A Well-Timed Death (Booker Shield Book 1)

by Karl Bourdiec

  Rob past Booker and scurried into the building first, followed by Booker, who slowed down so it didn’t seem as if it was a race.

  The huge building which people just dubbed the university was actually a college with ideas above its station.

  It called itself a university like some schools call themselves colleges. It did a few degrees but nothing that made it an actual university, but that’s not what the sign told people.

  Only half the building actually was filled with students. This half was all classically built as if to say it had been there for hundreds of years, even though it had just been built in the eighties.

  The other half of the building was a museum, kind of.

  It was more an event, it had the whole giant whale held above on wires, it had the dinosaurs and the things in glass jars. What it also had was a 4d cinema room, a cocktail bar and a stage for go-go dancing.

  Whoever had designed this building was obviously a little hinged if not completely mental.

  It was also fifteen pound a head which meant generally very few heads actually entered. Museums, good ones, should be free. Not simply because it is a place to learn but also because museums are commonly used simply to hide from the rain, yes once you get inside it’s all nice. You wander around, look at butterflies, looking up at a horde of dolphins lay still and made of Styrofoam above your head. It’s actually rather nice, you tell yourself you will return when new exciting things go on show there. You never do.

  Booker walked in. Not paying was one of the few pleasures of being a detective. Three scientists drank martinis at the bar.

  ‘Booker.’ One of them yelled, lifting up his glass and spilling some of it down his lab coat. Booker hid his face in his hand.

  ‘Do you know that guy?’ Rob asked.

  ‘I helped him find something once.’ Booker said speeding up his pace, Rob followed.

  ‘What?’ Rob continued to probe.

  ‘Does that really matter?’

  ‘No, I guess not.’ Rob went into a little sulk, he didn’t actually know why. There was just something that made him feel like that is how he should feel then.

  Booker walked under the giant whale. There was nothing to tell you what the whale was or why it hung thirty feet in the air. He headed to the desk to the real university. A slack-jawed man chewed at something in his mouth.

  ‘Can I help.’ He said in a monotone like a phone off the hook.

  ‘We’re here to talk to somebody working on quantum entanglement.’ Stated Booker, he didn’t have time for this, not that there was a need for him to be anywhere. He just didn’t want to deal with this guy.

  ‘Anyone in particular?’

  ‘You have more than one guy working on it?’ Booker was a little shocked.

  ‘Yeah, there about thirty guys working on that one system. Is there one of them you’d like to talk to.’ The guy chewed.

  ‘Rockford Northcott.’ Rob jumped in, he thought Booker had sort of forgotten he was there.

  ‘Yeah, Rockford Northcott.’ Agreed Booker. Who only said it because he enjoyed saying the name. He could say it over and over until the word lost its meaning if it had any to start with.

  ‘Doctor Rockford Northcott?’ The young man chewed, he had a little square of blond on his chin as a beard.

  ‘No, Sir Rockford Northcott.’ Replied Booker who hadn’t noticed the beard but if he had would give it a little tug.

  ‘There’s no Sir Rockford Northcott here, just a Doctor Rockford Northcott.’ Obviously, this guy liked saying Rockford Northcott too.

  ‘Can we speak to him.’ Rob popped up again, being the more sane of the two.

  ‘He’s working.’ The chewer tilted his head to answer Rob.

  ‘Well he can stop being busy, it’s about a double homicide, and I think he is very much needed for questioning.’ This was the first time Rob had heard Booker use actual police terms.

  The chewer was knocked back a little, he looked a little computer which wasn’t visible to Booker or Rob but could be heard as he fingered some keys.

  ‘Doctor Northcott if free now.’ He said solemnly

  ‘I thought he might be.’ Booker pulled a smug grin if you spoke with confidence and pretended you knew what you were talking about you could pretty much get anyway.

  Booker kept that card pretty close to his chest. Nobody knew if he knew what he was talking about a good ninety percent of the time, which made that ten more believable. ‘He’s in the third door to the left.’ He chewed again. Booker and Rob walked on, three teen girls walked past, chewing gum and wearing second hand, purple, tracksuits jackets.

