A Summer in Amber Read online

Manuscript Edition

  A Summer in Amber

  C. Litka

  Copyright 2016 Charles Litka

  Thank you for downloading this eBook. You're welcome to share it with friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form.

  I would like to thank Sally, Nicole, Martin, and Ed for all their work in correcting my errors to make this edition the best edition ever. I am very grateful for their help. I would be delighted to correct any remaining mistakes called to my attention at [email protected]

  A map and background information on this story can be found here:

  https://clitkabooks.blogspot.com/2015/04/a-summer-in-amber_20.html

  Information and news about my other and upcoming books, can be found here:

  C. Litka's Works in Words Blog

  Dedication

  To my dear wife, Sally

  Chapter 1: Monday, 17 June

  01

  Not yet 8:30 and the morning was bathwater warm and nearly as moist. It'd be tropical by noon. I could already feel my shirt sticking to my back as I pedalled along the Grange Road, letting the bike's electric motor do more than its fair share of the work in the (vain) hope of arriving reasonably fresh. By dressing for the tropical weather, in shirt and trousers, and loose cravat, I was pushing it. Professor Everett Blake, my supervising professor and the Cavendish director, was known for being an icon of “tra” (traditional) dress, with little tolerance for “mod” (modern/casual) dress in general, and certainly not for the first day of a post doc appointment. However, as a newly minted Ph.D., I felt the need to draw a trivial line in the sand marking my transition from student to scholar. My casual attire would annoy him, but I've been doing that for years – even when I wasn't trying. Viewed in that light, it could be seen as maintaining a tradition, a very tra thing to do.

  Slipping in and out of leafy shade and milky sunlight, dodging trails of horse apples left by the early morning farm drays, I passed the ivy covered walls, green hedges, open fields, old houses and familiar colleges that lined my familiar path to the Cavendish Lab. A thin stream of bikes and rickshaw delivery vans flowed in both directions – students, the occasional professor, office clerks and shop workers, dressed in an eclectic mix of mod and tra. All very familiar, but today, subtly different as well. I’d been a student for as long as I can remember, and now, I wasn’t. It seemed a bit strange. Still, Professor Blake would cure me of that illusion and I'd soon be back in the old groove. Subtly different or not, I was glad to be back, not the least because Penny would be here until December, completing her own post doc project.

  I turned down Adams Road. The two tall windmills at the far end of Trinity Old Field stood idle. Still, with the day's abundance of sunlight for the solar roof panels, they could take the day off. And so, with such idle musings, I slipped through a summer's morning, never suspecting that my comfortable plans and day dreams were about to become undone.

  I’d come up from London yesterday afternoon, out of Kings Cross – locomotive numbered NBE371, a 4-6-2 New Britannia class, pulling four Mark 3 coaches to Peterborough. Then a 2-6-4T numbered NBL 421 pulling a pair of reworked articulated cars to Cambridge – sorry, an old habit. You’d think that between school and working in the family’s green houses, I’d have had better things to do in my little free time growing up than watching the trains out of Kings Cross and St Pancreas go by. But no.

  I'd spent the past three weeks in London lounging about – recovering from a gruelling year of lab work, writing and then defending my thesis. During my research I’d run across several unexpected, but promising, aspects that I had to turn a blind eye to in order to get my thesis written. I wanted to give them a closer look, but doubting I'd have the chance as a new hire in either industry or government, I gratefully accepted Blake’s offer of a year’s post doc to thoroughly explore them. And, as I’ve mentioned, Penny would be working in the lab until December as well.

  A short jog at the end of Adams Road and then up the narrow path between more sports fields, with more idle windmills, and I was home. That is to say, I'd reached the Cavendish Lab, where I’d spent more nights in the past year than I’d spent in my digs. It certainly felt like home.

  With fifteen minutes to spare, I locked my bike, took off my straw boater to wipe the sweat from my brow and found some shade in front of the Lab. I was in no hurry to go in. Electricity is prioritized for the various labs, so during these tropical outbreaks, air conditioning in the offices was little more than a rumour. And since the office windows have yet to be retrofitted to open, it'd likely be beastly hot inside. I was, however, tempted to slip down into the bowels of the labs and say a quick hello to Penny. But then, likely as not, I’d end up late for my appointment. Blake first, then Penny.

  02

  Vera waved me into Professor Blake’s office precisely at nine. He was sitting behind a large bare desk with a small fan silently whirling off to one side. Blake is a tall black man who always dresses in black – black suits, homburg hats, ties, shoes and socks, and when required, a black academic gown. The white of his shirt collar peeking out of his black vest simply highlights the blackness of ‘The Rave’. In the sweltering heat of his office, he'd taken off his suit coat and perhaps even loosened his tie, but otherwise was as cool and as black as ever.

  ‘Good morning, Professor Blake,’ I said cheerfully, determined to put my best foot forward.

  He waved me to the chair. ‘Good morning, Doctor Say.’ Leave it to Blake to make that ‘doctor’ sound ironic.

  I smiled and sat down. No matter how he said it, I was Doctor Say now, and I liked the sound of it.

  We had a curious relationship. As director of the Cavendish, he could've foisting me off on some other poor professor if he'd want to. But he hadn't. Once I realized this, I've come to disregarded his sarcasm and irritation, and occasionally even courted it. Though it's not for me to say, I think he sees enough promise in me to put up with me, however grudgingly. That is, anyway, the theory I operate under.

