Fade Out (32 page)

‘Do you really mean you're prepared to go in there?' asked Collis.

‘Neil Armstrong and Ed Aldrin landed on the moon without a guaranteed return ticket,' said Spencer.

‘I don't mind going in,' said Milsom. He meant it too but, since he was always making jokes, no one took him seriously.

On Sunday, Wedderkind and his wife Lillian went over to lunch with his eldest daughter, her husband, and their four-year-old son. Resisting the attempts of his son-in-law to sell him yet another insurance policy, Wedderkind escaped to the master bedroom and called George York in Baltimore. Wedderkind wanted to know what progress he'd made in collecting the latest data on the Earth's magnetic field.

‘It's coming along, Arnold. It's coming along.' That was all York would say on the subject. He did, however, give Wedderkind some information he hadn't bargained for.

‘I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine at the University of Chicago. Lou Corsalero. He knows Al Wetherby.'

‘Oh, yes,' said Wedderkind.

‘Lou told me he'd been picking up some remarkable underground tremors coming from your direction.'

‘And?'

‘Well, I phoned Riddell in San Francisco. He confirmed that the epicentre was situated some two thousand feet under Crow Ridge.'

‘There's been some movement, but no real boneshakers.'

‘Oh, no, it's not the strength of the tremors,' said York. ‘It's the frequency. Lou and Riddell both picked up regular groups of pulses with varying strengths and numbers of beats. Four, eight, twelve, eight, eight, four – that kind of thing. One could almost imagine it as some kind of seismic Morse code.'

One could, thought Wedderkind. But from
two thousand
feet down? ‘Could you follow this up for me, George?'

‘On what scale?'

‘Well, to be any use it would have to be on a global basis.'

‘Arnold, there are two hundred and forty stations.'

‘Yes, but there's a data centre here and one in Europe.'

‘They're still processing last year's records.'

‘Well, phone around. You can send me the bill. If this
is
a message that Crusoe is drumming out, then there has to be someone to receive it. They may send a message back.'

‘Which would enable us to get a fix on their position.'

‘Right, George. The epicentres might coincide with the centres of the fade-out waves. In which case those figures of yours might make sense.'

‘I can't promise anything.'

‘I realize that. Ask Riddell to help. He owes me a favour.'

‘He owes me one too.'

‘Good. That makes one hundred and twenty stations each. If you pull in Corsalero, you'll only have to check eighty. Less, in fact – you can forget the Russian stations.'

‘Okay.'

‘There's only one problem, George. You have to get them to help without telling them what's going on.'

‘I understand.'

‘And think up a good answer about the Crow Ridge tremors. I don't want anyone sending up a research party.'

‘Are you asking me to lie to my colleagues?'

‘George,' said Wedderkind. ‘Isn't that how you got hold of the computer?'

Wedderkind took his grandson for a walk in the park, responding to his happy chatter with grown-up noises that left him free to ponder on the significance of York's latest news. Children, however, are never long denied, and Wedderkind paid for his preoccupation by getting his finger gnawed by a squirrel.

Spencer had the edited tapes of Friday screened several times. His hunch had been correct. In both sets of exits and entrances, Friday positioned himself over the hatch with the tips of his legs in exactly the same place each time. He put his two side pairs of legs in position first, followed by the rear, and then the front. When they were all in position, the two spheres rotated, bringing the two hatches into line. To enter, Friday first folded in the front and rear pairs of legs simultaneously, then the two side pairs. As soon as he sank below the level of the inner hatch, it rotated shut.

When he emerged from Crusoe, he unfolded his legs in the reverse order, the two side pairs first, then the front
and rear pairs. When all eight feet were on the points, the inner hatch closed and the dome rotated.

‘Let's go and look at the hull.' Spencer waylaid four passing cadets and persuaded them to volunteer their services and the use of their two jeeps. He drove off in the lead vehicle with Milsom, Tomkin, and Collis, and waved to the cadets to follow.