  ‘Does nobody take people places anymore?’ Rob commented they reached the door.

  ‘What do you mean?’ Asked Booker, who was intrigued slightly by Rob’s train of thought.

  ‘Nobody takes you to a door anymore, they just say where the door is or point.’ Rob clinched onto the fact Booker even asked. Booker had already lost interest and had forgotten to actually listen.

  ‘What?’ he asked.

  ‘Doesn’t matter.’ Rob rapped on the door. There was a brief pause as the two stood at the door, as you’re meant to. Then Booker opened it, he didn’t have the patience to wait around for some science guy to open a door.

  ‘I’m going in.’ Booker said without thought or hesitation. The door swung open with a slow creak.

  ‘Can I help you.’ Said a voice which seemed to belong to the back of somebody’s head.

  ‘Yeah, we're here about a double homicide.’ Told Booker. He didn’t mind talking to the back of somebody, in fact, sometimes he preferred it, faces were hard things to look at when you’re nine drinks deep. Rob snuck in behind Booker.

  ‘Nothing to do with me I’m afraid detective.’ The voice replied it echoed from the corner of the room. Rob didn’t like this, he’d seen episodes of shows where they’d met the mad scientist with the ominous voice, with his back to the main character. They always turned around and were half insect or their face was upside down, or worse they had no face.

  ‘No, we think it was an indirect consequence on a machine you’ve been working on, we just have some questions.’ Stated Booker. Rob didn’t know if he was playing by the book or Booker had sobered up enough to do some real detective work.

  ‘This is very sad, but I’m afraid I have lots of work to do.’ The lab coat said.

  ‘Listen here fuck face, two people are dead. They have some strange side effects you might want to know about. But if you’re not interested we can just go.’ Booker counted to three in his head, turned towards the door in complete silence and put his hand on the handle.

  ‘Wait.’ The coat said Rob watched as he turned. Nothing was odd about him, other than having a slightly fat nose Northcott looked normal. Boring even.

  ‘What?’ Booker held the door handle at a slightly downward angle, ready to push it the rest of the way and open the door.

  ‘What side effects? What has this got to do with me?’ Northcott asked.

  ‘I thought you’d never ask.’ Booker knew he would. Booker turned to face Northcott, the handle did its gentle movement back into place. ‘This machine,’ Booker pointed with his thumb, the machine sat filling half the room and looked like a white blob with a little screen sat in the middle of it. ‘What does it do?’

  ‘I’m working on the idea of quantum entanglement.’ Replied Northcott.

  ‘That’s not what I asked, what does the machine do?’ Booker asked again.

  ‘It’s an entangler.’

  ‘That still doesn’t really answer my questions. ’

  ‘It’s basically like a teleporter for tiny atoms.’ Northcott finally said, he hated breaking things down into very basic English.

  ‘There we go? Why are you building it?’ Booker asked. Northcott chose the most simple answer.

  ‘Because it pays my bills, if it works I can pay even bigger bills.’ Northcott new exactly what bigger bills he had in mind, maybe a bill for a very expensive sports
car, and new hair, lots of hair.

  ‘Does it work?’ Booker was shooting out questions now.

  ‘Kind of, only on the atomic scale.’

  ‘Why is it broken?’

  ‘What?’ Northcott was set back.

  ‘Why is it broken?’ Booker repeated, he hated repeating himself.

  ‘I assure it is not, now are you going to explain why you are here or not?’ blasted Northcott, nobody had ever insulted his work in such a way before.

  ‘I assure you it is, I know we have two people, two people I know have seen you try your little tangling thing.’ Booker stepped closer to Northcott. Northcott stepped back.

  ‘Entangling.’ Northcott corrected with a soft voice.

  ‘Whatever, now they are both tied together, in some bizarre way.’

  ‘What way?’ Northcott asked.

  ‘They are dead. But only one of them actually properly died and she died for no reason.’ Booker wasn’t really making sense. Rob stepped in.

  ‘We have a young girl, Sara, who died in my shop, well not my shop, I just worked there, and we have a man called Adam, and somehow when he’s awake, she’s dead, but if he goes to sleep, then she’s alive. Following this?’ Rob explained as well as he could. Northcott nodded on. ‘But if they hold hands, they are both alive, although you wouldn’t guess it by looking at them.’