  ‘I trust you enjoyed your holiday,’ he continued drily.

  ‘I’m caught up on sleep, and anxious to get to work.’

  ‘Ah, yes. I’m afraid there's been a slight change of plans...’

  ‘Oh?’ I said guardedly. This was vintage Blake, and I was determined not to rise to the bait.

  ‘Due to circumstances beyond my control...' he continued. (Nothing involving the Cavendish is beyond his control.)

  'I'm afraid I can't find the lab space to accommodate your work until fall. However, I don’t see this as impacting your project to any great extent. And, as it happens, I've another project for you, in the meanwhile.’

  ‘Oh?’ I said, still determined to remain as cool as Blake.

  ‘Yes. Ian Mackenzie, Lord Learmonte, is an old friend of mine. And, as I’m sure you know, owner of NuEnG Technologies Ltd, a firm you'd certainly be fortunate to work for once you're finished here.'

  ‘Why, yes, of course,’ I assured him.

  ‘Well, it seems that he’s reached the time in his life when he feels the need leave his personal mark on world. By which I mean, he’s decided to fund the construction of a research facility for nano-technology with his name attached to it – The Learmonte New Technology Centre. He's now exploring were to build it. His title is Scottish and half of his facilities are in Scotland. However, he has dual citizenship with plants here in England as well. As it happens, he doesn’t get along with the University of Glasgow, the most likely Scottish university, and so being a graduate of Cambridge, and, as I said, an old friend, we're high on his list. However, NuEnG Tech has facilities in Oxford so it'd make sense to locate alongside them as well.
So, you see, our prospects are far from certain. I'm determined to do whatever is necessary to land his research centre.’

  ‘Why, yes, of course.’ Clearly, the fix was in. so I added generously, ‘I’d be glad to do anything I could to help you.’

  ‘Of course,' he nodded. 'And as it happens, there is something you can do. After his formal presentation last week, he took me aside and asked me to find a bright grad student to do some research for him – on an informal basis. He'd provide a grant to the university with the informal understanding that those funds would pay for a student to work on his project. He made it clear that his connection to this project was to be strictly undisclosed. The link between this project and his research centre was, of course, unstated, but clear. I don’t have a bright grad student readily on hand, but I do have you. And I believe you’ll do. I need not state the advantages of working directly for a possible future employer, and by offering him a nano materials physicist, I hope to demonstrate my commitment to making his research centre happen here.’

  It actually sounded promising, which made me nervous. 'This'll be only for the summer, right? I'm anxious to get to the work I outlined in my proposal.'

  'It's my impression it'll not take a great deal of time. You should easily complete it over the summer. And I'll commit to assuring you that you'll have all the time you need to pursue your project afterwards.'

  If I cared to work 16 hours a day.

  'In that case, sir, I'd be delighted to hear what Lord Learmonte has to offer.'

  Which earned me a cold glare.

  'You'll be delighted to do exactly what I tell you to do. We're meeting Learmonte today at the college for lunch at twelve sharp. I've booked a private room. You will be in attendance and you will be properly dressed for this meeting, knowing how important it is to your university. And your future.'

  'Yes sir,' I said, not that I had a choice.

  'Right. Until noon then,' he said, dismissing me.

  I didn't linger. Blake was merely a means to an end, and the end was Penny.

  03

  I found her working in the lab. Grabbing a stool, I set it down next to her and seating myself on it said, 'Good morning, Doctor Lee. You're looking awfully fine this morning. Glad to see me?'

  'Morning Say. No.' she said without looking up. Then with a little sideways glance, added, 'Perhaps.'

  I smiled. I'd take “Perhaps.” 'Well, I missed you, terribly. Couldn't wait to get back. Miss me?

  'Did I miss a grouchy, short tempered, unwashed and dishevelled fellow with whom I had to share a tiny office for months on end? No.'

  'Sorry. You're a saint. I know you had to put up with a lot and I'm here to make amends. I'm back, rested, washed and my old sunny self. And I want you to know that I fully intended to treat you to a dim sum feast on the river today, at my expense. Unfortunately, The Rave has ordered me to lunch with him and Lord Learmonte today. Some favour he wants me to do for Learmonte,' I said airily, 'So I'm afraid I'll have to postpone our picnic until tomorrow, though I should be free tonight...'

  'I've a great deal of work to finish up, Sandy. I don't have time for picnics on the river and I often work late.'

  'Don't be bitter, Penny. Tomorrow, I promise. And I'll let steamed pork buns do my talking. I know how they speak to you. We'll picnic tomorrow,' I replied, unconcerned. 'Now, what do you know about Learmonte and the project I'm being roped into?' Penny Lee was a Blake favourite and was almost certainly in the know.

  'First I'm hearing of it,' she said glancing over to me. 'I've heard about the nano-tech centre, of course, but nothing about any need for a post doc.'

  'Really? You mean I'll get to tell you something you actually don't know?'

  'Stranger things have happened in the world,' she laughed, but neither of us believed it. 'I really should congratulate you on your doctorate, Sandy. I'm very proud of you.'

  'Thank you. But if you haven't gotten me anything yet, I could make a few suggestions...'

