Solomon's Keepers

by J. H. Kavanagh

  ‘I don’t know. Anything really: Samples, slides, documents…Tony knew I was packing up. I guess he knew I’d have all my stuff together in one place. They already have my field laptop back and all the software. I think they sent him to check I haven’t kept the original materials and the data.’

  ‘Did they get what they were after?’

  ‘They would have – except I had it with me in my case’

  ‘Way to go! So what happens now?’

  ‘I don’t know. They own the data so, legally, they can do what they want. Morally, they can’t. But after today, I’m gone.’

  ‘But with the stuff you kept – you could throw a spanner into the works?’

  She’s been scraping her spoon around the rim of the plate, picking up a tiny bow wave of cream as her last mouthful. When the spoon slides back out from between her lips she holds it like a weapon. ‘I have my stuff. I wish I had all theirs. Then I’d know exactly how to throw the spanner.’

  They look at one another.

  ‘What do you need?’ Maybe it’s the wine but he gets that feeling of heat rising and the internal drums rolling.

  ‘I could easily have copied everything. I should have. But I only have the parts I contributed. They’ll need to submit a ton of stuff and then I could see the context. There are lots of ways to get around some data you don’t like. I should have taken everything…then I would know if they ignore my work – or try to misrepresent it.’

  ‘So how do you get it?’

  Her head tilts and she stops to think, eyes narrowing.

  ‘Rees, you mean…now? Are you thinking counter attack?’

  ‘I’m just asking. You said you could have. So how would you do it?’

  ‘The disk crashed on my laptop a few weeks back. I thought I’d lost all my stuff and got in a real stew about it. Eventually this IT guy shows up to help. My personal stuff is all under my user account that I remembered I’d signed up for – but all the Melcheck stuff goes off site somewhere else. And when he does the restore to get that I can see all the user files under the one project account. You just select the ones that you want. In theory I could restore anything. I bet the password hasn’t changed.’

  ‘That easy?’

  ‘It’d be a two minute job to grab that link. I could download the whole lot to a stick and be out in ten minutes. The only snag is it has to be a college computer address. I’d have to do it on campus.’

  ‘Uh huh.’

  ‘Rees, you’re a very bad influence. But I’m not asking you to help. Just to drop me back, tonight, and wait for me, that’s all. Would you mind?’

  ‘I’m supposed to be looking after you. You sure about this?’

  ‘It’s a college, Rees, not a nuclear bunker. I just need one more trip to the department.’

  He looks at his watch. It’s ten. Outside it’s dark. He wishes he could frame the way she looks, sighs, waves for the bill.

  He’s waiting outside and down the street when she reappears.

  ‘I need you to do something.’

  ‘What took you? Have you got it?’

  ‘Almost. I got it – but then had to hand it in. Shit! It pauses if you change the device path and you have to get it authorised. The guy there started it for me but said he’d have to hold on to it until tomorrow. He said Monday at first. I told him I wanted it for some important work tomorrow but then he said he’d have to phone. I said I’d get my supervisor to pick it up tomorrow morning. I didn’t give my name and I’m not sure he believed me. Shit!’

  ‘What now then?’

  ‘I saw where he put it.’

  ‘And…’

  ‘I just need to distract him.’

  ‘This is fast turning into Bonny and Clyde.’

  ‘Oh yeah? Where are the guns?’

  ‘Well, we haven’t finished yet. Did they swipe your card?’

  ‘No.’

  The library is all lights and glass. The woman on the desk ignores Eva but takes a longer look at Rees. The data guy is just where Eva described, rooting about behind a desk with three monitors. Rees can hear his fingers pecking the keys and when he looks over he sees his eyebrows go up behind thick glasses. Top drawer, she’d said.

  ‘Excuse me; the disk drive seems to be missing from that computer,’ Rees says, pointing across the room.’

  ‘I’ll be with you in a moment,’ the guy says, unperturbed.

  ‘And now the keyboard,’ Rees adds. Data guy’s eyes pop up and he scans the room. He looks about him and then says ‘show me.’

