Shell Shocked (The Cosmic Carapace, #1) (11 page)

Spencer and Becky walked across to meet Norbert and the twins in the middle of the room.

“What’s going on?” asked Becky.

All four of them looked nervous as Esme replied.

“Norbert’s friend had told him he’d seen Colin being taken onto a boat in the docks by some men. We all rushed down there and there was this guy saying he’d seen it too and that the ship had sailed off... but....we could see he wasn’t telling the truth. He was trying to lead us off on a wild goose chase. So we... used the persuader.” She lifted a metal handle which formed two prongs at one end. He flipped a switch on the side in way of demonstration and a light blue bolt of electricity sparked between the two small spheres at the end of each prong.

Eva continued from her sister.

“He told us someone had paid him and his brother to tell anyone asking that that was what had happened. His brother had taken a boat out a little way and was to lead anybody who tried to chase him out to sea.”

“I don’t understand?” said Becky.

“I do," said Spencer. “It was a distraction wasn’t it? Spangler knows.”

They all turned to look at the figure who was now striding up and down in front of the window, occasionally smashing a fist into its sill and muttering constantly.

Eva continued. "He was... you know... the other one, then he changed and was furious. Kept saying ‘he didn’t listen’, but we don’t know who he means."

“I think he’s talking to himself," said Spencer slowly.

“Well obviously.” said Becky curtly.

“No, I mean he’s talking about himself, the other side of him.”

They all looked from Spangler to Spencer, but he didn’t expand further, he continued to stare at the old man pacing with a slight frowned expression. Norbert broke the spell.

"I'll murder that Leggy ‘Arold if I see ‘im again! The bleeding liar! Now they’ve gone and taken it and I'll never get me bits and bobs!” His hat was spinning fast in his hands.

“Taken what?” asked Becky sharply.

They all looked at the floor. Giving Spencer the impression of four puppies trying to decide who should explain the funny smell coming from the wardrobe.

Suddenly Norbert wailed.

”The device! The one you go to the other places with! It’s all my fault!” He pulled a stained and sodden hanky from his breast pocket and blew a loud parp into it.

“No!” burst Becky “It can’t have... oh god.” There was another awkward silence.

Spencer became aware that Spangler had become quiet as well. He looked across and saw the old man leaning once more, but he wasn’t agitated and mumbling anymore. He was still and quiet apart from the rise and fall of his back as his breathing slowed. He slowly stood up and turned towards him. The scowl had gone, the eyes had reverted to their piercing, warm blue sparkle rather than the cold blue ice they had appeared as just moments ago. He was the Spangler Spencer had first met again.

“Come now!” he said as he approached. “Do not worry, we will find it again I am sure! We have each other, and what a fine team we are!”

“They took the tortoises as well," said Becky softly.

Spangler’s smile flickered. For a fleeting moment it looked as though his entire face had flashed back to the angry, cold, hard face he had had previously. His eyes wandered to the tortoise pen and quickly darted back, he raised his smile again.

“No matter, no matter. Let’s concentrate on finding Colin and the device shall we?” he said in a business like manner and promptly walked off and out of the large side door to the rest house.

Everyone seemed to have frozen for a moment before Becky spoke quietly.

“Where the hell do we even start looking?!”

Spencer stepped forward.

“Norbert, go and find your friend... ‘Leggy’ was it?”

“Leggy ‘Arold yeah,” spat Norbert murderously.

“Well find him and find out who paid him to say what he did, he must have been paid off like the man at the dock. Eva, start looking at media, online stuff anything that can let us know if something big happens.”

Eva giggled a little, “There’s no internet or tv here, just radio.”

“Ok,” continued Spencer assertively, though inwardly reeling with panic from the realisation he was now stuck in a world that didn’t have television. “Listen to the radio then, get out on the street and see what’s going on. Whatever this is I've got a feeling it’s going to be big. Think about what someone could do with this...” Silence rang out like bell, tension wrapping itself around them as they stood thinking. Spencer broke it.

“I need to go and have a little chat with Mr Spangler.” He walked off towards the door with Becky following him.

“He’ll be in his office on the top floor, what are you going to say to him?” Becky asked.

“I think he knows who’s done this, you saw his reaction, I think he was angry with himself as he should have seen this coming. We need to know what we’re up against and he’s the only one who can tell us.”

“He’s always refused to talk about his past and things.”

“Well it’s time for that to change," said Spencer as they reached the top of the musty wide staircase with the fading, floral carpet and set off down a corridor, Becky pointed down as she continued.

“He has a terrible temper.”

“No he doesn’t,” Spencer said darkly. “That’s not even him.”

They reached an ancient and battered door with ‘Spangler’ etched into a small brass plaque at its center. Spencer knocked loudly before Becky could ask him what he was talking about.

Spencer opened the door and entered before waiting for a reply.

A large wooden desk dominated the center of the crowded room which heaved with bookshelves stuffed with dusty tomes. Papers were strewn all over the desk and floor, each with scribblings and writing that looked illegible to Spencer. Brass candlesticks heavy in melted wax sat dotted around amongst the drifts of paper. It was not so much a ‘fire hazard’ as a ‘fire to be’ thought Spencer, as in, this place is definitely going to burn to the ground at some point and it would be best if people (particularly himself) weren't in it at the time.

Spangler sat in a leather swivel behind the desk facing to one side. Light speared through a round window behind him, the beam illuminating him from behind giving him a glow. His head was in his hands, his elbows on his knees. He didn’t turn around when they entered.

When Spencer spoke it was quietly, taking Becky by surprise who had thought he was going to tear into Spangler from the way he had been talking.