  'Thanks for reminding me. I meant to print out a card. Here, let me write it down so I don't forget again...'

  'I'd something else in mind,' I admitted lightly. Just testing the waters.

  'I'm sure you did,' she replied just as lightly, but with a look that said there were sharks in it. 'Just don't let that Ph.D. cloud your judgement. Okay?'

  'Promise. But come now, Penny, you must admit that I've been pretty faithful in keeping my end of the bargain these last two and a half years. I hope you'll be open minded now that our situations have changed... I mean, being no longer students and all.'

  'Sandy, I don't think being students has anything to do with it... But I'll be open minded,' she said with a sigh, 'Now run along and let me work. You can tell me all about your holiday and your lunch with Lord Learmonte later, maybe over dinner.'

  'That'd be grand. I'll drop by after lunch and we'll make definite plans.' Which, believe it or not, was a major victory.

  Penelope Lee Ph.D. is a beautiful woman. Small, slim, elegantly exotic and very, very smart in every sense of the word. We'd been lovers. Which, if you know me, and her, I'll readily admit is hard to believe. She's gotten over it. I haven't. We'd started our grad work in the same year, in the same field, under the same supervising professor. We found we worked so well together and everything was just so right, so that in time we became lovers as well, which also seemed so right. But at the start of the following school year she said we could no longer be lovers, just friends and only if I was mature enough to deal with that. I wasn't, of course. But after several months of sharing a small office without saying more than two or three words to each other per day, I matured enough to realize that a friendship was better than nothing. I promised not to bring up loving her and we were once more friends and collaborators in our studies and research. We still worked well together – cooperating on projects and co-authoring two papers. So well together in fact, that it's hard to imagine working without her. I'm still in love with her, but she's also my best friend which makes loving her a curious combination of torture and pleasure.

  I left her to her work, content with only that little distance between love and friendship separating us.

  04

  I arrived early, hot and damp from the ride from my flat. Donning the “tra” coat and hastily tying the required tie in the cloakroom did nothing to lessen my discomfort. I was shown to the dark oak panelled private room to await the arrival of the others and stood by the open window flapping my coat, trying to cool off. I knew the second I took the coat off, they'd arrive.

  Blake walked in as the bells of Cambridge started their celebration of mid-day. He looked me over without a word, grabbed my tie and tightened it, nearly choking me and buttoned my coat. 'Don't let me down, Say.' he hissed and turned as Learmonte arrived before the bells had tolled twelve.

  Ian Mackenzie, Lord Learmonte, proved to be a large, square built gentleman with a brisk, energetic, and hard edge manner – a man neither mellowed or slowed by his six decades. His title is Scottish, though there's little in his speech to mark him as such. His company, NuEnG Tech, is a leading British and continental producer of new tech energy products – solar cells, thermal electric generators, and batteries. Not only is he very wealthy, but as a peer, even a Scottish one, he had about him the air of arrogance that comes with the belief that it was the old order that kept the country together during the early Storm years. Which, to some extent was true. Having been knocked back three hundred years, the nations that had a heritage and physical structure going back that far survived more intact than those that did not.

  He nodded curtly to Blake and gave me a hard, appraising look and decided he didn't like me. Fair enough. I hadn't found a great deal to like in him either, at least on first meeting.

  'Afternoon, Learmonte,' said Blake politely, though without any deference adding with an almost apologetic movement of his hand in my general direction, 'This is Alasandr Say.'

  'Doctor Alasandr Say,' I added. 'I'm delig
hted to meet you Lord Learmonte.'

  I lied politely. Over the course of my student career I've had to deal with Blake and dozens of other professors who've held my fate in their hands, and I've learned to be a right deferential toady when required. With Learmonte, I'm sure my effort was wasted. He saw through my act, but didn't give a damn. And truth be told, neither did I. I glanced over to Blake. What was he thinking? He knew me well enough to have known we'd not hit it off.

  Learmonte didn't offer his hand but turned to Blake instead. 'I believe I asked for a grad student, not a bloody Ph.D.'

  'In light of your concern for confidentiality I felt it was important to select a candidate from within my group of students. Say here is a recent graduate, a mere month away from being a grad student. And since he's just starting a post doc under my supervision I had him readily at hand. I can assure you that you will find him fully capable of any task you have in mind.'

  In translation, Say was handy and biddable.

  Learmonte gave me another hard look, made a slight, disagreeing grunt but said, 'If you say so. I started from Oxford early this morning with only a hasty breakfast. Slow travelling – horse carts and drays all the way, so I'm starved. Let's order. We'll talk over coffee.'

  I gladly left Blake and Learmonte to their conversation over the meal. More honestly, I was left out of their conversation, but didn't mind. I'd have only gotten into trouble if I'd opened my mouth for more than the roast chicken, new potatoes and pea pods. There is a divide between them and me that can't be bridged.

