Sand Glass Read online

  SAND GLASS

  By Anne Russell

  Published by Anne Russell at Smashwords

  Copyright 2016 Anne Russell

  Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people. If you would lilke to share this with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  *****

  Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  The End

  *****

  One

  Here was the dawn. Waking me. The first thing I did was go and plug the phone back in. I was drinking tea and trying to put my socks on with one hand, when it rang.

  'Hello?' I couldn't get the left one on, so I sat down and swapped hands.

  'Hi there. Is it Davey Milnes?'

  'The very one.' I couldn't get it over my heel.

  'You might find this a bit difficult.... But I know you. A little crazy isn't it?' female voice, definitely female.

  I stood up, hopped on one leg, and somehow got my thumb stuck in the tight ribbing. I was hopping backwards overbalancing.

  'Yerch!!' crashing over a chair and a table lamp, I landed on my back. I was still stuck and now it was impossible to get up. 'Ow! Oh! I mean hello.... Are you still there?'

  'Yes. Still here.' Female and sympathetic sounding.

  'I'm afraid I fell over..... I'll be alright in a minute. Just tripped over a small occasional table, due to err.... Socks....' I put the phone handset down on the floor for a moment. I disentangled myself and was sitting in the middle of the carpet.

  'Hello! Hello....'

  'Yes. Here. Ok now.' I grabbed it and put the speaker to my ear.

  'Are you alright?' she said worriedly.

  'Marcia?!' I could hear the pause, and a sudden expulsion of breath.

  'Yes. But you don't know me.'

  'Of course I do! Where have you been? You were nowhere to be found at Main.'

  'Davey! I'm outside!' she shrieked down the phone.

  'You are..... Where?'

  'Open your door! I'm here!'

  'Alright.' I took the phone away from my ear, then put it back again, 'don't go anywhere.'

  'I'm standing on your front path. Just come and let me in!'

  Marcia hugged me so hard I thought she'd crack my ribs.

  'Kitchen's through there. Shall we?'

  I did coffee. Marcia did that thing you do when in a stranger’s house; subconsciously check all the doors. I saw her eyes flit back and forward while I performed the coffee making ritual.

  'Nice.' she said, her eyes settling back on me, 'So you know me because?'

  'Marcia.... You were.... After. I'll just get the milk.'

  She looked at me in that calculating way that I was so familiar with. A thought suddenly occurred to me. 'You're not with Hanson are you?'

  'With Hanson?' she stared and fidgeted with a messenger bag on her knee.

  'I'll tell you which one I am.' she said firmly, 'then you tell.'

  'Which one of what?' I put the coffee in front of her.

  ‘Which version of course. I know I’m still retentive. It’s a bit of a surprize, but I don’t think I actually started again. Something odd happened. I was there; then I simply was somewhere else. I didn’t know that I had remembered what it felt like until I remembered…. Sorry this is all coming out wrong. Do you want me to leave?’

  ‘No. No! Of course I don’t… you mean that after you fell off the cliff you ended up back here?’

  ‘Not here. A couple of miles from Main Base. But it was warm… which was really weird. I sneaked in and got my stuff. I think I was just there on shift change over. It was six by the Main’s clock. I left in a really bad snow flurry. The car belongs to a friend who wants to sell it; tax is about to run out. I think that is a good a place as any to hide an untaxed vehicle. She rang me last night to say I could keep it. All for taxing the thing next month. Anyway,’ she sipped some coffee, and made a face; ‘Is there any sugar?’

  ‘Here.’ I pushed the bowl towards her and gave her a spoon, ‘Do go on.’

  ‘Well, I drove all the way home without stopping. I slept for a day; and then have being trying to get in touch with everyone ever since. Something must have changed. I don’t know what. But your number is the same.’

  ‘It’s been the same for years. Even the previous tenants had this number. I just pay for it.’

  ‘Not in your name?’

  ‘No…. I just pay the bill. That suits everyone.’

  ‘So only things that are directly connected to a person can be changed.’

  ‘Marcia…. I’m not sure I know what you’re talking about. But if I’ve got this straight… you survived a fall from a precipice? And you arrived two miles from the Base in a mini heat wave?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  ‘So you got there the day before us.’ I told her what Sam had said about the weather going really strange.

  ‘Do you have it?’ Marcia was frowning expecting a negative.

  ‘You mean the force lines. The tribal tattoo. Yes I still do. I think something helped me to drive out of Main base without anything changing. Perhaps we better tell all from where we lost contact.’ I waited for Marcia to look at me again, ‘do you think?’

  ‘Yes. I do think.’ So she related all the experiences that she had been subject to in the strange places that we called “Cloud Field”. Marcia wanted something from me now. The truth.

  I told her about the letter I had from Jules. I offered to let her read it, but she declined. So I just explained about Jared and the accident. It had been the most significant thing. I guessed that her reaction might help me decide if I could trust her or not. I saw her bowed head, then serious eyes; I was sure that we had come from the same “Line of Consequence”. Just a pity the bad guys always got their hands on a lot of cool equipment.

