Sand Glass (25 page)

‘Do they have a
radio?’ asked Marcia at once.

‘Yes,’ I
said.

‘Try it now.’
Jared said to me.

‘It’s in
Janey’s pack.’

We got the
small radio out, and set it on the open channel.

‘Are we on
receive?’ Jared asked me.

‘We will hear
them if we get near and they are transmitting.’

‘Is there a
chance that they will be on another frequency?’ I asked.

‘Hard to say….’
Jared looked puzzled, ‘there is something very odd about all of
this that I have yet to extract from the known facts.’

‘What’s that?’
Marcia asked as we carried the tunnel that was for us straight
ahead.

‘All this time…
I thought we were working our way to a point in time, when things
were resolved. But now… I’m not so sure.’

‘About things
being resolved?’ Janey this time.

‘No. About
things going forward to a certain point.’

Janey looked at
me. ‘Do you think you could find it in yourself to forgive for
something that I don’t remember but I think I did?’

‘What?’ I said
trying to catch up.

‘Do you
remember the first time we were here?’ asked Marcia suddenly.

‘Yes,’ Janey
was frowning, ‘but there is a halo around it in my mind as if…. as
if..’

‘….as if it
hadn’t happened yet.’ Jared finished her sentence. She looked at
him. Nobody moved. Janey took my hand and gripped it in that way
that is almost uncomfortable, but sends the message “Help Me”.

I was the first
one to speak; ‘You must have an idea about that.’ I looked at
Jared, waiting for him to respond. But he stared at Marcia as if he
saw something that he hadn’t noticed before.

‘You have the
most beautiful eyes.’ he said to her. They stared at each other, as
if some wonderful idea had grown and flowered in a moment.

‘Please don’t
go now.’ she said. ‘Please stay.’

I was totally
perplexed by this interchange between the two of them.

‘I remember…’
said Janey, staring at them.

‘What?’ I
really did not get any of what had just been said.

Jared turned to
me, ‘We are all connected. Every one of us. Even Hanson, and
Rimmington; and the science bods who do nothing but complain about
the “wild” parties they thing the rest of us are having. But there
is one thing that is common to all of us. No one escapes that
common ground. Not one. The reason why I drove to London that night
and didn’t make it. The reason we are all here. The reason we all
stayed. We all took part. Everyone at some point, in some place or
another. Common ground. One thing….’

‘Jared!’ said
Janey, brightening and coming alive next to me, ‘I know it! I do!’
she turned to me, eyes bright. ‘It’s going to be alright…. It
really is…. I know how all this works. And the only ones it’s not
going to work for are the ones who want to misuse it.’

‘Please… please
will someone explain what on earth you are all talking about?!’ I
was at the point where I felt I should legitimately be able to “get
it”. But perhaps being made to feel stupid at regular intervals was
actually the purpose of this trip for me. I resolved to practice
humility, and then I would perhaps see it for myself.

‘Is this to do
with the fact that everyone has the same birthday?’ I asked.

‘Birthday?’
said Marcia, ‘what birthday?’

‘Yours.’ I
responded, ‘and yours, and yours…’ I pointed at each of them.

‘Yes…’ Jared
stared at me in wonder, ‘that is it! A second strand…. It’s true!
What I was going to say was like this; but this is truer and even
more certain. What do you do on someone’s birthday?’

‘You send them
a card.’ I said.

We stopped at
the next small cave we found. We mashed some tea. Marcia got out
her notebook. We were all called to this by two common
denominators. Jared had the first, and I the second.

Everyone had
been sent a letter; and everyone had the same birthday. Marcia’s
job was to pull out of her memory all the d.o.bs of staff who had
been at Base and or were expedition personnel. We needed to find
our “sample group” as if were. The thing that connected us, and
embraced us. We were joined by more than coincidence. I was sure
that the people at Base who wished to control this, knew why it was
so. Or they guessed. We were all quiet while Marcia wrote down the
information from out of her memory that Jared requested. It turned
out that Marcia hadn’t been exaggerating when she said she
remembered everything. George may have suspected, but even he
didn’t know. It was only the involvement of Hanson then seemed to
nullify her ability up to a point.