  I was born more than a decade after the first storms and, unlike Blake and Learmonte, never knew the old 21st century nor experienced the grim, frightening and bitter first Storm years under the uncertain sun. Millions had died – far more than in all of the previous century's wars – between the cold, powerless winters, the scant rations, the influenza pandemics, and the despair – and those who did survive were little more than refugees from a lost world. Refugees in a strange new world. Yes, in this new world, under the restless sun and Storm-altered atmosphere, we can no longer go outside in the mid-day sun with our skin exposed, because the altered atmosphere provides far less protection from ultra-violet rays. Mod or tra, we wear gloves, long trousers or dresses with long sleeves and a wide brimmed hat – and women often use veils and parasols as well. Radio broadcasts are too unreliable to be useful, so unlike Blake and Learmonte, I've never known and lost, radio and tele broadcasts, and mobile phones with the old internet in one's pocket. Nor have I ever viewed the weather from space and I must rely on maps to find my way rather than following directions on my watson since all those satellites were fried in the Storms. And yet, I not only get by, I like my world, my England.

  I still have audio, video, and information networks available, carried on glass fibre cables to every home. I carry my “watson”, my computer/mobile phone, in my pocket, and in the cities there are plenty of short-range Wi-Fi “hot spots” around that allow me to sync onto the fibre system to make a call or download texts just about whenever I want, so I don't feel I'm missing anything. The fact that many buildings generate most of their own electricity with solar panels seems to me a step forward rather than backwards. Repairing broken items instead of just replacing them just makes sense as well. I don't feel poverty stricken when shopping in the High Street jumble shops for second, third, or fourth hand clothing, furniture and household items – all left behind from the old 21st century which had far more, it seems, of everything than it needed – though it strikes Blake and Learmonte and the others of their generation as a big step down. (Not that they ever buy second hand, mind you. But still it seems a long fall to them, that most of us can't afford new.)

  In many ways, the world has grown larger again. Once more there are faraway places, almost in accessible places, places lost to the 21st century in the chaos of the Storms. Planes still fly, though far fewer and hardly any in England, since we lack the petroleum surplus to fly them. Steam trains for domestic and continental trips and ships or electric air-ships for international travel keep us tied into the societies that have survived, but the expense of these trips keeps us mostly close to home. Trade too, is greatly reduced, in part because of the collapse of the world banking system and the drastic drop in the volume of goods demanded and produced world-wide. And, in addition, because imports must be balanced by exports, so that only the local surpluses are traded.

  England has grown greener, slower, less populated. Cities have shrunk to a size which can be supported by the surrounding countryside. We travel on foot, on bike, on horses and in horse drawn carts and wagons instead of motor cars. Most of the old petrol and heavy electric cars are gone now. New, electric ultra-light vehicles are slowly coming into use, but they're expensive, and likely will remain so for decades. Farming is intense and commands priorities in petrol, fertilizer and employment. And there are ruins and abandoned buildings everywhere, though fewer each year. It's the only England I've known, and though it basks quietly under a sometimes unnervingly uncertain sun and an unsettled climate, it's an England, and a life I'm quite comfortable with. An England that's just about right. Not perfect, but not one I'd give up to return to the old 21st century. A world where I knew enough to keep my opinion to myself while Blake and Learmonte reminisced and talked of how the old 21st century could be recovered.

  With the plates cleared and coffee (one of the allowed imports) on the table, Learmonte, after waiting for the waiter to leave, bought the meeting to order.

  'I can't begin to tell you how much I regret the necessity of involving you in this, Blake. The sad fact is that I'm unable to trust my own research organization though I've vetted every employee and have the tightest security procedures in place. Far too many of our innovations show up in our Indian, Chinese and Californian competitors' product catalogues within weeks of our product releases for me to trust my people for the project I have for you.'

  'Hardly proof, Ian,' Blake said. 'Could be simply coincidence, since you're all working on the same problems and it seems unlikely competitors could place spies within your organization given your security. What's to say that they didn't simply copy those features after the product hit the market?'

  Learmonte shook his head. 'I'd like to believe so, but I can't take the chance. I don't see how they can reverse engineer our features into their products in the time frame I often see, not to mention the similarities which are too striking to imagine they independently invented them. They even occasionally beat us to market with our own inventions. I simply can't trust my own organization. It's maddening and damaging NuEnG's future.

  'As an English-Scottish firm, I can count on a certain degree of tariff protection from both governments and within the Euro-African trade block as well. But even that support is only good up to a certain point. They expect me to compete in the world market, to bring in export revenue. If I'm not able to do that, doors will close in Whitehall and St Andrew's House. Not that it'd matter, if I can't compete with the Asians and Americans, I'll be closing my doors anyway.

  'Now to the project at hand. A month ago the remains of what may be a truly revolutionary energy project were found by one of my Belgate Wood farm hands. It contains, I believe, the record of my grandfather's final invention,' he paused to give Blake a meaningful glance. And then continued, 'Which, if it works as he claimed, would revolutionize energy transport, a key to rebuilding civilization, and thrust NuEnG to the forefront of energy technology. So you see, it's absolutely critical for NuEnG, England and Scotland to keep this technology beneath the radar of my foreign competitors to give us the lead time we need to perfect it. And given my mistrust of my organization, it means keeping it completely outside of my own company as well.

  'We go back a long way, Blake, and I know I can trust you – for several reasons. But you must understand that what I'm about to say, and the work I want you to do must be kept absolutely secret.'

  'Of course. You have my – our – (this with a sharp glance in my dire
ction) promise,' said Blake, adding, 'You can indeed trust us – for several reasons.'

  Learmonte glanced in my direction and I nodded, which appeared to be all he expected. Speak only when spoken to.

