Thirty Four Minutes DEAD (3 page)

Upon entering the Lower Chamber, both gentlemen were initially dazzled by the powerful spotlighting that illuminated the demonstration area. The Lower Chamber was a very spacious room that easily accommodated the forty-six people who had been invited to the demonstration. The chairs were arranged in a semi-circle that was split down the middle to enable access to the main spot lit area. Mr Voight sat in a seat in the front of the semi-circle, whilst Vain continued walking to take his place in the spotlit area. He nodded to his Research Team - David Tavini and Mishimo Ko Chai who were standing in front of the assembly. In front of all three was Leif Denison of the CIA. This powerfully built man was the Project Leader, and as he shook Vain's hand in greeting Gregory was aware of the trim physical condition this fifty-five year old had kept himself in. It was Denison who first addressed the assembly.

"Fellow professionals, thank you for coming here tonight. Thank you for being in immediate readiness for thirteen days. None of you know the full extent of our Memory Camera research. You have been weaned upon a diet of rumour, speculation and truth.

“Tonight, our demonstration will show you how far we have come and will hopefully reveal the identity of a criminal who perpetrated a vicious murder just under four hours ago. No one has seen what you are going to see - the evidence being too fresh for prior consumption. Therefore we are taking a gamble that the victim built a visual memory record leading up to her murder.

“If it was a short sharp attack you will probably not witness key murder details, but you will still be able to experience at first hand our Memory Camera breakthrough. Hopefully we will be able to unlock the case and give you the guilty head that so ruthlessly cut short Julia Venison's life. If this is possible, you will be convinced. Convinced that this research baby is the biggest scientific discovery since the dawn of mankind. I must point out that the demonstration will probably uncover distasteful material, and if anyone feels unsure of the calibre of their metaphorical stomach, I would advise them to leave before the display wall behind me recedes in one minutes’ time and the demonstration begins".

No one left.

The display wall sank into the floor to reveal an extension to the Lower Chamber. The extension was powerfully illuminated once again and it echoed the semi-circular shape of the chair pattern in the main Chamber. Everyone's eyes went to the focal attraction in the extension.

Lying naked on a marble slab was Julia Venison. Her flesh was pallid with blue bruising appearing on her mouth and temple. The blood had been washed from her and the fatal knife wound looked relatively innocuous without evidence of the deluge of blood that had passed through it. Her eyes had been closed as Mason felt it was more appropriate with regard to the respect the victim deserved. To Venison's left was a large laser recording screen, behind her was an array of digital gadgetry and on the slab close to her head was the ‘Vault-Splicer’, a conception created by Vain. As some of the assembly audibly drew their breath, Vain approached the marble slab and took hold of the Vault-Splicer. This instrument was three inches in length and resembled a king-sized needle with leads threaded through the eye to the digital power base behind Venison. Vain broke the apprehensive silence.

"What you will see now is the Prototype featuring crude edges and obvious penetration. What will follow in subsequent months will be subtle in comparison - a sensory stimulus that won't even break the skin. Well here goes, let's go Vault hunting".

Vain drove the Vault Splicer into the cerebral hemisphere. He knew through tests the exact region that would stimulate Vault response. The previously unexplored Cerebral Vault was his baby. He had located the netherworld that others had overlooked. Now it was all down to his placement and Venison's storage capacity for HVs - heightened visuals.

The lights dimmed and the laser screen took precedence.

The first image to appear on the screen involved three glasses of red wine placed upon a wooden bar surface. Pub background noise accompanied this visual display. The image of a uniformed bartender next appeared on the screen and the crowd heard a woman comment...

"...That's right Harry, the fusty air in your old pub really brings out the body in your over priced red!”

The screen temporarily blackened but after a few seconds illuminated an open hand with a necklace in the palm. A male voice commenting, "excuse me, return dreamer, is this yours?" accompanied the image. The assembly were then taken through Julia Venison's introduction to Sandford Everett, with the Memory Camera revealing Everett's appearance to the full. The Godalming Lady reference appeared as did most of the initial dialogue the two had shared. The sequence closed on Everett's card, displaying his name and professional involvement.

The blackness returned, to be replaced after three seconds by an image, which drew excited gasps from the invited assembly. There on the screen was Julia Venison herself, preening her hair that was reflected in the glass covered bar wall behind the optics. All eyes flitted between this visual image and the corpse. The reflection image showed an attractive face without bruising, and this fuelled the desire of the watching assembly to fight her case for her and give her murderer the retribution they deserved.

A range of faces appeared on the screen next, cross cutting with each other, accompanied by a dialogue involving congratulations for Julia and a monologue of self-interest. Julia's MC selection had made an excellent job of illuminating the shallowness of the mutual admiration society that had broken her privacy.

The ‘rain in the streetlight’ sequence provided a bizarre scenic interlude on the screen. This sequence led up to the pivotal top range Jaguar visual. Julia's Memory Camera had managed to record the infamous plate number in its entirety. Everett was then ‘framed’ leaning out of the car with his lift invitation being recorded for all to hear.

A murmuring briefly started amongst the assembly, as the more vocal guests started to voice their suspicions concerning Everett's probable role in the murder.

The smiling friendly face of Everett left the screen, being replaced by an opposite portrait highlighting a sneering mouth and enraged eyes. The assembly recoiled as Everett's verbal tirade began. The heads shook when they heard the "don't feel special" references, and this disgust turned to anger as the malicious character that made up Royston Sandford-Everett turned increasingly more perverse.

