All previous chapters - CHAPTER 1 - CHAPTER 2 - CHAPTER 3 - CHAPTER 4 - CHAPTER 5 - CHAPTER 6 - Chapter 7 - CHAPTER 8 - CHAPTER 9
Previously on “The bomb in the shed…”; Jacob signs a deal with Arthur, then discovers he can help them with the Sensidium trials. He turns to Arthur’s daughter Alex to find the best way to persuade him to stop working on Bella and help with the trial instead.
And here we go with CHAPTER 10…
Chapter 10
New Mexico Desert - 2003
There was a tension around the lab more intense than anything Elizabeth had experienced so far. Everyone had been preparing for test for weeks, now they were all crowded into Lab A to see the results come in. They didn’t all need to be there, but Elizabeth couldn’t have kept them away if she’d tried. Even Arthur has surfaced from his cave and was sitting in the corner, watching thoughtfully. It was hard to tell what was on his mind.
Only one person there didn’t seem tense, Elizabeth’s boss, Robert Fitzpatrick. He was relaxed and chatting, like it was some kind of cheese and wine party and he was the host. He might have been trying to set an example for the team, take the pressure off, but it was hard to tell. Even after all these years Elizabeth wasn’t sure about him. He looked up, smiled and then gave her a thumbs up. Elizabeth smiled back and immediately hated herself for it.
“We’re all set,” said Marie, who’d been doing last minute checks.
The test was complex but the results were simple enough. They were measuring the energy output from the plasma and they were looking for uplifts, however small. Any sign that something was happening. They’d seen evidence of it before in other tests, but it was sporadic, they needed something more measurable and predictable: something they could point to and say this proves we’re making progress. Arthur looked up and gave her a brief smile of encouragement. It was his work on plasma monitoring that had given them the data they needed to devise a new approach. One that Elizabeth hoped would give them the best results they’d seen so far.
She pushed the button.
That’s all it was. A bit of an anti-climax really. No countdown, no codes, no special keys you had to turn in unison. No machinery set in motion, no flash of lightening or laser show. Just the familiar low hum of the lab, nervous chatter and rows of data starting to appear on a large screen as the test got under way.
Elizabeth watched the figures as they appeared, the initial lines filling the screen then shifting to make room for the next row, and the next row and the next. These numbers would be meaningless to most people. To Elizabeth and everyone in the room they told a crystal clear story.
And not a good one.
The room fell silent.
After previous tests Elizabeth had stayed to say a few words to the team. About how they were making meaningful progress towards a difficult goal, but they would get there, through belief and hard work. This time she walked straight out of the room without a word.
“You still have my full support,” Robert said to her on the way out.
“Fuck you,” Elizabeth replied under her breath, but only when she was sure she was safely out of earshot.
---
Three days later Elizabeth was in Robert Fitzpatrick’s office, a copy of the full report on his desk between them. It was closed. Elizabeth knew it inside out, she’d read it about a million times. God only knew if Robert had dug into the detail. Probably not, he liked to see himself as a big picture kind of guy.
Robert said, “We just need to keep working at it, that’s all.”
It was like he was trying to cheer up the coach of a kids baseball team after they’d just lost a couple of games. He probably didn’t have a clue how patronising he sounded.
“You have read the same results as I have?” she replied.
“Of course.”
“We’re going backwards, Robert. Everything we thought we’d achieve so far, it was a mirage. Ghosts in the data. It wasn’t real.”
Ironically it was Arthur’s new plasma monitoring system that had uncovered this. A breakthrough which had initially given them so much hope now revealed the lie behind the results they’d been basing their whole research on. It wasn’t sporadic and inconsistent instances of energy release they’d been seeing. It was errors in the measurement system. Tiny almost imperceptible variations. But enough to have the whole team chasing their tails for years.
“It’s a setback, I know,” Robert acknowledged reluctantly. “But we shouldn’t let this deflect us from our path. We need to keep going.”
Unbelievable. Was this conversation a hallucination, like the energy data they’d been tracking?