  'Right,' he said and turned to me. 'My grandfather, Thomas Tennyson Ryder Mackenzie or 'TTR' as he usually went by, was a brilliant electrical engineer and founder of NuEnG Technologies. His brains and drive built NuEnG into the premier new energy company in what was then Great Britain. Ten years before the Storms he was injured in a car accident, and his son, my father, took over the business pending grandfather's recovery. Much to my father's surprise, grandfather turned over the business to father upon his recovery and retired to his estate in the Scottish Highlands. It seems he dove headlong into the study of physics, with the idea of developing a revolutionary – and secret – device. He spent six years in study and then built a lab to assemble and test his device, spending a rather large fortune along the way.

  'With two trusted engineers who'd worked alongside him during the early years of building up NuEnG, he apparently succeeded in turning his vision into a working prototype. All this work was done on his highland estate, well out of view and shrouded in such great secrecy that even my father was kept in the dark. His engineers were fiercely loyal and guarded his secret just as fiercely as he did. Since grandfather was spending his own money, my father was content to let him tinker to his heart's delight. Father had never expected to run NuEnG while grandfather was alive, so he was delighted to be given the chance while grandfather still lived. Both were happily employed.

  'It was late in the fall, just weeks before the first of the Storms hit, that Grandfather told Father and me the nature of his decade long project, and then only in the vaguest terms. He said he had perfected a method of transmitting electrical energy without wires and without significant loss over unlimited distances. Unlimited distances, mind you. He intended to conduct a public demonstration of the device the following spring. Now, of course, there were and are, several working methods for transmitting electrical energy without wires, but none of them work especially well, and none approach anything close to being lossless, much less over unlimited distances.

  'As far as my father was concerned, a secret project was one thing, a public demonstration was another thing altogether. While grandfather was a brilliant electrical engineer, he wasn't a physicist, and, well, my grandfather of those last ten years was quite different from his former self – a far more pleasant man, in fact, but dreamy and very secretive when it came to his project. As long as everything was done off stage, my father was content to leave him to his work. He was getting along far better with him than ever before and wasn't concerned about how Grandfather spent his money, since he was making plenty of his own. But going public with something connected to NuEnG, was altogether different. Father approached Grandfather's engineers for assurances that the device worked as his father promised, since if we'd only Grandfather's word, we'd have been leery of Grandfather's claim. The engineers, both hard-nosed realists, who knew the effect it might have on NuEnG and who were devoted to Grandfather so they wouldn't have let him make a fool of himself, assured Father it worked as advertised, much to his relief.

  'I was working for NuEnG by then and Father and I went off on a sales trip to the States shortly afterwards. The first of the Storms hit while we were in the States, and it took us five years of hardships and travel to make our way back to England. By then, Grandfather had died, apparently as a result of the injuries sustained in a fire in his lab that may have been caused by one of the first solar storm. The highland estate, indeed the whole glen, had been abandoned in the ensuing years. We could find little of what happened up there, for, like everywhere, people were scattered or dead. All the recorded data had been lost when the storms took down the data centres and fried the computers which held so much. With no record of grandfather's invention remaining, no way of finding the old engineers even if they survived the Storm years and NuEnG on the brink of collapse, the project was consigned to our family's myths and legends.

  'Until this April, when a farm hand found a battered old cardboard box in a half ruined outbuilding full of mildew and water stained papers and notebooks that had evidently served as a home to a family of mice for years. The papers in the box, I quickly realized, were grandfather's. There are several small notebooks that he must have carried with him to jot down ideas, a printed manuscript, heavily hand revised, and a thick pile of handwritten pages that I believe relate to his invention. As I mentioned, they're not in very good shape, stained, waterlogged and stuck together, seemingly in no particular order and I'm afraid important parts have been chewed away to make mice nests. But out of the past come these notes from the era when grandfather was working on something revolutionary even for his time, and more so for ours. Imagine the potential advantages of sending electrical energy over great distances without wires which require frequent circuit breakers to prevent overloads. This invention could jump-start modern civilizations' revival. Scotland and England would once again take the lead.'

  'It sounds promising, but I wonder how much of your grandfather's invention would be in hand written notes. Almost everything would have been on his watson and computers. We are not talking about a 19th or 20th century scientist here,' said Blake.

  'Don't you see the real importance Rave? They're handwritten because they were likely written after the first storms hit and before he died. After he had perfected his invention. The complete invention could be in those handwritten pages. It may take years of work to tease out all the secrets, but if I can keep it secret, I'll have something my competitors haven't even dreamed of yet! If I can keep it secret long enough.

  'Now, what I want your... ' (he hesitated, biting back the 'boy' on the tip of his tongue, no doubt) '...young man here to do is to go through the material and transcribe it. I considered turning the work over to a reliable secretary but decided someone with scientific training would be more efficient, able to not only transcribe the remains, but perhaps able to extrapolate some of the faded and missing material based on the readable text as well. Moreover, since the papers contain a great deal of mathematical formulas, I'd hoped a science student would be more equipped to set them up correctly than a secretarial candidate.'

  'I'm certain Say will prove far more useful than any secretary. I dare say he'd be able to connect the clues in the papers to give you a more coherent idea of what your grandfather was up to than any secretary,' Blake assured him, as I glared daggers at him.

  'Right...' Learmonte said, rather hesitantly. 'Though you should understand that I'm only looking for...

