Nigel had stopped listening some time ago and now turned brusquely towards the whiteboard.
Connie moved anxiously.
‘We do have some stuff,’ she said. ‘But we were just discussing… I mean, there’s not much more we can tell you and we’d want to check it first… of all things to get wrong.’
‘I understand,’ said Nigel smoothly. ‘Of course. You’re quite right. What is this please?’
Everyone in the room looked at Connie’s latest drawing on the whiteboard.
Connie cleared her throat, deciding the best thing to do would be to stick as closely to the truth as possible without actually telling it. She noticed Luke’s hand was resting over his mouth, as if he was trying to stop himself from speaking, from blurting it all out. She looked at him again, marvelling at how very human he appeared; but also, now she thought about it, not at all. Or maybe everyone was like that until you really looked at them. When they stopped just being one of the throng and became particular and specific to you. When they walked into your life and…
She pulled herself back to the present.
‘That’s… well, we think that’s an illustration of their planet,’ she said haltingly. Evelyn shot her another warning look, which she ignored.
‘This is all we have so far.’
Nigel stood up to take a look at it.
‘Wow, you got all that,’ he said. Behind him the others looked at one another. Nigel stared at the planet for a long time, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck go up. Another world. Another world, with people – or whatever they were. Nigel wouldn’t have admitted it, but in his head they looked like people, only maybe bluer. This was their world. And they had sent them a picture of it.
‘What’s this weird, jagged line?’ he said. ‘Is it a gas ring, like Saturn or something?’
Connie glanced at it. She knew it must be the wall.
‘Well, that’s a cool idea,’ said Arnold. ‘We never thought of that. Yeah, might be.’
Nigel looked at him quickly but Arnold’s expression was totally impassive.
‘Yes, or an equator or something…’ said Connie, trying to sound helpful.
Nigel took out his phone.
‘I’ll just take a picture,’ he said, then noticed a button beside the whiteboard.
‘Does that thing print out?’
‘I know,’ said Ranjit, unable to help himself. ‘Cool, huh?’
He ran over and touched a button as Evelyn rolled her eyes.
Nigel snatched the paper that came out of the bottom, and tore it quickly from its roll.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’ll take this, I think.’
He stared at it.
‘It really is a map, isn’t it? Are they telling us where to find them?’
‘We haven’t got that far yet,’ said Connie. Nigel nodded.
‘Right. Fine. I’ll pass this on.’
He looked around the room.
‘I have to say, for a bunch of people working on the most exciting project of all time, you don’t seem terribly excited.’
‘That’s because we’re under house arrest,’ pointed out Arnold. ‘And one of us is dead.’
Nigel frowned.
‘Yes, and we’re working on that. But this…’ He held up the small piece of whiteboard paper. ‘Another world! Another planet, of people who want to talk to us… don’t you think it’s utterly astounding?’
‘Yes,’ said Evelyn quickly. ‘It’s amazing.’
‘Fish aliens!’ said Ranjit happily.
Nigel looked at him quickly. This man misses nothing, thought Connie in dismay.
‘What do you mean, fish aliens?’
‘He’s just speculating,’ said Arnold quickly. ‘We’ve all got a bet on. There’s a lot of what looks like… might be… water on the planet.’
There was a pause in the room, as they tried to figure out whether Nigel had believed them. Ranjit had gone bright red. Connie hoped he wasn’t going to throw up again.
‘Yes, Arnold’s bets all have gigantic boobs,’ said Sé. ‘Four of them. Five, sometimes.’
Connie looked at him gratefully as Nigel smiled.
‘Well, be careful what you wish for,’ he said. He picked up the paper.
‘I’m going to take this to COBRA, okay?’
They nodded, just happy to see he was leaving.
‘I’ll be back this evening; see what else you guys have come up with. Good work, you guys. This is amazing. Keep at it. Anything else you need let us know.’
And he was gone.
Arnold grabbed one of Sé whiteboard pens and wrote in large letters YOU ARE A DICK and held it up, away from the cameras, in front of Ranjit’s face. Ranjit looked like he was going to cry. Connie turned to Sé.
‘Thank you,’ she said. He shrugged and looked annoyed.
Nigel waited till he was in the corridor until he phoned London on the secure line.
‘Yes?’ said Anyali.
‘I have a topography,’ said Nigel.
‘Okay, good, that’s a start,’ said Anyali. ‘Anything else?’
‘Oh, there’s plenty more,’ said Nigel. ‘But tragically they appear to think I’m an absolute fucking idiot.’
Anyali sighed.
‘I did tell you: don’t give them any leeway to start conspiring to lie.’
