Chapter 8 - The Kraken Gate
‘Hello Connie.’ Benjamin put his hands in his trouser pockets, at-ease now that we were on our own. He always managed to look so infuriatingly relaxed.
‘You can address me as Ms. Derringer, Lieutenant Scott or I’ll reacquaint my knee with your soft parts! You lost the right to first-name terms when you had me court-martialed.’
Lieutenant Scott held up his hands. ‘Very well, Ms. Derringer.’ His smile slipped a little. ‘I’ve heard and read a lot of good things about your company, Lockhouse Security. That’s it, isn’t it? You seem to be doing pretty well for yourself.’
‘Oh, please! Don’t tell me you want to take the credit for that!’
‘No, Connie.’ The smile was gone, replaced with a look of the injured party. It was a mixture of big eyes, hurt and vacuous inquiry. I felt a familiar warm lurch in the pit of my stomach, followed by shame, and then rage at my own weakness.
‘Why you?’ I asked, unable to keep the bitterness from my voice.
‘For this mission?’
‘Yes. There must be hundreds of people the Council could have picked. Lieutenant Garrick, Carson, Captain Fenwick, Captain Edwards or pretty much any of the officers in the Rangers. Draxil knows, there are plenty of good men and even one woman in the regulars, but he picked you!’ I poked Benjamin’s chest. ‘It’s not a coincidence, is it?’
‘You’re as sharp as ever, Connie.’
Benjamin acquiesced. ‘You’re right. The Minister of Defence had a shortlist and my name wasn’t on it. Chancellor Gordon knew that you and I had a history. He intervened and made sure I was selected.’
‘Why? Does he think that mutual hate is the foundation for a great working relationship?’
Benjamin stared. I thought for a moment that he could see right through me. This was the man who had lain alongside me, had traced his fingers down my spine and over the curve of my hip. This was the man who had kissed me tenderly on the lips and just about everywhere else. This was the man who had lain within the circle of my arms and my legs while I had shuddered with pleasure. This was the man who had told me that he loved me, and then betrayed me.
He shook his head. 'Do you still hate me?’.
Suddenly the day’s excitement came down on me like a weight. It was nearly ten bells of the evening. The morning seemed to have occurred days ago. I was tired from the various journeys, criss-crossing the city, making arrangements for our departure. My temples felt like a groundquake, with the wound as its epicentre. I rubbed my forehead gently, trying to ease the pain away.
‘Why did you do it?’ I asked, my voice a whisper. ‘You never explained.’
When Benjamin replied, his voice was tender. ‘To protect you. I told you that before. It’s important to do the right thing.’
My derisory snort caused a bolt of pain to shoot through my head. I closed my eyes. ‘Oh course. You were always going on about “doing the right thing”,’ I said. ‘And protect me from what, Lieutenant? That’s what you never told me.’
‘I couldn’t. I… I can’t.’
I held up a hand to stop the lies. I might have to work with him, but I didn’t have to listen to this nonsense. Perhaps I’d never find out why he’d made me take the blame for the misconfigured ordinance; maybe as I’d always suspected, he’d seen me as a threat to his own career. That had been my father’s theory.
‘Perhaps when…’
‘No!’ I cut him off. ‘Forget it. We’ll meet tomorrow and I’ll tell you what I know, which isn’t much. I only found out about this second site today, so I haven’t had much time to make a plan.’
‘Do you have somewhere in mind to meet?’
‘How about the Mighty Bean, on Bedrock?’
‘Alright,’ Benjamin said. ‘What time?’
‘Eleven bells?’
‘When is your squad going to Lannerville?’
‘Our tickets have already been booked for the day after tomorrow.’
That shocked me. I’d assumed that the marines would be following on much later. Then I remembered that the land train was slower than the air-train I was taking, which meant that there would be time to reconnoitre the Lannerville estate before Benjamin and his men arrived.
‘Fine,’ I said and turned to leave.
‘Wait,’ Benjamin said. ‘This Koulomb Gate… have you seen it in action?’
I looked back. ‘I’ve been through it.’
Benjamin looked impressed. ‘Amazing! What is it like?’
‘The gate itself? It’s…it’s hard to describe. A bit like a mirror with ripples in it. Imagine a pond turned on its edge.’
‘And monsters live on the other side?’
‘On the one planet that’s being explored right now, yes.’
‘Director Harman says one of them tried to come through last night which is why your failsafe mechanism activated.’
‘This morning,’ I corrected again. ‘It tried to come through at just after two bells, this morning.’ I couldn’t stop the acerbic tone from creeping into my voice. ‘Are you going to try and pass the whole thing off as an accident of my doing, again?’
Benjamin frowned. ‘No. Look, I’m here to help, really! You may have a top team, but just as the chancellor said, you will need more people to secure a site the size of Lannerville.’
I tilted my head in acknowledgement.
