Tom Aston - The Machine

‘Many variations are caused by what is under the surface, said Stone pointing at the map. ‘See here. India is an area of low gravity. So is much of China. Only the Himalayas and Tibet in between have higher than average gravity.’ Most of China was colured in blue.

‘So what does it all mean?’ asked Ying Ning, looking again at her online maps. She was already looking intently at a map of Western Sichuan Province. She’d already spotted what he’d seen. ‘If Semyonov’s figures, the one’s that Oyang gave you, are something to do with gravity, why are they important?’

He didn’t know, and neither did she. But they could still find the location.

‘If you look at this gravity map of China,’ he said, ‘You’ll see that most of China is blue, meaning slightly lower than average gravity — apart from the Himalayan mountain range. And apart from this one spot.’ Stone pointed to a pin-prick sized red spot on the map. It was so small it looked like a mistake, or one bad pixel on the screen. But it wasn’t. It was a small spot of higher than normal gravity.

Ying Ning had an atlas of China open at the same region as the red dot, and she was circling place names.

‘This tiny anomaly in the gravity field,’ Stone went on, ‘Was picked up by a satellite. There’s nothing above the surface there, no mountain. So there must be something under the surface at that spot, something very large and very dense.’

The Machine?

Ying Ning said nothing. She didn’t need to. She’d already written down Chinese characters alongside Semyonov’s numbers. Looking sure of herself.

??? Tieshi Lin 328 19.2 9.8229

?? Field Well 15 8.3 9.8218

??? Silvermine Field 169 15.9 9.8229

?? 2 Trees 3 Trees 97 6.7 9.8219

?? Sitong 44 0.7 9.8249

Stone would have done the same if his Chinese had been up to it. If these figures were correct, she’d got the precise location. The centre of the “gravity bulge” was located near to these villages. Just how near was provided by the figures. They were the bearings and distances of the anomaly from each of the place names Semyonov had written down.

Ironstone Forest was just an English way of saying the village of Tieshi Lin. The characters were iron, stone and forest. Two trees three trees was a way of saying Lin Sen, whose name contained the character for tree — twice, then three times. The anomaly was 19.2 kilometres from the Tieshi Lin at a bearing of 328 degrees, and it was at 6.7 kilometres from Lin Sen, bearing 97 degrees. The other bearings and distances were written in the same way. Semyonov had made a very accurate pinpoint of the location in the far West of Sichuan Province, near the border with Tibet.

The last name on the list was virtually on top of the gravitational bulge, only 700 metres away. Stone took the map from Ying Ning and placed his finger on the map. ‘That’s where we’re going.’

Oddly, Ying Ning didn’t look too sure about it. She changed the subject. ‘This place too dangerous,’ She said, then she paused and came to the point. ‘We go to Sichuan, yes?’

‘To find the Machine?’

She shrugged as usual. ‘Could be.’

An hour later, Stone sent a message via the secure NotFutile.com email server.

Found the Machine. Bear 128 degrees, 43 km from village of Tieshi Lin, Western Sichuan. See what you can discover re gravitational/magnetic anomaly nearby.

Fancy a trip to China?

Meanwhile, Ying Ning was still looking at the map. She had circled a location in the map heavily in black pen. It was the last name on the list. Stone asked her what the characters meant. Sitong .

'The name means Death Hole,' she said.

Jessica sipped at her twenty-eight-dollar glass of Pinot Noir and made eyes at him. Ekstrom hadn’t expected a law firm partner would be so obvious. If this woman didn’t put out tonight he’d feel compelled report her to the Trade Commission for false advertising.

Ekstrom had met Jessica three days before. This was their first dinner, in a party of ten at the upscale French restaurant, L’Eventail. Jessica wasn’t bad looking. Not up to Ekstrom’s usual standard, but not bad. About five-seven, good body. Signs of cellulite beginning on upper-thighs. A few grey roots on the day he’d met her — since dealt with. All in all a good average. Whatever. She was a lawyer. She was single. But most of all she was a friend of Antonio Alban. No one would look twice at Ekstrom while he was with Jessica.

‘Your friend looks familiar’ said Ekstrom, making conversation.

‘Antonio Alban,’ she replied. ‘He’s been on TV a lot lately.’

Ekstrom raised an interested eyebrow.

‘SearchIgnition,’ she explained. ‘He’s VP of Vision at SearchIgnition.’

Ekstrom did the smile again. Glanced up from his menu cheekily. Women loved it when he did that. At least Jessica did.

Her blouse was open a button lower than usual, her eyes smouldering. And this was before the entree . A man with Ekstrom’s looks and physique shouldn’t need to work on his “game”, but the “S and A” ( Seduction and Attraction ) program at Special Circumstances' academy was the real deal. Ekstrom had refused to use the “S and A” program before now — as if learning seduction techniques somehow demeaned his masculinity. But this was business, and for Jessica he had deployed the full three-day program of dates, calls and text messages. It worked like a dream — before they even met. Ekstrom wondered what she would be like in bed. Grateful , was his guess.

He was interrupted by a movement on the other end of their table of ten, near the window. Alban. He had got up. Ekstrom glanced at his watch. He gave it forty-five seconds then stood up himself.

‘Excuse me,’ said Ekstrom, and made for the restroom. On the staircase he checked round one last time for cameras, though he knew there were none. Just ambient music, which sounded vaguely French. Pretentious crap. In the bathroom, Antonio Alban was just doing up his zipper. He was five-ten, and a moderately fit 168 pounds, according to the Special Circumstances file. Ekstrom loitered as Alban turned to the washbasin, then stepped up and took the VP of Vision’s neck from behind. Ekstrom stared intently into Alban’s terrified eyes in the mirror. His long, powerful fingers pressed into the carotid arteries, steadily increasing in pressure. Alban grabbed at his throat, his face contorted. Ekstrom smiled at him in the mirror. The smile he’d just used on Jessica. ‘Mr Alban. Your employers said I should persuade you to be quiet about Mr Semyonov. I can be very persuasive.’

Ekstrom pushed Alban’s face into the wall. The strength drained from the man. This Alban had nothing, no fight at all. Ekstrom had killed women and children with more spirit. His forearm pressed on the back of Alban’s neck, squeezing him against the wall. The body collapsed. Ekstrom was supporting the whole of Alban’s weight on his left elbow, pinned against the back of the man’s neck. With his right hand Ekstrom felt in his own coat pocket and produced the hypodermic. He pulled Alban’s shirt up and felt for the profile of the ribs. He pushed the hair-like needle in between the third and fourth rib, five centimetres to the left of the spine.

Sodium tripentol, used in some states for lethal injections. Death comes quickly when the heart stops. Ekstrom carried Alban into one of the cubicles and sat him on the can, locking the door behind him. He pulled down Alban’s pants and leaned him forward. That was the most difficult part of the whole operation — to balance a deadman on the toilet.