Chapter Twelve
“So, it’s well past the bewitching hour, 40 minutes to be exact. Ok Ernie, this is the spot where Aaron was having his drink; I’ll go to that building and try to retrace the professor’s last steps according to Aaron.”
“Got your torch Ken?”
“This is one powerful light – it’ll light up a half acre. Just gimme a hoy when you think I’ve reached the spot.”
Ken strode over to the doorway of the building and indeed, the security strobe light went on and illuminated the area around the door. He slowly turned in the direction of the professor’s cabin and began to walk towards it. The security light switched off as normal and Ken tried to adjust his eyes to the darkness. He kept walking until Ernie called out “well, just about where you are now Ken.”
He looked around, looked at the sky, at the surrounds, what lights were on, the sounds, the smells and he tried to feel anything unusual. ‘No, nothing Ernie, I’ll keep walking to his van.”
Even though it was overcast, Ken could just make out the silhouette of Professor Lien’s cabin. He turned around to look back to see if he was still in a direct line with the building – he was. As he turned his head back, he thought he saw a tiny spark streak across his eye-line; it was fast, faster than a firefly. He squinted his eyes and saw another small spark, then another. They seemed to come from the Northern end of the site and looked as if they terminated on the top of the building he had just left.
“Ernie! Do you see these lights?..these tiny sparks in front of me?”
“Huh, sparks? No, not a thing. Hang on I’m coming over.”
Ken turned on his torch. Ernie had just began walking when he saw an enormous flash of light, directly in front, directly where Ken would have been standing.
“What in hell! – Ken, Ken – you Ok Ken?.holy shit..what’s happened? Ken! where the fuck are you!.Ken...Ken.”
He began sprinting, struggling to loosen the torch from his belt, then tripped and fell heavily, face first into the cold sand, and breaking his torch in the process. He felt around where he had fallen to see what he tripped on. It was material, clothing. Ernie jumped up and drew out the .45 from its holster, cocked it and tried to see something; anything. He turned, then turned again then heard a distant metallic thud. At that very moment...bright, brilliant bright light, blinded him – he covered his eyes and pressed his eyelids tight.
The lights came from Abdul’s security guards. Acting on direct orders from Abdul, they had followed, at a distance, the men from KR, to ensure they came to no harm. Ernie’s frantic yelling had prompted them to switch on the large and powerful searchlight which was mounted on one of the industrial machines. “Do you require assistance Mister Ernie?” one of the guards yelled.
“Yes, yes, move the spotlight around this area, we have a man missing.” Four of the men came running to help. “Don’t move around too much, I need to see all the tracks around me – aim the spotlight over there, now over there, now here.” The only tracks were those of Ken’s and his own – he recognized the clothing he had tripped over – Ken had been wearing them, just before that flash. He directed the searchlight to shine on that spot and noted that more of Kens clothing was lying there. His parka, thermal coveralls, shirt, trousers, socks, boots, utility belt, even his under wear, his watch and his torch. “No don’t touch anything, we need careful investigation of this scene – mother of God, what is going on here?”
The guards had no answer, but took note that Ernie had a pistol in his hand. “You, will you go get my backpack from the HQ office, it’s the green one with the picture of the...the ..woman in the sun, and you go get some string and tape so we can mark this spot and I need a tarpaulin, just in case we cop some wind. You, you’d better contact Abdul and tell him what’s happened.”
Aaron came to the scene – he was blurry eyed and confused. “I don’t know what to say Ernie, Ken has disappeared? Is this what happened to Professor Lien as well?”
“That’s a safe call Aaron – I reckon if we dig underneath this sand, we’ll also find his clothing.”
“And their bodies?”
“Well I don’t believe in UFO abduction; seems to me they have been zapped by some sort of ray or beam. The last thing Ken yelled out was that he was seeing some small lights, no, sparks of some sort; then blam, zapp.”
He turned to one of the security guards, “Don’t suppose any of you know about forensic procedures?”
“Yes Mister Ernie, all of us received training in forensic investigation at the Ashford University in Iowa.”
He looked at Aaron questioningly.
With a shrug he said, “Well Abdul did say they were the best.”
“Gentlemen, please establish and secure your crime scene here; I have complete faith in you abilities.”
Ernie removed his extra-high resolution camera from his backpack. He passed it to one of them and said, “Make sure every square inch and every possible angle is recorded before you move anything more.”
He then stood back and took a deep breath; after a while he said, “Aaron excuse me for a minute, I need to get to grips with losing my best friend; didn’t even get to say goodbye to him; this is... it’s a goddamn tragedy man and he has family back home. Crap this is really tragic.”
“If you need a moment alone Ernie there’s a brew on in the Mess hall.”
Ernie nodded, he didn’t say anything and began to stroll towards the kitchen. He didn’t need a torch; the whole site was now lit up.
“Ah, Ernie?..the pistol?”
Ernie look down at his hand, “So that’s why they looked so nervous when I spoke to them.” He pushed it back into its holster.
He returned a few minutes later.
“Aaron, may I use your secure line to call Mrs Kellor?..better still, come with me, she’ll probably want to know some technical details.”
-oOo-
“Edna, please tell me you’ve taught Aggie how to cook like this. Ooooee; best darn eatin I ever et... merci beaucoup. thank you very much, I’m still drooling; and my belt is stretching.”
“Oh, it’s just something I threw together. Glad to see you enjoyed it, sure you can’t fit some more in? plenty left.”
“Thanks no. I’ve eaten more than I should; but that’s Ok, seeing I’ve an extra little mouth to feed.”
Aggie smiled. “Remember that comment when we sit down for dinner tomorrow, mon homme charmant. Anyway I think you’ve forfeited your dessert of waffles and maple syrup. By the way, I’ve heard that Slig absolutely loves maple syrup; can’t get enough of the stuff.”
