Salby Damned (14 page)

In the hangar play area, Steve and Janey Grey were frantic. They had split up and were following the outer walls of the huge building in circles, meeting partway around in between scooting through the tables, chairs, and other things, searching for one little boy they had promised to mind.

Where can he have gone?

They had checked the toilets, the cookhouse, had roamed around the tented shantytown outside, but as yet, were unable to locate him. Nathan and Dr. Shepherd would be furious, thought Steve as countless scenarios passed through his mind. On the third sweep of the hangar, Corporal Simms approached them, sensing that something was wrong.

“Are you two alright? You look like the world is about to close in upon you. Whatever is the matter?”

“We, we’ve lost young Tom,” blurted Steve.

“He can’t have gone far, and the base is secure so he’ll be here somewhere. He came in with Sergeant Nathan Cross, is that correct?” the corporal asked.

“Sergeant Cross? Ah, Nathan, yes, that’s right, he’s resting in the dorm hangar. Will you wake him, Corporal?”

“Yes, sir I will. He’ll want to help, I’m sure, and he may have a better idea of where Tom would go. Nathan may have told the boy to go somewhere if he got lost; that’ll be where he is.”

The young corporal headed for the dormitory hangar to rouse Nathan from his sleep. Steve and Janey fanned out once more to search for the missing boy. As she approached the fold-up bed and sleeping man, Corporal Simms glanced at the cover of what looked like a computer, poking out from under spare blankets. She could just make out the letters GFC.

The initials of his wife or a son, maybe?

She knelt, shaking Nathan gently until his eyes opened to look at her.

“Wuh, wuh, what’s up, Corporal? Is something wrong? What time is it?”

“Take a minute, Sergeant,” she said, allowing time for his eyes to adjust to the light.

“It would appear that Tom has got lost on the base. Steve and Janey are beside themselves with worry. He cannot have gone far. Holly is safe and well in the entertainments hangar with the other children and said that Tom went for a walk about a half-hour ago, maybe a little longer. I thought you might have an idea of where he would go.”

“He is a very curious child, I’m sure he’ll have seen something and wandered off to get a better look. Let me throw a shirt on, and I’ll meet you out front, Corporal. Thanks for coming to get me.”

Nathan wiped away the last remnants of sleep and watched the attractive young corporal deftly slipping between rows of temporary beds, stepping over shoes and coats, boxes, and small cases strewn around.

Throwing on the same T-shirt he had been wearing for a couple of days now and noticing the rapidly increasing odour, he made a mental note to rinse it through before he returned. Hauling himself to his feet, he hastily put on boots, without doing up the laces. He followed the corporal to the main doors where he found Steve scratching his head and Janey looking pale with the worry.

“We’re so sorry, Nathan. We turned to attend a child who'd fallen over. When we looked back, Tom had gone, just vanished into thin air.”

“Calm down, Steve, its fine, really. Tom is fearless and he has a very curious nature. I should have warned you about that. It will be all right, and I’m sure he won’t have gone far. I told them if we got separated that they were to go to the main battle tank near the front gates, so we’ll head there first,” Nathan said, already turning to leave.

With a look of apology, Steve nodded and walked with Nathan towards the main gates and the stationary metal monster that was the Challenger 2 tank. As they approached, they could see that the top hatch was open; voices could be heard from inside the vehicle, one of which Nathan recognised only too well. Climbing up onto the body, he peered over the lip and looked inside. The occupants hadn’t realised he was there yet. What he saw relieved the tension immediately. Sitting in-between the tank commander, navigation and weapons control officers, he saw Tom, chatting away about the adventure he’d had to reach the base.

“And, and, and, then Nathan, that’s the man whose house we snuck into, did I tell you about him? He drove the big truck through the cars. But first, we were in a Jeep, and you should have seen the wrecks. Oh, and we had sketty hoops on toast, dippy egg soldiers, and beans, and then we rescued some people from some other really bad people. They looked poorly but Nathan and Evie managed to save them from the bad people, and we finally made it here. Then it was really scary and the soldiers came with guns and everything. Did you see the guns they have, they look awesome!” Tom said, barely pausing to take a breath.