  They walk across the floor. There are several students sitting at desks and Rees leads him to the far side. ‘The one right in the corner,’ he says, ‘next to the guy with the red hair.’

  He stops suddenly. ‘That’s a microfiche viewer.’

  ‘A what?’ He’s heading back. Eva is standing near his desk looking fixedly at nothing in particular. It’s obvious she hasn’t got it and even the nerd knows what she’s just tried to do. He accelerates to alarm pace. Eva looks desperate.

  Rees is hardly going to harm the little guy – he just puts his finger to his lips and pulls the drawer. It’s one of those light modern things and the whole cabinet comes out and he has to tip it on an end and wrench off the front of the top drawer. It only takes a few seconds but the little guy is frantic and there are people looking from all around.

  ‘He’s completely drunk,’ Eva says, standing away with hands spread. That’s only enough for one or two of the watchers.

  The contents spray out when he tips it back over and he sees only one stick amongst the debris. Eva is on it and clears the turnstile like a hurdler with Rees close behind.

  He has to open her door from the inside. ‘They following?’

  ‘Just drive!’ She says, all hot breath and nervous laughter, her fist held high and clenched so tight the stick ought to pop and bleed its secrets down her sleeve. The Landy doesn’t do racing starts but they’re away and the trees are whipping past and then open roads unwinding. They part on the doorstep of her new home, a future expanding in a kiss that goes on and on with Eva folded in his arms while the yapping behind the door, the house, and the rest of the present recedes as though to another world.

  Five

  Rees wakes up with the sense of being in motion, the body sense that lingers after too long in transit, but he’s lying in the same bed, propped up on soft pillows, and perfectly still. A rigid collar is pushing up under his chin. There are drips overhead, one transparent, one milky, and he can see a line into his lizard wrist.

  He knows where he is when he sees Tekla again.

  She heads past him to an electronic flower arrangement of monitors and flickering gadgetry over the next bed. She calls out good morning in a loud singsong voice. It’s a greeting that expects and receives no reply. He can see the outline of a body under the blanket, seemingly wasted. He’d take it for dead except for the rhythmic sighs of assisted breathing. The head is a helmet with wires that trail to a box on the floor.

  She sees his eyes are open and says hello in a voice modulated for dialogue. ‘This is Mr. Turnbull here. He doesn’t speak. Or hear anything, unfortunately. He doesn’t move but he likes to play chess. Do you play? Perhaps when you’re ready that will be nice for you both.’ And then she says, loudly, to him, ‘that’s right, isn’t it, Mr. Turnbull?’

  Brodzky passes by mid morning.

  ‘We have to be especially careful because you had some trauma to the head and neck – a few complications, hence the restraint. You’ve been lucky though. It seems your equipment took the brunt of it. If you’d been facing the other way it would have been a different story. So you’ll mend. And we’ll need to run some tests on Solomon too while you’re here. Any questions?’

  ‘Does Turnbull have Solomon too?’

  ‘Mr. Turnbull has some severe difficulties. He’s been on reserve for a while now. I’m afraid he can’t move or talk. But he’s stable and we’re working hard for him. Have faith, Rees. The worst i
s over, I promise you. Just rest, I’ll be able to talk to you tomorrow.’

  Eva had found an apartment a few miles outside Bristol and only half an hour from the base. Her temporary job was close by. Rees’s schedule settled and they could steal a day together here and there. Once they managed a few whole days together on holiday in the Alps. He got into the habit of sneaking out to visit her at night. He kept a motorbike at the perimeter and if he drove at top speed he could spend several hours before returning and creeping in before first light.

  At first it was a delicious intimacy, heightened by the risk he was taking. They needed no domestic preamble and would fall into bed together for a joyous few hours. It was borrowed heaven.

