Arcadia

13

Going outside with Hanslip and heading to the thin sliver of sand that separated the island of Mull from the sea was not a sign of intimacy or favour. Reality was very different from the balmy scene projected inside the building. It was freezing cold, for one thing, which was why Jack More normally took exercise only when it was warmer and when the wind had thinned the thick smog which habitually covered the globe. Even he felt cold as they walked along; Hanslip, who started shivering within minutes despite being encased in protective gear, was clearly not there for the pleasure of it. At least it wasn’t wet, though; he had seen from the news reports that it had been raining without a break for the past three weeks, and the ground — those bits which hadn’t been covered in protective concrete — was sodden and muddy, giving off a foul smell of rotting vegetation.

‘This is one of the few places where I can be sure I will not be overheard,’ Hanslip said as they left the double gateway and stepped into the air. ‘It’s the wind, mainly, but also a strange effect of the chemicals coming off the sea which disrupts the circuitry. We must put up with the unpleasantness.’

‘Being inside all the time makes me feel ill.’

‘So I gather. I suppose that’s a result of your energetic past.’

‘Probably.’

‘You never felt like having it fixed? Why is that?’

‘I suppose I assume that sooner or later I will leave here and go back to a normal life. What I think of as normal, anyway. I don’t want to have it fixed.’

The remarks exhausted Hanslip’s interest in the subject. They walked silently for a while, Jack looking at the sea and Hanslip studiously ignoring it, until the older man decided they had gone far enough.

‘What do you know about us?’

Jack tried to formulate a sensible reply. ‘I know this institute is of middling stature, that it is financially fairly secure, and that it employs a disproportionate number of people of doubtful quality.’

‘Doubtful quality? What do you mean by that?’

‘Some have been tagged as uncooperative and a few as borderline renegade. They are not the people a top-rank operation, or one engaged in sensitive research, would employ.’

‘We must be insignificant as we get the dregs no one else wants, is that what you mean?’

‘Well...’

‘Of course it is. You are quite right. A very second-rate organisation we are.’ Hanslip smiled. ‘Stuck on this revolting island on the fringes of nowhere. Nobody thinks we’re of the slightest importance and nobody pays much attention to what we are doing. Which is why it is so very annoying that this has happened.’

‘Then what are you doing?’

‘We are unlocking the deepest mysteries of the universe. Gaining access to worlds beyond the imagination, even beyond the power of science itself. We are conquering what does not exist.’

Jack considered this portentous remark. ‘Would you care to tell me what that means?’

‘Yes, although I must remind you of the need for secrecy. If you are to look for Angela Meerson, you need to know, if only to give you a sense of how important this is, and how urgent it is that you find her.’

Hanslip skirted round a solitary pile of seaweed, giving it a glance of distaste.

‘You know as well as I do that my contract here requires the highest level of discretion and loyalty. It is what you pay me for.’

‘Indeed. We have discovered a means of accessing parallel universes. Only one, at the moment, but once we understand the process properly, then potentially an infinite number. The space and resources that might become available to humanity would be stunning. It is also, of course, a scientific discovery of extraordinary importance.’

There didn’t seem much to say to this, so Jack contented himself with: ‘Really?’

‘Is that the best you can do?’

‘Congratulations, then.’

‘Officially, as you say, we are a minor little operation trying to eke out a few efficiencies in power transmission. In the last few years we have been quietly devoting ourselves to this other project. Angela noted a strange anomaly while running an experiment. We kept on getting more energy out than we were putting in. On its own it is a fabulous discovery: with the right equipment, a single watt of electricity could in theory power an entire city of millions. Since then we have refined the technology and discovered that if we do this in a tightly controlled space, then we can actually shift physical objects.’

‘How do you get from there to assuming the existence of parallel universes?’

‘That’s probably beyond your ability to understand,’ Hanslip replied in a slightly superior tone. ‘We transmit the matter — we began with electrons and have built up to more complex objects — then recover it. Analysis proves it has been gone for longer than it has been gone, if you see what I mean. The only scientifically valid explanation is that the matter has existed in a different state of reality. Another universe, in effect.’

‘Can you get to it, though? Electrons are one thing, but...’

‘We can. We have. There are now three machines. The first has been operational for four years and is capable of dealing with little more than molecules. The second was completed six months ago and can take up to two hundred kilograms; this has provided all the confirmation we need.’

‘What about the third?’

‘Still under development. It will take up to fifteen tonnes. It is designed to be able to move metal. Its power consumption will be colossal, though; far more than we can afford at the moment, and even more than Angela used up. ‘

Jack could see what the man meant by a discovery of extraordinary importance. He remained sceptical, however. What were the chances of a small, unimportant organisation making such a gigantic leap forward when others hadn’t even come near?

