A shout went up. ‘Max! Over here a minute!’ I heaved myself up and trudged over to Dieter’s table. Hundreds of pieces of paper littered the surface. Equations, diagrams, sketches, scribbled lists – they’d really been going at it here.
‘Look,’ said Dieter, spreading out a large sheet of paper on top of everything. ‘This is a sketch of how we think it could look from the outside.’ He anchored the corners with a mug of cold coffee, two cubes and someone’s scratchpad. We crowded round.
It was rectangular and flat roofed. ‘We can use the roof as another working area. We have a door at each end of the pod. Here and here. The doors let down to be ramps,’ he said, ‘and here we have …’
The Boss gently touched my shoulder. ‘Start putting it together, Miss Maxwell. You have one month.’
And just like that, we were off to Alexandria.
I paused outside the door, striving for calm. I had worked really hard on this. Actually, we’d all worked really hard on this, but mine was the final voice. And I was the one presenting. My month was up. It was time to deliver.
Sticking my chin in the air, I pushed open the door. Mrs Partridge looked up. ‘Go on in, Miss Maxwell; they’re all waiting for you.’
I clutched my briefing notes even more tightly and walked in. She was right; they were all waiting for me. The Boss sat in his usual position at the head of his briefing table, Chief Farrell at his right hand, Major Guthrie on his left. Next to him sat Helen Foster, then Mrs Mack and Mrs Enderby from Wardrobe. On the other side, Professor Rapson and Doctor Dowson should probably not have been allowed to sit together.
They were all here. I’d argued that all departments should be represented, but at the time, I never thought it would be me taking the briefing.
Mrs Partridge joined Kal, Peterson, Dieter, and Jamie Cameron from R & D, all of whom were sitting along one wall. Everyone had their scratchpads open and everyone stared at me with bright anticipation. The Boss nodded for me to start. I very nearly turned and ran.
‘Good afternoon, everyone. This is a three-part briefing: a quick background, an update from all the teams and a provisional schedule.
‘We’ll start with the background briefing.
Ptolemy II of Egypt founded the Library at Alexandria at the beginning of the third-century BC. Estimates of the contents vary between 400,000 and 700,000 scrolls although the actual total may have been very much more or very much less. We just don’t know. Don’t look so dismayed; we won’t be in any position to save even a fraction of that number.
‘Because there are some doubts about the content of the main Library by this date, we’re going for the well-documented destruction of the Serapeum – the daughter library.
‘In 391 AD, Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria, instigates an anti-paganism campaign in the city. He incites the Christians, urging them to destroy the Serapeum and other pagan sites. The mob, doing what mobs do, is very happy to comply. So, when the library is burning around us and fighting breaking out everywhere, that’s when we move in.
‘Thanks to the Pathfinders we now know the exact location of the Serapeum. We also know the internal layout. There are a number of areas, each devoted to a single subject – mathematics, astronomy, natural sciences, anatomy, early history, scientific discourse, and so on.
‘Detailed layouts are in your folders. You’ll see the landing points marked in yellow with the pod number alongside. It’s a big place, but not that big. We don’t want anyone landing inside a wall, so Chief Farrell will personally lay in all co-ordinates.
‘What we do need to worry about, however, is the wholesale destruction occurring around us. But, if we take reasonable precautions we’ll all be fine.’
Someone snorted.
‘Are there any questions so far?’
Apparently not.
‘Chief Farrell, if you could update us on the progress with our new pod, please.’
He looked up. ‘Everything is on schedule. There are some logistical difficulties with the internal layout, but nothing that can’t be resolved. We won’t have time for the outside shell, but we can fix that later. No one will see it but us. I’d like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Hawking will be out of bounds to all personnel except Mr Dieter and me for three days, starting the day after tomorrow. Please make it clear to your teams that there will be no access for any reason whatsoever during this period until we give the all clear.’
God knows what they were doing in there. There was no point in asking. I’d tried and he’d just grinned at me. So irritating.
I continued. ‘Dr Foster, you’re responsible for all things medical. How is the training going?’
‘We’ve worked our way through first, second, third, and fourth degree burns and the effects of smoke inhalation. We’ve now moved on to the treatment of crush injuries. Everyone going on the assignment has to re-take their Field Medic exam. But, we’re all on schedule.’