‘They can work the lies all they want,’ said Nigel. ‘Because here’s the thing: why on earth would they lie to me if they didn’t clearly have something to hide? They must know more, otherwise why the hell wouldn’t they just cooperate?’
He hung up the phone and called the DCI.
‘Hello. Yes. I think we’ve narrowed it down to one of the six. See if you can get a confession out of him, would you? And don’t go too easy.’
Chapter Fourteen
‘Thought you were going to turn yourself in,’ said Sé.
Luke nodded.
‘I was. I am.’
‘Well, what’s keeping you?’
‘He’s not turning himself in,’ said Connie. ‘He’s not. They’re not putting him to death. We’re not. No way.’
‘Well, if they nuke Tokyo we might have to,’ mused Arnold.
‘Are they going to blow up Tokyo?’ said Ranjit excitedly.
‘You mentioned… consequences?’ said Evelyn calmly.
There was a pause.
‘It’s possible, yes, and they have the capability, yes,’ said Luke.
Sé gestured to the door.
‘Been nice knowing you.’
‘Sé!’ Connie’s heart was pounding and tears sprang to her eyes. She turned to Luke.
‘You can’t go.’
Luke nodded. ‘I have to.’
They stared at each other. Suddenly, it was as if everyone else in the room had melted away. The messy surroundings, the cheap floor coverings, the dirty windows: all of it faded away, and all Connie could look at was him. Hypnotised, they moved closer to one another.
‘The reason I didn’t give myself up just now… even though I have to, even though I will, I will…’
Luke’s gentle quiet voice was low and despairing. Connie held her breath. It wasn’t possible he could feel the same way… the distance between them was so far, so strange.
He shook his head and stretched out a hand.
‘Oh, Hair,’ he said. ‘I will miss you so.’
Connie made a sharp intake of breath. It felt so wrong; everything was telling her this was wrong. But to hear at last what she knew deep down she had longed for; dreaded, shied away from but, in the end, longed for like nothing she had ever know… suddenly, she felt her own hand go up to meet his; it was as if it was moving of its own accord. Everything around them slowed down, as the dust danced gently in the streaming morning sunlight.
‘Oh, for FUCK’S sake,’ said Arnold. ‘You are shitting us.’
Sé sniffed very loudly. Evelyn threw her hands in the air.
‘Luke, I warned you about personal space and boundaries! I told you
. Get away from her. Get away from Connie.’
Connie shook her head. Her voice was shaking.
‘No, Evelyn,’ she said, wobbling. ‘It’s all right.’
‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ said Evelyn, who never swore.
‘Connie,’ said Ranjit. ‘Connie, you know, he has a tail.’
Arnold clasped his hand to his forehead.
‘Well, this is excellent,’ he said. ‘What the fuck are we supposed to do now?’
‘I know,’ said Luke with uncharacteristically sharp tone. His hand was firmly in Connie’s now: strong and warm. She squeezed it, astonished, utterly delighted to have him there by her side.
‘I do know. And I will go. I am sorry for being weak.’
Connie shook her head.
‘No,’ she said. ‘NO. No. They have no idea we’ve translated this thing, they have no idea who Luke is otherwise they wouldn’t ask. We have time. We don’t have to give everything up right away. There must be another way. There must.’
Evelyn looked up.
‘You are a couple of utter bloody nutters,’ she said.
‘I know,’ said Connie, still trembling.
‘But,’ said Evelyn ‘I think you’re right. I think you probably do have a little more time. I don’t see why we can’t fend them off a little longer. His people will be expecting it to take a while for us to get back to them. They probably think we’re all just monkeys.’
‘You are all just monkeys,’ said Luke, looking confused.
‘Be quiet, I’m trying to help you here.’
‘You’re just postponing the inevitable,’ said Sé. ‘If I was going to be killed, I’d probably want it done straightaway.’
‘Sé, you’re a psychopath,’ said Connie.
‘Yeah, well, he’s a fish and you’re holding hands with it,’ said Sé, ‘so I don’t feel like I’m the one with psychiatric issues in this particular scenario.’
‘I wonder what dying’s like,’ Ranjit mused.
‘Can’t you talk to them?’ pleaded Connie, turning to Luke. ‘Talk to Nigel and explain… explain to your people that you’re sorry.’
‘I’m not sorry.’
‘Okay then, well, just talk to them and… ask them nicely…’ Her voice went quiet. ‘Maybe ask them nicely if you can stay?’
‘You are joking,’ said Arnold. ‘What do you think Nigel’s going to do if we present that to him? They’ll chop you up into tiny pieces. They’ll run you off to the lab. You’ll never be out of chains again. You’ll wish you had died. They’re all bastards, you know. As I’ve been saying all along.’
They looked at each other. Luke rubbed his neck thoughtfully.
