The Power of Forgetting (35 page)

‘Yes,’ Hanson
continued, ‘we all have our stories. Mine are being hidden from me.
It seems I don’t own those other people…. Even though they are
parts of my own mind.’

‘You have sold
yourself Andrew…’ I dropped my voice, ‘….and you want me to help
you get your soul back?’

‘There are some
I would gladly be rid of. Getting rid of them has to be my
priority.’

‘Then tell me
who the twelve are?’

‘The twelve? He
told you about that?’

‘Your double
did. Yes.’

‘Ah…. then it
is just a matter of finding the right file in the mainframe. We
would have to get inside.’

‘You have the
pass codes.’ I pointed my now clean spoon at him.

‘No. they are
rotated round every third day.’

‘So we have to
go see Lorraine then?’

‘Yes. She’s
clever enough to guarantee with reasonable certainty that I would
go back to find her.’ At his he sighed.

I realised the
others had gone silent and were listening to our discourse with an
attentiveness that was hard to not feel embarrassed by.

‘We are
constrained by the weather on one side….’ said Janey,

‘….and the evil
bastards on the other.’ Davey finished the sentence. They looked at
each other a second later.

‘So tell us
Andrew, how do we get back in?’ Joe raked his fork along the table
cloth.

‘The fence does
not extend into the sea. It can be got round at low tide. Lorraine
can obtain the latest set of pass codes for us.’

‘In order to do
what? I asked.

‘Get out
again.’ He looked surprized.

‘Everyone has
to decide for themselves, just like we did with Jared.’ Oliver is
unruffled by all that preceded this statement.

‘Just like you
did with what?’ I spoke up then.

‘They all
didn’t believe it was you.’ said Hanson.

‘I see.’ I
didn’t say anything else for a while. The discussion centred around
the way of getting the information on all the copies.

‘We can stop
him.’ Davey said, ‘if we want to.’

‘Wait a
minute….’ Marcia stood and started pacing up and down, ‘there has
to be an easier way of finding the information than this! I mean….
what do we do with this once we’ve got it? I understand that all of
us have been compromised. We are not sure what ideas have been
planted….’ She looked at me for a moment, everyone else was
concentrating on her in the electric silence, ‘for example; the
trigger at the golf club party came in two parts. One: I think, by
touch. And two: by a key word or phrase.’

‘So who did say
that word….?’ Davey was about to repeat it; Marcia cut across
him;

‘No! Do not
speak of it. Do not repeat anything you see or hear. Record it. And
by that I mean write it down.’

‘And then
what?’ Davey again.

‘One person
reviews the data. Then we decide what to do with it.’

‘Let that be
me.’

Everyone looks
to Oliver, who it still and relaxed to a point of apparent
casualness. I sense something else as well, but I don’t say
anything in front of the others. It’s hard to put into words.
Oliver would be the only one I’d trust if everything went weird.
I’m not sure why…. but anyone else has certain weaknesses. Oliver….
seems immune to most of those.

‘No.’ it’s
Hanson. Everyone is quiet. Oliver doesn’t reply, but just remains
perfectly still.

We are looking
at one and then to the other. Hanson shifts in his seat, clearly
not enjoying the lack of argument. To put not too fine a point on
it, I had not seen him squirm like that before. I think that the
five of us were, for once, just watching to see which way the tree
would fall.

Hanson breaks
the heavy silence; ‘well…. yes. I accept that it is the best choice
for the moment.’

Oliver swiftly
moves round the table, and stands behind me. There is something in
his presence that seems to make time pause and wait.

‘This one is
mine.’ He puts his hands on my shoulders. That grip, that in other
circumstances could be crushing is actually reassuring. Somehow I
know that he means the vision he saw a little while ago. Oliver is
not one to reveal anything. But this time he makes an
exception.

‘I saw what
happened,’ Oliver says softly, ‘to Jared; as we came to brow of the
hill. I saw many people standing around. And they were bright….
brighter than Joe’s LED torch. And I heard a voice saying
something. I don’t know if that was just to me. So I won’t say that
here. I know that everyone saw something. And now…. I am asking for
you to trust me. To help everyone. The hypnotism didn’t work on
me…. yes; that’s right! I know where the sessions took place. I
could find the place again. It was not an empty place. It was
somewhere that is used at other times. A big place, with many back
rooms.’

