Lost Worlds

by Andrew Lane

  ‘Battery life must be a problem,’ Tara mused. ‘I bet it can’t go for more than a couple of hours without a recharge.’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Rhino said. ‘The company is claiming that they have some kind of super-efficient solar cells that can keep it going.’

  ‘Now that,’ said Tara, ‘I really have to see.’

  It was dark in the apartment. Outside the windows, the sky was black and dusted with a scattering of stars. The sun had set some hours ago, and the apartment had gradually drifted through deepening shades of red and purple to the point where the only light was that cast by the multiple computer screens.

  Calum stretched his arms out and rocked his head from side to side. He’d been working at the computer for several hours straight, and his muscles were protesting that they hadn’t been used for a while. Not only that, but his eyes felt grainy and hot from focusing for so long on something just a few centimetres away. He turned his chair to the side and let his gaze refocus across the room.

  To where Gecko was barely visible, sitting on the sofa. In the cold blue glow of the screens he looked like a ghost. Calum nearly leaped out of his skin.

  ‘How long have you been there?

  ‘About an hour,’ Gecko responded. ‘You know, you get very caught up when you are concentrating on something. I could probably have come in here with a full marching band and you would not have noticed.’

  Calum shrugged, trying to calm his suddenly panicked heartbeat. ‘I can get a bit obsessive about things, I guess. Lose track of time.’

  ‘What were you doing?’

  ‘I was checking out flight details and hotels for your trip to Georgia. The best option seems to be to fly from Heathrow to Frankfurt, and then get another plane from Frankfurt to Tbilisi.’

  ‘Why Tbilisi?’ Gecko asked. ‘I thought we were going to Georgia?’

  ‘Tbilisi is the capital of Georgia, just like London is the capital of England.’

  ‘Ah. OK.’

  ‘I’ve found a hotel for you and Tara. It’s got a restaurant, so you won’t have to go out for breakfast, lunch or dinner if you don’t want to.’

  ‘I like trying new foods,’ Gecko said. ‘Although I am not sure if Tara feels the same. She strikes me as a veggieburger and fries kind of girl.’

  Calum laughed and went on: ‘After I sorted out the flights and the hotel, I spent a while checking to see if anyone else had reported seeing this man-ape creature in the Caucasus foothills.’

  ‘And have they?’

  ‘Not so far.’ Calum shrugged. ‘I’m not sure whether to be pleased or sorry. It would be nice to have some kind of independent confirmation that there’s something unusual out there, but then again, I don’t want anyone else getting in before we do.’ He frowned, and stared at the dark shape that was Gecko. ‘But you’re trying to distract my attention. The big question is: even without the marching band, how exactly did you get in.’ He turned his head to check the apartment door. It was shut and locked. ‘You couldn’t have hacked the code for the security system. That’s Tara’s field of expertise.’

  Gecko smiled and glanced upward. ‘I came in through the skylight.’

  ‘What, again? I didn’t hear the sound of breaking glass.’

  ‘Don’t worry – I have not done any more damage. No, when I replaced the skylight yesterday I did the sensible thing and made sure it had a lock on it. And then I did the other sensible thing, and made sure I had a copy of the key.’ He paused. His expression was invisible in the shadows, but it sounded to Calum as if he was suddenly unsure of himself. ‘Look, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but maybe I went too far. I will give you the key back. I understand that you might want to control who comes and goes around here. It is just that . . . with the free-running, I kind of forget that people get touchy about their personal space. When I am running across the roofs, I think of it all as being public property.’

  ‘Yes, just like Tara and the internet,’ Calum said darkly. He was silent for a moment, considering what his feelings were exactly, and he was surprised to find that he didn’t mind Gecko dropping in unexpectedly. Considering how much he valued his privacy, and considering how little time he’d known Gecko, he was actually pleased that the boy was there. He’d forgotten what it was like to have friends, and it was a feeling, he realized, that could become addictive. ‘Don’t worry about it. I’ll just have to make sure I lock the bathroom door when I’m inside. The problem with living alone is that you get into bad habits, and leave doors wide open when maybe you shouldn’t.’