“Ahem!” Nathan imitated a cough, smiling at the tank crew from the hatch.

“Nathan!” Tom shouted, wriggling from between the tank commander and weapons officer and smiling broadly before looking at his feet, realising that he might be in trouble.

“Have you seen this tank? It’s brilliant. They let me push buttons and look through the thingy too.” Tom was speaking with so much excitement that Nathan thought he might actually burst. Nathan couldn’t help but smile.

“You’ve given us quite a scare, young man. Half of the base is out looking for you. I guess the lure of the tank was just too much for you to bear, eh?” Nathan said, laughing with the tank crew. They'd realised he was a stray and had radioed his presence to the control centre.

“Say goodbye to the tank crew, Tom, and say thank you for letting you stay with them. They are very busy, you know.”

Tom took a last look at the tank and thanked the crew for letting him come and take a look around it. The tank commander lifted Tom towards Nathan, who hugged him and set him down on the armour as he jumped to the ground. He then turned, with open arms, to lift the boy down.

Holding Tom's hand as they walked back towards Steve, Janey, and a relieved-looking Corporal Simms, Nathan spoke to the boy gently.

“We were very worried about you, Tom; you left your sister alone too. If you want to go for a walk or feel the need to go look around, it’s okay, but you must tell an adult and they will take you, I’m sure. This is a very big base with an awful lot of people that we don’t know on it. Anything could have happened to you, do you understand?”

“Yes, I, I’m sorry, Nathan. I went outside and then this group of kids came so I joined in, and we ended up somewhere I didn’t know, so I came to the tank.” Again, he spoke in one uninterrupted stream. The barely concealed excitement in his young voice forced Nathan to double his efforts to retain a straight, serious face.

“You did right, young man, and I’m proud of you for that. Just remember to tell an adult if you need to go out in future. No real harm done, but I think it might be polite to say sorry to Steve, Janey, and the nice Corporal there, who have been running all over the base trying to find you.”

As they approached, Steve came and ruffled Tom’s hair and Janey came to kiss his cheek. A knowing smile decorated Corporal Simms's face.

“I’m very sorry for the trouble,” said Tom, addressing all three.

Nathan walked the boy back to the hangar to check on Holly, with Steve and Janey not far behind. As Tom approached the craft table, Holly looked up.

“Hi, Naffam. There you are, Tom, I thought you got lost,” she said.

She was busily adding finishing touches to her creations. Nathan stood at the table, gazing over her shoulder at what she had made and was impressed. It was clear that she had put much effort and detail into the work.

“Look, Naffam, do you like them?”

“Ahh, Holly-Polly, they’re beautiful. You’ve done a fantastic job, and I think it deserves a bit of a treat. What say we head to the cookhouse and see if we can find ourselves something sweet?” Nathan said, needing a hot, strong coffee himself.

He would take the children for a treat at the cookhouse first, and then he'd need to try and grab a couple more hours sleep.

***

Colin Snape had been pacing all morning since his hot-tempered session with the chief engineer and press relations officer.

They are completely incompetent!

He’d decided a walk and some air would be good, so wandering aimlessly, without any sense of direction, he looked up to find himself in what looked like a dormitory, created inside a huge aircraft hangar. He decided to take a look, being sure to tread carefully between rows of mothers with babies, bags, and small children not yet of school age. He followed the main rear wall of the hangar and turned to his left, walking along the far wall, towards the main entrance. Plans and posters of aircraft covered the walls. Tools were taped off out of reach of little hands, including manuals, wrenches, grease guns, spanners, and sockets on the benches. It was as if work was being done on aircraft when the call had come to clear the area.

