Murder in the Dark, page 4
We set off down the hill. The Professor saw us coming, at last, and called for her people to stop work and take a break. They all insisted on finishing what they were doing, but eventually they gathered together outside the equipment centre, presenting a unified front to the outsiders. The Professor introduced us, and the first of the scientists to smile and offer his hand was Terry Crane. Tall, gangling and almost aggressively cheerful, he wore a battered sweater and jeans under his anorak.
‘So, what do you think of the hole? Isn’t it just the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen?’
‘Doesn’t it scare you?’ said Penny. ‘It’s already swallowed up one person.’
‘I know!’ said Terry. ‘That’s what makes it so fascinating!’
‘We don’t let Terry get too close to the hole,’ said the Professor. ‘He’s prone to sudden enthusiasms. This is Robert May.’
Robert was a sturdy medium-height young man with a neatly trimmed beard and practical but expensive clothes. He nodded brusquely, and didn’t offer to shake hands.
‘What’s your area of expertise?’ I said.
‘Communications,’ he said flatly. ‘But I haven’t been able to detect anything coming out of the hole. This equipment is barely adequate, and being cut off from the rest of the scientific community isn’t helping. Before they’d let me get in the car to come here, they took away my laptop and my phone! And then they have the nerve to get upset at our lack of results. It’s almost as if they want us to fail …’
‘Stick to the facts, Robert,’ said the Professor.
‘We’ve sent all kinds of transmissions into the hole,’ said Robert. ‘But there’s never any response. Any recording equipment we drop in doesn’t work, and doesn’t come back. It won’t be long before we’re reduced to throwing in handwritten notes, begging someone on the other side to talk to us.’
‘Robert is our resident pessimist,’ said the Professor.
‘Somebody has to be,’ said Robert.
The young woman standing next to him introduced herself as Ellie Garland. A surprisingly glamorous creature, given the setting and the company. Tall and waif-like, she wore smart but casual clothes under her anorak, making them look stylish just because she was wearing them. She had long flat blonde hair, pale-blue eyes, and a smile that never really got beyond polite. She looked like a catwalk model’s idea of a scientist.
‘My speciality is theoretical physics,’ she said, in a calm soft-spoken voice. ‘And this is the point where I usually drop the magic word “quantum” and everyone stops asking me questions. I’ve been trying to work out how the hole is able to exist in our world, given that just by being what it is it’s defying a whole bunch of fundamental laws.’
Paul Osborne was pale-skinned and dark-haired, and didn’t smile or offer to shake hands when the Professor introduced him. He seemed almost studiedly anonymous in his look and his clothes, and the Professor had to prompt him to explain what he did.
‘It’s my job to work out how the hole affects living things,’ he said, in a quiet uninflected voice, as though he could barely be bothered to answer. ‘I’m in charge of the test animals.’
‘And you killed all of them,’ said Penny.
‘There’s no evidence they’re dead,’ Paul said calmly. ‘They just didn’t come back after we put them into the hole.’
‘Why would whatever’s in the hole want to take your animals?’ said Penny.
‘Perhaps whatever is on the other side is building a collection. Perhaps that’s what the hole is for – to acquire specimens for examination.’
‘Like the missing archaeologist?’ I said.
‘Exactly,’ said Paul. ‘He could be the first human being to visit another world. Don’t you envy him?’
‘Depends on the other world,’ I said. I looked at the other scientists. ‘Is that the consensus? That the hole is actually a tunnel to somewhere else?’
‘The mathematics support it,’ said Ellie.
‘This is why I keep saying we need to send in a human subject!’ said Terry, almost bouncing up and down in his enthusiasm. ‘Someone who can report back on what’s actually going on inside the hole!’
‘You are not going in, Terry,’ the Professor said firmly. ‘It’s far too dangerous, and there’s no guarantee we could get you back safely.’
Terry shrugged. He seemed quite used to having his sudden enthusiasms shot down.