  Both of them knew they were living a relationship on borrowed time but neither of them could stop it. They wanted to look forward, and neither of them could. Officially, he was on weapons training but little by little he gave away that he was committed to a special programme. He never explained what it was. He was too scared it would frighten her away or enrage her. He wasn’t sure of anything any more except wanting to keep on seeing her. Her three month job became indefinite. At some point she would go back to Spain and he would be assigned away. How long could that be put off? Sometimes, jokingly, they would talk about absconding together. But in reality he was committed and she was too.

  Their last time he had arrived late in the evening. They had eaten a meal she’d prepared and gone to bed. In the early morning they lay together in silence. He hated having to go. Each morning seemed to foreshadow the inevitable separation. She didn’t speak when he got up; there was nothing to say. As he moved she pulled the duvet back and he knew she was awake.

  There were new vehicles outside when he crept back to base. Something wasn’t right.

  Tyler called them to order at breakfast. All he said was ‘Grab yourself a good breakfast and be nice to our guests. Looks like you’re out of here.’

  Next thing a pretty woman called Danvers is collecting their mobile phones. She speaks with a southern drawl that Rees had only ever heard in the movies and she says that they won’t be getting them back. ‘This operation is moving up a gear,’ she says. ‘Y’all might want to think about any urgent messages you need us to send on your behalf because we are moving out in one hour and we are not coming back.’

  And now here she is again, right by his bed. He recognises the blush complexion and tidy blonde hair and he immediately wonders if it’s more bad news. Danvers looks uncomfortable sitting there and strangely out of context. Instead of the uniform he remembers, she’s wearing a suede coat, striped shirt and jeans and sits in the chair, too low down, by his side.

  ‘Hello, Rees.’

  ‘Danvers? Day off?’

  She smiles. ‘I wish. How you doing? Good to see you in one piece – looks like you’re holding together okay, considering.’

  ‘Mmm’

  ‘Successful, I hear. But nearly got yourself killed by the sound of things.’

  ‘I couldn’t claim the credit. I’m just glad we’re warming up on the easy stuff.’

  ‘Yes, well I heard about the SNAFU part too. I’m just glad you’re, you know, okay. We’ll have you up and out in no time at all. Brodzky doesn’t want to let go, still treats the Belvoir team as though they were his students, which I suppose they are really. I’m supposed to smooth feathers. But it shouldn’t be long. Anyway, how are you feeling?’

  He has to think about that and so she presses on. ‘You know, it’s been a week. You’ve been under sedation and they’ve already done quite a bit of work.’

  She smiles and waits to see his reaction, her eyes ranging over his face, picking up clues.

  ‘You didn’t really come all this way on my account, did you?’

  ‘She shrugs. ‘Couldn’t have you all on your own, could we? And I need to be here several times a year anyway. We have quite a lot to accomplish, a lot of changes coming at this facility. I’ve been here a few days. So don’t let it go to your head.’ She looks around her. ‘You take it easy.’ She gives the long smile and the sing song voice fades away.

  Brodzky comes around in the mornings every day and he always wants to talk. He usually doesn’t get to know his charges and says this is a special opportunity. He asks about family, tells Rees he doesn’t have kids, noses a bit and tells him some of his regrets. His wistful tone seems to be going somewhere but Rees isn’t sure how to take it. After a couple of those chats he starts to respond in kind. He has to tell someone about Eva.

  ‘I left someone behind, a girlfriend. Well, more than that. I wasn’t supposed to be seeing anyone, I know that. But the shortlisting looked like it would go on forever and all the politics and nobody knowing anything. I know you’re not responsible but the whole isolation thing just seemed daft.’

  Brodzky looks about as though someone else is listening.

  ‘Rees, this was always a programme for singles. Highly secret. You know that. Your feet don’t touch the ground. It wouldn’t be fair. Don’t tell me any more now.’

  ‘It happened. And I…’

  ‘It’ll have to unhappen. You know what these yanks are like about their security rules.’

  ‘I couldn’t say anything. That’s the worst of it and that’s what’s killing me. I just turned up one day at camp as usual and I never got to go back.’

  ‘I’m sorry. You just have to move on. It’s a big prize, it has a big ticket.’