  'Say,' Blake provided.

  'For Say to simply transcribe the materials. I hope I can trust you to do the more interpretative work on the project.'

  Blake nodded. 'Of course. You know that.'

  'Yes. And there will be something in it for Cambridge as well, should things work out as I hope. But the sooner we get this under way, the better. The faster we move, the less chance for word of it to leak out. I've moved the papers to my highland estate at Glen Lonon. All the work will be done there, remote from any contact with Cambridge. All World Energy and Himalay Solar both have lines of contacts and communication running throughout the university. I want no rumour reaching their finely tuned ears. This fellow...'

  'Say' Blake provided, again.

  'Say will stay in Glen Lonon while he does the transcription. I've arranged for him to have a cottage with a cover story about doing some historical research for the estate. I have here,' he indicated his brief case next to him on the floor, 'a non-disclosure agreement for him to sign that will be in force until the project sees the light of day. And, mind you, given the stakes, I'll enforce it to the letter.'

  I was watching Blake rather than Learmonte. This was a non-starter. I was a Cambridge post doc, not a NuEnG employee. You can't just cut out the University nor limit my rights to publish the work I do while working for the university with a v
ague promise to cut them in later. But Blake said nothing.

  'Say will report directly to me. I'll be in and out of Glen Lonon all summer, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll expect him to have no contact with Cambridge while he's working for me....'

  I gave Blake a sharp look, I dared not shake my head 'no' but he had to know that wasn't going to work for me.

  'If the project takes longer than the summer, I'll have to move him to my Belgate Woods farm, but I'd think that if he has any sort of work ethic, he'd be able to type up the documents by the middle of August when the holiday parties arrive.'

  Again I looked to Blake, but he stared blankly back at me without a word. What was he thinking?

  'Without seeing the amount of, or condition of, the material you wish him to type up, I can't of course, say for certain, but I know he's a very hard worker and given the task, I'm certain he'll put his full effort into it,' Blake replied, but looking directly at me.

  'Good. I think he should be off to Scotland tomorrow, just to be sure no word leaks out.'

  'He's a young man, I'm certain he'll be able make that schedule,' said Blake casually and then continued in a rather challenging manner. 'Am I right, Doctor Say?'

  I considered my response. There was no way I was going to do this. I hadn't spent the last eight years of my life working night and day to earn my doctorate in order to do some grad student work on some crazy pie-in-the-sky project, for one of the richest men in the country, on post doc wages, without prospect of ever telling anyone what I had done, much less publish my work. No bloody way. But I kept my cool.

  'Actually, what I was about to say that you were wrong and apologize to Lord Learmonte,' I said to Blake, and looking over to Learmonte, I continued. 'You were absolutely right to specify a grad student for your project. Though perhaps an upper level undergrad would serve just as well. I'm sure Professor Blake believed selecting me for your project would be doing you a favour, providing a better qualified person than you requested, without extra charge. Unfortunately, I'm quite unqualified for the work you describe. There's actually a whole new department here at Cambridge, Techno-conservation that specializes in recovering data from the pre-Storm era and I'm sure a grad student from that department would be able to apply special recovery techniques to best extract all the data your grandfather's notes contain...'

  Learmonte's face was getting darker by the second, but Blake just watched me blandly. That should have scared me.

  '...I'm sorry things did not work out as you and Professor Blake would have hoped, but I'm certain the Professor can find precisely the right student for you now that he knows exactly what your project entails. I'll leave you two to make those plans,' I said as I stood up. 'Thanks for lunch. Good day.' I turned and headed quickly for the door.

  'Say,' said Blake, behind me (or did he say “Stay”?). I didn't stop. I shut the door softly behind me, and then raced down the stairs, pausing only briefly to pay for my meal. I'd owe nothing which Blake could hold against me.

  Out into the hot sunshine, I retrieved my bike, stripped off my coat and tie, strapped them to the rack and considered my next move. I'd have to lie low for several days, that much was clear. But did I have time to see Penny first?

  Just for a few minutes, I decided, and jumped on my bike and headed for the Cavendish.

  Understandable, but ill advised.

  05

  'How'd your lunch go?' she asked as I hurried into the (relative) coolness of our small office.

  'You won't believe it,' I said wiping the sweat from my eyes. 'A bloody disaster.'

  She leaned back in her chair and looked at me with a faint smile. 'Somehow, Sandy, I think I will...'

  I sat down on the corner of my desk and told her my tale, omitting only the nature of the proposed project since I may have agreed to keep it secret.

  '...So you see, no one can blame me for walking out. I mean, Learmonte proposes to send me to some mouldy old cottage in the north of Scotland, well beyond the pale of civilization as we know it...'

  'I'd hardly think Lord Learmonte's cottages are mouldy...' Penny protested. 'Or beyond the pale of civilization as we know it.'

  'I wouldn't be so sure. It is post-Storm Scotland we're talking about. Civilization hardly extends above the Firth of Forth, as I understand it... But where was I? Oh, right and get this, I'm to be cut off from my friends like a bloody prisoner in solitary confinement all because of some paranoid fear that the nature of my work might filter out...'

  'How could that happen?' she asked innocently enough.

  I suppose she had a point. 'Well, Blake's no fool. He had to know I'd tell you something, so you don't count. But it's all moot. I'm not going. And that's final.'