  ‘More information than I really needed.’ Gecko laughed. ‘Any news from Tara yet?’

  Calum shook his head. ‘Her flight should have landed a little while ago. Professor Livingstone’s pet travel guide should have let her know if there was a problem and Tara didn’t turn up, but I’m not expecting anything to go wrong.’

  ‘You trust her to be OK out there?’

  ‘Yes, I do. Which is strange, considering how little I know either of you, but I’m pretty sure that both of you can survive by yourselves wherever you go. You’re both loners, and you’re both very competent in different ways. She’ll be fine.’ He paused. ‘It’s this Rhino Gillis who worries me.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because I don’t know him. I’ve never met him. I have no sense of whether or not I can trust him.’

  ‘Professor Livingstone seemed quite impressed by him. She recommended him, didn’t she? She has used him before?’

  Calum nodded. ‘She’s done quite a lot of work in what used to be the Soviet Union – not just Russia, but Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the rest, and she’s used him as a bodyguard. There are lots of scientists and researchers left over from Soviet days out there who want to start up their own companies, and there are lots of bright young kids who can write good computer code and want to work on computer security. She thinks that in a few years’ time the economic balance of power will shift back from China and end up somewhere in Eastern Europe.’

  ‘I’m surprised she hasn’t tried to use that fact to get on board your expedition,’ Gecko said. ‘You know, make sure that Tara and I don’t get into any trouble while managing to fit in some business meetings at the same time.’

  ‘Ah. Funny you should mention that.’ Calum abruptly turned and picked up a remote control from the desk in front of him. He waved it towards the ceiling and pressed a button, and the lights in the apartment bloomed into life. Gecko blinked in the sudden glare. ‘Actually, I got an email from Professor Livingstone earlier. She said she’d been thinking about it, and she’s realized that she can arrange some business meetings in Tbilisi to coincide with your trip.’ Seeing Gecko’s face, Calum hurriedly added, ‘She’s not going to go along with you, or even travel with you, but she’ll be in the area at the same time in case you get into trouble. She has resources that might be helpful.’

  ‘Well, that’s OK,’ Gecko said cautiously. ‘She obviously feels protective of you and she wants this expedition to succeed. I can relate to that.’

  Calum tried to keep his face from showing any emotion, but he must have failed because Gecko picked up on something.

  ‘What is the professor doing with her daughter?’ he asked. ‘Natalie – that was her name, wasn’t it? She was quite a looker. I presume she is leaving Natalie somewhere with friends?’

  Calum didn’t say anything.

  ‘Or sending her back to whatever boarding school she is at?’

  Still nothing.

  ‘Or maybe she’s taking Natalie with her and letting her stay in the hotel while she goes off to her meetings?’

  Calum couldn’t stop himself from reacting any longer. He closed his eyes for a long moment, and shook his head. ‘No, Professor Livingstone said that she doesn’t trust Natalie if she’s left to herself. She’s a bit of a party animal, apparently. Natalie held a party a year ago, in an apartment in Washington DC, and some gatecrashers arrived and trashed the place. Lots of expensive artwor
k ruined, and the carpets were so stained by drinks that they had to be ripped out and replaced. Professor Livingstone says she’s not going through that again. And she doesn’t want Natalie to be alone in a hotel for hours on end, because she might go out shopping and max out her credit card on shoes she’ll never wear.’

  ‘I have such a bad feeling about this,’ Gecko moaned.

  ‘Professor Livingstone said the only way she’d agree to this expedition going ahead was if Natalie went along with you.’ Calum shrugged. ‘It’s non-negotiable. The professor wants Natalie with her in Georgia, which means that Rhino Gillis has to look after her. That means she has to go with you.’

  Gecko just stared at Calum. ‘When were you going to tell us?’ he asked eventually in a far-too-calm voice.

  ‘Probably when you were sitting on the aircraft and it was too late to back out,’ Calum admitted.

  ‘Has she ever been on an expedition like this before?’