‘Connie,’ he said, earning a frown from me. He held one hand up, a placatory gesture. ‘Sorry. Ms. Derringer. I’m on your side. We need to stop this machine from falling into the wrong hands. It must be kept safe for Emberland’s benefit. The chancellor is convinced it could give us the edge over the Nallians.’
I rubbed my tired eyes and gazed back at him, unsure what to think. There was no way I could take Benjamin’s word after what he had put me through. How do you trust a man who insinuated himself into your life in the most intimate way possible and then sold you out? There was no way back for him, but I would have to find a way to stay civil.
‘Look, it’s been a long day. Do you mind if we continue tomorrow?’
‘Not at all. Where are you headed now? May I escort you there?’
‘No, you may not. Anyway, I’ll be summoning a carriage. I’m too tired to walk.’
When we left the study, Director Harman was nowhere to be seen, but his butler was hovering in the hallway. Obermann sent one of the other members of staff out to flag down a cab, so I watched Lieutenant Scott walk down the drive and disappear into the night. No sooner had he gone than Director Harman’s voice spoke beside me. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
‘Meddlers!’
‘The Council?’ I asked, when I had recovered my composure.
The old man took his spectacles off and rubbed his eyes. ‘I have poured hundreds of millions into this project, a project that will place Emberland far ahead of every other nation, and what has the Republic’s glorious Council done to help? Nothing. In fact, quite the reverse. At every step they have obstructed and impeded our progress, with countless pettifogging demands. Licenses, paperwork, progress reports and other such counterproductive bureaucratic twaddle.’
It occurred to me that the failsafe had made the case for a little oversight, but I decided that the Director wasn’t in a receptive mood, so I allowed him to continue.
‘I mean to say, Ms. Derringer, that countries depend on their entrepreneurs and risk-takers. Without us, we would all still be scratching around in the dirt. They should be funding this research, or providing grants at the very least, not trying to get in the way.’
‘Is there anyone else in the Council you can approach for help?’ I asked. ‘What about the Minister for Transport, Edward Mathers?’ Mathers had cunningly gifted his invention of the air-train to Emberland in return for a permanent seat on the Council. The newspapers and the public were so enamoured of the prototype that the Council had been forced to bankroll the remainder of the project.
‘Mathers?’ the old man said, ‘Don’t talk to me about Mathers! He sold out. He’s one of the most hidebound of the lot now.’
‘Do you want me to shut them out then? Lieutenant Scott and his men. I might be able to run interference.’
‘Ach, no!’ He looked annoyed. ‘You’ll only give the chancellor the ammunition he needs to get you forcibly removed from the project.’
‘He can do that?’
‘You’d better believe it, Ms. Derringer. This company and the Koulomb Gate may be mine now, but the Council has broad powers, and they will use them to wrest control of it all from me if they decide that I am not playing nicely.’ He stood up a little straighter and looked me in the eye.
‘No, Ms. Derringer. Make sure you offer Lieutenant Scott and his men every assistance for now, the chancellor too, should he show up at Lannerville. I’ll run some interference of my own. If I need your help, I’ll be sure to let you know.’
‘Of course, sir.’
‘Oh, and I’ve hired a replacement hydrologist, Dr. Millicent Onacar. She’ll be joining you in Lannerville. Professor Pratchee was due to acquire water samples and provide a report on its safety and such, but of course…’ Harman waved his hand vaguely at the ceiling. Professor Sando Pratchee’s mission had been to tell us how much water there was on Ganessa, and whether it was safe to drink. I nodded, but Harman hadn’t finished.
‘Please ensure she accompanies you on the first trip through the new gate. We need to know whether the planet will support humans, long-term. Oh, and brief the marines about the Charg, will you? They need to know what we’re up against. Get Dr. Evershed to help with that.’
‘Evershed?’
Harman made a placatory gesture. ‘I know he’s a pompous ass, but he’s the only person left on the team who has actually seen this accursed creature.’ Dr. Polonius Evershed was the project’s naturalist, recruited at a time when it was imagined that any troublesome fauna could be suppressed with guns. His previous experiences were described in several sensationalist publications, panned by the scientific community, but lapped up by a somewhat less discerning public, eager for “fangs, faeces and animal fornication” as one reviewer had described the various writings.
‘Will there be room for all these people at the manor?’
‘The family home in Lannerville has ample space. My brother and two sisters moved out long ago and rarely visit these days. I’ve made all the arrangements with the estate butler, Rigsby. He’ll be expecting you.’
‘We will need to expand our security checks to include all your staff on the estate.’
‘Of course. Rigsby will provide a list of names and help to arrange interviews, if they prove necessary. If he gives you any trouble, just remind him that you’re there at my behest.’
‘Trouble?'
The old man tossed his head dismissively. ‘He’s a bit stuck in his ways. He doesn’t like the changes I’ve been making to the estate, but he’ll just have to get used to it.’
I had more questions, but Obermann returned and announced that my transport had arrived. Harman patted me on the shoulder and smiled for the first time that day. I left with the feeling that, rather than ruining my job prospects, the destruction of Winslow Hall had in fact brought me closer to my employer.
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