Sand Glass (10 page)

‘What have you
been doing out here?’ he seemed dazed, but unharmed.

I was sitting
in the middle of the now cool, damp, and quiet lawn and realised
that his question was certainly in need of an answer.

‘I want you to
come up with a very clever way out of saying goodbye to Janey.’

‘Oh?’ Alex. On
closer inspection seemed quite confident in himself. But his eyes
were wide awake…. Like…. well just like a kid at Christmas.

What on earth
had he actually seen?

‘You really
have a talent for attracting the attention of these blondes, don’t
you! What’s the secret? If you don’t mind, I’ll not take the sad
little kitty inside. Because I’m bagging that one!’ he pulled me
up. He seemed as calm, as I was not.

‘You were
looking at her? Just Then?’

‘Yeah,’ Alex,
herded me back into my kitchen, ‘I know what you need.’

‘Hair of the
dog that bit me?’

‘She’s not a
dog is she?’

‘I’ll just have
coffee.’

‘I guess this
is it.’ Alex, for once wasn’t joking. He was calm, smiling,
serious. And added… ‘I heard that entire last bit. I know what to
do.’

‘But how
weren’t you….?’

‘Fried to a
crisp?’ he put his hand on my shoulder, ‘Some people are innocents.
Some are divine. And some are like Me.’

‘What?’ he was
doing it again; always ten steps ahead.

‘And that is
why….’ He tapped me on the chest, ‘I’m the brilliant odd ball sent
to cover your ass; and you are still the trainee.’

‘But she
was…..’

‘She was a
woman. A beautiful, glorious woman. I think I’m in love.’ said
Alex, ‘But before you give her a call for me, let’s set the world
to rights. Do ten clever things before breakfast. And… avoid the
wrath of said petite fire pixie.’

‘You mean
Janey?’

He looked at me
sideways; ‘You really do have a talent for finding the most
difficult types. You really don’t have an entry level mentality do
you?’

‘Can’t think
that slowly, even for me…..’

‘But why the
other extreme? Difficulty rating one hundred per cent…. And here
she is.’ He nudged me; and added: ‘Alchemy. And I bet you don’t
know it yet.’

'She's not what
she seems.' I said helplessly.

'No Shit!' said
Alex testily, and changed gear rather angrily.

'You must be
the worst best friend I've got.'

'At the moment
I'm the only friend you've got!' Alex glanced at me.

'I wish I knew
what to do when I get there.' I sunk into the seat.

Alex was silent
for several minutes. The first streaks of dawn lit up the landscape
behind and to the left of us. I saw the faint sparkle of the sea in
the distance.

'You should
have listened to me in the first place.' said Alex, 'None of this
would have happened if you hadn't got involved with the girl.'

'It wasn't like
that,' I said, 'she took the lead with me.'

'Scored Huh?'
Alex shook his head, 'You should have run the other way when you
had the chance. Now there's two of her! I mean ordinarily that is
any hot blooded male's dream date.... But you seem a little,
petrified.'

'Just a little.
Actually.... I was thinking how it works out when she has forgotten
me completely....'

'You are going
to do what she was trying to do?' Alex slammed the brakes on. The
road was empty in both directions. We ended up skewed diagonally
across the road. He turned to me. 'What do you think you are
doing?' his eyes blazed at me, 'After all that big speech to Janey!
All that thing about not playing God! What is the matter with
you?'

'Stop it Alex.
This isn't helping.'

'Not helping? I
heard everything you said to her; all of it.'

'How? I had the
door shut.'

'It's my house
idiot! There's more than one way round anything in there. And I
have a right to know! It's my life too. I won't let you.'

'Won't let me
what? You think I'm like Janey?' I rubbed my hands over my
face.

Alex turned the
car back onto the left hand side of the road and pulled onto the
side, and switched off the engine.

'This is it
mate,' Alex said quietly, 'the reason why friends have to stick
together. I know you want to save the world.... But from what
exactly I can't quite make out.'

'It's "Sand
Glass".' I mumbled.

'What the....?'
Alex looked worried.