  ‘So, what you’re telling me is they are both entangled, this Sara girl, I’ve met her, she was here when I was showing one of the benefiters the machine, who is this Adam?’ Asked Northcott.

  ‘It’s the name of a carpet, his real name is Alan.’ Booker corrected having calmed down.

  ‘Okay. How did you know my machine did this?’

  ‘You can’t plead the ninth here mate.’

  ‘I am not. Just how did you know this was the source of the issue.’

  ‘The news girl.’ Rob chipped in.

  ‘Georgina Harrison.’ Corrected Booker again. ‘She spotted a crack in part of your machine.’

  ‘Ah.’ Northcott scurried off, trying to find the issue. He fiddled a little, pulled out some plastic tubing and replaced it. ‘Fixed.’ He said having come back, it hadn’t felt as if he’d been gone for a minute.

  ‘So, is that it? Is it all fixed? Sara and Adam can just go on with their lives.’ Rob had a little tear in his eye, they glinted under the halogens of the lab.

  ‘Of course not. I’ve only fixed the machine, this is way over my head.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘Could you come up with a quick fix doc?’ Booker asked, trying to force a smile which simply came out as a set of disjointed teeth.

  ‘I can try if you stop doing that face.’ Northcott didn’t pull his punches. Booker stopped smiling.

  20

  Adam blinked slowly, his face had drooped like he’d had a stroke on both sides. He’d tried to sleep. Although he’d only done it once before he found the experience refreshing. To start with it was a little shocking, it felt as if he was dying, destined to never wake. But right now, something kept him with his on switch flipped.

  He blamed Sara, if she’d just let go for a few seconds he could sleep, right now sleep was more important to him than her living, he could fall asleep and she would wake up and live again. Adam never made these thoughts verbal, he didn’t know how to, he just kept them locked away.

  ‘Wake up.’ Sara shook his hand as Adam nodded off. There were also the constant reminders to remain awake from Sara keeping Adam there.

  Adam closed one eye, the one furthest away from Sara. The other lolled around watching her as she fidgeted in her seat, she too was getting restless. Adam hadn’t heard of the threat “sleep with one eye open.” But he sure was putting it into practice now.

  Sara moved around more, something made her legs ache and head feel light.

  ‘Are you okay?’ Rich asked, watching her moving around like a dog with worms.

  ‘I just can’t get comfy.’ She ragged herself around a little more.

  ‘You’re in the back of a car, what do you expect.’

  ‘This is different.’ She moved around squeaking the springs in the seat like tiny accordions. Adam started to nod off, his head almost touching the class of the window, a second later and it was touching, even if he didn’t want it to be. Sara had pelted his head off the glass.

  ‘Wake up.’ She growled.

  ‘Dude, you okay?’ Rich asked the middle of the seats as this was all he could see with ease.

  ‘Yeah, I’m sorry, I get annoyed when I’m tired.’ Replied Sara.

  ‘I wasn’t asking you, you hit Adam’s head pretty hard.’ Rich slowed down and found a place to park on the hard shoulder. ‘Are you okay, do you need fresh air?’

  ‘I said, I just get annoyed when I’m tired.’

  ‘You don’t seem that tired and still, I’m asking Adam.’ Rich undid his seat belt. ‘Go for a walk, Sara.’

  ‘I don’t feel tired, and I’m not normally the one who gets angry when they are tired.’ She released.

  ‘I said go for a walk.’ Rich had pulled himself from his car now and was making his way to check on Adam’s head.

  ‘I can’t walk anywhere.’ Sara made a smug face and flashed Rich her and Adam’s hands.

  ‘If Adam goes to sleep, then you go for a walk, he’s obviously tired.’ Rich said looking over Adam’s head. Who allowed Rich to move him in the same way you let a barber move your head.

  ‘He obviously can’t sleep when I’m touching him.’ Sara yelled, her face a little bloodshot.

