Vortex

Epilogue

Ben's body ached from the bruises he had sustained in the tank, but he ignored them as he jumped down off the bus and hurried along the street to Annie's house. In his hand he clutched an A4 envelope, and he wanted to show his cousin the contents.

He rapped on the front door and Annie answered. She nodded at him, and silently led him upstairs to her bedroom. The bird magazine that Annie had showed him last time he was here was lying on her bed, open at the page that showed the picture of the hen harrier. Ben felt a pang as he remembered seeing the birds being shot down, but also a small surge of pride that maybe — just maybe — they had made the world a little bit safer for those birds that remained.

As soon as they had shut the door behind them, Ben spoke. 'I've got something to show you,' he said, and he handed over the envelope.

Annie looked curiously inside, and pulled out a piece of paper. It was a photocopy of a newspaper cutting, and the two of them read it together.

It was only a small article, and the picture that accompanied it was faint. There was no mistaking the face though — the hooked nose, the floppy hair, the piercing stare. It was Joseph. A young Joseph, but Joseph nevertheless. They read the words that accompanied it in silence.

A physicist, Joseph Sinclair, has been detained indefinitely at a hospital for the mentally ill in York. Mr Sinclair, 21, was widely viewed as one of the most promising young scientists of his generation, but friends had become increasingly concerned about his erratic behaviour in recent weeks. His brother, Lucian Sinclair, spoke of his family's concerns. 'We are desperately worried for Joseph,' he told this newspaper, 'but we are confident he will make a full recovery in the very near future.'

Annie breathed deeply. 'It's horrible, isn't it,' she said, 'what people are willing to do to each other?'

Ben nodded.

'Do you think he knew?' she asked him. 'What he was doing, I mean, when he blew up the bunker? Or was it the voices in his head that he told us about?'

'I don't know, Annie,' he replied. 'I guess we'll never know.'

Before he could say anything else, there was a knock at the door.

'Come in,' Annie called.

The door opened, and a tall, thickset man with steely grey hair appeared.

Annie blinked, then smiled. 'Dad!' she said with delight, then ran to her father, who embraced her in a great bear hug.

Air Commodore James Macpherson smiled at Ben over his daughter's shoulder. 'Ben,' he greeted him affably.

'Hi, James,' Ben replied. He barely ever saw Annie's dad, but he liked him a lot.

Annie pulled away from her dad. 'How come you're back?' she asked excitedly.

'Been reassigned up north,' he replied. 'All this business at Spadeadam — you've probably read about it in the paper.'

Ben did his best not to catch Annie's eye. 'Yeah,' she replied. 'Bits and pieces. Do you know what went on?'

James took a seat on Annie's bed and stretched his legs out. 'Not a clue, to be honest. It's all very mysterious. Some people seem to think it's a terrorist strike, and we've had certain intelligence—'

'What sort of intelligence?' Ben asked, a bit too quickly.

James looked slightly taken aback by his sudden question. 'I'm sorry, Ben,' he said quietly. 'It's the sort of thing I can't discuss.'

'No,' Ben muttered, slightly embarrassed. 'No, of course not.'

'Still,' James announced brightly, 'for what it's worth, I don't agree with them. Strikes me as being much more likely that it was an unexploded bomb left over from the war. Or something like that. Whatever it is, it's a mess. Anyway' — he smiled over at his daughter — 'it means I'm going to be around for a bit, I'm afraid.'

Annie grinned at him.

'Well,' James declared, standing up and stretching his legs, 'I'd better get back to it.' He made to leave. 'Oh,' he said, turning round just as his hand touched the doorknob, 'your mum said you went bird-watching in that area.'

Ben and Annie nodded mutely.

'See anything interesting?'

Ben blinked, his mind suddenly blank as he tried to think of something to say.

'Oh,' he managed finally, shrugging his shoulders as nonchalantly as he could and turning to look out of Annie's bedroom window, 'you know. This and that.'