The final member of the team had been staring coldly at Penny and me through all of this. A tall skinny presence with a permanent scowl, a rough sweater and jeans, and far too much nervous energy. The Professor introduced him with a sigh, as if performing a regrettable but necessary task.
‘This is Michael Lee. Call him Mike, he hates being called Michael. A child prodigy at mathematics, he was allowed into Cambridge University at far too young an age, which is probably why he still has difficulty getting on with people. He’s the smartest one here, and never lets us forget it. Thinks he knows everything, but has a hard time proving it to anyone who doesn’t speak fluent numbers. This is his first time as part of a field team, and from the way he’s been acting almost certainly his last. Don’t take any crap from him. We don’t.’
‘It’s my job to think outside the box,’ Mike said loudly. ‘To see the things that everyone else misses. It was my idea to dig the tunnel, to prove the hole didn’t penetrate into the hill.’
‘You still had to get someone else to dig it for you,’ said Robert.
Mike ignored him, his gaze fixed on me. All of the team were in their twenties, but Mike was clearly the youngest. I got the feeling he would always be the youngest in any scientific gathering, and would always hate it. He stuck his chin out, like a defiant child.
‘I just want it on record that I object to their presence here.’
‘What record?’ said the Professor.
Mike’s scowl deepened. ‘You know what I mean. We don’t need Government snoops peering over our shoulders, watching everything we do, getting in our way and interfering with our work.’
‘You mean getting in the way of you doing whatever you feel like doing,’ said Robert.
‘Exactly!’ said Mike. ‘That’s what science is about.’
‘I don’t have a problem with a Government presence here,’ said Robert. ‘That could prove useful if something goes wrong.’
‘Like what?’ said Mike.
‘What if the hole starts growing and doesn’t stop?’ said Robert. ‘What if Ellie is right, and the hole is a tunnel to somewhere else and something comes out of it?’
‘And you think I’m paranoid!’ said Mike.
‘You are,’ said Ellie.
‘We need someone official here, on the spot, to make important decisions in case of an emergency,’ said Robert.
‘Like shutting us down before we’ve finished our work?’ said Mike.
‘We’re not in charge here,’ I said. ‘Penny and I are just security.’
‘You think someone’s going to steal the hole?’ said Ellie.
‘We’re here to make sure no one bothers you, or the hole.’
‘You’re just here to keep an eye on us!’ said Mike.
‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Any reason why we shouldn’t?’
‘Why should we trust you,’ Mike said flatly, ‘when the Government doesn’t trust us?’
I could see the idea taking root among the others. The Professor rushed into the sudden silence.
‘Let me remind you, we’re only here because the Government is funding this investigation,’ she said sternly. ‘We’re all being very well paid for our efforts, and we have to accept their terms of engagement when it comes to the hole. Also, their restrictions on who we can talk to about it. Given that the hole has already killed one person, we need some security. If nothing else, we don’t want some outsider strolling in and getting hurt.’
‘Who’s going to come here?’ said Mike. ‘We’re miles from anywhere civilized.’
‘And yet the archaeologists just happened to dig in the one place where the hole turned up,’ I said.
‘And why did the farmer come here with his metal detector?’ said Penny. ‘Does the hole attract people? Draw them in like bees to a flower? Or flies to a flytrap …?’
The team looked at each other.
‘I haven’t detected any emanations from the hole,’ said Robert.
‘The hole is interesting,’ said Mike, ‘but I wouldn’t call it attractive.’
‘None of my test animals showed any interest in the hole,’ said Paul. ‘Right up to the point when I lowered them in.’
‘But there is a fascination to the hole,’ said Ellie. ‘Now we know it’s here, we can’t stop thinking about it.’
‘Well, of course!’ said Terry. ‘Because we’ve never encountered anything like it.’
‘The hole, or whatever it really is, doesn’t belong here,’ said Ellie. ‘It doesn’t obey any of the rules of our world. I think it’s something from outside, grafted or superimposed on to our reality by forces beyond our understanding.’