They parked close to Crusoe. Spencer told the four cadets to stay in their jeep, then walked up on to the hull with Milsom, Tomkin, and Collis. Spencer went down on his hands and knees near the dome and took a close look at the smooth black translucent surface. After about ten minutes he found what he was looking for, a small mattblack octagonal patch, almost as big as the palm of his hand and about seven feet from the centre of the domed hatch.

‘Here it is. We've got to find seven more of these.'

The others knelt down to examine the patch. It was barely discernible on the black surface.

‘If you look at the surface at an angle and get the light reflecting off it, you'll be able to pick it up more easily,' said Spencer. ‘There should be one directly opposite me. Spread out around the dome – and be careful not to step on one.'

Milsom, Tomkin, and Collis backed down the hull and spread out cautiously like men who'd suddenly found themselves on thin ice. Spencer waved to the four cadets. They came up on to the hull and huddled around him.

‘I want you four to get between the four of us,' explained Spencer. He pointed at the black patch. ‘That's what you're looking for. You'll need to look closely, they're pretty hard to see.'

‘I've got mine,' said Tomkin. He was now opposite Spencer.

‘Okay,' said Spencer. ‘Chris, you and Dan should be at right angles to us.'

Milsom and Collis adjusted their positions.

‘And you four guys should be halfway in between.'

The cadets edged sideways till the distances were about right.

‘Okay, everybody should have one of these patches right under their nose.'

Tomkin sat back on his heels while the others searched for and located their patches.

‘Everybody okay?'

They all nodded. Spencer looked around and saw Page and Lovell walking towards them. Page's preoccupation with Lovell's opinion on any matter was not out of deference to Lovell's seniority. Everyone knew that Page was after Lovell's recommendation to help land a well-paid and prestigious research post at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

‘Okay,' said Spencer. ‘Let's get the sequence right. Dan, you and the guy on your right are the front legs.'

‘Right,' said Collis.

Spencer turned to the cadet on his left. ‘You and Chris here are the rear legs. Do whatever he does.' Spencer looked across at Tomkin. ‘We and these two other guys are the side legs, so we go on first.'

‘Got it,' said Tomkin.

Spencer turned to the cadet on his right. ‘You and I go together, right?'

‘Yes, sir,' said CRAWFORD, N.

‘Okay,' said Spencer. ‘It's the two sides first, then the rear, then the front. Three-second intervals. Get your right foot ready, and when I give you the signal, place it lightly on to the patch.'

‘Sir?' It was the cadet on Spencer's left, GIBBS, J.K.
He looked too young even to buy razor blades. ‘Could you tell us what you're expecting to happen?'

‘Yes, sure. We're hoping that by exerting the right pressure on these patches, we will activate the two spherical hatches. Have you seen any of this on the screens?'

‘Yes, sir.'

‘Good. Just relax. If it doesn't open, I'll buy you all a drink. If it does, you can all buy me one. Okay, everybody ready?'

They all nodded and each man slid his right foot forward.

‘This is like stepping on a land mine to see if it's working,' said Milsom.

Spencer waited till the second hand on his watch reached twelve. ‘Sides – now! Rear – now! Front – now!'

The four pairs of feet pressed down on the patches in sequence. Nothing happened.

‘Spencer looked across at Collis. ‘Can you see any movement? It should start coming up on your side.'

Collis shook his head.

‘Maybe they work on an electrical contact of some kind,' suggested Tomkin.

‘If they do, we're screwed,' said Spencer. ‘Let's try it again, this time with more weight on your right foot.'

Page and Lovell arrived at the edge of Crusoe's hull. ‘Do any of you have any clear idea of what you're doing?' asked Lovell.

‘Yes, we're trying to add to the sum total of human knowledge,' said Spencer. He came from a rich family, so he didn't need to worry about Lovell's patronage, now
or
later. ‘Okay, let's go!'

They pressed down hard on the patches in the same sequence. Nothing.

‘Keep it up,' commanded Spencer. ‘Move your whole weight on to it.'