  ‘You will have to go back.’ said Marcia with some finality.

  ‘Go back?’ I felt calm; but wondered why she had said this.

  ‘Yes. You have something the rest of us do not… one experience, one thing. You have not decided.’

  ‘There is something bothering me.’

  ‘Oh;’ said Marcia, ‘What’s that?’

  ‘How did you know to leave Base…. so err quickly.’

  ‘You mean without being debriefed?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘I saw Hanson. I saw him… from a distance. He didn’t see me. I listened in on a few bits of indiscreet grumbling by the technicians, so I got my stuff and scarpered. I can’t tell you anything else at the moment, because I was panicking. I knew that Hanson was up to something. He always was up to something. But the particular something, he was up to this time, could be a step too far even for him.’

  I told her what had happened to us at Main, and how we had escaped with all hands… as it were. How everyone had gone home. I expected her to be frustrated by this news but she looked thoughtful.

  ‘It’s for the best,’ she said, ‘as long as they don’t remember anything the Company will leave them alone.’

  ‘The company?’ I was suspicious then.

  ‘It’s my name for them. Like “Th
e Firm” or “The Crime Bosses”’ she sighed, ‘I suppose I will just have to accept what happened. I know about Jared. But I didn’t know about Janey… the fact she was actually here, in London. Poor Janey! She never knew we were all here, all this time. I mean our Janey of course… sometimes it gets so confusing.’

  ‘There is something else. I thought about it a lot at the time… but now I don’t know if it is really relevant.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘How did you activate that tag?’

  ‘Easily.’

  ‘How Marcia?’

  ‘I can’t tell you.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because you will need to work it out. If I tell you you’ll forget it completely.’

  ‘Why do you think I can change anything?’

  ‘Because You can! That’s all. I can’t. I’m too enmeshed in all the stories of the people who got involved in this. It would take a life time just to undo what I personally had already done… I’m sorry Davey, I truly am, but there is a piece of information you do need to know. It may help.’ She gulped some coffee and waited.

  ‘Marcia… you’ll still be my friend I promise. Just say what it is.’

  She looked away. Than straight at me, her eyes like amber coals. ‘I introduced Hanson to the project.’ She looked away.

  ‘You did?’

  ‘Yes. But there’s more. I hooked up with him after Jared’s accident…. I always know it wasn’t an accident when I’m outside of Main, back here that is. The information’s sort of there, but hazy on the Base. But the minute I get in the transport, that knowledge is gone. They knew that I might blab. So Hanson kept me under close scrutiny.’ Here she winced seeing my enquiring look.

  ‘I’m not ashamed of the relationship itself you understand. An ex, is an ex, is an ex… so I believe. But I had only a brief liaison with him out here. He was very charming, and persuasive. I was feeling unhappy at the time, and fell for it. The business with Jared had knocked me for six. I really had been sweet on him you see. Admiration from afar. At the party we talked for ages. It was wonderful. He gave me his number down here. I was going to meet up with him the following week. Then the accident happened…..’

  ‘Why did they leave the party that night? Why didn’t they stay?’

  ‘I believe Jared had an interview for a course he was going on. And Janey being Janey always took a lift with him if she could. They were as close as two siblings could be. Practically inseparable as kids.’

  ‘Isn’t Jared older than her, surely…?’

  Marcia raised her eyes to me; ‘Don’t you understand? It was Janey’s birthday; and it was Jared’s birthday too.’

  ‘What are the chances of that? Hitting the same day…. Must be weird.’

  ‘No you idiot! They are Twins.’

  I made a sandwich. My mind had started to whirl around with too many bits of information. Slicing tomatoes had always held my attention, the right type of knife, the right amount of pressure to break the skin smoothly and create a thin, even slice.....

  'Davey!' Marcia pulled me back. I looked up.

  'Oh! Yes. Would you like tomato in yours?'

  'How can you make sandwiches at a time like this?'

  'At a time like what? I'm sorting files upstairs.' I tugged my fringe with my free hand.

  Marcia's eyes filled with tears.

  'Marcia! Tell me what's up?' I put the next tomato down and went and hugged her.

  'I'm sorry.... It's so hard to be the Class Tart, who let the Clever Ass in on it all. Even the thing with Jared....' she buried her face in my shirt.

  'Marcia; It's going to be alright.' she looked up at me, 'Really it is.'

  'You seem so different today.' she said suddenly. She stopped sobbing, 'You are.... It's like.' she stood up, and went to the cutting board, 'Let me.'

  I indicated to her it was ok. Marcia got to it at lightning speed. Oddly enough, despite the fact that she had been chef in charge of the expedition, I had found it hard to frame as an idea in this reality.

  'You really are a Chef?'

  'You bet!' she smiled, and started to cheer up. She put two plates on the kitchen table.

  'That's fast!'

  'Of course. Out here I own a restaurant, a tea shop, and a small shop unit that my cousin currently rents from me. It fun, filling, and you can always get Yorkshire tea.'