  But the next day on his rounds, Brodzky seems agitated.

  ‘You know, Rees, you’ve made a fast recovery and I can’t really hold your colleagues off any longer. They’re very keen to get you back.’

  ‘Have you been trying to hold them off?’

  ‘Well, I wanted to ensure you really were prepared, fully prepared. And there is a lot we can learn about how you’re responding…’

  ‘What is it you want to talk about? Is it the same thing Danvers is trying not to talk about?’

  ‘You’re very astute. I want to tell you something that I need you to promise me you will keep off the record.’

  ‘Okay, I promise.’

  ‘Rees, yesterday you confided something in me and I cut you off. Today I want to confide in you. I’m not sure whether you quite realize what the options here really are. I would like to help you and I need to know that you can keep this absolutely to yourself.’ His eyes flash up.

  Rees looks at him steadily. ‘That’s okay, I will.’ He says. Brodzky still seems uncertain.

  ‘Listen son, What I’m about to tell you is difficult and if you react to it the wrong way I may not be able to help you. So I need you to promise me you’ll just hear me out and, however much you want to react, you will hold it in. Can you do that?’

  ‘I said I will,’ Rees says slowly. ‘I promise. What is it?’

  He gathers himself. ‘Rees, you know I designed the Solomon chip, don’t you? I mean the architecture, the core of it. There were dozens of people who contributed – and the usual army of people available at the end to take the credit – but I was the principal designer on it.’

  ‘Yes, you told me that. I’ve already said my thank you.’

  He smiles thinly. ‘Well hear me out. You know, your group wasn’t actually the first to achieve deployment. You won’t hear much about the earlier ones – and you won’t come across anything about what happened to the people involved, except from me.’

  He needs another nudge.

  ‘I’m not going to like this, am I? But I want to hear it.’

  ‘Danvers wants to take you back. She’s gone away today but she’s coming back. There’s some kind of deadline. I really shouldn’t be telling you this…’

  ‘I said I’ll keep it quiet.’

  He sighs. ‘Rees, I’m sorry, things are moving away from me. At some point people – you – need to face up to something. There isn’t a kind way to put this; Solomon can’t be reversed. It can’t be taken out or turned off, no matter what they may say. I know they talk about end of tour rout
ines and plans to restore the status quo – and I’m just going to tell you that’s all bullshit. It may keep the welfare people and lawyers happy for the time being but the truth is that once it has grown in, been trained in as yours has, you can’t take it out. All you can do is disable the chip. That’s easy. But the brain grows accustomed to the chip and incorporates it into its normal functions. You know that, don’t you? You don’t think about Solomon any more, do you? You just think with it. It’s just a part of everything your mind is doing. You use it all the time. If you disable it after it’s been fully integrated then all you are doing is the equivalent of a crude… They just haven’t planned ahead. We didn’t know that at first. But I told them. We tried with poor Turnbull after he started having problems. We have never been able to bring him back. As we disabled the functions on the chip we thought we were only backing out the new, restoring him to what he had been. Yes, the brain has plasticity – it’s much more dynamic than people think – but you can’t just go messing around and pretending that the thing is recoverable. I tried to make them listen.’

  He checks himself and looks around again with a nervous little laugh. A handkerchief appears from his pocket and he busies himself flapping it about his face as a distraction. A rush of adrenaline spooks Rees’s guts.

  ‘Surely, this is kind of basic, isn’t it? Just tell her! Lay it out for them. They’ll have to get it if you tell them.’

  ‘Rees, forget Danvers. She’s only a runner. The fact is it doesn’t suit her bosses to understand. They don’t want to understand – they need to not understand. You weren’t in a laboratory, Rees; you were on active service – because some very senior people pushed for deployment and told some other very senior people what they needed to hear. Not maybe, not nearly, not some important issues to resolve. No one wants to admit that right now they have no idea where this takes us, takes you, long term. The only thing they do know is that this programme has been very expensive to buy in after a lot of big talk and some people’s reputations depend on its success.’