“That’s what I’m saying.”
“That’s ludicrous! Even if she could, why would she?”
“I don’t think she wanted them to kill each other. She wanted them to let her out.” Cruikshank tried to order his thoughts. “But the big guy, Bunton, he was stronger willed than the others. He resisted. So… she made the rest of the team attack him. She also tried to talk to the observer, but he smashed the intercom before he succumbed. Turned him mad in the process though.”
“My mother in law could do that,” said Cowper showing an unexpected sliver of humour. But Monk was having none of it.
“Much as I admire the depth of your imagination, this is sheer nonsense.”
“I don’t have any imagination,” Cruickshank retorted nastily. “I’m a scientist.”
“This is kind of far-fetched kid,” Olly said.
“You know what a meme is, don’t you?” Cruikshank turned to the bearded man.
“Sure.” Olly replied. “Memes are ideas or values, passed on from person to person, group to group. Some die out, but the strongest ones become an irreversible part of human culture. Religion, music, love, they’re all memes we can’t imagine living without.”
“And how do we pass memes on?”
“Through language mostly,” Olly said without hesitation. “In fact language is a meme too.”
“Because of your meddling, May Rose has evolved into a super intelligent being. She may have found a way to communicate an idea in a way which has never been done before.” The boy rubbed his head in frustration. “Using a new kind of vocal inflection or even a form of hypnotism. Suppose she wants to get out and start spreading that idea around?”
“Enough,” Monk snapped. “There’s absolutely no evidence for this ridiculous notion.”
“Your evidence is sitting in adjoining rooms.” Cruikshank persisted. “A super intelligent girl who somehow managed to talk four adults into killing each other. An observer who had no physical contact with her and no symptoms of any virus but went mad after listening to her.”
“That leaves one question,” Major Cowper said. “Why does she want to speak to you?”
Suddenly Cruikshank realized exactly why.
May-Rose had been in on Jimmy Hick’s plan to get off the base tonight. Unfortunately, she had been stuck down here for two days and didn’t know all the details of that plan. So she had picked one of his companions and asked him to be brought down to Bunker 10.
May-Rose intended to get out of that booth somehow. And she wanted Cruickshank to be near at hand when she did. She would make him tell her the exact details of Jimmy’s scheme to get off the base, so she could use the same route.
Whether he wanted to or not.
17.57
Sherman and his team sat on palettes in a grey windowless room. The woman in the white lab coat was going from one to the other dabbing their necks with an anaesthetic swab. Sherman still wasn’t sure if she was a nurse, a doctor or just some hired hand. It occurred to him that he didn’t know her name, but now didn’t seem the right time to ask.
“What’s going on?” Nulce said, fidgeting on his palette. “I forget to wash behind my ears or something?”
“You’ll be given a shot to knock you out,” the woman replied curtly. Then tiny transmitters will be implanted at the base of your skull.”
“Excuse me?” Nulce visibly winced.
“You won’t feel it,” Sherman said. “I’ve had it done plenty. The device transmits images of the game directly into your neural network.”
“Very clever.” Darren gingerly felt the back of his head. “You think you’re in the game, but the game is actually in you.”
“I don’t like the idea of someone messing around with my brain,” Nulce complained.
“That’s assuming you have one.” Madrid stretched languidly out on her palette. She didn’t seem to be interested in making friends.
Sherman gave her a cold look.
“All of you listen to me,” he said forcefully. “We’re a team, even if we hardly know each other. So, from this point on, we act like one.”
“For two million dollars I’d marry the broad,” Nulce said, leering at Madrid.
The door opened and the white coated woman bumped a steel trolley into the room. On top of the shiny surface were five large syringes.
“Sleepy-time people,” she said jovially, pulling on a pair of latex gloves. Darren’s eyes almost popped out of his head when he saw the size of the needles.
“I’m going to die right away if she sticks that in me,” he moaned.
“What exactly is in the syringes?” Madrid said.
“Don’t ask me sweetie, I just give the injections and change bedpans.” The assistant depressed the plunger and a thin fountain of clear liquid squirted into the air. “The pay’s rubbish too.”
Darren groaned and lay back.
“Get it over with then.” He gave a miserable little laugh, closed his eyes and stretched out his arm. “I don’t think the Colonel wants us to get out of this alive.”
Madrid looked across at Sherman and he saw doubt and mistrust in her eyes.
Though Darren had been joking, Sherman had the feeling Madrid was thinking along the same lines.
-PART 4-
18.00 hours – 19.00 hours
Hypnosis: A state of consciousness in which a person appears to lose all power of voluntary action or thought and to be highly responsive to suggestions and directions from the hypnotist
18.00
Leslie and Barn marched up and down the perimeter fence, sweeping their flashlights around in what they hoped was a military manner, until they saw the torches of Smith and Jakar, bobbing down the guardhouse stairs and heading back towards the base. As soon as the soldiers’ beams were out of sight the children ran to the back gate, kicking up powdery snow into a billowing cloud. Leslie clicked on her walkie talkie.
“Hicks?”
“Right here,” the radio crackled back. “Over.”
“Black Mambo and Big Mongoose have reached the gate.”
“Who?”
“Me and Barn, of course”
“Big Mongoose?” Barn contemplated his new code name. “I like that. I think I’ll get everyone to call me Big Mongoose from now on.”
“Dave and Simon have set up a digital loop on the laser cameras at the gate.” Jimmy said. “They’ll show an empty forest for the next few hours◦– it’s lifted from the training simulation we were working on. You can pass right in front of the lens undetected.”
“Fantastic.” Leslie pulled off her gloves and fished the fake security disk from the pocket of her fleece jacket. “I’m ready to go.”
“All right.” Tension was evident in Jimmy’s voice, even over the static ridden airwaves. “I’m about to shut down the locks. You put the disk in the back gate and, when I turn the locks on again, that blank disk will be hardwired into the security system. Whatever number we punch through it will act as a proper code from that point on◦– and only we’ll know it exists.”
“Ok”
There was a pause. Jimmy spoke again.
“Eh. You have to tell me the number you’re going to pick. Otherwise I won’t be able to use it when I get there.”
“Right. Of course. It’s… eh… 1234.”