  'You have lots of people working for you?'

  'Err..... Thirty Six.'

  'Always a good number.'

  'Oh? Why is that?' she bit into the sandwich.

  'More than days in the month. Leaving enough minutes to finish the job before it gets to the hour. But not so many that the minions can dawdle.'

  'You work for a Design Company?'

  'Yes. I really do. For my sins.'

  'Mm....' Marcia was thoughtful. 'It's really making sense now.'

  'What is?'

  'Everybody comes from a business that can, and does go on without them, if needed. There must be exceptions, but I'll hazard a guess that everyone else either works for the University, or is on secondment to it.'

  'Nikolas said he was doing time lapse for them.' I hunted round for another tomato and started to chop it. 'Second round.'

  'Nikolas was being "borrowed" from a firm who do loads of corporate stuff, adverts on TV. Documentary drama. Everything.'

  'Oliver?' I asked.

  'Now that is odd. There doesn't seem to be any connection.'

  'Why? What does he do?'

  'He's a school teacher.'

  'Really?' I was stunned, 'I never knew.'

  'He was on sick leave.'

  'Well then, how could he have come on the expedition?'

  'He wasn't sick in the body. But in the mind. Or so it was believed. Reliving things that happened to him when he was in some special operations hush-hush thing he did.'

  'I'll bet it was part of it, yes? What Oliver did in the past is somehow connected to Cloud Field?'

  'I see you've adopted Janey's name for it.' Marcia was regarding me with a more calculating expression having finished the sandwich.

  'What else shall I call it?'

  'The whole project is called "Project Bank". Yes; sounds like something to do with money. It means "group of" like a bank of nursing staff. But our bit of it was originally known as “The Sand Glass Experiment".'

  'So what is it called now?' I put the slice of tomato down. It was too important to be still chewing while I absorbed all this.

  'There were a few versions. But they settled on "The Nimbus Project".'

  'It sounds nice and corporate. A bit serious.'

  'Yes,' Marcia seemed impatient, 'but the name change wasn't just for the sake of "rebranding" as I think they call it. There was a seismic shift in both the direction it was aiming and the membership of the board of directors. "Sand Glass" had been about science. Don't ask me to explain it. We had several info sessions that just left me more confused. I'll come back to that. But "Nimbus" had a different agenda. Although nominally the same.... Something was rotten. We were to now make money.'

  'You were in on this?'

  'I was a sponsor! I signed up to support Sand Glass. Janey had told me about it. The theory at least. I was willing to back something she was passionate about. "Exploration at the cutting edge of quantum theory". Don't worry,' she added, 'I start to glaze over too when scientists start talking about what it really means. The trouble came..... Well, it started when the first experiments worked a little too well. We were briefed of course, in typically patronising terms.... The translation into ordinary person's language. There were three speakers. One of whom was a Mr Rosen. He wasn't snotty like the others, but really tried to explain as best he could what had been done so far.'

  'Jules!'

  'Yes. Jules... He was sure that we would discover something amazing. And they did. They used this thing.... this "Modulator" it’s called. They said they had produced an effect where there were two possible outcomes, to say, a roll of a dice. An
d they were both true.'

  'There's a lot of difference between affecting dice rolls, and changing someone's history!'

  'But don't you see it? It didn't do that! Not at first. It just made small things happen. It just affected the staff at Main. When that was all there was. The place was well hidden, but it was soon only a place in a "fixed anchor point of quantum space".'

  'So you mean it stayed in one place. But what happened in there changed around.'

  'Yes. Very good.' Marcia continued, 'there was a way to stop the effect up to a point, so that visitors or people who had no connection were not adversely affected. But the staff needed doses of something called "Eyeline". It's been refined since. Whatever decisions you made it stopped it from being changed. You left, and that was it. It was inconvenient, hard to rationalise, and some people frankly refused. So they set up a field generator that created a background signal to keep everything stable. It made people feel more comfortable too. The whole environment was protected, so rooms didn't change colour or office doors weren't suddenly discovered unlocked.'

  I put the kettle to boil. I felt this really needed washing down.

  Marcia shifted in her seat and carried on: ‘Along with some other sponsors, I supported the time stabilisation drug part of it too, this “Eyeline”. I thought it would still be useful to perfect the function and tolerance of the drug in case the generators failed at any time. We thought it would still be needed in any new research. And when the corridor opened downwards into that other land, it was the only way to travel there. That's where George got his knowledge from.'

  'Mapping expedition?'

  'Yes.... And we discovered the time shift too. The further from Main Base you are, the faster is your relative speed in time. George spent a week out there.... And he'd only been gone two days. Very weird it was until you got used to it.'

  ‘But what does the University have to do with all of this…. I mean which side are they on?’

  ‘Every side.’ Marcia slid off the seat and burrowed in her bag, ‘I have the names here of all the contributors to the projects. When I say “projects” that is exactly what I mean. There was not just Sand Glass, but others. I have the top people listed here; including the ones involved in our part of “Project Bank”.’ She spread the printed sheets out on the table.