“The highlighted notice down the bottom of the screen states that any calls recorded regarding people in the link diagram were to be forwarded to the specified Department of Defence contacts. I assume you have some connection with that contact?” Marshall asked.
“Yes, that’s right, Steve. Could you play back the recording for me.”
“Can do.”
Aaron listened to the recorded call. Windsor was having a mild panic attack and he needed to talk to the Reverend Peter Thomas. Some memories from the past had upset him. One thing stood out: Windsor was speculating that Lucas Fell had vanished and that it must be the technology.
“That past event was a stressful time for Windsor. I’d say he needed to talk to the Reverend to help deal with his anxiety.”
“Yes, I remember reading about Windsor’s son and a cryonics facility, and Windsor‘s involvement in that strange day a few years back when people had disappeared from Central Station, then reappeared again.”
“Strange indeed.” Aaron needed to get focused. “Steve, my visit here was to interview some of your staff as we believe that the chances of this escapee getting help from the inside are high.”
“Why’s that?”
Aaron retrieved a sheet of paper from his briefcase and handed it to Marshall. “I’ll need you to sign this. What I’m about to tell you is highly classified.”
“But I already have a high security clearance.”
“Not high enough. You need to read and decide if you want to sign or not.”
<°)))><
The superintendent walked in. “Sorry, I’m late. You must be the Defence boy. I’m Jim.”
Aaron was surprised that an obviously senior figure in the prison system would use the demeaning term, boy. Although it wasn’t a problem for Aaron, he was sure there were people inside these walls who would not like to hear such a term.
“Hi, Jim. Yep, I’m the man from Defence. Aaron Fitzpatrick. Nice to meet you.” He opened his briefcase and retrieved another copy of the document he’d given Marshall, and handed it to the superintendent. “Need you both to read and sign one of these.”
Aaron noticed Marshall giving the superintendent a quick glance, raising his eyebrows and smiling. Aaron was glad he was not in uniform.
The boss read and signed it and Marshall followed suit. Aaron surmised that prison life encouraged keeping things close to one’s chest anyway so signing something concurring with this attitude was no big deal.
The superintendent took a seat next to Aaron. “National security? Interesting!”
“Thanks for allowing me this visit. Yes, it’s to do with national security. Some years back a piece of technology was used to ‘transport’ people. The technology was well advanced and although we were able to confiscate it, we haven’t been able to work out the technology. The inventor went off the radar and we have been unable to find him since.”
“I did think that this may be related to the vanishings?” the superintendent said. “Thought you blokes would’ve had it all locked away, or maybe its been put together again by this Professor fellow. But why make this Lucas Fell vanish? What are we in for? Maybe he was taken against his will.”
“Interesting thoughts, Jim.” Aaron said. “Maybe version 2 of the technology has arrived. As you can imagine, the type of technology in question could have military implications. We would like to secure the technology for our national interest and safety.”
“I can understand that,” Marshall said.
“We believe the technology uses GPS coordinates, so there needed to be input provided for the prisoner to escape. The device needed to know where Lucas was. We believe that someone in this prison provided those GPS coordinates.”
“Aren’t coordinates easy to find out?” Jim asked.
“To an extent. You can find the GPS for the prison, for example, but the GPS for the man’s prison cell is completely a different matter. It’s a much more precise reading. Someone took a reading and gave it to the person who executed the escape.”
“Is there any other way the technology could work?” Marshall asked.
“There are, but they’re military based and use powerful computer resources. We don’t believe we’re dealing with someone who can access such resources.”
“Okay, then. Sounds like we need to have a chat with the staff who were rostered on at the time of the escape,” Jim said.
“Yes, we’ll need to do that. The technology has been dormant for some years, and now it’s resurfaced we need to get our hands on it before it gets in to the wrong hands.”
“Wrong hands?” Marshall asked, eyebrows raised.
“Yep, we believe the man who has it at the moment is not a threat to our country, but someone else may be.”
“Someone else?” Marshall asked.
“Don’t think he needs to spell that out, Steve,” the superintended said.
“No, you’re right. Stupid question. Don’t know what I was thinking,” Marshall said.
Aaron felt for Marshall, it was obviously a stressful morning.
<°)))><
Marshall’s phone rang.
Marshall looked at his phone and accepted the call.
“Hi, Gina.”
Aaron looked up at the monitor and stared at the link diagram. It was all so familiar to him.
“Yep, hold on a sec. I’m going to put you on loudspeaker.” Marshall muted his smartphone. “Gents, it’s Gina from reception. She’s got a strange call. It’s from someone who says they’re a prisoner but have escaped and they really wanted to talk to someone. He says he’s Lucas Fell. He’s being quite persistent. Let’s hear what he has to say.”
Marshall placed his phone in loud speaker mode.
“Hello, Steve Marshall speaking”
“Hi, this is Lucas Fell, I didn’t mean to escape. I was—“
The line went dead.
Aaron leant forward. “Your theory might be right, Jim. Maybe he was taken against his will.
The Professor—at least I hope it’s the Professor—wanted Lucas for some reason.”
9 – Get me back there
LUCAS WAS CONFUSED. What was Starkey up to? Whatever it was, it was just not worth the risk. He’d been left alone and decided he needed to do something. A door closed. Lucas stared at the screen on the phone. A call terminated message displayed. He’d only got a few words out.
“Now, Lucas, what are you doing?” Starkey stood with a smartphone in his hand. Shopping bags had been placed on the table. “Sorry to interrupt your call, but I didn’t have a good feeling about what you were up to. The good thing is they can’t trace it due to some nifty blocking equipment I’ve set up. Could you put it back in the cradle? Thanks.”