‘That would imply purpose,’ Terry said carefully. ‘That the hole was put here for a reason.’
‘Yes,’ said Ellie.
‘That has yet to be established!’ said Mike.
‘Nothing has been established so far,’ said Robert. ‘Or at least nothing useful. We’ve been able to prove the hole isn’t all sorts of things, but not what it is. Never mind what it might be for.’
‘All the more reason to have security here,’ said the Professor. ‘To keep us safe while we work.’
‘But that’s not why they’re really here, and you know it,’ said Mike. ‘The Government doesn’t trust us to tell them everything we learn here.’
‘And just possibly, they don’t want any of us being tempted to sell those secrets to a foreign power,’ said the Professor.
She stared meaningfully at each member of the team in turn. None of them said anything, but they all got the point. There was an awkward silence, only broken when Terry launched into another of his enthusiastic outbursts.
‘Look! I volunteer to go into the hole. I’ll attach a steel cable to my belt, so I can be hauled back at the first hint of trouble. We need to know what’s going on inside that hole.’
‘Don’t keep asking, Terry!’ said the Professor, rubbing tiredly at her forehead. ‘My answer isn’t going to change.’
‘None of the test animals I put into the hole ever came back,’ said Paul.
‘They died, just from being inside the hole?’ said Penny.
She gave me a hard look, and I knew what she was thinking: I can’t believe we put our heads in there!
‘We don’t know the test subjects are dead,’ the Professor said carefully. ‘Every time we tried to haul them out the steel cable broke, so we couldn’t reclaim them.’
‘It didn’t break,’ Mike said flatly. ‘It was torn.’
‘Either conditions inside the hole are too much for the steel cable, or someone on the other side doesn’t want to be disturbed,’ said Robert.
‘I could wear a two-way radio,’ said Terry. ‘One of those military jobs we were given for secure communications. I could be in constant contact from the moment I enter the hole.’
‘That’s enough, Terry!’ said the Professor. ‘All right everyone, back to work. You’ve met the security people and had your say, but that’s not going to get us the answers we need. Remember, we’re on the clock.’
The team broke up and went back to their own particular pieces of equipment. They didn’t talk to each other. It didn’t look to me like they were working as a team; more like they were only concerned with their own separate agendas. I looked at the Professor and she nodded briefly, anticipating my question.
‘They prefer to stick to their own areas of expertise, and I’ve decided that’s the fastest way to get results. Keep them in competition with each other.’
‘Is there anything in particular you’d like us to do?’ I asked.
She lowered her voice, again not nearly as much as she thought.
‘If the hole really is a tunnel … Could you stop something from the other side coming through?’
‘Have you seen anything?’ said Penny.
‘No,’ said the Professor. ‘But I can’t help feeling we’re stuck here with a door we can’t close and God knows what’s on the other side.’
‘What makes you think a visitor would automatically be dangerous?’ I said.
‘Can we afford to assume it won’t be? Given that the hole is completely alien to everything we know … How could whatever made it have anything in common with us?’ The Professor looked back up the hill at the hole and suddenly shuddered. ‘There’s no reason why invaders should come in shiny metal ships. Perhaps they prefer to sneak in through the back door. We have to be prepared. For anything.’
‘Why would aliens want to invade us?’ I said. ‘To blow up our cities, steal our oceans, have their wicked way with our women? If the laws of physics are so different where they’re from, why would they even want to come here?’
‘Because no matter who or what you are,’ the Professor said steadily, ‘in the end it always comes down to the need to expand your territory. Are you armed?’
‘No,’ I said.
‘I asked for armed support!’
‘If anything should happen to make that necessary, I can always call some in,’ I said. ‘For the moment, all we have is a hole that someone might have fallen into accidentally. Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Professor.’
‘Take it easy, Ishmael,’ said Penny. ‘She’s scared.’