Alex thought, what is it with the maple syrup? – shit, here we go again.
“So Aggie, among your many talents, you speak French?”
“Oui ma Cherie. Il ya une petite enseignant qui máide.”
“Hmm...to pale kreyol?”
“Wi, mo pale kreyol; vou san vou-mem byen?”
“Alex she can communicate in any language. You should have seen how impressed those Algerian delegates were, when Aggie freely chatted with them in the language of the Berbers.”
“Well I do get a little help from my friend. I love the sound of Creole – now who was it that said ‘Ah Creole – the French language bastardized, and only spoken by French bastards?”
Alex raised his coffee cup in salute.
Edna picked up the Goomeri which she had rolled into a tissue and placed it in front of Alex. “Alex tell me more about this gadget – You already said that it came from Australia. The thing is, when I hold it, I see visions of people in, I think Australia, because they look like the Aboriginals of that land. I had a look through the internet and I’m pretty sure that’s where they are. I saw a scene of a woman holding a baby, she wore a red dress and I could swear she looked directly at me; gave me a fright.”
“I’m not that surprised but can’t tell you too much more; old Uncle Oskar Bruin; he gave it to me to use. I was in the doldrums and he just said to place it
along my finger and wind the string around; didn’t give me any instructions on how or why, so it seemed natural for me to use it as a pointer...to point to something... to what, I didn’t know. As it turned out, it pointed to the map...to here, to Aggie, to this amazing and beautiful woman who has turned my life upside down and with whom, I’ve fallen deeply in love.”
“Some powerful medicine indeed. Before you go gooey-eyed, tell me about this Oskar; he sounds fascinating.”
At that moment, the pink security phone in Aggie’s office rang. She stood up and said, “Oh please let that be good news about the professor; excuse me for a minute sweetheart.” Edna clasped her hands as if in prayer and sat down next to Alex.
“Has Aggie explained what is going on with Professor Lien?”
“Only that he has gone missing off a construction site somewhere in Africa; Algeria I think. I know she’s very upset about it. I suppose my coming on the scene at this time, isn’t helping matters either; I’m amazed she can keep it together.”
“Well Alex, you coming on the scene is the best thing that could have happened, you delivered Dwarg back to her; and now she would feel more complete than ever before. Rienus Lien has become a part of our family and we all love him dearly. To have Dwarg back, will certainly broaden our chances of finding out where or what’s happened to him.”
-oOo-
“Oh no Ernie, that’s terrible, horrible; are you sure? Oh Great and Holy Spirits, don’t let this be true. Two men missing now!
“I take it you’ve notified Abdul? Are you positively sure he used the words ‘sparks’? Ernie, please instruct everyone to leave the area around that spot immediately. This may happen again without warning; please do it now, cordon it off, secure it; post Danger Radio Active signs or Quarantine signs if you wish. Any clothing that has already been moved, please seal them; airtight, I need to have them at HQ Lebanon; also I’ll need some of the earth and sand from around the scene as well. Please resist the temptation to dig underneath that spot; I’m sure you’re correct that Professor’s Liens clothing will also be found there.”
Ernie passed the phone to Aaron. “She wants to speak to you; I’m off to quarantine that place.”
Aggie asked Aaron many questions which, luckily, Aaron could answer without too much difficulty. “Is the FSD switch turned off or on at the moment? the FSD, that’s the simple toggle switch located on top right of circuit board R410.”
“Professor Lien had a habit of not showing me everything in the capacitor housing, but I do remember that he did switch on a lot of components at the start of the trial – that’s when he ordered a no fly zone around the site.”
“Have any alarms gone off? Any abnormal readings on the detectors – especially in the capacitor building?
“I haven’t checked since yesterday Aggie, but the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and X-ray readings showed normal – if you like I can take the VPhone remote into the building and you can scan and see for yourself.”
“No no, Aaron, nothing electronic or foreign to go near the place, I take it that it’s secure?”
“Well, Ernie and his friend had a look around inside and found nothing – not that they knew what they were looking at – and I’ve been in there – looking for the professor. No one else has been inside and the security log tallies with all that activity as well.”
“Aaron I’m going to take the capacitor off line, from this end at exactly1030 hours, your time. You are authorised to lift the airspace and no fly exclusion zone after 1100 hours. I am keying that authority...now.”
“Yes, received it Aggie; so we can use the choppers then?”
“Yes Aaron, that should make a lot of people happy. I really do appreciate your handling of all this; and I know there’s a lot on your shoulders at the moment. I think for the time being, we should continue with the construction of the neutron pulsing platform and anchor. If the capacitor project has to be aborted, at least we can still provide power to the province.”
“Well, at least that’s something I know about. How about the sculpturing?”
“Have to put that on hold as well Aaron. I’m sending Jade Kellor back to Reggane to pick up whatever Ernie has already removed from the site plus soil samples. I’m hoping to find a clue there, somewhere. Also, the ESPO Monitor. Can you transmit the data recorded for the last thirty days? may be useful as well.”
“Ok, you’ll have that within the hour. Er, some of the workers want to go home for a while; I can’t really hold them here for too long; they’re good men and I want to keep them happy and on side. They’re sworn to secrecy, but I can’t guarantee that stories won’t get out, once they’re beyond our restrictions.”
“A good point, talk to Ernie and Abdul about that one. If you like, use the helicopters to take them home; nothing like good PR. Sorry I can’t be there to help, but believe me, we all do admire your work Aaron, and Kellor Resources never forgets its heroes.”
“Thanks for the gee-up boss. I’ll give you a call when I hear the capacitor closing down. Let’s hope we find something in all this chaos.”