“There is no path. Can’t you see that. We need to start again, go back to fundamentals. Re-think our whole approach. It’s the only way.”
Robert shook his head. “You can’t expect the team to give up on everything they’ve worked on. All the time that’s gone into this.”
“Why not. Better than making them work on something they know is bullshit.”
“It’s not bullshit, it’s a setback.”
Elizabeth picked up the thick data report and waved it under his face. “This…” she let go and it landed in the bin with a loud clang, “…is complete bullshit.”
She was staring at him.
He stared back.
They’d done this before. He wasn’t going to say anything before she did.
Elizabeth said, “Why haven’t you fired me?”
“What?”
“I’ve failed. Why don’t you fire me.”
“Listen, let’s not get emotional about this.”
God, she wanted to kick him in the balls right there and then. Really, really hard. Instead she handed him a sheet of paper.
“What’s this?” he asked.
It’s a recommendation on how we go forward. A ten point plan. Just bullet points right now but give me the nod and I can flesh it out and get some numbers behind it.”
Robert read it through, lips pursed. By the end he was shaking his head slowly. He placed it back down on his desk. “I can’t get sign off on this, you know that.”
Elizabeth hadn’t named Arthur, but bringing new people onto the core team was in the plan. That was enough to kill it, even if Robert bought into everything else, which he probably didn’t. But she had to try.
“Can’t, or won’t?”
“Don’t make this personal, Elizabeth.”
Fucking typical.
“Do you even want to crack this?”
“What kind of question is that?”
“An honest one,” replied Elizabeth. “Sometimes I wonder. I can’t just babysitting research I know is pointless. It’s not enough for me.”
Robert nodded. “I understand that.”
He was almost daring her to resign.
Elizabeth grabbed her ten point plan of his desk and walked out.
---
“Do you think it’s weird?” asked Elizabeth. “That Fitzpatrick doesn’t seem bothered we’re failing?”
Marie pondered the question as she spooned another helping if ice-cream into her mouth. They were sat alone in the lab kitchen, two in the morning, surrounded by an impressive array of unhealthy foods. Ice-cream, cakes, cookies, chocolate. It was a regular ritual they had, a cheat day. The routine at the lab could be pretty gruelling so it was best to stay healthy. Most of the time they helped keep each other on the straight and narrow, sensible food, regular exercise. But once a quarter they teamed up for a blowout. Anything goes. It helped keep them sane. Marie had suggested bringing it forward a week after the disappointment of the test.
“He’s not a real scientist, he’s a politician,” she replied, offering Elizabeth the tub. “He only thinks about how things will play out in reports and committee meetings.”
Elizabeth stuck her spoon in. “He made a pass at me once.”
She’d never told Marie that before. She’d never told anyone.
Her friend picked up a handful of chocolate covered peanuts and threw them at her.
“What was that for?” said Elizabeth, in mock outrage.
“For not telling me before now,” replied Marie. “I knew something was going on.”
“Nothing’s going on. I turned him down.”
“You know what I mean. An atmosphere.”
Elizabeth was full already, but it was hard to resist the allure of one more spoonful. Mint choc chip was her favourite.
“It was years ago,” she said. “He was my bosses boss at the time.”
Marie pulled a face. “Eww, that’s gross.”
“I thought we’d got past it, but now I’m not so sure.”
“You think he’s holding a grudge?”
That was the question that had been irking Elizabeth.
She said, “When it happened I thought that was it. Game over. He could have ruined my career if he wanted. But it didn’t work out that way. He got me into a couple of good jobs. Nothing I didn’t deserve, but he helped. And he didn’t ask for anything in return. I thought he was a good guy. Playing it straight.”
“But?”
“What if he’s been manipulating me all along? Giving me just enough to keep me trapped. Control me. The deeper I got into military research the harder it was for me to do anything else. I haven’t published in years.”
The tub was empty now, the table filled with an assortment of help empty packets and half empty plates. It was gross. But the first rule of cheat day; no regrets.
“You think he’s punishing you?” said Marie.
“Maybe.”
“What are you doing to do.”