Marcia showed
Jared and the rest of us the list. There were at least sixty names.
They included all of us, Aiden’s group, Elland’s Team, and a number
of people who only ever worked at Base.

There were two
significant dates that kept reoccurring. The First of August. And
the Fifth of November. There was a sprinkling of others but these
turned out to be sponsors who didn’t work there, but had
visited.

Jared stared at
it. Then looked at me. ‘How old are you?’

‘Twenty Seven.’
I said.

‘Marcia is…’
Jared began.

‘Twenty Seven;
if you’ll let a girl speak for herself.’ Marcia leaned closer.

‘And I am…’
said Jared.

‘Twenty Seven.’
Janey finished, and smiled, ‘I don’t need to add to that.’

‘But…. But that
means….’ I stuttered, ‘we are all…. I mean it’s incredible!’

‘No,’ said
Janey, ‘Just very, very improbable!’

‘So what about
bonfire night?’ I asked.

‘That is the
date the experiment was to end. The date we set for the Modulator
to run to. It always has to be set with an end point. But there
seems to be no correlation on the year in this case.’ Janey thought
for a moment, ‘Jules set the start point. I set the end point. The
whole thing had to run in between 90 and 100 days. Round about
three months. That way we would have enough data to retrieve from
the experiment. We were to do short tasks and no one was to be
exposed to the modular frequency for longer than a week
continuously. But it didn’t specify that the week was a week
outside. That must mean that time would expand and stretch and keep
repeating endlessly within the frame we had set!’

We all sat
enthralled by these revelations. Janey looked up. Her colour had
returned.

‘We were all
called in to the experiment by a letter issued by the university.
But it was provoked by the setting up of the Modulator. That means
that I was already there before the letter was actually issued. I
was the experiment. But why the exact date?’

‘Let me ask one
question?’ I said.

‘Go on.’

‘How many
digits was the start point?’

‘Six.’ Janey
looked puzzled, and then slightly horrified, ‘No, it couldn’t be.
It was supposed to be this year’s date. Then the end point would
just be the same year, so only four digits were needed. Oh no!’

‘What did you
and Jules do?’ Jared was calm.

‘We set it to
start on the first of August this year. But what is the one date
that everyone automatically writes without a thought?’

‘Their own
birthday…’ I said.

‘But who?’ I
asked.

‘It was someone
else….’ said Janey thinking hard, ‘there was one person who was
sent to report back to the sponsors and to make sure we set
everything up just as we were supposed to.’

‘Who?’ I knew
what was coming.

‘The rat!’
Marcia exclaimed, ‘Oh shit! It’s my fault!’

‘Hanson?’ I
asked, ‘and it absolutely is not your fault.’

‘It wasn’t
Hanson who pressed the button to start it,’ said Jared, ‘Neither
was it Janey or Jules, or anyone who wanted to commit to science
and the truth of what we could discover. There were always the
people who had the power to overrule the passcodes on security, who
could change the start or end point at the last minute. And they
knew as we now do what effect that might have.’

‘It has to be
Rimmington.’ said Janey. He was the one of two people from the
directorship who came to see us that day.’

‘Who was the
other?’

‘Ah that’s
easy.’ said Janey, ‘It was Mr Rice. Davey’s Boss.’

I couldn’t have
looked more shocked if I tried.

‘One of them
did this.’ said Jared, ‘but we don’t know who, and we don’t know
why. So let’s not jump to any conclusions.’

‘So the obvious
question,’ I said, ‘who has their birthday as the fifth of
November?’

‘Marcia?’
Jared, Janey and I all looked to her for answers.

‘Mrs Cardell,
Angelo, most of the technicians including George. They are all
different years though.’

‘But what about
Rimmington?’

‘There is no
record of such as person.’

‘He doesn’t
exist?’ I said.

‘No,’ said
Marcia, ‘There is no record. He exists alright. But as for a
birthday… well, you’d need a higher level of security or something
to find that information.’

‘What about
this Mr Rice?’ asked Jared.

‘You must know
something?’ Janey looked at me.

‘Nothing…
nothing at all. I’m sorry.’

‘There must be
something…. Anything?’ Marcia looked to me for answers this
time.

‘There is one
thing. It probably isn’t relevant. But the Boss is insisting on all
the staff from Blue Sky… well all the ones he has summoned, are to
attend a golf club party on a date yet to be released. And it’s not
an optional thing.’

