frozen within time

London, 2009

Chambers looked up from his papers, irritably clicking his ballpoint pen in and out, as a junior civil survant bursts into his office without knocking.

'Yes Travis?'

The clerk looked slightly pink----he'd obviously run up from two floors down below. the the Whitehall lifts were being serviced this week.

'Sir . . . . I . . . . Um . . . . Remember you said to check on any movement in the old winkinson files?'

Chambers narrowed his eyes. 'Yes----yes, I remember. Something happened?'

'The wilkinson records have been accessed, sir. Three times this week.'

Chambers put down his pen and sat up. 'Three times?

'Yes, sir----somebody's poking around. not old granviles department this time. Someone else. what if they find something out sir?'

Chambers smiled. 'If they find something out I shall be delighted. as long as we're the first to know. Better call Chapman. she's been bored out of her head in that little backwater for the last nine months. We were just about to grant her a transfer. Maybe our asteemed scientist lives! Maybe he's bored with Russia too, and following his old friend Tarrant back home at last.'

Chambers would be glad to see the old man come home, even if he turned out to have been a traitor all along, and dick tarrents confession has been a set up. he hated unsolved cases and nobody ever had found he children. And the children were the only reason he was interested. There was very wild talk of what could have happened to them. Few believed it, but chambers was a man who could believe a lot.

'Sir, one more thing you should know. one of the access points for the Wilkinson files . . . . Well, it was inside this building. about half an hour ago.'

'What?' Chambers shot up out of his chair. 'Have you found out who it is?'

'Not yet, sir----but we know where they are. They're still on line. Three floors down.'

Chambers shook his head in amazement and grabbed his jacket. 'Shall we go?'