| |
The British Library, Euston Road, London NW1
Ari had the whole internet at his disposal to seek out information but he preferred to do his research the old-fashioned way, by leafing through the printed word – in books. Book books as he liked to call them. A purist traditionalist, he was no fan of eBooks either and always, if possible, chose the immersive library experience of the British Library.
Spotting Ari’s entrance, Susan, a friendly young woman with a permanent smile etched on her face, left a conversation with another staff-member and glided over to her client.
“Mr Dunn. How wonderful to see you. We haven’t seen you for almost three weeks and were beginning to get a little worried.”
Ari returned her smile and doffed his hat.
“Hello, Susan. I have been busy at work. There is nothing to worry about. Thank you for your concern though.”
Susan continued smiling. Ari wondered if she had any other facial expressions in her repertoire.
“So, Mr Dunn, what are you looking for today?”
“Do you have an up-to-date biography of Doctor William Spencer?”
Susan thought for a few seconds.
“Isn’t he one of the people that invented time travel?”
Ari winced a little inside at Susan’s use of the word invented but didn’t correct her. He nodded.
“Yes, Susan. That is the chap.”
Unsurprisingly, Susan smiled.
“I’ll check what we have on the system.”
She waved her hand and a holographic computer monitor appeared as if out of nowhere. She tapped the projected image half a dozen times and beamed at Ari.
“We received an updated edition just last Thursday. It’s at coordinates 31.247 by 19.902. Would you like a bibliodroid to fetch it for you?”
Ari shook his head.
“No thank you. I will find it myself.”
Ari enjoyed the walk among the hundreds of shelves in the library. Those containing older books had an indistinguishable musty smell that he relished whereas the newer books had a fresh clean smell. He found the diversity of size, colour, and shape of the books very pleasing to his eye. It was a walk during which he could relax and let the spirit of the library flow through him.
It took him a good five minutes to reach the correct section but he wasn’t concerned about the time. He scanned the shelves and spotted the book he was looking for, Doctor William Spencer: A Biography, an uninspiring but functional title.
Ari was a self-taught speed-reader and, despite the large number of pages in the book, he knew that it wouldn’t take much of his time. What he would be looking for was a sense of pattern, locations that were dear to the doctor and that he visited often. In his experience, he found that cheating partners would either frequent old haunts from their days of singlehood in an attempt to regain the freedom of their youth or find completely new locations to practise their indiscretions. He hoped it would be the former – it would make his life a lot easier.
He opened the book and bypassed the title, copyright, and dedication pages. Doctor Spencer’s infancy was also probably immaterial to the case although he’d revisit the scientist’s childhood if he couldn’t find anything useful from the chapters about his adolescence and young adulthood.
He ran his finger down the table of contents until it arrived at the germane chapter: Coming of Age.
Arriving at page forty-seven, his eyes clicked into gear and scanned the content line by line, accelerating through the words until something caught his attention. This was another instance when his cell phone proved its use. He didn’t like compromising his principles but taking photos was a much quicker and more efficient way to record details and he would have a much more accurate record to work with.
Some sixth sense caused him to move his focus to the bottom of the page. Where there had once been words there was now a blank space. His eyes moved up the page to the three paragraphs that he had just read and he blinked incredulously as he watched the sentences evaporate before his very eyes, one letter at a time. Soon, there was nothing left but a blank page. He quickly flipped through the pages towards the back of the book but the rest of the book was completely blank. He returned to the front of the book just in time to take a quick photo of a table with the doctor’s personal details – birth name, date of birth, place of birth, profession, articles of note and achievements, parentage, spouse and children – before the text of the contents page, the dedication, the copyright notice, and the title page completely disappeared. A second later, he was left looking at his empty hand, no trace left of the book that he’d just been reading. He spoke out loud as if he wished to confirm with his own ears that he wasn’t dreaming.
“This cannot be happening.”