“You need to tell us who’s done this, you need to tell us how this all started, and you need to tell us before something happens to Colin or they use the device to do god knows what.”

The old man turned to them and sighed deeply.

~~~~

T
hey’d walked for around twenty minutes through dull little streets with dull little shops. Pall had draped his ragged coat over Colin’s tied wrists so that people couldn’t see he was clearly being held captive. They still attracted quite a few odd looks though. A thin angular man wearing what appeared to be a fancy dress pirate costume, being followed by an enormous, square jawed Colin in a white, billowing shirt. His hair shining golden in the sun. Then, at the rear, a hawkish, shifty-eyed individual who people seemed to turn away from very quickly when they caught his eye, suddenly finding the pavement absolutely fascinating. This was not an everyday trio to be wandering these streets.

Colin had considered calling out when they had first seen other people milling about the streets as they’d made their way from the field towards civilisation. He hadn’t though in the end, thinking that it was quite possible that the man behind him would have no issue in hurting an innocent passerby who tried to help him, and also that G.R.I.N club policy stated that they should try and reduce any possible connections between worlds as much as possible. He decided to bide his time and overpower them somehow.

He looked around, they appeared to have turned off into a residential area. Flats loomed either side of a narrow, stubby cul de sac.

“Where are we going?” he asked again. He had already asked this question twelve times during the short walk, but he considered perseverance to be an admirable trait.

Pall poked him hard in the back and snarled, “Shut up.”

The angular man was walking more slowly now, his head darting left then right, staring at the buildings on either side. He was muttering to himself and flicking through a small black leather notebook he had pulled from his jacket pocket. He seemed to be deciding something.

“There!” he suddenly shouted, pointing to an entrance the other side of the street from them.

The three of them walked up to the grubby glass door. The thin man scanned the small names covered in peeling plastic which ran vertical along the door, next to each one a buzzer.

The man ran a thin finger along the names, coming to rest against the second last one which read ‘Stroud’.

He pressed the buzzer. There was a moment's silence before a ghostly crackle proceeded a woman’s voice emanating from the speaker.

“Hello?”

“Hello madam, I am here to tell you that you have won a prize. If you would just come down, we can go through the details.”

“Bugger off," came the reply instantly, before falling silent again.

The man’s eyes narrowed and Colin saw the knuckles whiten on the hand that was now squeezing the notebook tightly. Someone suddenly came running down the stairs behind the door in front of them and burst through it. A man wearing luminous cycling shorts, a white basketball vest and enormous headphones jogged past them nodding curtly.

The angular man quickly darted behind him and caught the door before it slammed shut. He turned to Pall.

“Go and get her, I'll stay with this idiot.”

He stepped behind Colin who felt the tip of a blade press against his lower back. Pall hurried off up the stairs. Just five minutes passed with nothing other than the low rumble of traffic from the main road and the odd burst of birdsong from the trees which lined the cul de sac, before Pall returned pushing a clearly terrified woman in front of him.

––––––––

S
pencer looked into the eyes of Spangler and waited for an answer. The old man slumped further over, his head bowed.

“What I have to pass to you, is the weight which has kept me so broken all these years. A great shame to me, a great shame."

His voice cracked with the last few words.

“Just tell me."

Spangler sighed deeply, he drew himself up slightly.

“Many years ago, I had a partner. I will not shirk my responsibility for what happened, but it is true to say that my partner drove us to our disastrous end. At the time, I thought it was all a wonderful adventure." His face moved into a sad smile. “Things were different then. We had such dreams... well... I did." His eyes moved from misty eyed reflection to something darker, there was a pain there. Spencer could see it hovering just below the surface.

“My partner was a very... single minded man. I didn't fully realise...“ He drifted off and stared at the floor once more.

“Go on," Spencer encouraged.

“Ever since I had hypothesised that there were multiple universes I had set my mind to finding a way across. I had searched for years using various methods, until finally one day I created my Vibrobbler."

Spencer spluttered suddenly. “Vibrobbler?!”

“Yes, yes, I realise it was a somewhat unfortunate name, but that's what I used to call it."

Spencer tried to relax his eyes from something other than saucers.

“It was an unknown area, we didn't realise the implications of...“ he tailed off again.

“Yes?" said Spencer

“The universe, all universes have weak points, thin spots in reality where each universe is as close to the next as it can possibly be. When we turned on the Vibrobbler for the first time, it shook the very foundation of reality, the weak spots simply... cracked."

“Which is why things occasionally leaked through," replied Spencer.

“Yes, but more than that. They cracked where we were stood in a way we hadn’t anticipated."

“Here, in Ingress," said Spencer.

“Yes," replied Spangler looking slightly surprised. “But we didn’t just move to a parallel universe... we moved all of them to us and away from us... at once."

“What does that mean?" asked Becky.

“I think I know," answered Spencer. Becky spun her head to his, Spangler raised his eyes to meet Spencer's.

“You opened it up so that all the versions of Ingress, there must have been millions and millions, they all happened at once didn’t they? They were all here at once, and everywhere else at once as well. I think it might have happened to you as well."

Spangler visibly flinched at this. His face flashed with an angry scowl again, then was back. His blues eyes looking full and sorrowful.

“Yes," he croaked. “I became all of me. Every version from across the universes. Do you know, I think it sent me quite, quite mad for a while.“ Strangely he seemed to brighten up at this.

“Ha! Yes! After we had set the device running everything went white. I awoke in the same room, but my partner had gone, and everything looked different... apart from the tortoises. The tortoises were just the same."