  ‘Have you?’

  Gecko shrugged. ‘I have spent nights alone in the rainforest in Brazil. I can look after myself. Natalie looks like she will not go anywhere that has not got air conditioning and a juice bar. Does she know that you cannot wear high heels when you are hill-walking?’

  ‘Look, I doubt she’s any happier about it than you are. Sadly, it’s something we’re going to have to live with. The professor said she’d get in touch with my great-aunt and have the plug pulled on the finance if I argued.’ Calum paused, trying to tell from Gecko’s expression whether this was going to torpedo the entire expedition. He hoped not: this was the closest he’d ever got to finding one of the cryptids he’d been hunting for so long. ‘Are you OK with this?’

  Gecko stared at him in silence for awhile. ‘I suppose I have to be,’ he said. ‘But I don’t like things being kept from me. I like to make informed decisions.’

  ‘Understood,’ Calum said, relieved. Desperate to change the subject, and get over the sudden heavy awkwardness in the apartment, he said: ‘I spent some time researching Nemor Incorporated while I was on the net. I’ve found quite a few references to them in other people’s blogs and tweets, but very little from them. They like to keep a very low profile. Companies are supposed to make public things like who’s on their board of directors, and who their major shareholders are, but I can’t seem to get that information for Nemor. I wonder what exactly they have to hide.’

  ‘They’re probably running some kind of huge offshore tax-avoidance scheme,’ Gecko said. ‘Isn’t that what all big companies try to do – avoid paying as much tax as possible?’

  ‘You’re beginning to sound like Tara,’ Calum complained.

  ‘Hey, just because she is a little nerdy does not mean she does not know what she is talking about.’

  CHAPTER

  eight

  The sky was blue, the sun was bright and the leaves on the trees lining the road were every possible shade of red, orange and yellow. Tara was entranced as Rhino drove the hire car towards Aberdeen. America was proving to be wonderful, and she was enjoying being with Rhino, and that was odd. Generally she despised armies as old-fashioned remnants of an imperialist political mindset, and she was contemptuous of the kind of people who joined up just to follow orders or who thought that spending billions of pounds on vastly complicated military systems that might never be used was a good idea. She hadn’t been looking forward to this visit, despite the opportunity to play around with some high-tech kit. She had only agreed to do it because Calum had asked her to, and she felt like she owed him something. But Rhino had overcome her misgivings with his easy smile and his quietly competent manner. He didn’t act the way that she’d imagined soldiers acted.

  They’d got to the small motel late the night before. It looked strangely familiar to Tara, and it took her a few moments to realize that she’d seen places like it in every horror film that she’d watched over the years. People in those films tended to book in for the night and vanish before morning, falling prey to zombies or vampires or demons. But Tara had been so exhausted that she hadn’t cared about the supernatural risks. She and Rhino ate a quick meal in an all-night diner across the road, and headed for their separate rooms.

  She noticed now, as they drove, that his gaze kept flicking to the rear-view mirror, even though there were no other cars on the road that early.

  ‘Looking for pursuers?’ she joked.

  ‘Hey,’ he said, ‘you never know. It’s the unexpected things that get you.’

  Like zombies and vampires and demons, she thought, but she kept quiet.

  Rhino shrugged. ‘It’s like one-way streets. I always look both ways when I cross one. I’m pretty sure that if I ever get run over it’ll be because a car came at me from a direction I wasn’t expecting, not one that I was expecting.’

  ‘Do you always think that way?’

  ‘I always look for the threats, I anticipate what might go wrong before it does, and I don’t take anything for granted. It’s what keeps me alive.’

  ‘So,’ Tara teased, ‘you’d be ready if I suddenly lunged at you with a penknife?’

  ‘You’re right-handed,’ he said calmly, ‘and you’re sitting on my right. That means you would have to reach across yourself to stab me, which would be clumsy and slow. Besides: your jeans and T-shirt are so tight that there’s no chance of you hiding a knife in them, which means that the only place you could hide a knife is in the outside pockets of your leather jacket, and that’s on the back seat. Given all of the above, I feel safe. Relatively safe, anyway. Everything is relative.’