After this
stunning confession, everyone seemed to blink as if they had woken
up. They all started talking to each other. Except me. Oliver
leaned over; and said clearly and quietly: ‘I know who Jasper is. I
understand. I saw him Jay. And I’ll be watching your back from now
on. He might be forgiven; but I’ll bet his old platoon might want
him back in, taking orders…. you understand why no one else must
know what I saw?’

I slowly
nodded. I felt choked by Oliver’s confession. It was the most he
had ever given away. ‘Thank you Reece….’ Was all I managed to
say.

‘I’m at your
back Captain.’ He squeezed my shoulders then and let go.

What shall I
say? Did I see any clearer now? Not really. I was still a long way
from understanding fully what had really transpired. It was too
personal. I had no time to process the raw data of experience. I
was overwhelmed by feelings, the input from all these sources
coming at me at once. And Janey…. I had forgotten about Janey…

As if on cue,
she appeared beside me. The group had begun to calm now. Davey was
clearing plates. Marcia was laughing at something Joe was
saying….

‘Janey…’ I
looked into those big blue eyes, as she sat down in the seat Marcia
had left a moment before. How was it, that I did not see the
difference? She was my sister! I knew her as well as I had ever
known anyone. She stared at me solemnly waiting for me to slide
back into focus. She was real…. not a copy, not distant, or crazy,
or scary. Just calmly sitting waiting for some cue.

‘…. thank
you.’

‘You’re
welcome.’ She has a half smile. Slightly wistful. I wonder where we
will all end up.

‘I….’ looking
down now at the table, ‘…. wanted to see you before I left.’

She shakes her
head slightly, brows creasing in puzzlement. I was thinking of the
birthday party. I’m seeing it in my mind’s eye. She wasn’t in the
car with me. I was alone. I think did get to London. I look back at
her. She is still waiting, careful to be kind. Still not knowing
what I mean….

Janey spoke
then: ‘I was copied shortly after the Cloud field trip. I think
that you might have suspected me before that. It is quantum
spaces…. within. Things get to travel backwards. I couldn’t work
out why. But now I see that the answer that we are so desperately
seeking is right in front of our eyes. It has been all this time.
Alexander knows this. He wants to stop us ever discovering it. He’s
playing for time Jared. He’s playing a very dangerous game of
dare…. he dares someone to be copied. They think they can win….
Well of course they can’t! The house always wins. Right? And then
there is the matter of the copies that have gone AWOL. Lorraine’s
is one. After the party. She was left in the time loop that they
closed. She had to get out by the only method she could…. she used
Lorraine’s so called “Magic”. Lorraine doesn’t know what she tapped
into, and she’s been hanging around with her coven long enough to
find that there are one or two useful things to be gained from the
craft. And even it’s not as strong as some others…. Of such kind;
it’s still pretty potent in the right application of will, and
concentration. But Lorraine has lost control. She can’t find her
double! But then neither can Alexander or Mr Charles. She has made
them think that the double was just out of range, and will soon be
back in the vicinity. But she lied to save herself. She is playing
a very dangerous game. And as evil geniuses go; this Mr Charles is
almost as bad as it gets.’ She paused and looked at me
appraisingly, ‘the real puzzle at the moment it why he wants
you.’

‘You know
that…. you told me…. I mean you double told me.’

‘I lost any
kind of connection as soon as the black box was removed.’

‘Why did you
ask for it to be removed?’

‘I didn’t…. I’m
sorry…. So sorry. Oh dear God I’m sorry. My baby brother….’ She
turned away for a moment; then looked back at me, self-control back
in place; ‘there is time for this later. I was taken to the camp
just before you left the forest. I left with two others… one of
their security personnel and…’

‘Lorraine?’ I
asked.

‘Yes. But how
did you guess?’

‘I didn’t. It
was her boot prints I saw.’

‘No…’

‘No?’

‘It was
dry.’

‘Dry?’

‘Yes Jared;’
she sighed, ‘no boot prints.’

‘So what did I
see?’

