The Secret Chamber by Patrick Woodhead

Author:Patrick Woodhead
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: General, Fiction
ISBN: 9781848090781
Publisher: Arrow
Published: 2011-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

XIE STOOD AT the entrance to the aircraft hangar, dwarfed by the colossal sliding doors. He checked his watch, squinting as his eyes took in the endless criss-cross of beams supporting the hangar’s roof. Everything had been painted a drab military green and the supports stretched for hundreds of metres, fading to darkness somewhere high in the distance.

Xie inhaled deeply, taking in the smell of engineering grease and the charred remains of the satellite wreckage. Over the last week, the wreckage had been laboriously sorted into piles, with angular piping and once expensive Space Age materials heaped together in carefully denoted type and order. A few lab-coated technicians now moved between the piles with clipboards and scanners.

One of the technicians finally glanced up from his work and immediately hurried over to where Xie stood, waiting patiently with an old leather briefcase gripped in one hand. He bowed low, ushering the visitor past the armed guards.

‘I didn’t see you, sir,’ he apologised. ‘It’s not yet eleven o’clock and … well, I was just preparing some extra documentation … for you, sir.’

Xie gave a tired smile, the dry skin around his eyes creasing like old paper. ‘It’s OK, Captain. I arrived a little early.’

‘Yes, indeed sir,’ the Captain replied, surprised to be treated so cordially. He had only taken orders from General Jian before and had quickly learned that he was not a man to be left waiting. ‘May I offer you some tea?’

Xie nodded gratefully. His brown linen suit was creased across the back and shoulders so that it looked as if he had woken up in it that morning, while his tie was twisted slightly to one side. He seemed to be in no hurry to begin.

He had in fact been awake almost the entire night, reading through the crash report submitted by Jian’s investigation team. It had made for dry reading with a huge amount of technical detail which he didn’t fully understand, but one thing had become apparent and that was the absence of some of the key materials used in building a satellite. When he compared it with the inventory of raw components he had procured direct from the manufacturers, there was a significant gap. He wondered if this was simply due to the fact that they hadn’t managed to recover all the pieces from the crash site. With such an enormous explosion, presumably a lot of the satellite would have been permanently lost.

A few minutes later, Xie was clutching a small bowl of steaming tea, smiling distractedly as the aromatic vapour wafted under his nose. He took a sip, his smile widening as if it was the first cup of tea he had drunk in years.

‘Captain,’ he said softly, ‘I understand you have done superb work in recovering the wreckage from the satellite.’

He paused, allowing the man time to enjoy the compliment. ‘Very detailed work, and it seems you have managed to recover nearly everything.’

The Captain nodded enthusiastically. ‘Yes, sir. We believe we have recovered nearly ninety-five per cent of the original components.

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