“I don’t know.”
Elizabeth wasn’t in the habit of lying to Marie, but this wasn’t true. She had an idea. Just not one she could tell her best friend.
---
Elizabeth and Arthur were hiking a path through a forest of rocks, some rising above them in tree-like columns, in an alien-like landscape: dry, dusty and beautiful. They were in the Bisti Badlands, less than two hours’ drive from the facility, It was a place Elizabeth had always wanted to go, yet never quite managed to find the time for. Arthur had suggested it, when she’d asked if they could have a chat in private. He was full of surprises. Maybe he was worried she was going to take him to a bar and get him drunk again. Who could blame him. She did have a bottle of vodka in her backpack after all.
“If all of that is true,” said Arthur, “You’d probably be better off starting the whole thing again, from first principles.”
“Maybe you’re right, Bear.”
It had taken Elizabeth a couple of hours to get Arthur to this point. He had to suggest the idea himself, that was key. She’d gone about it slowly and carefully, starting with questions about the test, slowly introducing concepts that were just outside of his level of security clearance and making sure he was comfortable. Then taking incremental steps further and further towards the heart of the project until they were debating highly classified research. It hadn’t been difficult to get him talking shop. It was normally harder to get him to stop. She took a long drink of water from her bottle. It was crazy hot. She offered Arthur some but he shook his head. He was taking exactly the same amount of water every half hour regular as clockwork, only from his own bottle.
“But where do we start?” she asked. “That’s the problem”
It wasn’t in Elizabeth’s nature to play the damsel in distress. But that wasn’t what was happening here, right? She genuinely needed Arthur’s help to find a new path, she knew it in her bones. But pleading ignorance wasn’t her usual way. And hadn’t she let a bit of little girl lost creep into her voice?
“I have some ideas,” suggested Arthur.
“So you’ll help me?”
“What about my security clearance?”
Their path had been getting steadily steeper as they neared their destination; a plateau that was supposed to have stunning views for miles in every direction. At this point they were having to use their hands to scramble up the rocks and the effort was making it hard to talk.
“I think we’re beyond that now, aren’t we?” said Elizabeth.
“Is Fitzpatrick onboard?”
“No one else knows. And we need to keep it that way, for now.”
It was risky, what she was suggesting, she knew that. Arthur would be concerned, but his mind would also be racing with the possibilities of the research they’d been discussing. He was hooked on the science already. She knew that feeling herself all too well. Once it started it was hard to stop. Anyway, the risk was far greater for her than it was for him. If they were caught he could plead ignorance, that would be impossible for her.
“We can position it as an extension of your plasma monitoring project. Give you the whole of lab C. No-one would notice the change, they don’t understand what you’re doing in there anyway.”
They were at the top finally, the spectacular views of the Bindi Badlands all around them now.
“I don’t know.”
Arthur might be saying ‘I don’t know’, but he sounded like he was convinced already.
“Listen, it’s getting late,” said Elizabeth. “Why don’t we stay up here for the night and talk through some ideas together. See where we got to?”
She pulled a couple of sleeping bags and ground mats from her large backpack and started laying them out on the ground. Arthur watched her, looking uncertain about the whole thing. He’d only brought a small day pack.
“Hey, I don’t get out of the lab much,” said Elizabeth. “Neither do you. Anyway, when else are we going to get the privacy to talk about this. Come on, Bear, let’s make the most of it.”
“Ok, I guess.”
Arthur took a seat, checked his watch and got his water bottle out. Five minutes early. He was beginning to loosen up. She should probably leave it another hour, maybe two, then get out the bottle of vodka and the glasses.
That’s it for Chapter 10, I hope you enjoyed it and are looking forward to more. Chapter 11 will be out the same time next week, Friday at 4:00pm UK time.
I’d love to hear your thoughts…
Anything you like about the story, characters, plot and writing. Any questions…
Want to share the love?…
If you know anyone else who might like the book, share via this link…
Or send them this link to Chapter 1 - https://justbeyondordinary.substack.com/p/chapter-1-is-live
Thanks!