Murder in the Dark Read online

  She started moving again, but I didn’t. I’d just spotted a massive steel drum standing on its own, half-hidden behind the tents, with a hell of a lot of steel cable wound around it. An engine had been attached to one side, so the cable could be unwound at a controlled rate and then pulled back again. The drum had been secured to the hillside by a number of heavy steel bolts driven into the ground. The whole thing looked very out of place, even ominous, in such a pastoral setting. I turned to the Professor for an explanation, and she shrugged briefly.

  ‘We’ve been lowering things into the hole. Various pieces of equipment, and a number of test animals.’

  I tried to estimate how much cable was wrapped around the drum, and didn’t like the answer I was getting. ‘Just how deep is this hole?’

  ‘We don’t know,’ said the Professor. She sounded suddenly tired, even depressed. ‘We try to go a little deeper every time, and have found that each time we can go deeper. I’m tempted to say we might be out of our depth here.’

  Penny pointed silently but meaningfully at a collection of animal cages stacked beside the drum. They were all empty. The Professor shrugged briefly. I was starting to think that was her standard response to most questions.

  ‘We used them all up,’ she said. ‘None left.’

  ‘What happened to them?’ said Penny, in a voice that suggested she already knew the answer and wasn’t at all happy about it.

  ‘No idea,’ said the Professor. ‘We’ve sent for some more. They should be here tomorrow.’

  ‘What kind of animals have you been using?’ said Penny.

  ‘Guinea pigs, mice, birds, even a few of the larger insects,’ said the Professor. ‘No cats or dogs. Nothing cute enough for anyone to give a damn. Can we please get a move on?’

  We followed her up the hill. And there, finally, was the hole. Nothing too impressive, at first glance. Just a large dark circle in the sloping grass. The Professor stopped a good four feet short of the hole, and insisted we did the same. She pointed to a line at our feet that had been gouged deeply into the earth.

  ‘This is as far as we go. It’s not safe to get any closer.’

  I studied the hole carefully. Set neatly into the side of the hill, like a small cave, it had to be at least seven feet in diameter. But it took me only a moment to decide there was nothing natural about it. The perimeter was a perfect circle, as if it had been cut out of the grassy slope with some kind of machine. But there was no sign of debris, and no crumbling earth at the edges.

  The darkness that filled the hole was unnervingly complete. The daylight didn’t penetrate one inch. It was like looking at a night sky with no moon and no stars. Just a darkness that went on for ever. I didn’t need to be told this hole was dangerous. The dark in the hole wasn’t merely the absence of light; it was a thing in its own right. It looked … wrong. It didn’t belong in the everyday world where things were supposed to make sense.

  ‘It’s like looking into a bottomless pit,’ Penny said quietly. ‘Except … Ishmael, do you get the feeling it’s looking back at us?’

  ‘Everyone feels that,’ said the Professor. ‘Like the hole is studying us while we’re studying it. The only thing my team and I can agree on is that this is a hole in the world, not just the hill. Come over here.’

  She led us off to one side, still careful to maintain a respectful distance. Someone had dug a ragged hole in the ground, a couple of feet in diameter, with perfectly normal crumbling edges. A reassuringly human effort. I studied it carefully.

  ‘That’s not just a hole. It’s a tunnel through the earth.’

  ‘You’ve got good eyes,’ said the Professor. ‘Yes, it’s a tunnel. Goes right through the hill, behind the hole, and emerges on the other side. Demonstrating that although the hole itself goes down a disturbingly long way, it isn’t descending into the earth. It’s going somewhere else. Some of my people think it’s an opening into another world.’

  ‘Is that what you think?’ I said.

  ‘Perhaps,’ said the Professor. ‘Perhaps.’

  I got down on one knee, and thrust my right arm as far into the tunnel as it would go. I jerked my hand back and forth, banging it against the earth sides of the tunnel while looking at the hole above it, but the hole remained entirely unmoved by what I was doing. Penny looked apologetically at the Professor.