‘There is…’ he began. ‘There is… when I arrived here. I crashed my ship. In Belarus. The ship doesn’t work but… it has a unit we could use to communicate. Possibly.’
‘In Belarus?’ said Sé sceptically.
‘What’s your better plan, Sé?’ said Connie.
‘How could you possibly get to Belarus? You’ve got no passports, and they’re watching our every move,’ said Evelyn.
‘How would you even get out of the building?’ said Arnold.
‘I know,’ said Luke. ‘It’s wrong.’
‘NO,’ said Connie again. ‘If we just had some time… they won’t be expecting us to have worked it out so fast, will they? Just a little time. You can find it. Fix the comms unit. At least talk to them… I can’t think of a better idea at the moment. We can do something with it. Just… just a little time.’
‘Connie,’ said Evelyn fiercely. ‘Even if Luke did get out of here, there’d be a manhunt. He’d never get away. They’d kill him.’
‘Well, according to this,’ said Connie, grabbing a nearby pile of paper and shaking it furiously, ‘they’re going to kill him anyway.’ Her voice shook. ‘So I don’t see how it can possibly be worse if we give him a chance.’
‘Well, it’ll be worse if they nuke Tokyo,’ said Ranjit.
Connie was in tears now; needed a hand back to wipe her face. She wouldn’t let go of Luke with the other one though.
‘Time,’ she said. ‘Just a little bit of time. That’s all. Then we’ll go to them, tell them what we know. But just one little chance. Please. Just one chance. Three days?’
‘He’ll get stopped at the airport. Or the ferry terminal. Or the petrol station. Or the front door,’ said Evelyn. ‘And what if the authorities kill him and the aliens come anyway? What have you done then?’
‘They won’t kill him,’ said Connie. ‘They’ll bring him back here to hand him over. Probably after doing all sorts of horrible stuff to him.’
There was a silence.
‘Three days,’ said Connie frantically, ‘and we’ll tell them then, we’ll tell them. Rather than just sit here and wait for death. You can’t! You can’t let that happen to him. You can’t!’
There was another long pause as everyone looked at the floor.
Evelyn looked levelly at Luke.
‘You really want to risk it?’ she said. He swallowed, glanced at Connie and gave a quick, sharp nod.
‘Hang on,’ said Ranjit. ‘You can’t just stroll out of here. There’s a guy at the door. He’ll just follow you out. He’ll never let you steal a car! And that guy Nigel is just about everywhere.’
Luke nodded. ‘I know.’
‘We need a diversion,’ said Arnold. ‘Something that will distract them. Fire alarm?’
‘When has there ever in the history of the world been a fire alarm anyone has paid the least bit of attention to?’ snorted Evelyn.
‘Okay, a fire then.’
‘You want to set this place on fire?’ she said. ‘What is everybody’s obsession with going to jail?’
‘Just a little fire,’ said Arnold. ‘We’ll light up a Bunsen burner up in chemistry, just let it go.’
‘And when they pull all the bodies from the ashen wreckage, what’s our strategy then?’
‘We’ll do it late at night, when there’s nobody here.’
‘How is that a distraction then? Anyway, there’s always somebody here… and I don’t think you’ve a lot of time to lose…’
Evelyn’s voice trailed off.
‘What?’ said Connie. ‘What?’
Evelyn looked straight at Connie.
‘I swear,’ she said. ‘I swear I never ever dreamed I’d get caught up in anything like this, and I never wanted to. You don’t know what danger is, and you don’t know what it’s like. And it’s not fun and exciting like an action movie. It’s fun and exciting like shingles.’
‘I know,’ said Connie. ‘I am so, so sorry.’
‘I remember you from my graduate conference you know. Back in Hull. Couldn’t miss that hair of yours. So smart, so timid, so quiet. There was absolutely nothing to you except numbers and hard work.’
She shook her head.
‘Please tell me what you’re thinking,’ said Connie gravely.
Evelyn glanced at the discarded ice bowl. The ice had nearly all melted now, was dripping from the sides onto the carpet.
‘We’re not the only people in the building… and we’re not the only living things in the building.’ Evelyn said. ‘Six storeys up…’
‘The biology labs,’ breathed Connie.
‘And the hot-rat lady,’ added Ranjit.
They took this in.
‘What’s up there?’ said Arnold.
‘Rabbits… dogs… some monkeys, I think.’
‘You hold your fellow species up there?’ said Luke in astonishment.
‘We’re going to keep that discussion for another day,’ said Evelyn.
‘It’s all locked up and secure though, isn’t it?’ said Arnold. ‘Precisely to stop people going in and freeing them.’
‘Yes, but isn’t there someone here strong enough to lift up a grand piano?’ said Evelyn.
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