“John.”
“Aaron.”
“Look after him, John. Just give him the routine tour and then settle him in the canteen and I’ll find him,” Marshall said looking at his monitor.
The smell of breakfast still floated around the group dining setting but was slowly being overtaken by the smell of disinfectant. Aaron noticed a sign showing direction to the Prisoner Telephone System. Aaron knew the man walking away from the telephone system. He believed they called him the Governor in here but Aaron knew him as Grant Windsor, an ex-government minister who had a connection with Lucas.
“I take it the prisoners don’t have smartphones?” Aaron asked.
John smiled. “Some prisoners do, either dropped from drones flying above, or sold to them by corrupt prison staff—staff who were happy to take the money and not tell the prisoners the prison technology sniffed out and blocked mobile calls.”
The Governor looked stressed.
The tour continued and Aaron got to see the prisoner’s living quarters, the prison grounds from the guard tower and some of the prisoner’s training rooms. He felt he was intruding.
John’s phone beeped. He read the message.
“Need to take you back now.”
Aaron’s phone vibrated.
<°)))><
Aaron sat back in the chair in Marshall’s office. He'd received the text message from his department and now realised the urgency in the prison was directly related to his charter.
Marshall pointed to the monitor on the wall that previously displayed the news. It now displayed a link diagram.
“We have a prisoner by the name of Grant Windsor who just made a phone call that triggered an alert which instructed us to contact the Department of Defence. We also have just experienced an escape event which I’ve been authorised to talk with you about.”
Too late. The intelligence was accurate. “And that’s what I’d come to talk to you about. But it looks like they beat us to it.”
8 – Linking it together
THE LINK DIAGRAM LISTED all Windsor’s associates and relatives. Aaron knew of them all.
The now missing Lucas Fell was on the list. All the links were tied into the technology driven by Grant Windsor and Bruce Starke, also known as the Professor, who’d disappeared. This Starke fellow played a key role—the brains behind it all. There were links below him to a daughter and granddaughter.
The daughter worked with a pharmaceutical company but she had the death icon next to her. How did she die? Automobile accident, not long ago. The granddaughter was under intermittent surveillance—they expected her granddad may try to contact her at some point.
“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.”
