‘I suppose not. Not before me, anyway. He was planning to go public, of course, in due course...’
‘So again, why would anyone deliberately sabotage the lab?’
‘Maybe somebody else did know. There are other ways of finding out things. Computers, the Internet, email contact, have led to the biggest leakages of information in the history of the world.’
‘Perhaps.’ Jones paused to think for a few seconds. ‘This does seem far-fetched, Connie, I have to say that. But even if the news of Paul’s alleged discovery had fallen into the wrong hands, come to the attention of somebody powerful who also grasped the practical implications, I still don’t necessarily see the connection between that and RECAP being sabotaged. I mean, the lab was destroyed and everything in it. I can understand all sorts of powerful people wanting to get their hands on such a ground-breaking discovery, but not wanting to destroy it.’
‘Ah, but what if they’d managed to get hold of Paul’s data already? What if they just didn’t want anyone else to have the chance to study it and learn from it?’
‘Christ, Connie, you really are going into outlandish territory, you know?’
‘Sandy, Paul and I thought the lab had been broken into the night before the explosion.’
‘Oh my God. Presumably that’s on record then? I mean, you must have reported it to security, if not to the police.’
‘No. We weren’t sure. When we arrived in the morning we couldn’t unlock the door at first. Then something seemed to snap, and it opened. It turned out the lock was broken. Paul studied engineering as a young man. He was very good with anything mechanical, as you know. He built the first REG himself. He was convinced the lock had been tampered with. However, we checked out the lab and nothing seemed to be touched. Certainly nothing was missing. So we didn’t report it. We barely had time actually. We arrived about eight as usual and the bomb went off half an hour later. In any case, the powers that be have always thought us quite dotty enough without our reporting non-existent burglaries.’
‘OK, so that’s when a bomb could have been planted. With a timer set for early the next morning, or perhaps radio activated.’
‘Indeed, yes.’
‘And you think that your computer system could have been hacked? Paul’s theory copied?’
‘Well, it wouldn’t have been easy. The one thing we did have at RECAP was sophisticated user protection software, and everything was password protected. We’ve always been meticulous about that in order to be able to guarantee the integrity of our experiments. But I suppose some hot shot IT geek could have done it.’
‘Ummm.’
‘In any case, Sandy, don’t forget Paul’s reputation. He believed he’d made an extraordinary breakthrough, and he was a quite brilliant scientist. It’s possible that the wrong people simply found that out, and knew enough to want us stopped. It could all be that simple.’
‘Even without having possession of his paper?’
‘You know what I’ve always believed, Sandy. I believe the world is run by people who don’t want it changed. And nothing, absolutely nothing would change the world more than an explanation of global consciousness. Imagine the international importance of people from different nations being intrinsically linked, through the power of their consciousness and nothing more. For a start the control of national governments over their own people could shrink to insignificance.’
Jones was thoughtful.
‘Paul used to liken the power of consciousness to having possession of an exotic spy satellite which is capable of miracles, like seeing through buildings. It doesn’t always work, but it works enough to be useful.’
‘More than useful,’ said Connie. ‘Powerful beyond our dreams.’
‘That’s why I still think any government would rather have that power than destroy it. It’s a riddle, Connie. And, by the way, you still haven’t explained why you got in touch with me before the explosion. I knew you wanted help, but RECAP had always muddled along all right without any help from anyone.’
‘Well, I wanted your influence more than anything. Your power, I suppose. You are a figure of some acclaim not only in the academic world, but also in the media, in the UK anyway. We thought if we had you on our side, if you were prepared to publicly support us, we might look a bit better to the outside world. Not so much like nutters’ corner. As I told you on the phone, we believed we were under threat, that there were people in high places who wanted us closed down once and for all. Lots of things, apparently unconnected, had started to happen, long before the break-in and the explosion. Both Paul and I, quite out of the blue, were being investigated by the Internal Revenue, for a start.’
‘You two? For God’s sake.’
‘I know. And my finances are, or rather were, totally tied up with RECAP. Any kind of threat to me was a direct threat to our work. I wasn’t all that worried by it, not really, because I couldn’t think they had anything on me. I mean, do I have a fortune salted away?’
‘No. But your bookkeeping’s never been all that, has it, Con? Nor Paul’s, as far as I remember. Couldn’t the Revenue’s attentions just have been attracted by bad accounting?’
‘Not for them to come in as heavy as they did. Anyway, there were other things. All niggles really. Paul and I suddenly kept getting tickets for speeding offences allegedly picked up on cameras. And of course the university authorities started bugging us, laying down the law about stuff, introducing rules and regulations, and that in itself was odd. After all they’d spent the best part of the previous forty-something years more or less trying to pretend RECAP didn’t exist. Suddenly we were being asked to log in and log out, told we couldn’t use the lab in the evenings after standard office hours, asked for an inventory of our fixtures and fittings...’
Jones couldn’t stop himself laughing at that. ‘Hope you gave them a list of the cuddly toys, names, manufacturers, descriptions...’
‘That’s what Paul said. Well, we were both cool about it to begin with. But they kept coming at us all ways. We were told we were going to have to move out of the lab we’d been in for so long, and into a smaller work space.’ She paused. ‘There were also rumours that we were going to be the subject of a major FBI investigation.’
Jones knew enough not to react too strongly to that.
‘Well, they’ve investigated before, haven’t they? And other government bodies. Way back in the 1980s, the US army initiated a report on psi. And there have been a succession of government sponsored scientific review committees set up to examine the evidence for psi effects, and the implications for national security, right?’
‘Yes. But nobody at that kind of level has contacted us recently. Actually, we’ve had no official contact with the CIA, the FBI or any government body whatsoever for years.’
‘We’re heading towards a conspiracy theory, aren’t we, Connie? I can feel it coming.’
‘Of course. That explosion wasn’t an accident, nor a random terror attack. Our location was too obscure, for a start.’
‘So again who?’
Connie shrugged.
‘The possibilities are endless. The US establishment has always been suspicious of us. It’s hard to believe the government blew us up, although you never know, but I reckon some maverick government agency might well have done. Governments throughout the world are confused by us. Military and intelligence organizations here in the US, and in many other countries, have used psi consistently over the years, as have various police forces internationally, even though they almost always deny it. Think of the effect on crime and policing if we could take what we do a step forwards, and not only enhance our abilities to use psychic forces in such work, but also be able to explain exactly what these forces are and how they function. Just imagine, Sandy?’