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This section covers strange things seen in the Park.
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section.
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Saturday 16/05/ 2093
Strange Behaviour
Kerstin was the first to be up the following morning. She unceremoniously
gave Marita a prod to rouse her but she gave George a kiss.
She said. "I thought that you said that Spacers could have
everything they needed provided free. You were wrong. This shower
isn't big enough for the three of us together."
Marita said with a laugh. "First you share my partner, then
you share my bed with both of us, what more do you want - a sauna
and a lake?"
At breakfast the mood had changed. Kerstin was wearing her
new uniform with a short blonde wig. Although it was different
to the Swedish uniform she was used to, she seemed happy to wear
it. Kerstin looked rather incongruous among the informally clad
Spacers but strange dress had almost become commonplace in the
Club during the last two months. George noted that her peaked
hat of officialdom had a basic helmet inside. She had a stick
with a handle on one side and a wrist immobiliser clipped to her
belt. On either lapel were small microphones. One was for a communicator
and the other for a note-taker.
She showed George and Marita her warrant card. It alternated between
a holo of her head and her name, rank and warrant number. George
thought that if Marita was wearing the same uniform, nobody would
know the difference.
As they were finishing their breakfasts, Boku came up to them
dressed as a schoolgirl.
She said. "My team will be helping to look after you both
from today onwards. The other Spacers who have been watching your
interests need a break. The Commander had to give them direct
orders not to continue with the work. I have been told not to
tell you who they are. I can tell you George that the man who
followed you last night and lost you temporarily has been found
dead, shot in the head. The Spacer who was keeping watch over
you thought that she would give herself away when you misled that
follower. She couldn't stop laughing to herself. Then when you
walked right past him, she saw the look of relief on his face.
He had two accomplices who kept well out of sight. When the man
started following you again, a plainclothes policewoman stopped
him to ask for directions so that he would be delayed. Then you
evaded him again because he was still looking to see where you
had gone after you been in the Club for a few minutes. It is sad
that he was shot. He had not done any harm and would have been
stopped before he could harm anybody. Because he was shot - we
guess it was because he lost sight of you - the police are taking
extra precautions. Many of them will be armed. This is very unusual
for the British police. My team will be unarmed as is usual. If
we cannot protect you without the use of weapons, we are not doing
our job properly. I can tell you that one of my team is literally
unarmed. She has a prosthetic arm that was made by the same team
as made my hands. It works beautifully. Now you go to your work
as usual. I must disappear."
Marita and George knew that Boku could almost do that literally.
Boku was gone before any of them could make any comment.
Kerstin went to the floater park in the Club's courtyard. It had been decided that she should never be seen in uniform on the streets near the Club. As a policewoman she would always leave in a floater.
Marita was free from her lecturing duties because it was a
Saturday. Nevertheless, she went to the University because she
had some coaching to do.
As had become usual, George activated his vidbook as soon as he
was on the strip. The people on the strip were a different sort
of crowd to those who had been travelling during the week. Their
clothes were less formal and there were more children with them.
For once there was no response from the vidbook during his journey.
George thought that he saw a familiar face - a Spacer- but when
he looked again she had disappeared. At Undepoldus House George
saw that his friend had already taken up position. Was Undepoldus
hungry or had he some other reason to start early? George greeted
him with. "Nice to see that you are conscientious old buddy."
As ever, he got no reaction from Undepoldus.
Although he was sure that the police and volunteer Spacers had looked after him well during the last few days, George felt reassured that he had seen what he thought was a familiar face in the crowd and that the vidbook had detected no followers for a change.
As there were more children in the Park than during the week, the atmosphere seemed to be a bit more light hearted. The lottery arrangement had come to an end because the demand to see Undepoldus was well past its first flush of enthusiasm for novelty. Undepoldus was now just another of the attractions at the Park but he still attracted a lot of visitors. The strip had been set to allow visitors a longer viewing time but even so, there were still a lot of people who went around Undepoldus House to rejoin the small queue to have a second look.
Although there was not more work for George to do than there
had been on the day before, he found that he was taking his time
over the different jobs because he felt more relaxed. He spent
more time watching the people passing by because he loved to see
the looks on the children's faces. Some were ecstatic, some were
bored by the uninteresting view. Some cried but most of them seemed
to be happy. One or two pulled funny faces at Undepoldus to see
if he would react. He didn't. Nothing seemed to disturb him. George
wondered if Undepoldus found the sight of happy children as uplifting
as he did himself.
