The Chrysalid Conspiracy (64 page)

“What happened here, Mum?” said Amelia. Her mother shook her head. Bridie did the same.

“Don’t ask me,” said Sheila. “I just woke up feeling sick.” Lucy and Bridie nodded in agreement.

“I’d better explain,” said Joe, wincing as Sheila tied his bandage. “I saw the fire from my place – we’re right opposite the rectory. Then I saw you running across the green, and then Rayn. I didn’t know Sheila was here and I thought that Lucy and Bridie were here on their own. Being the way I am, and bearing in mind all I’ve learned in the last few days, all I could think of was ‘diversion’. I sent Jim over to see if he could help you two, and Jem and I came up here. There were two men here. All three of you ladies were out of it and they were carrying your mum to a waiting car.”

“Sorry to interrupt, Joe,” said Sheila. She had been looking at the girls’ feet. “You’ve got glass and gravel in your feet. I can patch you up for now, but you need a professional.” She pulled out some lint and splashed some liquid from one of her bottles onto it. “Rayn, hold this to your knee. It will hurt. You’ve stripped it to the bone.”

Rayn did as she was told and ended up writhing in agony. “Ow! Ow! Ouch!” she yelled. “Don’t you just love these weekend family get-togethers’?” she said, then to cover her embarrassment added, “I wonder what they’ve got planned for next weekend.”

The humour broke the sombre mood and everyone laughed releasing the post battle stress, but it was mostly fuelled by the brandy, another bottle of which Bridie had conjured up from somewhere.

“Anyway,” Joe continued. “These guys dropped your mother and came at us. And my little girl here,” he indicated Jem. “Well, I’ve never seen a woman use a right cross before, straight over his guard and into the temple. He’d been expecting a kick in the nasties.”

“I did make a slight error,” said Jem. “I hit him wrong and dislocated my knuckle.”

“Well, so did I, but we won’t go into that,” answered Joe, indicating his bandaged hand. “Suffice it to say, they left, quickly.”

“And you all slept through that?” said Amelia.

“They couldn’t help it. Those guys used chloroform.” He explained.

Several switches opened and closed in Amelia’s brain and a bright light went on.

“Of course, that’s it! Rayn, we’ve been so stupid. Why didn’t we see it? Ryxyl doesn’t want Melkins’ book, or the Codex. She wants you, Mum. You are the key to all this. She wants you alive. That’s why she didn’t kill you last week when she had the chance. That’s what tonight was all about.” Before she could say anything else, a voice came from the doorway.

“Well done Amelia, you got there, and almost three years early. You were right, Lucy. I’m sorry I doubted you.” It was Dr Barrenborn, dressed in an ankle-length cotton nightgown, a woollen cardigan and carpet slippers, yet somehow still magnificent. The silence was impenetrable. Even the furniture didn’t dare creak.

Then pulling a small drawstring leather purse from her cardigan pocket she lobbed it to Sheila. “Two doses each for the two girls, one each for everyone else except Mrs Mgee.” Bridie nodded in acknowledgement. Amelia and Rayn were about to remonstrate but were cut down by Maddy, who took control by sheer force of personality.

“Thank you, Mr Young, for your remarkable insight and timely intervention. You prevented a complete disaster. I would like to thank your children as well, for their courage and lack of hesitation when their help was needed. Amelia, with your permission I’d like to transfer everybody to the Hall.”

Everyone looked at Amelia, shocked at the doctor’s choice of words. Amelia, trying not to look bewildered, nodded her assent.
An ‘after’ just caught up with me and I didn’t see the ‘before’ coming.
She thought.

“Thank you,” continued the doctor. “There are two reasons for this. The first is medical. I need you two in my surgery to work on your injuries; I want you up and about by tomorrow. The second is damage control. Several witnesses saw Amelia’s flying leap from the balcony carrying a survivor. And you Rayn, dragging another one from a burning building with your clothes on fire. It won’t be long before the news media arrive with their verbal bulldozers to seal this place off. Your leap through a closed double glazed window with yet another one, James, and then going back in, means that the burger bar may suffer the same fate. Fortunately, there are no pictures.”

It was Jim’s turn to be the focus of attention. He grinned like a small child. “Are they okay?” he asked. “Mrs West, I mean, and the girls?” Amelia felt sick at the thought that she hadn’t asked earlier.

“The vicar is dead, as you predicted. Mrs West is alive, but may not survive her injuries. The two sisters are already up at the Hall. They’re fine, just very frightened. Shall we go?” Then, glancing at Amelia’s and Rayn’s feet, she added, “It’s going to be a long night.”

“You know,” commented Rayn when they were in the car, “I feel like one of Maddy’s map pins, being shoved into pigeon holes like this.”!

“Don’t mix your metaphors Rayn, but I know what you mean,” answered Amelia.

“I mean, Maddy’s very clever and efficient and all that. But she still seems so cold, so impersonal.”

“I shouldn’t worry about that,” said Jim. “Some people are like that. It’s like when we started the burger bar, dad was all over us. Took control completely. Jem and I had to make him understand that we were working with him, not for him. We had to prove ourselves, but it worked out in the end.”

“Thanks for that, Jim,” replied Amelia. “But I’m beginning to believe that Maddy hasn’t the slightest idea about human relationships. You know, how our personal feelings reflect our behaviour towards each other. It goes beyond corporate management and responsibility.”

At the Hall Lorraine had managed to organise plenty of assistance, even at that late hour.