‘Of course I’m scared!’ said the Professor. ‘Faced with something I don’t understand that may actually be impossible for the human mind to comprehend … Looking into that impossible darkness is like looking into Hell. I wish I’d had the guts to tell the Colonel to go to hell. Do we have to wait until people start dying before you take the situation seriously?’
I met her gaze squarely. ‘I assure you, Professor, I am taking this very seriously. The hole suggests all kinds of possibilities, good and bad. But there’s no evidence yet of any real danger.’
The Professor turned her back on us and strode into the equipment centre to join her people. Who might or might not have overheard everything we’d been saying. The Professor peered over their shoulders, studied readings, made pertinent suggestions, and generally irritated the hell out of all of them.
‘Ishmael, why are we here, exactly?’ said Penny. ‘Did the Colonel give you any special instructions?’
‘Just to keep the hole safe from outsiders and protect the team,’ I said. ‘And if necessary, protect the team from the hole.’
‘What if we have to protect the world from what’s inside the hole?’ said Penny. ‘Come on, Ishmael. If there’s one thing we can be certain of, it’s that aliens are real.’
‘And that’s all we know,’ I said. ‘So let’s not panic ourselves just yet.’
‘When I looked at that hole,’ Penny said steadily, ‘the darkness reminded me of my bedroom as a child after my father put the light out. That kind of darkness could contain anything. Anything at all.’
‘There weren’t any monsters then,’ I said. ‘And the odds are, there aren’t any now.’
‘But monsters are real,’ said Penny. ‘We’ve faced enough of them.’
‘It’s always people who do the most evil,’ I said. ‘They can be worse than monsters.’
Penny smiled wanly. ‘If you’re trying to reassure me, you’re doing a really awful job.’
‘Let’s go for a walk,’ I said. ‘Take a look at our surroundings.’
We wandered off across the great grassy slope of the hill, giving all our attention to the countryside spread out before us. The day was heading into evening, but there was still enough light to see by. It was very quiet and very peaceful, and the open hill fell away before us like a great green waterfall.
‘All this open space is a good thing,’ I said finally. ‘No one is going to be sneaking up on us.’
‘Until it gets dark,’ said Penny. ‘I think it could get really dark here really quickly. There were no lights on the road, and the nearest town is miles away.’
‘I’d still be able to see or hear anything coming,’ I said. ‘In such a deserted location, any change is bound to stand out.’
Penny frowned suddenly. ‘It is very quiet though, isn’t it? I mean, why aren’t there any birds singing? Or insects buzzing? Could something have frightened them away? And why can’t we hear any traffic from the road? Has word got around that it isn’t safe to drive here once it starts getting dark?’
‘You’re thinking about the Beast again, aren’t you?’
‘Aren’t you?’
‘Every area has its own version of that story,’ I said. ‘And the few times I’ve been sent to investigate, it’s always turned out to be just another local legend – apart from the time it was two guys in a phosphorescent pantomime-horse costume. I took a good look around as we were walking up the hill. There are no animal tracks anywhere.’
‘Hold it!’ said Penny. ‘No signs of any local wildlife. Isn’t that unusual in itself?’
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘It is …’
Suddenly there was uproar behind us. People yelling, back at the site. I looked round to see the Professor and her team running towards the hole. I ran to join them, sprinting up the hill, with Penny pounding along behind. As I got closer, I could see the steel cable unspooling from the great steel drum, stretching out as it disappeared into the hole. It was moving at some speed, as though it was plunging deep into the hill. I caught up with the Professor, already breathing hard as she fell behind the others.
‘What is it?’ I said. ‘What’s happened?’
‘It’s Terry! He hooked himself up to the cable, sneaked past us, and jumped into the hole. I told him not to!’
‘Didn’t anyone notice?’ said Penny, as she caught up with us.
‘We were busy!’ said the Professor.
I ran on, leaving both of them behind, and joined the rest of the team as they stood before the hole. Staring helplessly as the cable disappeared into the darkness.
