The Invisible Assassin(23)

‘OK,’ said the woman, and she opened the door wider to let them in. As Jake and Lauren followed Parsons along the corridor, she called after them plaintively, ‘But if you can get Joe to do something else other than be stuck at that computer . . .’

‘I’ll try, Aunt Midge,’ called back Parsons.

Oh God, thought Jake, I was right. We’re about to enter the stinking bedroom of some overweight greasy teen computer nerd. It’ll be strewn with empty pizza boxes and burger wrappers, and posters of Darth Vader on the walls, and the stench of rotting food and teenage-boy hormones will peel the linings off my nostrils.

He let Lauren follow Parsons first into the room. As he expected, it was dark. The curtains were closed. And there was a figure hunched over a keyboard at a small table near the bed, barely illuminated by the glow from the screen.

‘Hi, Joe,’ Parsons said cheerfully.

As Jake’s eyes grew accustomed to the gloom, he saw that the boy was actually wearing a hood concealing his head.

Grief, groaned Jake inwardly: wearing a hoodie indoors. This cousin of Parsons is in a worse state than I thought.

Strangely, though, there were no empty pizza boxes or food wrappers. Not even a crisp packet. In fact, the room was surprisingly neat.

The boy turned round and surveyed the visitors from beneath his hood.

‘Three of you?’ he said. ‘What is this? Some kind of convention?’

The boy’s voice was surprisingly light for a teenager. He’s obviously a lot younger than I thought, mused Jake.

‘No, we want your help,’ said Parsons. ‘We need you to do a search for us.’

The boy studied them. Now Jake could see that he had a really thin face beneath his hoodie, and no weight at all on his body. OK, so not the stereotypical overweight computer nerd.

‘Why can’t you do it?’ asked Joe.

‘Because we need a machine that isn’t being spied on,’ said Parsons. He gestured at Jake and Lauren. ‘They’re under surveillance, which makes me think I could be, too.’

Jake saw the boy’s eyes light up in his pale face at this and he pulled back his hood to get a better look at them. As he did so, Jake realised with a shock that he wasn’t a boy. He was a girl of about fourteen or fifteen. So, not ‘Joe’ but ‘Jo’!

‘Under surveillance from who?’ asked Jo, obviously intrigued.

‘The government,’ said Jake.

‘Cool.’ Jo smiled. ‘Why?’

‘Can we ask the questions later?’ asked Parsons. ‘While you’re doing the searches.’

‘Sure.’ Jo nodded. ‘What are we looking for.’

‘A place called Hadley Park Research Establishment,’ Jake told her. ‘It’s in a village called Stone, near Aylesbury.’

Jo’s nimble fingers began to flit over the keyboard of her laptop. As she typed, she asked, ‘What’s it do?’

‘We’re not sure,’ said Parsons. ‘That’s what we’re hoping you’ll find out for us.’

On the screen appeared a list of links, with brief comments beneath.

‘It’s some kind of secret science place,’ murmured Jo. ‘Does that sound right?’

‘Yes,’ said Lauren.

Jo continued scrolling down the screen.

‘Hey, aliens!’ she said, pleased. ‘Really cool!’

‘Aliens?’ repeated Jake, puzzled.

‘Yeah. That’s just one of the things they reckon is going on here. There’s the usual stuff. The Animal Rights people accuse it of experimenting on animals. One of those Liberty-type outfits reckons it’s keeping prisoners there to experiment on. But this one looks the coolest!’

‘Aren’t you worried about the government spying on you through your computer?’ asked Jake.

Jo laughed. ‘No,’ she said. ‘I’ve got my own firewalls set up. No one can break through them.’ She chuckled. ‘And believe me, people have tried!’

She connected to a link, and up came a site declaring itself ‘AlienWatch’. It was a series of postings. Jo scrolled down until she came to the one she was looking for.

‘There!’ she said, and moved her chair back so they could all read the words on the posting.

‘Stardate 5 March. Action at Hadley Park. Today, armed soldiers and people in hazard suits rushed into HPRE, protecting two ambulances. There’d been reports of big discs in the sky. Coincidence? More likely Roswell, UK. Do we get to see the alien autopsies from the crash site this time, or will this be yet another cover-up!’

‘Roswell?’ asked Jake, puzzled.

Jo turned to him and curled her lip in a sneer. She turned to Parsons. ‘He doesn’t know about Roswell?’ she said, her tone very disapproving.