  'We'll miss you, for a while,' she said sweetly.

  'For someone who could be Blake's next choice, you're not taking this very seriously,' I said.

  'Right. Go on,' she said folding her hands and staring up at me. 'You were telling me you walked out because you'd miss us...'

  'I walked out because I haven't the least interest in the job, nor am I qualified to do it. Plus, the terms like the non-disclosure agreement and reporting to Learmonte are simply not within university guide lines for my position, as Blake knows perfectly well. I have no intention of spending the first months of my post doc working on a project that I'll never be able to talk about much less write a paper on... And get this, they expect me to essentially work full time as a Learmonte employee for a post doc's wages, the tight bastard! I haven't busted my arse for the better part of eight years to go to work for one of the richer men in the two kingdoms for a pittance. And if Blake doesn't like it, he can fire me and I'll get on with my career... You know, Penny, you'd have thought he'd stand up for me just a little. But instead I'm thrown under the bus for this damn research centre...'

  Penny smiled blandly at me.

  'Well, thanks for all your sympathy,' I said rather bitterly. 'I just wanted to tell you in case they find me floating face down in the Cam. Don't believe it was suicide. They'll have done me in, Penny, to keep their bloody secret. All I ask is that you bring them to justice...'

  She smiled. 'Of course I will, Sandy. We can't have murderous profs running amuck. How long can I expect you to be laying low before I have them start dragging the Cam?

  'Oh, I don't know, a few days, a week... or two. I'll be in touch, of course. And you're in with Rave, so you can give me the all clear... But I've got to run before he finds me here...'

  Her smile widened, and she was looking over my shoulder.

  'The Rave's here, isn't he?' I asked, determined to exhibit at least a little show of bravo before I go to my execution.

  She nodded yes, and I felt his hand on my shoulder.

  'Come along with me, Doctor Say. We've a lot to discuss...' said the voice of my doom. 'Not a word to anyone about this, Doctor Lee,' he added.

  'Of course not,' she said. 'See you later, Sandy. Maybe.'

  06

  Blake said nothing as we marched up to his office. Witnesses, I suppose.

  On reaching his sweltering office, he waved me to the chair before his desk, hung his suit coat over the back of his chair, sat down, started the little fan, and things got surreal.

  He leaned back, smiled, and said with a convincingly assumed air of sincerity, 'That went pretty well, all things considered. I had expected more fireworks. You've apparently grown up without me noticing. No matter. I was able to get the needed concessions anyway.'

  'I don't believe I'm following you, Professor.' I said, carefully.

  'Even in the best of times, Learmonte would've had little patience for you, Say, and you for him. He's not his old self these days. His wife died two years ago, a warm, wonderful person who, I believe, kept Learmonte's rougher side well in check. I'm afraid her deeply felt loss has left him angry at the world. His way of grieving. These days, even old friends like myself, find him a very trying person. Bringing you two together was certain to ignite some sort of
fireworks, and indeed, I had expected much more from you. Since you fizzled, I was left with making the needed changes without using your objections as an excuse. However, he was angry enough with your rudeness to agree to my proposed changes without many quibbles.'

  'I wasn't rude. I may have been blunt, but it wasn't as if I treated him any differently than he'd been treating me. And I will tell you right now, I've no intention of taking on Learmonte's crazy project. None whatsoever. And there's no way you can make me do it. Sorry.'

  He waved that aside, and leaned forward in his chair, his hands now folded on the desk before him.

  'Let me make my position absolutely clear. I'm very sceptical these notes hold anything of value. Even if we concede the existence of a device as suggested, it seems unlikely these notebooks contain anything more than the random, incomplete and likely unintelligible scribblings jotted down when a watson or computer wasn't handy. As for the manuscript, Learmonte said the printed pages seemed like a statement of theory rather than a description of the device and the handwritten pages even if they'd been written after the Storms and before he died, are very chewed up and incomplete.

  'But this is neither here nor there, the value of what's actually in the box of papers doesn't concern us. You'll decipher what you can, transcribe it and write a brief report and your active role in the project is done. If there's something to the whole thing, the university will benefit, and in the long run so will you. What's important is that we do everything we can to please Lord Learmonte to get the research centre.'

  'But sir, I can't possibly work on this project in my post doc position, and you know it.' I realized even as I said it that it was a fatal mistake – narrowing my objections down to mere technicalities.

  'Let's consider the objections one by one,' he replied and ticked them off one by one on his hand.

  'First, I will remain your supervising professor throughout the project. You will report to me. I am authorizing and requesting you to provide Learmonte with all your results and to exactly follow his orders regarding the project. If you have a very strong objection, consult me, but I will advise you to simply go along with any reasonable request to save time. His goal is to get the notes transcribed, and that is all we need concern ourselves with. The sooner you get the job done, the sooner you can come home.

  'Secondly, as you are employed by the Cavendish and the University, both you and the University are entitled to some return on your effort should it lead to some commercial applications. He is aware of this, and prefers this to hiring an outside expert working within NuEnG. The Cavendish and University's share of any commercial prospects can easily be settled between Learmonte, his proposed research facility and myself,' he said with a faint smile, adding 'You would have a tiny part of that share, of course, as defined by your post doc contract. But even a tiny part could be considerable, if things work out like Learmonte envisions, assuming you don't betray our trust. I can assure you, like it or not, you're in and you'd best play by Learmonte's rules. Luckily, Dr Lee is a person of integrity and so I'm not worried about your indiscreet conversation with her today. Just don't let it happen again,' he gave me a rather hard glance.