  ‘Sorry. Ishmael always has to check everything for himself.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ said the Professor. ‘We all had a try. Just to convince ourselves the hole wasn’t some kind of optical illusion.’

  ‘It isn’t,’ I said, pulling my arm out of the tunnel and getting to my feet again. ‘Wherever this hole goes, it’s not anywhere in our world.’

  The Professor marched us back in front of the hole, careful to keep us behind the safety line, and we all stood and stared at the flat impenetrable darkness.

  ‘And this is what the missing archaeologist disappeared into?’ I said finally.

  ‘Went in and never came out,’ said the Professor.

  ‘Did anyone try going in after him?’ said Penny.

  ‘Would you?’ said the Professor. ‘You only have to look at that thing to know it’s not safe.’

  ‘Then why did the archaeologist get so close?’ I said.

  ‘Good question,’ said the Professor.

  ‘Did they try shouting after him?’ said Penny.

  ‘According to the official report, they shouted themselves hoarse,’ said the Professor. ‘But there was no response from inside the hole. Not then, or since. We’ve been listening to it on every frequency there is, without any result.’

  ‘Has anything emerged from the hole?’ I said.

  ‘No,’ said the Professor.

  ‘Has the size of the hole ever changed?’ said Penny.

  ‘Good question,’ said the Professor. ‘No. Nothing about the hole has changed since it first appeared. And before you ask, none of the archaeologists saw it appear. They just turned round and there it was. Looking like it had always been there.’

  We stood before the hole for a while, studying it in silence. There was something blunt and obtrusive about this thing that had forced its way into our world. As though it didn’t care, because there was nothing we could do to stop it doing whatever it was there to do.

  ‘My team has been tasked to discover what the hole is, what it’s for and, most important of all, what might be on the other side,’ the Professor said finally. ‘We are all very determined and extremely motivated to get to the bottom of this hole. It’s been made very clear to us that our future careers depend on coming up with some answers.’

  ‘Your original work on dimensional doorways …’ I said. ‘Was it entirely theoretical?’

  ‘Of course!’ she said. ‘I never thought to see one in the flesh, so to speak. I was just trying to work out what kind of circumstances might produce or support such phenomena. Have you ever seen anything like this before?’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘But I think I understand why the Colonel was in such a rush. This could be a weak spot in the physical state of the universe, where two worlds touch. It could even be an entrance point for an invasion from somewhere else. Or, to take a more positive view, it could help us understand how to travel to such other places. Very valuable information; or very dangerous, in the wrong hands. No wonder the Colonel wanted some security in place as soon as possible.’

  ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ said the Professor. ‘This could be an entirely natural phenomenon. The maths allows for it, though that’s just another area of science we don’t properly understand yet. We haven’t found any positive proof of aliens.’

  ‘Is there anything you are certain of?’ said Penny.

  ‘Yes. The hole’s edges are razor-sharp.’

  The Professor bent down and picked up a long branch that had been left lying on the ground, just inside the safety line. She straightened up, took one careful step across the line, then jabbed the branch at the right-hand edge of the hol
e. The end was immediately cut through, and the severed part disappeared into the hole. There was no sense of transition as the end of the branch entered the darkness; it was just suddenly gone. The Professor stepped quickly back behind the line again.

  ‘Now that’s interesting,’ I said. ‘There was no sense of resistance, the end sheared through immediately. And the severed part dropped into the hole, not to the ground.’

  ‘Well spotted,’ said the Professor, letting the branch fall to the ground. ‘We’ve tried this several times, and the end always goes in. It seems there’s some kind of pull or gravity involved. Another good reason for the safety line.’

  ‘What about the archaeologist?’ said Penny. ‘Could the hole’s gravity have pulled him in?’

  ‘Nobody saw it happen,’ said the Professor.

  She glared at the hole, as though accusing it of keeping secrets from her just to be annoying. Penny leaned in close to me.

  ‘Can you see anything inside the hole, Ishmael? Are you picking up anything from it?’

