2012 The Secret Teachings of the Next Door Neighbour

The Commander turned slowly, raising himself to his full, imposing height, as the three Agents filed into the circular chamber.

  He waited until they were still and facing him silently across the table, the holographic image of earth spinning languidly between them.

  ‘I see we have all three deactivated and secure,’ he said.

  An awkward silence hung in the room.

  ‘No Sir, we lost the Dubois girl,’ an Agent replied.

  The Commander’s head snapped to attention,

  ‘How is this possible? I watched all three traces fade ...’

  The second Agent stepped forward,

  ‘Either she has found a way to evade the VR, through modulating her frequency or she is dead.’

  ‘And why was I not informed of this sooner?’ demanded the Commander.

  ‘We have spent the day scouring London for her ... and were hoping to successfully terminate our assignment,’ replied the first Agent uncomfortably.

  The Commander walked heavily away from the table, his footsteps ringing clearly in the peculiar acoustics of the room. He turned on his heel obviously having come to a decision.

  ‘Either way, she cannot achieve her objective,’ he paused, looking them up and down, ‘but we shall take no chances. I want a police search and full media coverage.’

  The 3rd Agent nodded,

  ‘Yes Sir,’ and cleared his throat before continuing, ‘There is another problem ...’

  ‘Which is?’ snapped the Commander.

  ‘Her neighbour, a Mr. Sutherland, drew our attention this morning by boarding the Eurostar to Paris. We secured the station ... yet he slipped through our net.’

  The Commander again appeared pensive before asking,

  ‘Does he have training? Dimension jumping abilities?’

  ‘No Sir, not that we were aware of.’

  ‘Then it will not be difficult to apprehend him without any further delay,’ his tone of voice was icy cold, ‘use all the resources necessary.’

  He turned away from the Agents, closing the conversation and placed one long finger on the hologram which stopped spinning to home in on a map of western europe on which could be seen a collection of tiny illuminated dots, three around Paris and six others scattered around Italy and Switzerland.

  The Agents leant in, examining the hologram, as the Commander continued,

  ‘The other nine anomalies are on the move, converging on three separate headquarters.’ He stared hard at the blank faces of the Agents, ‘once they are all in situ, we strike hard.’ The Agents nodded their understanding. ‘I want the whole society shut down in one stroke, we cannot afford another mistake so close to the end time.’

  Paul: December 16th