The Infinity Bridge

Part 13

The news broadcast showed an image of York station next to an image of a multi-story car park. The caption below the reporter said: ‘Double murder in historic York—details still not released.’

Nick leaned back in his chair and watched the screen. It still didn’t make sense to him. Why were the police keeping such a close lid on the two murders? After all, they could release details of the victims without revealing the way they had died. They had an image of him and Sam and they were being remarkably complacent about an escaped psychiatric patient with a handgun. There was something that he was missing and it annoyed him immensely.

Jonathan Thwaite was tapping on a keyboard whilst the gaunt Armitage was twiddling with the smart-phones. Thwaite looked up and caught his eye.

‘I imagine you are finding the inactivity a bit of a come down after your rather eventful weekend?’

Nick smiled. ‘It’s been a totally mental weekend. I can’t believe what we’ve seen, what we’ve done. My ankle needs a good rest anyway. I twisted it jumping from the walls in York yesterday morning.’

‘I have to say that you and your cousin are truly remarkable—both the way you have evaded capture, travelled here and assimilated all the information Merlin has thrown at you.’

‘He has a genius level IQ, Jonathan,’ Merlin interjected. ‘I just accessed his test scores from the internet. There is a particular aptitude at information technology—perhaps surpassing your own.’

‘Ouch! Et tu Brute!’ Jonathan said with a laugh. ‘To my credit I am more competent than most of my generation. So where does your intellect come from Nicholas? Your mother or...’

‘My father... well, and my grandfather. Father is a prof at Harvard... we don’t talk much. Grandfather was pretty famous too, for a biologist. He did a load of research into genetics. He even worked with Watson and Crick in the 1950s, down in Cambridge.’

‘My, my—an admirable pedigree,’ Armitage said, looking up. ‘Merlin will be recruiting you for the knights soon.’

A flush spread across Nick’s cheeks. Merlin’s tinny voice chuckled. ‘It is a strong possibility, Michael. Nicholas has all the essential traits.’

‘And his cousin?’

‘Hmm, somewhat less so. I do prefer predictability as a characteristic in the knighthood.’

For a moment Nick was tempted to argue but elected not to. He stood and indicated one of the computers in the corner.

‘Feel free, Nicholas, though no e-mails to your mother quite yet,’ Jonathan said. Nick nodded and smiled nervously. Both Jonathan and Armitage returned to their tasks.

Nick flexed his fingers and began clicking on the mouse. The windows on the screen expanded and contracted as he worked. For a moment he was tempted to connect to his PC at home and check his files. Then, in the corner of the screen, he noticed a file labelled ‘Charles Grace—financial evaluation.’