‘I hope you’re not suggesting that this mathematician of yours might have decided, in a carefree way, to go off and hide in a different universe? That would be suicidal lunacy, wouldn’t it?’

‘Quite. And although Angela is a lunatic, she is not suicidal. That’s why I am sure she has done nothing of the sort.’

‘So...?’

‘Angela is a psychomathematician,’ Hanslip said. ‘She works by harnessing emotions to power her calculations, and further enhancing these through the use of powerful stimulants. It is a highly specialised technique, but people established centuries ago that many people could do maths by associating complex calculations with things like shapes or colours. It is a sort of controlled insanity and in the right hands it can outperform any computer in intuition. Angela’s intuitions then have to be converted into orthodox calculations, of course, but she has done extraordinary work. Unfortunately, the process makes her emotionally unstable. In the last few months she was obsessively advancing a theory so outlandish it could not possibly be true, and fell in love with it to the point that she became capable of irrational actions to defend it.’

‘She is nuts, then?’

‘Sometimes. Her response to her calculations is like a mother defending a child, literally so. When she is in one of these states she would die, or kill, to protect whatever she is working on. She had come up with a new idea and wanted to stop the entire programme to explore it. She would not take no for an answer, and was incapable of listening to reason.’

‘Why does she work like that?’

Hanslip considered how to answer, coughing occasionally from the pollution in the air. ‘She was always exceptionally talented, but to enhance this she was subjected to a procedure some eighteen years ago. That is, she was put into an artificial coma, and a pregnancy was induced. The complex emotional responses were then captured and harnessed.’

‘How revolting. Was it voluntary?’

‘No,’ Hanslip said flatly, ‘and it was nothing to do with me. It was years before she came to work here. The procedure worked in that it greatly augmented her abilities, but it also made her so wayward that she became almost unemployable.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘You’ve got to find her, and you’ll need to take account of her unpredictability. Besides, one of the people involved in that experiment arrived here yesterday. It may be that he triggered some response and sent her into a panic.’

‘It couldn’t just be that she is suicidal?’

‘I doubt that. She would not risk depriving humanity of anything as important as herself.’

‘She’s that vain?’

Hanslip nodded. ‘Oh, yes. Personally I always thought it the best proof of the existence of multiple universes. One isn’t nearly big enough to contain her vanity.’

‘Anything else?’

‘Perhaps. I refused to reconfigure the experiment as she wished, but she went ahead and did it anyway. She began diverting time and resources away from the official programme to her own activities.’

‘Was that why you suspended her?’

‘I had no choice, but for Angela it may have been like having a newborn infant ripped from her arms. I had to ensure she could do no damage, either to the experiment or to herself. You must understand that this programme is way beyond our resources. Potentially it could be the largest research project ever undertaken. It is now getting to the stage where we need a more formal arrangement with a better resourced partner.’

‘Who?’

‘Oldmanter.’

Jack whistled.

‘Zoffany Oldmanter controls the most important and powerful institutions on the planet. He has the resources to develop this properly, in a way we could not. It is a sensible and necessary move. The negotiations were going very well indeed, until I found out that Angela had been misappropriating resources. I knew she would be likely to spread false rumours about the project in order to destroy any possibility of a partnership.’

‘I see. Did she know of this?’

‘It might help explain her actions. The point is that we must find her. For all her difficulties, she is exceptionally able and the only person who truly understands the deep science behind this. I do not want her going off to a rival, and I don’t want her scaring people with half-baked theories. Also...’ He paused with evident reluctance at having to admit the scale of the disaster the woman had unleashed. ‘Also, she seems to have erased all the data before she left.’

‘What data?’

‘Everything concerning the project, going back six years. All the prime documentation, all the copies, backups. Unless we retrieve it, it will set us back a decade or more, perhaps even kill the project altogether. The machine can be used twice more. Then it will need to be recalibrated, which we cannot now do.’

‘Why?’

‘It’s very sensitive. A prototype which requires constant maintenance, otherwise it becomes dangerously unreliable. Angela was working on how to stabilise it, but that is information that disappeared with her. So unless we get the data back, or Angela back, then it is dead.’

‘Where might she have gone?’

‘Our predictions are ninety-seven per cent that she has gone into hiding, probably amongst renegades. That, I understand, was your area of expertise before you came here.’

Jack nodded. ‘I was in the Social Protection Service. I monitored the activity of Retreats.’

‘There is a 2.94 per cent chance that she did indeed go off her head and use the machine, in which case she will be beyond our reach. The idea that she may have been converted into a thousand trillion particles scattered across multiple universes is appealing, but not necessarily true just because it would give me pleasure.’