As Snape passed the workspaces, he came across a small bed area, consisting of two single blow-up beds on the floor, with rumpled sheets and dented pillows atop them, and to the side, a canvas folding bed, beneath which was a bundle of sheets. Unbelievably, right there between the folds of the sheets could be seen the letters GFC emblazoned on a black case; it had to be one of the laptops.

Stretching his arms, in an attempt to make anyone who might be watching think that this was his bunk, he bent down to retrieve the device and tucked it down the top of his trousers to secrete it from view. Blatantly setting the sheets on the beds straight, he stood and began to move as inconspicuously as possible towards the exit, keeping watch for anyone staring in his direction. Snape knew there were two missing machines; he wondered if this was the right one. Exiting as fast as he dared, Snape proceeded in the direction of his quarters, intent on seeing if the device had any battery life left. He'd delete any incriminating evidence, completely.

***

Leaving Nathan to take the boy back to the crafts and play area of the hangar, Corporal Simms turned, just in time to see a man enter the dorm hangar wearing an ill-fitting suit. He looked out of place. She walked towards the building, staying just outside the main doors, watching the figure as he shuttled between the bed spaces. She noticed that his eyes were constantly scanning around him.

The man moved along the back wall and turned left to come back towards her. She walked innocently across the front doors to the cover of the opposite side, which would allow her to see him for longer. Sixth sense told her that he was looking for something or someone, and when he stopped, stretched, and then disappeared from view for almost a minute before returning with his jacket buttoned and holding his stomach, Corporal Simms’s internal alarm bell began to chime.

For now, she had no evidence to suggest that the man had done anything wrong; she knew who he was because she'd met him briefly upon their arrival and had been the one to allocate quarters to him and his colleagues. She would keep her ear to the ground and find out what he was seeking and whether he found it.

Walking back to the main offices before the man left the hangar, the corporal remembered that she had been asked to locate Dr. Shepherd and inform her that her presence was required in the meeting room; for now, precedence called.

***

Evie sat in a side office, preparing her notes on acquired paper. She outlined the symptoms of the virus she had spent the last ten years creating and developing. She illustrated her report with bullet points to denote the items she needed to highlight, plus potential questions and a plan for the immediate future. From a polystyrene cup, she took a sip of the chilled spring water, enjoying the sensation as it passed down her throat.

Evie snapped back from her work when someone called her name.

“Dr. Shepherd, Lieutenant?”

“Corporal Simms, how are you? Is anything wrong?”

“I’m well. Thank you, Ma’am, and no, nothing is wrong. It’s just that Lieutenant Colonel Connell has asked that you join him in the meeting room.”

“Ah yes, I’ve been expecting the summons, thank you Corporal Simms,” Evie said, rising from her chair with papers in one hand and water in the other.

She pushed her chair into place with her knee. Following Corporal Simms to the meeting room, Evie thanked her as she held the door open for her. On entering, Evie glanced around at the faces seated behind the long desks in front of her.

“Ah, good morning, Lieutenant,” said Lieutenant Colonel Connell, standing and then continuing.

“You won’t know some of these faces. They are the base medical team and are likely to be working with you. I’ll leave the introductions to them as and when you come across them. Based upon what Major Sower has already told me, I've requested the presence of Sergeant Nathan Cross and Staff Sergeant Chris Stewall, two of the best marksmen we have. They have permission to sit in towards the end, so let’s get the sensitive stuff out of the way first, Lieutenant.”

Evie came to the front of the desk, half-sitting on the lip to support her weight before she spoke clearly and slowly, to allow the additional staff to take notes.

“As you may already know, I am Lieutenant Dr. Evelyn Shepherd, the chief medical officer at the Salby Facility a little way down the road from here. You may also be aware of a recent incident at a wellhead fracking site nearby, which has resulted in the bio-chemical storage tank containing the Salby virus strain to be damaged. I’m here to provide information about the virus and to assist us all in finding a solution to our current problems, but first, let me explain about the virus, how it works, why it was designed, and the outcomes as we track events following a release like this. If you have questions, please ask them at the end of my briefing, and I’ll do my best to answer them for you.”