‘Is everything all right? asked Jake.
‘Yes.’
But her answer was too quick. This wasn’t the Janet that Jake was familiar with. By reputation, Gareth’s secretary, although small in size, was a tough woman who scared the life out of everyone in the building, with the exception of Gareth. She was known behind her back as Gareth’s Rottweiler, his fierce guard dog, one who was capable of great savagery — usually verbal — if it meant protecting her beloved boss.
There was no sign of the Rottweiler today. Right now, Janet was nervous, flustered, unhappy. No, deeply unhappy.
‘When will he be in?’ pressed Jake. ‘Only there’s something very important I need to discuss with him.’
Janet hesitated, then she said, ‘At the moment he’s on an assignment.’
Jake frowned.
‘What sort of assignment?’
‘I’m afraid that’s classified,’ snapped Janet sharply, a hint of the old Rottweiler surfacing.
‘Do you know when he’ll be back?’
‘It’s . . . it’s open-ended.’
‘So . . . no?’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Janet, although the tight-lipped look she gave Jake said that she wasn’t sorry at all, ‘but I have some important work to be getting on with.’
‘Of course,’ Jake nodded apologetically. ‘But, if you’re in touch with him, will you give him my message? That I need to see him urgently.’
‘Of course.’
With that, Janet turned back to her desk and began sorting through some papers. But Jake felt sure that this activity was just a cover. Something was wrong. Gareth wasn’t in, and Janet didn’t know why. Or, she did know why, and she was frightened because of it.
Jake left Gareth’s office and walked back down the stairs to the first floor, and the office where he and the other minions of the Department of Science press office carried out their duties. His friend Paul Evans was just hanging up the phone as he arrived.
‘Bloody Area 51,’ Paul grumbled.
Jake frowned.
‘Area 51?’ he repeated. ‘In America?’
Paul laughed.
‘Not that one,’ he chuckled. ‘Our very own Area 51. Laker Heath. You know, where all the oddball stuff is kept. Our own flying saucers, aliens, that sort of thing.’ He laughed. ‘At least, that’s what the conspiracy freaks seem to believe.’
Jake shook his head.
‘No one’s told me about this,’ he said.
‘Oh, come on!’ said Paul. ‘Remember that time you got caught up in that escape of toxic gas? The hallucinations at that building site. I told you then about Sigma.’
‘Sigma?’
‘The code they use for all these oddball things. Hoax or hallucination.’
Jake felt a sick feeling inside, wondering if this was going to lead up to Paul talking about the Malichea books. It was a subject he’d always avoided talking about to Paul, or anyone else at work, with the exception of Gareth. And, as far as he knew, no one at press office level, except himself, even knew about the hidden Malichea books; and it wasn’t something he wanted to air now.
‘Anyway,’ said Paul airily, ‘you’d be kept out of the loop as far as what goes on at Area 51. You’re not cleared. It’s Level Five security only. You’re still . . . what? Level Three?’
‘That’s nonsense!’ insisted Jake. ‘I went on a training course at Laker Heath when I was first here. There was no suggestion there was anything odd about the place.’
‘Well, they’re hardly likely to admit that to a new trainee,’ said Paul.
‘Yes, but I had an even lower level security clearance then,’ Jake insisted. ‘If Laker Heath really is where all those sorts of things are kept . . .’
‘Rumoured to be kept,’ corrected Paul.
‘OK, rumoured,’ said Jake. ‘The bottom line is that I wouldn’t have been allowed in. But I was.’
‘Did you go into the hangar?’ asked Paul.
Jake frowned.
‘What hangar?’
‘The large aircraft hangar right at the western end.’
‘No,’ admitted Jake. ‘Our training course was in the main building, near the main gate.’
‘There you are, then.’ Paul smiled. ‘It’s inside that hangar that the real stuff is kept.’ He winked. ‘Alien spacecraft. Monsters from the deep.’ Then he sighed and gestured at the phone. ‘Which is why whenever anything happens at Laker Heath we get bombarded with reporters chasing some weird story. Like just now.’
‘What?’ asked Jake, intrigued.
‘Someone in the area reported glowing lights hovering over the hangars at the place, so, naturally, they suspected UFOs.’