Page 209 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

reflectors that the old NASA space missions placed up here? We found about a dozen of them that
had been misplaced. David Martin has set up an experiment in his room. He wants to show you
something when you come to visit next; any idea when that will be, he’s getting rather insistent?”
Lars said in answer to Lance’s request.
“I’m due there in about a month as part of an exchange programme. That son of yours looks like he’s
going to take after his Mother after all” Lance chuckled. Lars laughingly agreed and the two friends
made their goodbyes. The screen went blank. Lance decided to complete another Historical report
he’d been compiling for a wealthy Denevar client and make that the end of work for the day. As he
finished that and sent it on its way; he noticed something further in the ancient article. There was a
name of the person who had originally compiled the report… It was one Jacob Lund-Helstrom. I
wonder thought Lance. Then shook it off as pure coincidence…

An unpleasant discovery
Getting back to his regular routine was proving difficult for Arthur. Why the Constable had
mistaken Helen; his girlfriend, for his wife was understandable. She behaved so much like they were
married anyone would think they actually were. She had noticed the change in him since the
“incident”; as she referred to it, and had begun to question his moves. He’d been increasingly more
irascible; tired too. He wasn’t sleeping like he used to. It was around two in the morning one
Tuesday about a month later that everything came to a head. Helen had found him standing in the
kitchen; he was staring into space, fridge door wide open and a bottle of milk in his hand, with only
the light from inside the fridge showing the blank look on his face. She thought at first he was sleep
walking; but when she nudged him he unfroze and blinked at her and yelled obscenities. If she
hadn’t had her wits about her he would have probably killed her; or at the very least severely injured
her. As it was he managed to shatter the tumbler he was going to pour the milk into against one of
the kitchen cupboards. She recalled later that he’d then collapsed in a heap sobbing uncontrollably.
A week or two after that she came to visit him at Green Lane Hospital in Devises; he was in a
side ward on his own. The notice above the bed read “Nil by Mouth”.
“Hello Darling! I’ve been talking with young Jenny. She’s had a funny turn too. Bad thing was she;
killed that lovely Red Setter of theirs; strangled the poor animal. She’s being admitted today.” She
announced and fussed with the blinds
“No! Leave them; my eyes are still giving me trouble. I’ve become over sensitive to the light. Poor
Jenny; at least I didn’t hurt you. You have remarkable reflexes. The Surgeons are still examining that
object they found in my neck. It’s even got the experts bamboozled” he said in response. He kissed
her and she sat down on the bed beside him
“I knew something was off… oh about the second week after the… “Incident”; I am slightly Psychic,
or so my Gran keeps reminding me” She chuckled. She was trying to keep his spirits up; that was
obvious. “Jenny had one of those things in her neck too. Her’s broke through the skin on its own.

She’s thankful of one thing though…” she added but was interrupted when one of the
Interns entered to change Arthur’s dressing on the wound the surgeon had made to
remove the object. She waited until he’d left and continued. “There’s no trace of her
being… interfered with. The bleeding was from a natural menstrual cycle apparently. It
just got triggered early because of the shock she’d had” she finished. He digested this
and then asked how things were going at work. The mundane seemed to calm him.

Doctor Ida Swenson; leading surgeon was examining the sliver like thing that had been
removed from Arthurs’s neck. She’d asked a former roommate of hers, now the head of research at
Cambridge Scientific PLC to take a look at it; before the “Ministry Wallach’s” came for it
“As you’ll see it’s not like any metal implant I’ve ever seen” she said and handed it to
Barbra Knock. She put on a pair of gloves and put the item under the bench
microscope.
“I see what you mean. Are those flecks of nerve tissue on the filaments?” she asked