that came with that. It was too late to call so he scrolled down the contacts list to the entry for Marie and opened up a blank text:
Something’s come up. Got to work tomorrow so wont be able to make it home. Will call when I know when I can get away. Say sorry to Sinead for me.
He pressed
Send
and watched the message go. It was odd that he still thought of the house as home even though he didn’t live there any more.
He closed all the files, shut down the terminal and was pulling his jacket off the back of the chair when his phone buzzed. Marie had got straight back to him.
What about saying sorry to me?
Franklin read the words and felt the ache inside him twist a little more. She was right of course but he’d got tired of apologizing to her a long time ago. He slipped his jacket on and headed for the nearest exit, swapping the phone for a crumpled packet of Marlboro. Another bad habit he had been trying for a long time to quit.
21
‘Hubble Flight Team.’
The line was noisy and Shepherd covered his other ear so he could hear better. ‘Merriweather?’
‘Speaking.’
‘It’s Agent Shepherd. Where are you?’
‘I’m at Goddard. I’ve stepped out for some air and patched my calls through to my cell in case anyone needed me, how can I help?’
‘Before the attack you said Hubble was exploring a piece of thin space in the constellation of Taurus.’
‘That’s right.’
‘What do you use as shorthand for Taurus?’
There was a pause. ‘If I was writing it down I’d use the astrological sign, a circle with two horns.’
‘Not the letter T?’
‘No.’
‘What if you were typing it?’
‘If I was typing it I would put in the whole word, or maybe just the first few letters and then predictive text would do the rest.’
Shepherd wrote T and TAURUS in his notebook and added a large question mark after them. ‘What about MALA?’ he spelled it.
‘Nothing, sorry. What are these in relation to?’
‘They showed up in some raw data we recovered from Dr Kinderman’s computer. It’s probably nothing but we have to check.’ Shepherd wrote MALA in his notebook and added a question mark after that too. ‘Thanks, Merriweather. Sorry to have bothered you.’
‘No problem. Listen, if you find anything else let me know, I’m as eager to get to the bottom of this as anyone …’
‘I’m sure you are.’
‘… and you can always get me on this number. I’ll keep it patched through to my cell and leave it switched on just in case, though I’m planning on sleeping at my desk until either Hubble comes back online or someone forces me out of here at gunpoint.’
Shepherd smiled. ‘I’m sure of that too. You take care, Merriweather. We’ll sort this thing out, one way or another.’ He put the phone down just as the door opened on the far side of the room and footsteps approached.
‘Found anything?’ Franklin’s voice boomed across the empty space.
No
– Shepherd thought.
‘Yes,’ Smith said, cheerful as ever. ‘We recovered some CARBON data, and Agent Shepherd has been helping me sort through it.’
‘Good for Agent Shepherd – anything useful?’
Shepherd looked down at his notes. ‘We found a couple of unusual words. I think the T might refer to Taurus but I have no idea what MALA means.’
‘Interesting.’ Franklin leaned forward in a wash of coffee and cigarette smoke. ‘Watch and learn, rookie.’ He clicked on Google and typed MALA into the search window, hit
Return
and pages of results popped up. ‘Sometimes the simple, direct route gets the best results.’ He clicked on the top hit and a Wikipedia page opened up.
Mala: [ mala ] Name given to several historical anti-establishment groups and more recently a clandestine anti-religious terror organization.
Shepherd turned to Franklin who was smiling his trademark smile. ‘If you’d paid a little more attention you would have seen the Mala mentioned more than once in those old newspapers we found back in
Something’s come up. Got to work tomorrow so wont be able to make it home. Will call when I know when I can get away. Say sorry to Sinead for me.
He pressed
Send
and watched the message go. It was odd that he still thought of the house as home even though he didn’t live there any more.
He closed all the files, shut down the terminal and was pulling his jacket off the back of the chair when his phone buzzed. Marie had got straight back to him.
What about saying sorry to me?
Franklin read the words and felt the ache inside him twist a little more. She was right of course but he’d got tired of apologizing to her a long time ago. He slipped his jacket on and headed for the nearest exit, swapping the phone for a crumpled packet of Marlboro. Another bad habit he had been trying for a long time to quit.
21
‘Hubble Flight Team.’
The line was noisy and Shepherd covered his other ear so he could hear better. ‘Merriweather?’
‘Speaking.’
‘It’s Agent Shepherd. Where are you?’
‘I’m at Goddard. I’ve stepped out for some air and patched my calls through to my cell in case anyone needed me, how can I help?’
‘Before the attack you said Hubble was exploring a piece of thin space in the constellation of Taurus.’
‘That’s right.’
‘What do you use as shorthand for Taurus?’
There was a pause. ‘If I was writing it down I’d use the astrological sign, a circle with two horns.’
‘Not the letter T?’
‘No.’
‘What if you were typing it?’
‘If I was typing it I would put in the whole word, or maybe just the first few letters and then predictive text would do the rest.’
Shepherd wrote T and TAURUS in his notebook and added a large question mark after them. ‘What about MALA?’ he spelled it.
‘Nothing, sorry. What are these in relation to?’
‘They showed up in some raw data we recovered from Dr Kinderman’s computer. It’s probably nothing but we have to check.’ Shepherd wrote MALA in his notebook and added a question mark after that too. ‘Thanks, Merriweather. Sorry to have bothered you.’
‘No problem. Listen, if you find anything else let me know, I’m as eager to get to the bottom of this as anyone …’
‘I’m sure you are.’
‘… and you can always get me on this number. I’ll keep it patched through to my cell and leave it switched on just in case, though I’m planning on sleeping at my desk until either Hubble comes back online or someone forces me out of here at gunpoint.’
Shepherd smiled. ‘I’m sure of that too. You take care, Merriweather. We’ll sort this thing out, one way or another.’ He put the phone down just as the door opened on the far side of the room and footsteps approached.
‘Found anything?’ Franklin’s voice boomed across the empty space.
No
– Shepherd thought.
‘Yes,’ Smith said, cheerful as ever. ‘We recovered some CARBON data, and Agent Shepherd has been helping me sort through it.’
‘Good for Agent Shepherd – anything useful?’
Shepherd looked down at his notes. ‘We found a couple of unusual words. I think the T might refer to Taurus but I have no idea what MALA means.’
‘Interesting.’ Franklin leaned forward in a wash of coffee and cigarette smoke. ‘Watch and learn, rookie.’ He clicked on Google and typed MALA into the search window, hit
Return
and pages of results popped up. ‘Sometimes the simple, direct route gets the best results.’ He clicked on the top hit and a Wikipedia page opened up.
Mala: [ mala ] Name given to several historical anti-establishment groups and more recently a clandestine anti-religious terror organization.
Shepherd turned to Franklin who was smiling his trademark smile. ‘If you’d paid a little more attention you would have seen the Mala mentioned more than once in those old newspapers we found back in
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