  'In any event, I see no reason for you not signing a non-disclosure agreement for the duration of your post doc appointment. I'm sure you realize that Learmonte will claim all rights to what's in his grandfather's papers. They represent, after all, his grandfather's work. I'm certain you'll not want to spend the rest of your life in the courts should you use your publishing rights after the expiration of the non-disclosure agreement to damage Learmonte's commercial interests in any way. You are, after all, simply hired to type up the work of the late TTR Mackenzie, not study them.

  'While this may sound unfair, Dr Say, it is for the best. You are full of ideas. Everything you discover gives you new ideas. It is one of your shining parts, one of the reasons why I've put up with you for these long, weary years. You've a promising future, so I don't think you'd want to be seen as a mere disciple of TTR Mackenzie so early in your career by associating yourself with anything you find in these papers. Such a perception could well cling to you through the rest of your career. My sincere advice is that you look on this project as a mere parenthesis in your career, a clerical project, no more. Do it and forget it.'

  'I rather hoped for more than a clerical project when I accepted this position,' I said, rather bitterly. Already any hope that I could avoid this project was gone.

  'Unfortunately until the lab can accommodate your research there's nothing more challenging than the Learmonte project. Would you rather be a tour guide? There's plenty of equipment that could be cleaned and put in their proper places... I don't think you would find any alternative work any more fulfilling than transcribing those notes. And it would be far less lucrative as well. For you see, since Learmonte is indirectly funding this project and your post doc position is already funded, I can find it in my providence to provide you with a daily per diem while you’re on assignment in a foreign country. Since Learmonte was generous, that per diem would amount to ten pounds per day while you're there...'

  I'd been poor too long as a student not to suddenly find this Learmonte project a great deal more appealing. While that princely sum may be somewhat less than what I expect as a professional salary, it was almost my weekly post doc wages...daily.

  Blake noted my sudden interest and added, 'That's ten pounds, seven days a week...mind you. Seventy pounds a week.'

  'Thanks for saving me from having to do the maths myself,' I said.

  He gave a sarcastic nod. 'And I should add, I secured Learmonte's agreement that you'll only be employed full time up to the 15th of September, after which you'll be allowed home, and should there's remain anything else to be done, it can be finished here. Now I have no idea as to the size of the box nor how time consuming it will be for you to extract the notes, I can't imagine it will take you more than three months.

  'So you see, Learmonte's project will have no impact on your own work, be quite lucrative, and well, it will keep you from hanging around the lab and annoying Dr Lee as she finishes her work...' he added, 'Which would benefit both of us.'

  Damn. That last line was the telling blow. For I was rested and restless. With nothing to do, I'd no doubt gravitate to Penny's lab and that would eventually annoy her, the last thing I needed to do. My whole plan to win her back was to pace our relationship, re-establish it over the summer and fall and then on into the coming year, seeing her only now and again, just enough to get her to realize what she was missing. In my dreams. But to be idle and around Penny was an almost certain recipe for disaster. And while it's hard to credit Blake as a mind reader, I couldn't help but wonder just how much he knew about how things were between Penny and me, seeing how he used it...

  'And one more thing, Say. While I do believe you have a bright future ahead of you, unless you have titled or rich friends, it's likely a decade or two before you come to the attention of people with country homes and highland estates. And even then, it's an occasional weekend invite. You've been handed an opportunity to spend an entire summer in the highlands. I've been to Glen Lonon many times and it is the very thing you'd expect from one of the richer nobles of Scotland. I'm even familiar with the cottage Learmonte is putting you up in. You'll find it comfortable. In the hunting season it houses up to six bachelors, so you'll not be deprived of any modern conveniences. Plus, Learmonte will only be around on the weekend, so you should have plenty of free time to explore and enjoy the highland setting. Truthfully, Say, if I didn't have so many obligations here, I'd have taken the job myself. You'd regret passing on this opportunity.'

  'If I had the choice,' I sighed, completing my surrender.

  'If you had the choice,' he agreed.

  'But after our lunch together, why would Learmonte want me?'

  Blake smiled. 'Because I hinted that you're a loose cannon. Not to be relied on to keep our discussion completely to yourself. You had to be tied up with a NDA
and packed off to Scotland, post haste.'

  'I appreciate the confidence you have in me,' I said.

  'And where did I find you? And what were you doing, half an hour after you stalked out of our meeting?' he said mildly.

  Technically true, but, 'You said yourself that that was a given.'

  'Yes, I knew it was. And I know I can trust Dr Lee to keep it to herself. But Learmonte doesn't know either Dr Lee or you, so getting you into the position where he can at least sue you from now to doomsday seemed worth the pain of having to deal with you. Speaking of which, I believe I have something for you to sign,' he added, reaching back into the coat pocked beside him.

  And that, dear reader, was how a brilliant young physicist Ph.D. specializing in nano-electrical storage structures, found himself consigned to a faraway place which was, if not beyond the pale of civilization, right on the fringes of it, to type up the hoary old notes of a long dead and unlikely inventor of an unlikely device.