'Sand Glass. An
operational name for what I understand to be a weapon of sorts. It
doesn't work by destroying an enemy, but by finding the
circumstances that bring about the desired result out of all
possible outcomes.'

'Ah!' Alex
stared out towards the sea.

'Sand Glass was
a science experiment. Janey and Jules were two of the scientists at
the University who conducted the first experiments. They did this
thing called "Modulation" I believe. Jules says that it interrupts
the causal flow, and allows other frequencies to burn through. Well
that's how he put it. But what happened after that was really odd.
They almost immediately got funding from a big sponsor for work on
a larger scale. They already had smaller sponsors. Marcia Ellis
being one of those; and She found herself drawn into this by a
complicated set of unusual events. Janey left for summer recess and
didn't come back because of the car accident she and her brother
Jared were involved in. But by then the whole thing had moved onto
the next stage. That was called "Nimbus" and it involved the Base
we are now headed for. They set up the "Modulation” frequency round
a small area and conducted experiments. People volunteered; some
were military personnel. They were fine.. So it seemed. But then:
well; things changed one day. The Modulator itself was in the space
that was subject to the Modulator..... You following this?'

'Of course.
Causality changes were now subject to the random, or apparently
random ordering of the modulator itself.... Which in turn....' he
looked at me, 'this is incredible! You've got yourself a time
machine and dimension gate all in one'

'Err.... Yes.
That's where the ice fields come in. Except for some people they
are a desert; others a warm jungle mixed with fertile
grassland.'

'And under
water?' mused Alex.

'Possibly.'

'I get it.' he
was pleased. His eyes flickered like he did when he was thinking
really fast.

'Tell me?' I
was cautious, as Alex didn't like to be interrupted when he was
concentrating. At last he looked at me.

‘How well can
you swim?’ he asked me.

We approached
the base about an hour later. Alex’s and my argument had fizzled
out. I suppose that we both knew that there was a higher calling at
work. And basically, we both cared enough about our friendship not
to let my bizarre romantic entanglement with Janey come between us.
Notwithstanding anything even more strange; such as the iridescent
creature who had appeared to me in my back garden. We had both seen
more than normal rationality would generally find comfortable to
digest. And as we did in fact share a common purpose… described by
Alex as “not letting the bastards win”; we had enough to think
about, without letting our personal distractions overwhelm us
both.

I wish I’d been
told at that moment that Jared had been right. Alex was only right
up to the point at which the rules broke down. We all had something
we wouldn’t let go of.

I wasn’t quite
as confused then, as I am when tell you this, so I guess it was
easy to say “pride”. But I know it wasn’t that. I was always a
fantasist. I could only imagine that strange world writ large on
tablets of my own consciousness. I had a hard time thinking of
other people as actually doing something, somewhere else, that was
equally important at the same time as me. So now I wonder what
really happened that day.

Alex slammed
the brakes on for the second time. It was just as we neared the
turn off that would lead us to the Base.

‘What was
that?’ He wound down the window.

‘I didn’t see
anything.’

‘Okay….’ Alex
seemed worried; ‘I thought I saw…. Actually someone. But there’s
nothing there. Nothing.’ He looked at me.

‘We’re about
three miles away. I want to tell you what might happen…’

‘Davey. Stop.
Nothing will happen. I guarantee it. I can see where we are headed,
and we won’t be meeting anything odd on the way at all.’

‘Are you
sure?’

‘Absolutely.’
He grinned at me, ‘When has Uncle Alex ever been wrong?’

‘Never. But
there’s a first time for everything. I seriously hope that you know
what you’re doing.’ We reached the turn off.

‘Well here
goes.’ I said rather unnecessarily.

We bounced and
giggled down the uneven track. Over the next rise and then down
onto a slight dip. And then we saw some old concrete bunkers ahead,
half covered by grasses and some brambles.

Alex pulled up
at the end of the track. I was quite speechless. This was the
place, no doubt about it. But there was nothing there. We got
out.

‘Torch.’ said
Alex, ‘let’s see if there is an entrance.’