Almost a minute passed and nothing happened. Spencer's hopes of a breakthrough started to recede like the picture on a switched-off TV set. Just as he was about to give up, the dome rotated from left to right, exposing the outer hatch, then the second sphere spun around towards him, bringing the inner hatch into line.

‘How about that?' Spencer laughed, his face pink with excitement.

‘Beautiful,' said Milsom.

Lovell and Page hurried up on to the hull.

‘Keep your feet on the patches. Keep ‘em hard down,' said Spencer.

They all craned their necks forward and looked into the hatch. The dark, complex well that had contained Friday was empty.

‘He must be in another compartment,' said Lovell.

Spencer grinned. ‘That's good. It means that when he's outside, there'll be room to move around down there. Okay, gang. Let's see if we can shut this thing. It's front and rear feet off first.'

Collis and Milsom and the two cadets on their right got ready.

Spencer checked his watch. ‘I'll give you a countdown of five.'

As he raised his hand to count off the seconds, the two hatches rotated shut of their own accord.

Spencer looked around the ring of faces. ‘Okay, who moved?' Nobody answered. ‘Okay, everybody back off for a minute.'

They all took a couple of steps back down the hull. Spencer frowned. ‘What do you think, Chris?'

‘We must have done something wrong. If these
are
pressure pads, they could be highly sensitive. The slightest variation from the norm may trigger off an alarm…'

‘Or there could be an automatic control that closes the
hatch after a set time.' Spencer looked at his watch. ‘Did anyone keep a check on how long it was open?'

Nobody had. ‘Listen,' said Milsom. ‘If we can open it once, we can open it a second time.'

‘You're right,' said Spencer.

‘If it's any help, I timed the taped sequence of Friday going back inside,' said Tomkin. ‘He takes fifteen seconds to fold the first four legs, fifteen for the second four, and fifteen to slide down below the level of the inner hatch.'

‘But the hatch isn't fully open when he starts folding his legs,' said Collis.

‘No, that's right,' said Spencer. ‘Okay, back on your marks, let's give it a whirl.'

They tried several times to repeat their first success, but the dome didn't budge.

‘Doesn't look as if it's going to work,' said Page.

‘Keep trying,' said Spencer.
Come on, baby
…
just to wipe that smirk off Page's face.
Nothing moved. ‘Okay, let's get it together. Just one more time.'

The two hatches rotated into line. The inner sphere with its complex pattern of struts was still empty.

‘Maybe there's a closed cycle as well as an open one,' suggested Tomkin.

‘I'm ahead of you,' said Spencer. ‘When it closes, we'll try again and keep a close check on the time.' They repeated the operation three times. There
was
an override control on the hatch. Regardless of the pressure on the hull patches, it rotated after forty-five seconds and remained shut for five minutes.

‘Forty-five seconds doesn't give you very much time,' said Page.

Spencer grinned at him. ‘Are you kidding? You can run a hundred yards in eight and half.'

‘You're not seriously thinking of going in there, are you?' asked Lovell.

‘No, he's not,' said Milson. ‘I am.'

Everyone still thought he was joking.

‘Whoever it is will have to wear a space suit,' said Spencer. ‘We have no way of knowing the pressure or temperature conditions inside the main hull. This double hatch could be some kind of airlock. We don't even know if we can maintain two-way communication with whoever goes inside.'

Lovell considered the problems. ‘This is something that will need a lot of preparation. We'll have to discuss it with Arnold first.'

‘Of course,' said Spencer. ‘We've got to do it right.'

‘But this is a really a big breakthrough.' Lovell patted Spencer on the back. ‘Well done.'

‘Yes,' said Page. ‘Excellent…'

Spencer gave a wry grin and shook hands with the four cadets. ‘Thanks, fellas. Half past nine in the bar, okay? And forget what I said before. The drinks are on me.'

Milsom took the wheel of the jeep for the short drive back. Spencer sat beside him looking curiously dissatisfied.

The two of them shared a trailer, and much later that night, when Milsom came out of the shower, he found Spencer sitting on the edge of his bunk, deep in thought.

‘What's the problem?'

‘The hatch…'