  ‘Not if you’re smashing his head off a window.’ Rich was getting annoyed, he knew he had to pull himself from the situation. ‘I’m calling Booker.’ And Rich was gone.

  The phone rang, and rang, and rang some more. Rich was unsure if Booker actually had taken an age to answer the phone or it simply felt like it. He finally answered.

  ‘I’m kind of busy.’ The other side of the phone grated, it sorts of sounded like Booker.

  ‘We found the killer and then we lost him, and I’m at wit's end. Sara hit Adam and she won’t stop yelling, I just don’t know what to do.’ Rich rambled off, he sounded like a desperate mother. Something shuffled behind him, something in the back seat of the car. Adam and Sara had begun to fight again. ‘Stop it you two, don’t make me come back there and split you up.’ Rich yelled at his two adopted children. They ignored him and carried on their fight, not many people have ever seen a fight where both parties must continuously hold hands whilst fighting.

  ‘I can’t take it anymore.’ Rich turned back to where he imagined Booker had stood.

  The background had gone a little silent but muffles of grunts could still be heard. ‘The killer? Some kid, some skinny pale kid Sara was having an affair with.’ Rich silenced for a second to hear Booker speak. ‘Well he knows now, but I don’t think he cares too much. As long I don’t take his colouring book away, I don’t think he’s bothered by much. She won’t let him sleep. Cos she’s scared she won’t wake up. I’ve said that to her.’ Rich stopped talking, looked solemnly at his phone and put it back into his pocket. Then headed back to his car in complete silence.

  ‘Get out.’ He said to Adam, who did what he was told like a dog. Sara crawled along the seats to get out with him. ‘Probably not a good idea.’ Said Rich stopping Sara from taking herself from the car. She swallowed something which held in her throat, it was green and lumpy and didn’t taste nice. There was a little noise, metal on metal. Then a click. Suddenly Sara’s wrist felt air again, she looked up the two-people standing in the doorway, silhouetted in the sun. What little there was left anyway.

  ‘You may pass out for a bit.’ Rich told Sara, although he wasn’t sure himself.

  ‘For how long?’ Asked Sara, she seemed scared. As anybody in this situation had the right to be. Nobody likes dying the first time, but dying over and over again can’t be great for your confidence.

  ‘Like hell, I know.’ Rich told bluntly. This wasn’t how he normally comforted p
eople. He had special training to comfort pretty much anyone, in any situation. He hadn’t forgotten his training, he just chose at this point not to use it.

  Adam did another huge yawn; his jaw popped and click as he tried to open it wider.

  ‘It better not is long.’ Sara threatened.

  ‘We’ll see.’ Told Rich as he whipped Adam’s hand away.

  Sara saw black there were fuzzy outlines of people. They faded and vanished then it was simply black, a void outside her head. She could feel it was much larger than any person could ever be, much bigger than the world around her. This was probably what it felt like to be in space, knowing you could swing your arms and never ever touch anything ever again. A pinprick of light shone from the centre of the world, her new world. If Sara turned her head the pinprick remained in the dead centre. No matter how she twisted and turned it remained there. Something beaconed her towards it. Sara Swam, weightless in infinity.

  Adam was a little dazed, his head lot a little of the swamp that surrounded it. His memories hadn’t resurfaced but he finally was able to think a little straighter. He dropped his drawings which floated softly down the ground. A glance was shot back at the girl who he could tell he still loved even if he never really knew her.

  He slightly allowed Rich to move him to the other side of the car where he sat next to the dead girl. Rich gave him a silent smile, in a way it said, “thank you for being understanding.” Which he did. Adam wasn’t needed right now, and he was fine with that.

  The girl looked sad lying flat on her face, her eyes rolled back into her head so only the white and the red lines were visible.

  To anybody else, she would have been a horror to see but to Adam, she just seemed sad. He yawned a final big yawn and closed his eyes, waiting to finally swim again, in infinity.

  Rich was strong. Strong enough to carry Sara’s light soulless body to the front of his car. Her head flopped around her eyes bobbing around in dry sockets, it made Rich want to blink for her. To wet his eyes. He looked away and focused on not tripping over. Rich softly lay her down, trying to only bump her head the one time.