We trod
carefully round to the left, through high grass. It opened out a
bit into a rocky outcropping and the bunkers were just below us in
a short dip.

‘Look here!’
Alex was peering into some sort of entrance having got there before
me.

I looked in and
plainly saw for myself that it was a deserted shell in which a few
bit of vegetation ventured where the sun could reach at different
hours of the day.

‘What time is
it?’

‘Nearly nine.’
I said, ‘Is that significant?’

‘Could be,’
said Alex, sweeping the small internal space with his torch,
‘there’s nothing here. Let’s go back to the Land rover and wait a
bit.’

We walked by
the short route we had come, and climbed back in.

‘I suppose we
wait for the others then.’

‘I suppose we
do.’ replied Alex, and peered up through the windscreen, ‘And it
going to rain. Look in the back. There’s a flask and some
pasties.’

‘What do you
call it?’ I said.

‘I call it
breakfast.’ Alex took the flask off me, ‘They are both the same. So
just eat.’

A few spots of
water landed on the glass in front of me, and then it built up to a
torrential downpour in a few minutes.

‘Coastal
weather. Should clear quite quickly, this one. I’ll take that
thanks.’ Alex tightened the top and regarded me with sober
tolerance.

‘Thanks for not
saying “you’re mad”.’

‘You’re
welcome.’ He slurped from the stacking thermos mug, ‘I can
certainly think of better ways of spending my Saturday, but helping
out my useless crazy friends has always….. Been top of my…..list.’
he put the cup down in astonishment. There outside, as clearly as
anything was the side red brick wall of the labs, soaked in rain.
We looked back and it was into mild sunshine. It was as if someone
had ripped a hole in it all. I let Alex marvel at the impossible
sight for a few more minutes.

‘That’s it!
It’s rain!’

‘What is
it?’

‘Don’t be
thick! How does one hide something that is only there because of a
distortion in the causal space between all things?’

‘Don’t know.’ I
said, feeling impatience fall on me.

‘You’re
supposed to be clever.’

‘I’m not a
scientist.’

‘So what are
you? Latrine Cleaner?’

‘No. everyone
has to take turns.’

‘So I know
something about science that you don’t. Ok… let me put it another
way. You are going to a place that is in a way, not trying to hide,
but by virtue of being deserted in this high place it would become
untouchable.

‘Quantum
Mechanics.’

‘Ah! The
untutored mind; so fresh, so able to revel in the sense of
screaming children at the event; and yet without such
understanding. We are all the children. But rain makes us see. It
washed the possibility out of the atmosphere. People don’t make
choices in the same way when it’s raining. They ask someone to tell
them what to do. “Shall I go and get the washing in?” “I’m not
going out in that”; there it is. The perfect camouflage.’

‘But what about
the people who work there? They must have shifts that come and go.
Ten minutes early one day. Leaving a few minutes early another, I
bet the moisture content of the air is always at a certain minimum
measurement when that happens.’

‘Does that mean
a person could get stranded there?’ I felt panicky.

‘Are you
kidding? This is England. It’s October. What else do you want?
Besides, I’ll be that at dew fall, it is easy to get in and out.
And at any other time, as long as it’s wet in some way.’

‘Or
snowing.’

‘Interesting.
That you challenge me in this way. Now, I’ve got two difficult
novels to read and a lot of chocolate in a hidden compartment.’

‘And you are
telling me this, because?’

‘If you don’t
make it back, you can die happy in the knowledge that my needs were
met; upon this fateful day that is.’

‘It will take
more than a day.’

‘Well meet me
in the public hostelry. It’s three miles further along the main
road from where we turned off. Really good bar meals.’

‘Agreed.
Thanks..’

‘Just come back
before all the chocolate is gone, and save me from myself.’

‘Bye Alex.’ I
climbed out and rather stiffly I thought, and walked to the double
entrance doors I could now see. I put my hand out. I turned and
looked back towards Alex’s car. I could make it out in this damp
aftermath of the downpour quite clearly. He seemed unconcerned.

A few minutes
later I was in the common room. Security was so lax it was unreal.
I could have signed in as Anne Boleyn and no one would have
noticed.