The Tamala-Motown CD appeared as it had been intended as a sick joke, and when the Memory Camera ventured outside near the fir copse, Everett's tribute to the aesthetic quality of the landscape firmly established the insanity of the man. The walk to the fir copse offered images that were too hard to discern due to the lack of an adequate light source.

The "illuminate my noble face" comment caused one woman to shout "bastard" at the screen, and the leering portrait was captured in the spotlight Everett's vanity had demanded.

Everett's chilling departure line "You have a choice now bitch. Shattered, tattered or battered" forced an awesome silence from the assembly. The crowd knew that an air of finality had sealed the delivery of the words and the last recorded image, although not a frame of clarity, showed the descending fist that turned out to be the
coup de grace
.

Julia's Memory Camera had blocked any recordings of the knife that sealed her execution and the assembly considered this to be a blessing in the context of so much suffering, hoping that she wasn't fully aware of its existence in the moments that led up to her death. The screen went black - the show was over.

The lights were returned to full beam and it was obvious that the assembly had been moved by what they had seen. Some of the crowd had buried their heads in their hands, some stared blankly ahead of them, not being able to confront what they had just witnessed and a few broke down in tears overcome with repulsion. After allowing a couple of minutes for the assembly to recompose themselves, Leif Denison proceeded to the front of the Lower Chamber extension. He wished to pay his tribute to the MC Project team.

"This assembly represents some of the brightest minds of Medical Science, Defence and Criminal Intelligence in the Western world. It is fitting that you were selected to bear witness to this historic discovery. What we saw represented the heightened visual selections made by the late Julia Venison leading up to her murder. We climbed inside a supposedly dead brain and extracted all we needed to place Royston Sandford Everett where he belongs - prison. The image continuity tells us that the Memory Camera doesn't capture everything we see. It doesn't store useless images but keeps visuals of heightened meaning intact and available. A glance at the screen counter shows a totality running time of thirty-four minutes - dead! Julia Venison subsequently communicated to us
after
her short life had been so cruelly terminated. She had stored all we needed. My Team's research obviously re-examines the concept of brain death, and I would like to take this opportunity to briefly detail the operations of the research team who pioneered this discovery.

"I bear the ultimate responsibility for team organisation and control. Doctor Gregory Vain, the Team Leader, broke through the mystery surrounding memory just over five years ago, with his controversial discovery of the Memory Camera Vault. Located deep within the cerebral hemisphere, the MC Vault records key heightened images that represent significance to the viewer. As you have witnessed tonight, this vault initially survives death, staying intact like an encased film awaiting development. That development arrived in the forms of Professor Mishimo Ko-Chai and Doctor David Tavini. Professor Ko-Chai leads the field of Laser Extraction and Doctor Tavini is an expert in the field of Digital Conversion. Between them the team have devised the technological apparatus that unlocked what you saw tonight.

"I know Mr Voight is keen to get the details surrounding Everett's arrest organised so I will close shortly, but before I do close I have three important points to detail.

Firstly a method to elicit confessions has been formulated without breaking the news of our discovery at this moment in time.

“This leads us nicely into my second point. All of you have taken oaths of secrecy and your complete silence regarding this discovery is strongly advised.

“The final point concerns the future - the exciting future! The team have discovered that the MC Vault has an extension. It is their view that this extension might contain images of the minds’ eye, our thoughts - our imagination. If they are proved correct, then the living mind can be explored to a degree beyond our wildest expectations! Remember secrecy is paramount, you will be kept informed, goodnight".

An overcast August morning usually annoyed Gregory Vain, making him feel cheated by the seasons. This particular morning did not disturb him unduly however, as he was mentally immersed in the dramatic events that had taken place at Designation B. Vain's team had stayed overnight in the demonstration building and it looked like they had enjoyed the rare privilege that a lie-in afforded. The ornate clock on the wall showed quarter past ten, and Vain felt impelled to check how Mr Voight was progressing with the organisation behind Everett's arrest.

After hurriedly washing, Vain put on a casual suit and used his internal bedside phone to contact both Ko-Chai and Tavini. He told them that he was going to check on Voight's progress and arranged for the team to pay a collective visit at half past ten. Both Ko-Chai and Tavini seemed content to follow Vain's decisions, and they had never expressed any noticeable resistance to Vain's Team Leader tag or indeed the way he led the team.

Ko-Chai was the first to arrive at Vain's room. His courteous morning greeting had it's customary warm tone and the mini bow which always accompanied its delivery, whilst initially seeming quite humorous, now properly finished the greeting ceremony. Vain liked the fifty-six year old Korean to a degree whereby he considered Ko-Chai to be his best friend as well as one of his research team members. Ko-Chai, although having a higher qualification to his name was always respectful of his leader calling him "my boss-man" to fully establish the high esteem he felt for Vain. Ko-Chai became a naturalised American in the early 1970s and his laser exploration work had kept American Microsurgery in a very healthy state since he became an American citizen. Ko-Chai had expressed deep regret to none other than Leif Denison about how saddened he was that the rest of the Vain and Ko-Chai family members could never be introduced to each other. Denison had replied that the tightness of the security restrictions couldn't allow the loophole of harmonised family friendships breaking the cordon of the project's blanket discipline - it was too bigger risk to take.
 
Ko-Chai was not convinced, and he had seemed to bear Denison at a distance ever since.