Jared looked
thoughtful, ‘Could be useful. Very useful even. But there are real
things for us to overcome before that. We really need to get out of
here tonight.’

‘You mean right
now?’ Janey looked relieved.

‘As soon as we
deliver the time stabilisation drugs to Elland and his team.’

‘What about
Aiden and his lot?’

‘They always
had the power to leave.’ said Jared, ‘as soon as it starts to
collapse they will all get out.’

‘They weren’t
there. I mean at their place two day ago. It’s not far from here is
it?’ I was not certain if I was right.

‘Yes. But they
are in a different time frame to us. It’s not always the same. They
could still be there. The message will permeate soon enough if it
hasn’t already. This is not our fight, not really. We really need
to find Rimmington, and we ought to get Hanson as well.’ Jared’s
eyes darkened when he mentioned Hanson’s name.

‘Why?’ I
thought he has already got out?’

‘You need to
think about where he was the last time anyone saw him.’ said
Jared.

‘Well, wasn’t
that right here somewhere?’

‘Maybe. The
question that we need to ask… did anyone see Hanson?’ Jared sounded
kind of exasperated.

‘Yes. I saw
him.’ Janey looked pained. He was here right before I slipped the
cuffs.

‘Oh,’ I said,
‘so that’s how you did it!’

‘Yes,’ she
said, ‘not terribly romantic I know. I just literally slipped away.
But here’s the thing. Hanson was taken away by Rimmington himself.
But at the time it didn’t know if he was in with him or not. Then I
went to Aiden’s camp and stayed there. I didn’t think that there
was anywhere else for me to go.’

‘You can leave
now?’ I asked her. Janey lifted her eyes to me, huge and startled,
‘I’m sorry! What did I say?’

‘Janey….You
said you remember?’

‘I can see a
card; I can see Jared holding a pendant in one hand….’ With that
she reached out and clutched his hand.

‘Janey….’ Jared
hugged her. Marcia was motionless with her cup frozen in the middle
of a gesture. This meant something to all of them.

‘Then what?’ I
urged her gently.

‘Then….later,
we went in the car and drove to London. We got there at about Three
am….and…..and…..’ she looked at me, tears silently coursing down
her cheeks, ‘I am in another life, the one I remember is the one
that the roll of the dice did not include. I am one chance in a
million. It was just one small chance. And here we are. Here I am.
In another frame I died too. In another it was just me. I…..
brought this here. This impossible thing. I don’t know who I am any
more….’

Jared looked at
me enquiringly as Janey bent her head.

Marcia moved
then; ‘Wait, no wait… there is something. All the facts. If only I
can make sense of them. Give me ten minutes Jared okay? Then I
might have something.’

Jared nodded
unable to speak. Marcia turned to me. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘we both
went out, and came back with our memories intact, right?’

‘Yes. But does
this give us any advantage?’ I asked her.

‘I think it
does.’ Marcia turned to a new sheet on her note pad, ‘we have to
get ourselves clear before we move on…. Because Janey and Jared’s
lives might depend on what we do in the next few hours.’

‘Alright,’ I
swallowed, ‘but I want you to know, that you are not really helping
my concentration by being so doom laden.’

‘Sorry. But
there it is. We work out the pattern, and then we eliminate all the
alternate things until we get out. I mean out of Base.’

‘Back to
reality?’

‘Yes. That
being true we can work out what we have to do to find a way out
into the preferred reality.’

‘You aren’t
joking?’

‘Davey… look at
them,’ she whispered, ‘ask yourself if there is anything that you
and I wouldn’t do to save them both. The truth?’

‘There’s
nothing. Nothing I would stop at to save them.’ I admitted.

‘There is
motivation. We have the means. We have the bargaining chips. And
all we need is the right route out. It is a puzzle. This whole
thing has felt like a puzzle. We have all the alternatives. We
simply have to choose between them.’

‘Is it a
test?’

‘It may be.’
Marcia stared deeply into my eyes, ‘we are friends Davey. That
means more to me that I care to say. Like Jared you didn’t hold me
as cheap, as others have done…. I’m glad of that. Do you think that
there is a way out?’