‘Did you see anything interesting?’ said Lydia.
Steven and Jacob had just sat down in the kitchen after arriving back from their ‘holiday’. Their bags were still in the hall; their coats draped over the banister. Tidiness would take a little longer . . .
At first, Steven was not sure what Lydia meant, such is the power of a guilty conscience, and then he remembered the computer shows they were supposed to have attended.
‘We didn’t go to the shows,’ said Steven with complete honesty. ‘We just rambled around sightseeing instead.’
‘Good,’ said Lydia. ‘You needed a rest from computers. I hoped it wouldn’t just be a busman’s holiday.’
‘But I had better check the system, now we are back,’ said Steven hastily.
It was now two o’clock in the afternoon. ‘Tea first? Something to eat?’ said Lydia.
‘Tea later,’ said Steven with a smile.
Lydia shook her head in mock despair. There was never any point in arguing.
Jacob, as ever, followed his father out of the room.
They ascended the two flights of stairs to the computer room almost at a run. When they got inside, they were rewarded by the sight of the purple button on the lower right-hand corner of the Brick flashing like fury.
‘I’m needed,’ said Steven. ‘Urgently!’
He sat down quickly at his desk and unfurled the screen above the Brick. There in front of him was not a message but a picture. On a mountainside a woman climber was swinging dizzily out into space from a rope that was so frayed that any second it would break.
‘Tollemeek!’ said Steven. ‘In trouble again!’
This time his exasperation was friendly, not the usual bear-with-a-sore-head variety. Truth to tell, he felt pleased to be wanted.
Then suddenly on screen a shield of blue light surrounded the climber and the frayed rope was replaited in an instant.
‘I didn’t do that!’ said Steven, baffled.
Jacob was sitting beside him, watching everything. ‘Maybe they’re training someone else to do your job,’ he said. ‘Maybe there’s already another Brick somewhere.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Steven crossly. ‘It will simply be emergency cover. They knew I was away and they did not know exactly when I would be back.’
‘But that still means that someone has another Brick somewhere.’
‘Of course they have,’ said Steven. ‘I am not responsible for the whole world. I don’t do Greece, for example. Probably my Greek counterpart has been called in.’
The screen blanked out. Steven waited for a message but none came. Thoughts of being made redundant before his projected return to Ormingat began to trouble him.
‘I’ll have to check on them all,’ he said. ‘I’ll have to see what has been happening in my absence.’
‘All?’
‘All thirty,’ Steven snapped, not looking at his son but keeping his eyes fixed on the screen and his fingers playing nervously across the keyboard. ‘I am responsible for thirty Ormingatriga in countries from Spain to Lapland. Now leave me alone to get on with my work.’
‘But-’ Jacob began.
‘No buts,’ said Steven, raising his voice. ‘Get out of my room and let me get on with my job. This is important.’
Jacob could not believe his ears. Never, ever had he been spoken to like this. He got up from the stool and walked very stiffly to the door, his head held high. His father did not even notice him opening the door and closing it behind him. Steven’s eyes were fixed on the machine, his own special machine in which he was surely the ultimate expert.
Jacob ran down the stairs, grabbed his coat from the newel post, and left the house. Lydia heard the door crash and hurried to see who was coming or going. She opened the door but by that time Jacob had turned the corner and was out of sight.
It was not until an hour later that Steven came down from the computer room. Eleven of his subjects had received help of varying degrees within the past few days. The other Brick, wherever it was, had been spectacularly active. Steven felt he had cause to worry. He gave no thought to Jacob till he came face to face with Lydia.
‘Someone went out,’ she said. ‘It wasn’t the twins – they’re out already. I thought it might be you.’
Steven flushed. He took his own coat from the banister, preparing to hang it in its proper place when he realized that Jacob’s coat was not there beside it.
‘It must have been Jacob going out,’ he said apprehensively.
‘But he’s had nothing to eat yet,’ said Lydia. ‘And where would he be going?’
Steven looked even more uncomfortable. He found it hard to look Lydia in the eye. She could be so uncannily perceptive.
‘Maybe he went for a walk,’ he said. ‘Maybe he wanted to clear his head.’
‘I didn’t know his head was unclear,’ said Lydia suspiciously.
‘We had a bit of an argument,’ Steven confessed. ‘I must have been abrupt with him. I’d better go after him.’
‘You won’t know where to go. You don’t know what direction he’s gone in.’
‘I think I might,’ said Steven. ‘I’ll give it a try anyway. If he gets back before I do, don’t let him come out looking for me.’
He pulled on his coat and hurried out into the street.