Angry Moon

Chapter 7b

     The lounge had one wall open, overlooking the sea, to allow a warm breeze to blow in. Ben was sitting at a group of tables near where the retractable wall would normally be with a small group of people; nine adults and five children. All dressed casually and all clearly members of the same group. Eddie threaded his way between the other tables and the potted plants towards them.

     “Ah, here he is,” said Ben, rising to greet him. “Our guest of honour. Edward Nash, the boy wonder.”

     “If I'm boy wonder then you must be Batman.”

     They shook hands while the others stared curiously. “So, this is the young man you've told us so much about,” said a tall, blonde woman sitting to Ben's right. She also stood to shake hands with him.

     “Eddie, this is Karen Kerr, my deputy,” said Ben, “and that gorgeous couple over there is Jessica, her daughter and her husband, Stuart.” He indicated a couple in their twenties sitting on the other side of the table. They were also tall and blonde, and the man was broad across the shoulders, his skin golden and suntanned. The woman had an infant sitting in a pram by her side. “They're also members of the project,” added Ben. “Karen helps me with the administration these days. Physics is a game for the young, as you know, so Jessica is taking up the mantle of family genius.”

     “Mother is still way smarter then me, though,” said Jessica, leaning across the table to shake hands. “I'll never be half the researcher she is.”

     “Was,” Karen corrected her. “I'm just a bookkeeper these days. The government likes us to keep track of all their money.”

     “I'm sure they do,” said Eddie, smiling.

     “Pleased to meet you,” he said, offering his hand. Eddie smiled again as he took it. “I'm the project's head of security. I'm the one who'll shoot you if you leak it to the Russians.” Eddie's smile broadened with nervousness. “I suppose they were afraid that Karen and Jess would talk about work at home and that I might overhear, so since the head of security doesn’t need any science qualifications they decided to hire me. That way, that three of us can talk shop at home as much as we like.”

     “Stu does himself a disservice,” said Jessica. “He’s a mechanical genius and does a lot of work on the hardware. Don't let him fool you into thinking he drools like an idiot while we eggheads are cracking atoms.”

     “Compared to you I drool like an idiot,” said Stuart, smiling. “You inherited the family brain. I just married into the family.” He gestured over to the next table where four children were being looked after by a man who looked to be in his thirties. They were all eating ice creams, and the man was wiping the face of the smallest child, who had ice cream all over his pudgy cheeks. ”The two blonde children over there are ours. Hugh and Lee. They're four and three respectively.”

     “The babysitter’s Frank Williams, our newest recruit,” said Ben. “Been with us for about three years now.” The man waved over, Eddie waved back. “The ebony goddess is Alice Levine and that's her husband Desmond beside her. The other two kids over there belong to them.”

     “Hey, man,” said Desmond, raising a hand. Eddie raised a hand back to him.

     “And finally, the chap in the wheelchair’s James Buckley, with his lovely wife Jasmine and their son Matthew.”

     Matthew looked to be about fourteen or fifteen to Eddie, too old to sit with the other children. He was doing his best to look and act like an adult but Eddie could see he was bored and would probably much rather have been playing on his MiniVirt or kicking a football about. He was staring curiously at the new arrival, and Eddie guessed that he was probably bursting with curiosity to know what it was that his father was involved with. He was probably hoping to overhear something that would give him a clue. He was going to be disappointed, though. There'd be nothing but small talk and getting to know each other until Ben could get the project members away from their families, probably some time tomorrow.