A Light In The Dark
The power failure lasted for less than ten minutes. It occurred the previous Thursday. Back up generators switched on, kicking in within a few seconds and everyone carried on about their business without thought. The Clinic was on an island, it was winter, power failures, although not common, were nothing to worry about. They happened from time to time. Maintenance had to worry, it was they who had to venture out into the cold and damp to the generator’s bunker and carry out the necessary checks, but for everyone else, the power failure was forgotten about.
It was now apparent that the failure had disabled the number two generator for approximately eight seconds. Number two generator was responsible for the power supply to the electronic locks.
Holly returned to her monitor after speaking to Elwes and determining when, precisely, the failure had happened. She did not have the discs for that time period, they were still being perused by security. She arranged for them to be brought to her.
While she waited she smoked. It was a disgusting habit, but she didn’t care, not right then. She had quit before, on more than one occasion. Sometimes her job demanded it and she did it without compunction then. Alex had asked her not to smoke and at first she had disregarded his request, but as she had become closer to him, she had once again thrown away her cigarettes and lighter. Now she smoked because it helped her concentrate. On the job at hand and on forgetting the memory that had surfaced in the toilet. Alex had thought she was leaving to visit her parents, if only he knew. And then, it crossed her mind, maybe he had. Maybe that was why he had left. Had he seen through her, read her mind? No, he couldn’t. She had had her regular injections of serum, her thoughts were protected from his prying mind, and she would not have betrayed herself with a stray phrase or action. She was a professional and it would not have happened. No, she thought again, the answer lay with the power failure, she was sure of it.
There was a knock at the door and she opened it. A man stood, holding a stack of discs in his hands. She took them without a word and closed the door. Each recording was marked with a date, commencing with the afternoon of the previous Thursday and leading through to Saturday. She ejected the old disc from the machine and inserted the first fresh one. Fast forwarding to moments before the power failure.
The discs showed pictures from every camera on the island. It took a short while until she saw the film with Alex on it. He was walking down a corridor, unhurried, going nowhere slowly when the lights went out. Holly watched the display in the corner of the picture, counting until the lights came back on. Eight seconds. But before that, image intensifiers in the camera lens had brightened the picture, giving a sickly grey glow to the image of the corridor. The black and white film losing little in the way of clarity once the intensifiers were up to speed. The corridor was bare, Alex was not in sight. In eight seconds, he had vanished.
Holly rewound the image, played it again. A lot less than eight seconds was all it took for him to disappear. The image intensifiers brought the picture into focus in five point six three seconds, she had the disc stop automatically at the point of clarity. Alex was gone. And she knew where. The answer was staring her in the face.
She went through the disc again, and again. Frame by frame. She highlighted the image, turned the volume up and cut out hiss and background noise. There it was, the click she had been trying to hear.
On the monitor, the picture electronically enhanced to account for the loss of light, she watched Alex reach out an arm as the lights went out. He was in line with the door. It was a million to one chance. As the lights dipped, she heard the click of the electronic lock opening. The picture on the screen showed Alex, hand flattening against the door as the lock snapped open and the door pushed inwards. Alex stumbled, losing his balance and almost fell into the room behind the door. By the time the intensifiers had heightened the image, the door was closed again and Alex was inside.
There was no camera in the room. There was a key pad on the wall beside the door, the number that opened the lock was known to very few people. Holly herself did not know it, but she knew what was in the room. And now, it seemed, did Alex.
It was time to see Shelton.