‘A big one. In the basement. Guthrie and Farrell oversaw the whole operation. They wouldn’t botch it.’
No, they wouldn’t. If there were two people in the world I would trust to do this right, it was those two. But something was wrong. I climbed out of bed and started to get dressed.
‘Where are you going?’
‘To check it out. Something’s wrong somewhere.’
‘Not without me, you’re not.’
I looked at her. She wasn’t fit to be up. On the other hand, she had a little colour and her eyes were alive again. ‘Can you walk?’
‘Yes, but we’ll steal a wheelchair so we can move faster.’
The old Kal was definitely coming back. I finished dressing, helped her out of bed, and found her dressing gown.
‘Are you going to be all right? I don’t want you falling down.’
‘I’m fine. At least I haven’t got a face like a balloon and eyes like two piss-holes in the snow.’
Yes, she was fine.
We were just oozing out of the door when Hunter came back.
‘Where the hell do you two think you’re going?’
‘We’re just popping downstairs to Hawking. Won’t be a minute.’
‘The fuck you are,’ she snarled. That’s Diane Hunter for you. Fluffy, blonde, and can out-swear a camel driver in the desert. ‘Get back into bed. Now.’
‘No, sorry, Di. Not going to happen. You can come too if you want, to keep an eye on us.’
‘I’m not allowed to leave and neither are you. For God’s sake, Max, you’ve been back less than twelve hours and the pair of you are already breaking every rule in the book. Get back into bed.’
We shook our heads.
‘Can you find me a wheelchair?’
‘Are you out of your mind?’
‘Well, I’m going anyway,’ said Kal. ‘So if you don’t want me falling flat on my face, it would be a good idea to get me a wheelchair.’
‘And explain to Dr Foster how I aided and abetted? I don’t think so.’
‘Di,’ I said. ‘She’ll have no difficulty finding the right people to blame for this. You might get a token bollocking, but we’re the ones who will be nailed to the door. Trust me.’
‘If you think it would help, we could knock you unconscious and steal the chair anyway,’ said Kal helpfully.
‘Oh, good idea, Kal. Then she won’t be in any trouble at all. Come here, Hunter, and stick out your chin.’
She looked at us, from one to the other. ‘We’ll compromise. There’s a chair in that room there and I grass you up to Dr Foster as soon as you’re out of the door.’
‘Deal.’
We got out as quickly as possible. I could hear her voice behind us. We didn’t have long before Helen would come sweeping down on us like the Mongol hordes.
We crashed through the doors to Hawking.
‘Watch it!’ said Kal.
‘It’s not easy, you know. I think it’s got a wonky wheel.’
‘The wheel’s fine. It’s the driver that’s wonky.’
‘Well push your bloody self if that’s the way you feel.’
We looked up. Everyone was staring at us.
‘What?’ snapped Kal.
Dieter stepped forward, blonde, massive and puzzled. ‘What’s going on?’ He cast Kal a quick, concerned look. ‘Should you be up?’
‘We’ve just come for a quick look at Number Five.’
He wiped his hands on his orange coveralls and nodded to his left.
‘Where it usually is.’
We zigzagged across the hangar floor until we arrived at the pod. I put on the brake and Kal pulled herself up.
‘I don’t know why you’re here,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing left but the shell. We gutted it. See for yourself.’
We ignored him. Kal called for the door. As we stepped inside, we could hear him summoning reinforcements, too. Time was getting short.
But he was right. There was nothing here. The locker doors were off and stacked against the wall. All the lockers were empty and burnished clean. The ceiling was down, exposing the wiring. The floor covering had been ripped up. The seats were gone. The console panels were off and plastic taped over the innards to protect them. The door to the toilet was gone. The place stank of nostril-searing chemicals.
We split up in the doorway. Kal went left and I went right. We inspected every single inch. We met in the middle and passed each other, double-checking until we met at the door again, where Helen, Chief Farrell, Dieter, and a crowd of techies were waiting for us. No one looked very happy. Sighing, Kal lowered herself back into her chair, and I sat down on the plinth on which the pod stood.
The Chief said, ‘What is it? What’s the matter?’
Kal looked too tired to speak, so I said flatly, ‘It’s not gone. It’s still here. There’s something left.’
He didn’t argue. He didn’t laugh. He sat down beside me. ‘What makes you say that?’
‘It’s here. We can sense it. I’m sorry, Chief, but somehow you missed something.’