more than five feet deep at the most but there was a stagnant scum round the edges. The island was roughly half an acre in size, a dense jungle of willows and conifers, interspersed with broom and wild willowherb. Clouds of midges hung in the sheltered places. Sarah did not relish going ashore; there were probably frogs and lizards and creepy insects underfoot. But Al was already beaching the boat, grabbing an overhanging bough to pull them ashore.
He reached out for her hand, helped her up on to the rough grassy bank, did not release her once they were on level ground. She was glad she was wearing sandals; Al might get bitten by all kinds of creatures going about barefooted like he was.
The foliage fell back into place behind them, a curtain to screen them from prying eyes on the shore a hundred yards away. Grass and pine needles, it was like walking on a carpet, soft and springy. Twilight would come early beneath the overhead branches.
He sat down on a strip of grass that grew on the fringe of some Scots pines where the sunlight was not shut out, pulled her down with him. Again there was an awkward silence.
‘It’s nice here.’ His arm came around her. ‘Kinda private. Like a world of your own, away from everybody. I don’t like people.’
‘Then why did you come to a holiday camp where there’s about five thousand people milling inside a hundred acres, twenty-four hours a day?’
He pursed his lips as if he was trying to find a reason, shaking his head and giving up. ‘I dunno why I came here. Funny, isn’t it?’ He laughed, a deep throaty sound. ‘But I got problems, you see.’
‘Oh?’ she said, and tensed. This date definitely had not been a good idea. But perhaps it was better to hear his problems, let him talk.
‘It’s this girl who’s following me around.’ He was speaking in a low voice, looking about him as though he expected to find the subject of his conversation lurking in the undergrowth, eavesdropping. ‘She’s a real pain, won’t let up.’
‘Can’t you get rid of her?’
‘It’s not as easy as that.’ He nipped the lighted end out of his cigarette. ‘You see, she’s settle herself in my digs and if I don’t keep her locked in there she’ll go screaming that I’ve raped her.’
Sarah sensed a sudden void in her stomach, felt herself begin to shake with fear. ‘But you haven’t, have you, Al?’
‘No,’ he shook his head. ‘You see, she’s a whore and she wants thirty quid for a screw. Get me?’
Sarah didn’t. She tried to edge away but he was holding her tightly. She relaxed, she didn’t want to struggle in case it angered him. He was a weirdo, there was no doubt about that.
‘So I’m stuck with her.’
‘Couldn’t you just leave?’
‘She’d put the pigs on to me, I know she would. She started threatening me the other day … at least, I think it was the other day, can’t seem to keep track of time lately. So I beat her up, worked her over. But I didn’t rape her.’
Oh, God! He was on drugs, she was sure of that. The whole story was some fabrication that was solely in his own mind. In all probability no such girl existed.
‘I wish she was like you.’ She smelled his breath, the stale odour of tobacco, felt the roughness of his beard as his lips went in search of her own. They found hers, began to kiss her fiercely. She tried to struggle but it was useless, he was so strong, seemed oblivious of her token resistance.
‘I said to myself when I saw you this morning,’ he drew back but he was still holding her firmly, ‘now, there’s a girl I could go for in a big way. Something about you, I couldn’t resist you. We could go a long way together, sweetheart.’
‘My parents are expecting me back at ten-thirty,’ Sarah was speaking rapidly, urgently. ‘They’re very protective, worry over nothing. If I haven’t turned up by quarter to eleven they’ll have half the camp and the police out looking for me.’
‘Oh, don’t worry,’ he patted her shoulder reassuringly, ‘they’ll never think of looking for us on the island.’ Strewth, he actually thinks I’m afraid that they might find me! ‘And my boyfriend’s arriving tomorrow?’
‘Boyfriend!’ Al’s mood changed instantly, his eyes narrowed, his lips tightened. ‘You didn’t tell me you’d got a feller.’
‘You didn't ask. Anyway, you didn’t tell me you’d got a girl living in your chalet until just now.’
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br /> ‘Look,’ the glaze in his eyes cleared momentarily, ‘this is our chance. If we play our cards right we can ditch my girl and your bloke at the same time.’
‘How … how do you mean?’
‘Why, we can do a moonlight flit and leave ’em both kicking their heels. We could be miles away by morning.’
The trees around her seemed to tilt and spin, gyrate and then slow to a halt again. ‘I … I want to go back,’ she was on the verge of tears.
‘This boyfriend of yours,’ he appeared not to have heard her, ‘does he …’ Al’s fingers slid up her legs, tried to prise her tightly closed thighs apart.
‘No!’ It was the truth. ‘I’ve never let anybody do that!’
He was kissing her again, pinning her to the ground, his strong hand fumbling with her shorts, tearing them. She felt the material shred, begin to come away.
‘It’ll be special, then,’ he was breathing heavily, ‘just like you’d known all about me and were saving yourself for me.’
That was when she began to scream, her cries of sheer terror reverberating in the still night air.
‘Shut up, damn you!’ Al was angry now, his hand over her mouth, reducing her yells to gurgles. She was struggling, trying to kick, sinking her teeth into the fleshy part of his hand.
He cried out in pain, reared up and she almost slipped from beneath him. Almost. As she tore free he grabbed her by the hair with his other hand, dragged her back down, kneed her viciously in the stomach.
‘Bitch!’ He spat in her face. ‘You’re as bad as she is. Worse, in fact. You thought you could prick-tease me, didn’t you? What d’you think we came to this island for, eh?’
She tried to answer him but no words came, just a chattering of teeth, a wheezing of breath. And any moment she was going to throw up. Oh, Norm, I love you, I wish you were here. I wasn’t going to do anything bad with him, honest I wasn’t.
Al’s fist thudded into her face, she was aware of breaking teeth, splinters in her mouth, the taste of blood. Crying, pleading.
‘And you’ll go screaming to the pigs, won’t you?’ He lifted her up, threw her down again. ‘Maybe they’ve already heard you, you bloody fool, and are on their way here. A little game that went wrong for you. Lie your head off, tell ’em I raped you. Like Cindy’s goin’ to do if I let her out of the chalet …’