‘Another
version? Another reality? Anything is possible.’ At this she rolled
up her left sleeve. There was the scratch; and more importantly the
tattoo. I realised with a horrified start of realisation that the
copy did not have a tattoo. But for some reason this remained out
of all our minds when faced with such an easily identifiable mark.
Something was using a power that affected us in a deeper sense. But
then I saw the truth. It had only affected me. They knew,
especially Oliver; but they weren’t one hundred per cent
certain.

‘Have you seen
Adam?’ I asked suddenly, ‘Or James?’

‘No. but the
Base is huge. I don’ think that there is anything except a skeleton
crew on duty.’

‘It sounds
suspiciously like Main before the Cloud Field operation.’ I
said.

‘Yes. It is.
But this is sited in the time period out of touch with the rest of
the prying world. No spying from space here. Here Lorraine’s earth
magic might have a chance of actually working.’

‘So how is the
real Loraine?’

‘Unusually
compliant, reasonable, and nice.’

‘A bit like
Hanson?’

‘Yes. Very
like.’

‘Doesn’t that
strike you as odd? The way everyone who has been copied, is well,
nicer than usual?’

‘No. not
really. The ingredients of a person’s psyche are unique to them.
Like a finger print. The thing is; that thing you must remember
that fading out the character flaws does not actually negate them.
It just gives that person a feeling of fake self-confidence. They
are not rid of their demons. They’ve just shared them around a
little.’

‘Tell me,’ I
said bluntly, ‘which one of your demons has been playing footsy
with one of mine?’

She looked sick
for a moment then answered: ‘Oh, that….it was a long time coming to
the surface. I thought mistakenly I had it under control. But
control is just a relative state of being; in and around this
experiment. I lost control. Not only of the copies but of the
aspect ratio of the psychological components that can be infused
into a copy. There was batch contamination. Something else was
there.’ she shuddered, then continued: ‘As a scientist it was my
job to monitor the copies and to file any readings that were deemed
unstable for the particular person’s character. Difficult,
considering that some of the first stage subjects were not very
well balanced people. But they had volunteered, so that was that.
Each stage had its sample group you see. Now we know that
Lorraine’s copy had been up to mischief. But Lorraine does
sometimes get a little notion of where the thing is. I went to see
her last week. She’ terrified of them discovering what I and Hanson
have lately suspected…’

‘What?’ I was
gripped now by this story.

‘That the
copies are becoming independent of the experiment. But it is
happening anyway. There is nothing you can do to stop it. It isn’t
just the third types that are like this. They all are. I was only
copied once; at the third stage. But the people who are copied at
each stage are not privy to the identity of the others. I get the
data sets; and the psyche profile; but no identifier. We have a
psychiatrist on site, but he is more interested in the results of
the longevity experiments than anything else.’

‘The what?’

‘How long they
live.’

‘How do you….?’
But then I knew, and my horror about this grew. They had been
copied and then kept like zoo animals. Very comfortable zoo
animals; but definitely driven to the edge of endurance……’ I shook
my head; trying to shake the idea that was growing in me.

‘Yes,’ said
Janey, they are copies who have been held for years and years. They
original is only slightly aware. But only just. Otherwise they
would go mad.’

‘Who?’

Instead of
answering, Janey got up. She motioned to Hanson to pass her
something.

It was a
computer memory stick. A ripple of silence travelled round the
tent. As if cued, now I had been brought up to speed they all sat
down again. Davey came through with the rubber gloves still on.

‘Come on
Davey.’ Janey said evenly, ‘I need your whizz kid thing now.’

We listened to
the recording that Davey had cleaned up. It was still a bit
crackly; a woman’s voice. Some of it was like a voice diary of
things that she had done every day while camping. But slowly it
changed. After ten minutes we stopped the recording. Marcia nodded.
Then another part was played. It was the same person. But this was
further on in time; it appeared to be much, much further. She was
clearly unhinged. Although it wasn’t really clear at the time that
she was on her own for the most part. The sense of isolation came
through vividly in the recording. Lastly there was a recording that
made you want to cry. Another voice speaking, as well as hers.
Someone singing…. Happy birthday; and then reading a message. She
would be given a place to stay near the others; and every comfort.
Anything she asked for. She had done well the voice said….so very
well indeed.