Jack did a quick calculation. ‘What about the remaining 0.06 per cent? What’s that?’

‘A generous overstatement. That is the chance that she is right.’

‘About what?’

Hanslip waved his hand dismissively. ‘She couldn’t be. So go and find her.’

Hanslip’s main task was to stem the possibility of any leak and there was one huge, obvious hole in the institute’s defences, wandering around the place with a bland look on his face. This was Lucien Grange, sent by the great Zoffany Oldmanter to negotiate the partnership to exploit Angela’s discovery. Hanslip was uncomfortably aware that the man’s unexpected arrival could well have been what had pushed Angela over the edge. That had badly harmed his negotiating position; thanks to Angela, he no longer had the tight grip on the technology he needed. He had the machine, certainly. But only Angela really understood it.

His first task was to ensure that Grange did not realise this, and that no link could be established between the institute and the cataclysm that had spread over northern Europe. The news kept getting worse; Hanslip stopped looking when the death toll reached nine thousand and the public calls to find the perpetrators became shrill and hysterical. Luckily, everyone’s first instinct was to assume it was the work of terrorists, renegades dedicated to sabotaging the smooth running of society. Punishment was promised, violently backed up by messages from Hanslip, pointing out that the surge had caused considerable damage to delicate instrumentation in his institute and demanding compensation. It would work for a while, but not for long.

He was furious that Grange had shown up now. He had known that Angela would be difficult, but he had been certain that he could bring her round to the idea of collaborating with Oldmanter eventually. Grange’s arrival had been discreet by Oldmanter’s standards — none of the usual helicopters, armed guards, let alone the motorcades that announced the arrival of a scientist of importance — but was still hardly secret. Angela, he knew, was quite likely to have noticed.

The trouble was that she was so impractical. She was into purity, the elegance of the research. She didn’t care that the money was draining away or that it was getting harder and harder to keep supplies flowing in. She wasn’t bothered that in six months’ time they would be out of funds completely. When that happened, he would have no choice but to take whatever terms he could get. So he had delicately courted Oldmanter, tempting him with hints and suggestions, letting him see some of the work, grasp the possibilities. He knew everything — except how it worked.

The worst of it was that Oldmanter was interested and excited, and the greater his interest, the more coy Hanslip had become. He had talked of perhaps not needing a partner. Of talking to others. He had played (in his opinion) a poor hand brilliantly.

His ace was Angela. She alone truly understood the science, and as long as he controlled access to her, he would be indispensable. He had to keep her quiet and out of the way until the deal was done and he had the time to persuade her to accept the situation. Now she had not only ruined his careful plans, she threatened to bring the entire institute down around their heads.

If Grange figured out where the surge had come from, then the security forces would arrive within twenty-four hours. So, first things first. First Grange, then Angela. Then he would have space to manoeuvre.

Two hours later, a furious Grange was brought into Hanslip’s office under escort. There were security guards on his door, he said as he sat down. He had not been allowed out, been forbidden to communicate with the outside world. It was an outrage. Was this the way to build the trust necessary for a working relationship?

Hanslip eyed him carefully as he waited for the expressions of indignation to subside. He was no more impressed now than he had been during their meetings of the past few days. The anger seemed artificial and unnatural, an act put on to intimidate.

‘Terrible error,’ he said. ‘I can’t imagine what security thought it was doing. Naturally, I offer my full apologies.’

‘You realise what sort of message this could send?’

Hanslip nodded. ‘Of course. We have a crisis here, as you may have noticed, and the security system got a little jumpy. It concluded that there was too close a coincidence between your arrival and the disappearance of Angela Meerson, and so...’

‘I heard about that.’

‘I know. We are investigating the possibility that you were responsible for her flight. Did you have any encounter with her?’

‘A brief one. She sought me out.’

‘So she remembered you?’

‘Perhaps.’

‘You understand why I am asking? She has an inflated view of her own importance. She considers this technology to be her own; she will not allow anyone to take it, and will never leave it. Maternal protectiveness. You should know; you put it there. I have spent years carefully cosseting her, and then you turn up, and within twelve hours she has become unbalanced and disappeared. Naturally, our main concern is that she may seek protection from one of our rivals.’

‘Then perhaps we should move a little faster? If we can finalise an arrangement quickly, then we can take legal ownership before anyone else does. Another organisation might think it could ignore your claims, but I doubt anyone would be foolish enough to take us on.’

‘Legal ownership?’

‘I have come with a draft proposal. We believe it requires much more investment than you suggest. As the funds for this will come from us, we will naturally require a higher stake.’

‘How much higher?’

‘Eighty-five per cent.’

‘We had agreed a fifty — fifty split,’ Hanslip protested.