When watching the crowd he began unconsciously to pick out one
or two people who seemed to be behaving in a slightly unnatural
way. They were doing their best to look like ordinary visitors
but their body language was just a little more restrained. Although
they looked at Undepoldus like most of the rest of the visitors
did. George had the feeling that their minds were on something
else. Then George noticed that most of them seemed to be just
a little bit more athletic than average. Then he noticed that
one of them had gone by the viewing window previously. Her look
was just the same as before. She carried a portable entertainment
unit but the headphones were in front of her ears. Her slightly
distracted look was not caused by the music she might have been
listening to. George thought that she was a little too young to
be a Spacer, possibly nineteen or twenty. George thought that
he would try his vidbook to see if she had been seen before. The
vidbook did not respond when she came around for what was possibly
the third or fourth time. George presumed that the vidbook had
been programmed not to respond to her so she must be one of the
many police and Spacers who had been given the job of guarding
him and/or Undepoldus. Some of the others who had been by before
came by again. They were less noticeable but none of them could
act as if they were seeing Undepoldus for the first time. The
vidbook did not recognise any of them. George felt comforted by
the measures that were being taken to ensure that Undepoldus and
he were being guarded so intensively. Nevertheless he thought
that if he could spot those who were on guard, others could spot
them too. He set the processor to obtain images of those he thought
were acting as guards so that he could pass them on to Boku for
checking.
George saw that as the day went on, the extra guards were finding it much harder to look as if they were genuinely interested in Undepoldus. They were evidently dedicated to their work because their patrols were fairly regular and frequent. George welcomed the diversion from the quiet humdrum way that he spent most of his days in Undepoldus House.
No watchers were detected by his vidbook on his way back to the Club. It seemed that they liked to have their Saturdays free.
George showed Boku the images to look at. She gave no indication that she recognised any of them. She said. "If you see any more people behaving strangely, please let me know."
Later, when George was talking to Marita, he mentioned the
patrols he had noticed.
He said. "This is one girl that I particularly noticed. She
carried an entertainment unit but her headphones were in front
of her ears. She seemed a bit young to be a guard and Boku made
no comment."
Marita said. "I know who she is - she is one of my students."
When she saw the other images she said. "I told them that
they should not try in any way to protect me or you. Anyway, there
would be no point in trying to guard you while you were in Undepoldus
House. You told me that the building is virtually impregnable.
I will have words to say to them on Monday."
"If they were your students, and they were not guarding me,
they might have been checking for bugs around Undepoldus House."
"Well, that is nearly as bad. If they had spent a long time
around Undepoldus House, they could have been noticed."
"Marita, they were very dedicated in what they were doing.
They couldn't see me and they could only see a reflection of Undepoldus.
Maybe they were checking how fast he was growing."
Marita said vehemently. "George! You should know better than
that. The simplest answer is to ask them. We could spend hours
in wild speculation without knowing what they were up to."
"I know that you are right Marita, but Undepoldus grew two
centimetres today between the time the Park opened and when it
closed. A careful observer might have noticed the difference."
"I don't care George. Those students should not have been
there, whatever they were doing. You know that if they were spotted,
two things could happen. They could be put into danger themselves
and we would not be able to protect them. They could also give
the watchers the idea that we were being guarded so they would
be scared off. Then it would make it much harder for our security
services to find and identify the ringleader."
"I wasn't watched today - at least on the journeys to and
from the Park."
Marita was insistent. She was showing her anger. She said. "I
told them not to get involved. They have. They have let me down.
I don't mean to be angry with you George but you are trying to
find ways to justify them when they went against my wishes."
George said soothingly. "Marita, please calm down a bit.
Whatever they did must have been for a reason. You should know
better than I do how bright they are. I only know what you have
told me. How many times have you done something when you judged
that the risk was worth the possible reward, even when you have
been advised not to do it?"
"George. I see your point. I would never had gone on the
Undepoldus mission if I had not been prepared to take risks. If
they have got a good reason for being at the Park today, I wish
that they had let me know first."
"No Marita. If they had, you would have wanted to stop them
or to help them. If you knew and could not be involved, you would
have spent the day worrying about them. I am sure that you will
see things in a different light on Monday. None of them came to
any harm as far as I know. If they had, we would have found out
about it by now."
"George! You exasperate me at times. You are so damned logical.
Remind me in future not to argue with you. I hate losing arguments
but you know why I am concerned. Those students are almost like
family. It would be terrible if anything happened to any of them."
"Marita dear. I understand your concern but I am sure that
you will feel happier when you know what they were up to. Now
let us relax and forget them for a while. I have the day off tomorrow
so I do not need to get up early."
Marita said. "Now you are talking George. You say such nice
things now and again."
PAUSE
The next section covers the way children
helped George
Viewers familiar with this subject may pass on to the following
section.
Please select PASS or CONTINUE.