Lucy and Bridie were taken off for some TLC and a clean-up while the others went down to the infirmary. Sheila fixed Jem’s dislocated knuckle while Lorraine, hovering like an expectant father, wrapped her in compassion. After a glance at Joe, who gave her a smile and nodded his acceptance, she took her off to look after her.

A very friendly and efficient nurse re-dressed Joe’s hand and soothed Jim’s shoulder. Then, after being informed that the lounge bar was still open, they decided there was no reason for them to hang around the infirmary any longer. Sheila decided to join them, after making sure the girls were comfortable.

Maddy arrived and spent the next hour gently removing every tiny piece of foreign matter from the girl’s feet. She removed the other dressings and checked the damage, then turned to the nurse. “Moira,” she said, “put some Watkins Salve on the superficial wounds and can you make up a batch of TR 12. I know it’s a bit drastic, but there’s no choice I’m afraid. Cover their feet, a good coating, as well as Amelia’s hand and arm wounds, and Rayn’s hands and her knee. Freshen them up and put them to bed, sedated first. And a constant watch throughout the night. How are the others by the way?”

“Everyone seems okay.” said Moira. “Most of them are down in the bar exercising some damage control, they’ll be fine.”

“Well thank goodness our medication doesn’t exclude Alcohol. I think I’ll go and join them when we’ve finished here. How are Lucy and Bridie?”

“Oh they’re okay.” Laughed Moira, “They wrapped themselves round a bottle of brandy and are well out of it. I checked Lucy over as you asked. No detectable damage but I’ll keep a close eye on her. I must go and make up this TR 12, could you stay with these two till I get back please?”

“Maddy?” Amelia said after Moira had left. “These fights for survival seems to be dragging on a bit, are we getting anywhere?”

“Of course my dear, why do you ask?” answered the Doctor.

“Well, Ryxyl seems in a hurry to get going. She’s attacking both us and Galileo, I was just wondering what sort of time frame we’re working in.”

“Oh don’t worry, we have plenty of time. According to your father anyway. He discounted Professor Melkins theories about Aliens, based on the laws of physics and what we now know about the Universe.”

“Then what did he think is going to happen?” Amelia asked.

“He broke it down mathematically, based on population. The Earth can only sustain a limited amount of human interference, and he agreed with the professor about recurring past civilisations, but concluded that the demise would be due mainly to over population He reasoned that regardless of social or technological achievements, every ten thousand years or so the Earth’s human population reaches around nine billion. That’s when the planet can no longer sustain us and things get a bit wobbly. It’s the point of no return, when food wars break out and society collapses. Both humans and animals turn on each other and tear the planet apart in a bid to survive.

Current estimates are that we will reach that number by the end of this century, so we have a window of a few decades to get ourselves nicely tucked away and organised before the storm. And anyway, you girls won’t be ready for the challenge for a few more years yet. So let’s concentrate on getting you back in shape.”

“Well, having a few decades is cold comfort. But we’d best make good use of it.” Amelia responded.

“But isn’t there something we can do instead of hiding away till it’s all over?” Asked Rayn

“Apparently not.” answered Maddy. “There’s a lot more to this and will be explained, but right now I have to put you to sleep, Moira will be back in a moment and I don’t want to get told off.”

“But what about building a fleet of space ships and we buzz off somewhere else.” said Rayn, grasping at fantasy straws.

“Too late I’m afraid,” Maddy explained. “We don’t have the international co-operation or the technology for such a vast undertaking, It would take a couple of centuries to thrash out the financial and legal commitments alone, not to mention our lack of understanding of cryogenics to survive the distances involved, that’s if we could find somewhere to go.”

Amelia and Rayn were put in a large double bed, the only way they could be together, and Amelia felt the sting of a needle in the back of her hand.

“Why the sedation?” asked Rayn, who didn’t care much for needles. Maddy smiled.

“You really don’t want to be awake when the TR 12 starts to take effect. TR stands for tissue regeneration. Twelve is the strongest dosage, and it hurts.”

After a while Amelia began to feel wonderful. The room was wonderful. The people who moved around her were wonderful. The world was wonderful and life was won…drer… flul…

But it wasn’t; her mind began to fight the medication as her feet and her hand started to hurt. There was something horribly wrong. Fighting a losing battle she tried to organise her fractured thoughts.

Professor Melkins, her father and Maddy,
Mum, you’re all wrong, It’s nothing to do with…it’s the message, Hipparchus found the message in the stars, it’s…stop… wait.
And her mind and body succumbed to the darkness, just a few inches from reality and truth.

END OF BOOK ONE

****

Betrayed by Mykl, the man she loves, Amelia sees the message in the stars, confirming the impending cataclysm. Having located Sundoor the girls, with Maddy and Lucy and a small group of friends, are chased across the Sahara desert by ruthless mercenaries. Outnumbered, out of supplies, and up against a local tribe of Arabs; ‘The Gate Keepers’; the three girls must solve the deadly riddles of the ‘labyrinth’; the gateway to ‘Sundoor’, and face Ryxyl herself.

When I was ten I discovered H.G.Wells, it started a wonderful journey into the future. A few years later my first sight of the Roman ruins of Leptis Magna in North Africa did the same for the past. In between I became a musician (I played an accomplished clarinet and a mean saxophone) which has kept me firmly rooted in the present. I know live albeit quietly with my wife of fifty years, with my three daughters, ten young adult grandchildren and two great grandchildren all in close proximity.

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Copyright © A.J. Reynolds, 2013

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ISBN 978-1-78148-196-7 in electronic format

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