Gone In A Flash

Chapter Five: Friday (5)

Chapter Five: Friday (5)

Blacker was still puzzling over the notebook when Hitch returned to Spectrum. The mass of print-outs that were covering the table had grown exponentially while Hitch was gone. Blacker also had acquired his desired cup of coffee – several, if the stack of them in the code room sink was anything to go by.

"Hey," said Blacker in greeting, several minutes after Hitch had actually walked in. "You found anything?"

"A bit," Hitch said. "Probably not as much as you."

Blacker glanced down at the collage that had been formed by the many layers of information, and almost looked surprised at how much had accumulated there. "Ah – well, appearances can be deceiving. Most of this is probably unrelated."

Hitch picked up a picture of Napoleon, upon which had been scribbled Moriarty???? in thick dark pencilstrokes. "I'll say. Just how long was I gone, again?"

Blacker let out a short laugh, and pushed a chair out from the table with a foot. "Okay, let's look at what we've got."

Hitch took a seat, and then explained briefly what had transpired at Professor Arthur Cogan's house that morning. Blacker nodded along, took a few notes, and added them to the rest.

"It's interesting, but I don't see how it helps," he said. "Not at where we are currently, anyway."

"I was thinking the same thing," Hitch agreed. "So what did you find?"

Blacker dug through the pile, flicking sheets aside carelessly as he did. Some ended up on the floor, some on the far end of the table. "It occurred to me that the button cameras Ruby stole must have been placed somewhere," he said, "and she also had to have a way to access the feed. So I went back to the tech department, and got Hal to remotely access them for me."

BLACKER: Most of them looked like they were in a drawer somewhere, maybe she put them away and forgot about them, or just didn't use them. But there was one that piqued my interest.

HITCH: Go on.

BLACKER: Well, the images weren't exactly the best of quality, if you know what I mean. The room they're in was kinda dark.

He pushed some polaroid printouts towards Hitch, who glanced over the first few. They were all focused on a metal door with a tiny window set into it. The door itself was set into a wall that had been painted black.

HITCH: If it was a video feed, then why do we only have single images?

BLACKER: I mean, I could access the actual feed, but there's pretty much no difference between that and a static snapshot. Wherever that camera is, nothing much is happening there.

HITCH: Do we know what they were recording earlier this week?

BLACKER: No can do, I'm afraid. They're simple cameras. They don't record anything, just broadcast it to a receiver, and even then, we can't track it down to where it is.

Hitch examined the images. The main focus was the door, but just out of shot was what looked like a room number on a metal plate. He offered it to Blacker. "What does this look like to you?"

Blacker squinted for a moment. "Huh, now that you mention it – it looks sort of like the numbers on the rooms in Spectrum 8." A moment passed, and then Blacker slammed his head down onto the table in exasperation. "- it is a room in Spectrum 8, isn't it. I think I've been working on this too long, I'm missing the downright obvious."

"We've all been there, don't worry," Hitch said with just a touch of amusement. He looked at the image again, trying to make out the exact number. All that was visible was what looked like half of the number zero. "Now that I think about it – do we even have a black section in Spectrum 8?"