  ‘Oh,’ she said, deflated. ‘You know, you take the fun out of everything.’

  ‘I don’t like surprises,’ he said. Tara saw his eyebrows lift as a thought occurred to him. ‘Then again, I’m sitting in a car with a fifteen-year-old goth, preparing for a trip to a former Soviet republic in search of a mythical missing link between apes and humans. I wasn’t expecting that.

  ‘Yeah, but do you like it?’

  He laughed. ‘I’m getting used to it.’

  They passed a sign saying Army Research Laboratory – Aberdeen Proving Ground: next left. A few seconds later, Rhino steered the car across the road and into a side road that almost immediately terminated at a security barrier and a security hut. Soldiers in grey combat fatigues converged on the car. They all had semi-automatic rifles. Tara suddenly felt very small and very scared.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Rhino said reassuringly. ‘This is my area of expertise.’

  He rolled his window down and smiled up at the soldier who loomed over him, gun held half ready at his side. ‘Morning!’

  ‘Sir, please turn off your ignition,’ the soldier rattled out. As Rhino complied, he went on: ‘ID, please, sir.’

  Rhino reached down to the storage unit between the front seats and pulled out two passports – his and Tara’s. He handed them across. ‘We’re here for the demonstration.’

  ‘Wait here, sir.’ The soldier quickly checked the passport photographs against their faces, then crossed to the security hut. He handed the passports to a colleague, who cross-checked the names against a printed list on the table in front of him. He nodded. The first soldier returned to the car and handed the passports over.

  ‘Thank you, sir. Please follow the signs to Parking Area Green. Have a nice day.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  Rhino started the car and drove towards the barrier. It lifted into the air just before the bonnet touched it, and Rhino drove into the base.

  ‘Well, that was simple,’ Tara said. ‘I was expecting a full body search!’

  ‘Five Ps,’ Rhino said.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘Standard military strategy. Prior preparation prevents poor performance. What it means is, make sure you’ve arranged everything early. In this case, Professor Livingstone emailed our names and passport numbers to the organizers of the demonstration, and they put us on the security list. As long as we have our passports with us, we’re OK.’

  They drove
around a wide curve, and then down a tree-lined avenue that was lined with armoured vehicles. There must have been a couple of hundred of them, in two long rows. Most of them were tanks, or things that looked like tanks, but there were others that Tara couldn’t even identify. Some had no turrets, some had several turrets, and at least one had a gun that looked wide enough to fire beer barrels from one side of London to the other.

  ‘It’s called the Mile of Tanks,’ Rhino said. ‘I thought you’d be impressed. These are all experimental vehicles. Only one of each of them was ever built. You like it?’

  ‘No,’ Tara said quietly. ‘Part of me feels a bit scared by the amount of military firepower that’s on display, and part of me is angry at the amount of money it costs to build a single complete and functional armoured vehicle just as part of an experiment.’

  ‘Oh.’ Rhino grimaced. ‘Sorry. I keep forgetting that you’re not a military brat.’

  ‘I’m not what?’

  ‘A military brat. Nothing personal – it just means those kids who grew up around the military. Me, I love this stuff.’

  There was silence in the car for a few minutes as Rhino drove through a landscape of close-cut lawns and white-painted two-storey buildings, following the signs for Parking Area Green. There were, Tara noticed, also Parking Areas Blue, Red, Black and Purple. She guessed that there were a lot of cars on the base, which indicated a lot of people.

  Parking Area Green turned out to be at the end of a road that seemed to be leading towards the edge of the base. They stopped in the shadow of trees, next to a collection of ten or so cars. Small signs had been hammered into the earth, pointing towards a path that led into the forest. They read: ARLENE Demonstration.

  ‘ARLENE?’ Tara asked as Rhino locked the car.

  ‘Automated Robotic Load-carrying Environmental Equipment,’ Rhino replied. ‘That’s the thing we’ve come to see. This is the USA – they love acronyms.’