‘That was last week,’ Grange said with a smile. ‘Before you had a security breach, before you lost your prime researcher, before you killed nearly ten thousand people and caused nearly seventy billion dollars’ worth of damage, and before you engaged in a criminal conspiracy to conceal your involvement.’

‘I’m sure I do not understand what you are talking about.’

‘I am equally sure that you do. You will sign whatever agreement I choose to put before you, and you will do it by the time I leave this evening.’ He smiled and stood up. ‘We will proceed with or without your mathematician.’

‘You will find that difficult.’

‘We’ll manage. That is the end of the discussion. I’m afraid you must take it, or take the consequences of refusal. This is a cruel world in which to be without friends, and with powerful enemies.

‘Now,’ he went on brightly, ‘as this Meerson woman is no longer around, I imagine that you are not quite so desperate to keep me out of the laboratory where she worked. So I would like to see this machine of yours. If you will show it to me, then we can sign these papers, and I will be on my way.’

When Hanslip was angry he did not, like Angela, shout, turn red or throw things. Over many years he had learned to focus the anger. He entered a state of calm. As he walked with Lucien Grange to the laboratory, he was very angry indeed.

Grange’s brutal exposition of the facts brought him to the point where he knew he only had two rational choices: submit or resist. He knew, also, that his thinking was far from rational. He was tired, for one thing, and very shaken. He had supported and sustained Angela for years. His reward had been a comprehensive, total betrayal, with Grange now preparing to administer the final blow. Were they in it together? Had Angela been bought by Oldmanter? Was she already setting up her new laboratory in one of his research facilities? Unlikely, but Hanslip was able to consider any possibility now, as long as it was unpleasant.

He could sign or refuse to sign. Or he could behave rather as Angela would in the same position. It was not a reasoned calculation that made him decide, as he opened the doors into the laboratory, to go for the third option. He simply rebelled at the idea of being bullied.

The machine was all fired up, ready for a simulation to try and duplicate what Angela might have done. Hanslip showed Grange around, pointing out the control room and concentrating on the translucent sphere in the middle of the carefully shielded room. He tried to be ingratiating, preserving what little dignity defeat had left him.

‘That’s the actual transmitter. Small, I know, but you can just get a person in it. We have completed a much bigger one, but it is not yet ready to be used. This one isn’t really intended for people, you see. Mainly objects. The new one will have a much greater capacity.’

‘What’s it made of?’

‘It’s just a shape created by magnetic fields. If you get into it and lie flat, you float a few inches above the floor. It gives a very peculiar feeling, almost like weightlessness. We were thinking at one stage that we could market it as a recreational tool of some sort, or maybe a bed. Do try, if you want. It is extraordinarily comfortable and perfectly safe.’

Lucien crawled in and stretched out. ‘Yes,’ he said in a muffled voice, ‘very pleasant.’

‘Some volunteers have found it so calming they drop off to sleep.’

‘How do I get out?’

‘You have to release the fields surrounding you. That can only be done from the outside, or through the power shutting down automatically.’

‘Very interesting and, as you say, quite calming,’ he called out. ‘Still, I’ve had enough, so could you let me out?’

‘I’m afraid not.’

Hanslip, Grange noticed by twisting his body round to see more clearly, was now alone in the room with him. The two technicians had vanished. The director squatted down, so that their faces were at the same level.

‘I do not take kindly to being bullied and threatened.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ Grange said. ‘Business is business, and you need our protection. Let me out now.’

Hanslip smiled. ‘Very well. Just a moment.’

He left Lucien floating oddly in mid-air in the half-darkened room and strolled next door to the control room. Everything was running; setting up required many people but once all the systems were on automatic they were no longer necessary. He placed the palm of his hand on the matt black surface and felt the information he needed coursing up his nerves and into his brain. With twenty seconds to go he cancelled the original programme; then he summoned up the reserve power he needed and spun the dial to increase massively the scale of the transmission. Then the control panel froze as the automated transmission sequence took over.

A fraction of a second later and it was done. It was always a disappointing moment. Nothing changed, nothing happened. According to Angela, that was because nothing did change. The matter was still in the chamber, sort of. Only when the field dissolved would reality coalesce. Until then the contents were both there and not there. They would remain in a state of latent nonexistence for ever.

Hanslip briefly considered this option, but decided it was a bad idea. It was too extreme. Besides, he needed the machine.

He ran a little routine to erase the records and overlay data to demonstrate that they had merely been testing the equipment. He made sure that it was impossible to unravel what had happened, then summoned the technicians back to wind the operation down.

‘Thank you, gentlemen,’ he said. ‘Our visitor has gone off in a state of high excitement. You should have seen the look on his face.’