  ‘I can’t see one inch past the surface,’ I said quietly. ‘And I’m not hearing anything, either. I’m not sure the hole is actually there, as we understand the word. I think what we’re seeing might only be our minds attempting to interpret something entirely outside our experience.’

  ‘As answers go, that really didn’t help,’ said Penny.

  ‘I know,’ I said. ‘Professor! Could the appearance of the hole be linked to what the archaeologists were digging up at the time?’

  ‘That was one of the first things the Colonel asked me to look into,’ said the Professor. ‘There’s no obvious connection. And nothing in the ground they disturbed seems in any way out of the ordinary.’

  ‘What was a Roman villa doing all the way out here?’ I said. ‘We’re a long way from the main Roman settlement in Bath.’

  I looked back down the hill to the archaeological dig.

  ‘Why did the Romans feel the need to build a villa halfway up a hill miles from anywhere? To watch something? Or watch out for something that might appear? Was there a hole, and perhaps even a Beast, all those centuries ago?’

  ‘And how did the archaeologists know to dig here in the first place?’ said Penny.

  ‘More good questions,’ said the Professor. ‘Though I only have an answer to the last one. A local farmer was searching for buried treasure with a metal detector. He found some old Roman coins here, had them checked by someone at the University of Bath, and they supplied the archaeological team.’

  ‘How close is this man’s farm?’ I said.

  ‘Over three miles away,’ said the Professor. ‘He’s been warned to keep his distance till this is all over. He doesn’t know about the hole.’ And then she paused, choosing her words carefully. ‘There are quite a few local legends about mysterious disappearances, going back centuries. Perhaps this hole has been here before. We could be looking at a recurring phenomenon, a hole that moves in time rather than space, reappearing at this particular location on a regular basis. Do you have anything to add?’

  ‘Not for the moment,’ I said. Glad of a chance to get a word in edgeways.

  The Professor fixed me with a hard look. ‘If you’ve been sent to whip us on to greater efforts, you’re wasting your time,’ she said flatly. ‘My people are already working flat out.’

  ‘We’re here to protect you, not pressure you,’ I said.

  The Professor looked down the hill at her scientists, still entirely absorbed in their work. ‘They’re good kids. Doing their best under impossible conditions. All our scans of the hole have proved useless, and any instruments we lower into the hole don’t work. It’s possible that once you get inside, the very laws of physics are different …’ She turned back, to present me with a less confrontational gaze. ‘Is there any chance you could talk to the Colonel? We need better equipment and more of it to do our work properly. And we need it now, not tomorrow.’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said. ‘The Colonel and I don’t have that kind of relationship. I just go where I’m told, and do what I’m told. Mostly. Has he given you a deadline?’

  ‘If my original theories are correct, the hole will only remain here for a maximum of forty hours,’ the Professor said carefully. ‘And twenty-two of those hours have already passed.’

  ‘No wonder the Colonel was in such a hurry,’ I said.

  ‘What happens if you can’t produce any answers in time?’ said Penny.

  ‘We won’t be allowed back when the hole reappears,’ said the Professor. ‘Some other group of bright young minds will get their chance. That’s the real reason we’re all working so hard. This is the kind of work that makes careers, not to mention reputations. What we learn here could rewrite the physics books. Come and meet the team. Let them tell you what they’ve been doing.’

  ‘You go on,’ I said. ‘We’ll join you in a while.’

  The Professor shrugged briefly, and set off down the hillside to the equipment centre. I studied the hole carefully. Penny stood close beside me, her arm tucked through mine, as if to ground herself in the face of something so distinctly otherworldly. The darkness of the hole turned my gaze aside effortlessly, a flat black surface that seemed almost two-dimensional. But there was no denying the hole had a definite presence: just by being there it had an impact on the world. I found it difficult to tear my eyes away. Because while it was there, nothing else was as important.

  I deliberately turned my gaze away, and looked at Penny.

  ‘What do you see when you look at the hole?’ I said carefully.

  ‘A stain on the world,’ she said immediately. ‘Something that shouldn’t be here. Unnatural, just like the Colonel said. What do you see?’

  ‘Something alien.’

  ‘Do you think it’s dangerous?’

  ‘Of course,’ I said. ‘Most alien things are.’

  ‘Not all of them,’ said Penny, pressing my arm against her side. ‘Have you really never seen anything like this before, Ishmael?’

  ‘Not like this,’ I said.

  ‘Then what are we going to do?’

  ‘It’s a hole,’ I said. ‘So the only logical next step is to look into it.’

  Penny snatched her arm free and gave me a hard look.

  ‘Ishmael, you are not seriously thinking of putting your head in there? That would be like sticking your head in the lion’s mouth!’

  ‘You can keep hold of my belt,’ I said. ‘Make sure I don’t fall in.’

  ‘Ishmael! This is a seriously bad idea, and you know it!’

  ‘It’s a hole,’ I said reasonably. ‘How else can I find out what’s inside?’

  ‘At least, put your hand in first! For all you know, we could be looking at the blackness of outer space and there’s nothing in there but cold vacuum.’

  ‘I’ll hold my breath,’ I said. ‘You hold my belt. You’d better use both hands.’

  She stepped behind me, thrust both hands up under my jacket, and took a firm grip on my belt with both hands. I took a careful step over the safety line, leaned forward, and extended my right hand. It was still a few inches away from the dark surface when an unseen force grabbed hold of my hand and jerked it forward. My hand plunged into the darkness and disappeared, without leaving a single ripple on the surface of the hole. My arm suddenly appeared to end at the wrist. The unseen force was still pulling, but I dug my feet in and held my arm where it was.

  I couldn’t feel anything inside the hole. I tried to wiggle my fingers, but I couldn’t even get a sense of where they were in relation to my hand. I moved my wrist left and right across the surface of the hole, but I still couldn’t feel a thing, not even a sense of movement. I began to get a horrid feeling that the hole had taken my hand, eaten it right off, so there was nothing left beyond my wrist … and that was why I couldn’t feel anything. I jerked my hand back out. It took some strength to overcome the force trying to pull me in, but my hand emerged from the flat dark surface entirely undamaged. And when I st
epped back from the hole, the sense of the pull disappeared.

  I flexed my fingers. It was as if they’d never been gone. There was no feeling of pins and needles, no sense of returning circulation after numbness. I rubbed my hands together, and they both felt exactly the same.

  ‘Not cold, or hot, or anything,’ I said to Penny. ‘Keep a tight hold on my belt.’

  And before I could think better of it, I leaned forward and thrust my head into the hole.

  The light cut off immediately. There was nothing but a darkness so absolute it was far more than just the absence of light. I couldn’t see or hear or feel anything. I tried to say something just to hear my own voice, but I had no sense of where my mouth was or even how it worked. Then something hauled me back, and my head came out of the hole again. Light filled my eyes, and all the sounds of the world returned. I took a deep breath and smiled at Penny.

  ‘I’m all right. I’m fine. Why did you pull me out?’

  ‘You weren’t moving! I was worried. Well? What’s in there?’

  ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘Nothing at all. Do you want to try?’

  She smiled dazzlingly. ‘Of course!’

  Her belt didn’t look that strong, so I took a firm grip of her hips with both hands as she leaned forward and stuck her head through the dark surface of the hole. I felt the unseen force jerk her forward, as if trying to pull her out of my grip, but I held on tightly, making sure only her head went in. Seeing her neck end abruptly at the dark surface was really disturbing. I gave her a count of ten, and then pulled her back out. Penny shook her head slowly, as though to make sure it was still properly attached.

  ‘You’re right, Ishmael, there’s nothing in there. But it was weird … I didn’t even feel like I needed to breathe.’ She stopped, frowned, and looked back at the hole. ‘Do you suppose the missing archaeologist could still be in there, somewhere?’

  ‘Depends how far down the hole goes, and what’s at the other end,’ I said. ‘Conditions at the top of the hole could be very different from what’s at the bottom. Come on, let’s go talk to the nice scientists. See what they can tell us about the hole.’