Trust No One: I Am Pilgrim meets Orphan X in this explosive thriller. You won't be able to put it down by Anthony Mosawi

Author:Anthony Mosawi [Mosawi, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780718186395
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2018-04-19T00:00:00+00:00

30

‘This is the only footage we have of the operation called Orpheus.’

Caleb stared as footage appeared on screen: an operating table in the middle of a room, shot from a static perspective. Three whitewashed walls and a fourth that was covered by what appeared to be hospital screens on wheels.

A Herculean act of will was taking place within Caleb. He was tethering his eyes and focus to the front wall of the stuffy room as if breaking contact would leave him forever lost at sea. He was being asked to perform the task he excelled at, projecting himself into the synthetic reality of recorded images, reading those who lived within them, reclaiming their two-dimensional traces into three-dimensional lives, skills he used on strangers but was not able to use on his own wife.

The images were black-and-white, and the quality was poor, a digital copy of an analogue image. Twenty years old, maybe more. The picture was framed awkwardly, tilting slightly to the left, giving a skewed perspective on the room, as if they were seeing things through a discarded camera that was still rolling film.

‘What you are going to see actually happened,’ said Waterman, not taking his eyes off the screen.

After a few seconds a door opened and a young girl entered, wearing medical scrubs. She must have been less than ten years old, with intense black eyes that stared out from a face dusted with freckles. Untamed brown hair tumbled on to her shoulders.

A thick-set, bearded man in an open-necked shirt carrying a briefcase followed her in and closed the door behind them. Through a porthole, Caleb could see a woman watching them from the other side of the door. She was in her early thirties, attractive. The similarities between her and the girl were striking: black shark’s eyes nestling on top of high cheekbones and a ski-slope nose.

Take a seat.

The bearded man looked at the girl and nodded towards the table.

Caleb’s mind concentrated on the images, breaking things down, synergizing, doing his best to screen everything else out.

‘It’s a mother and daughter, civilians,’ started Caleb. ‘The man isn’t the father. But like one. The professional voice and tone he is using with her is for the camera. He’s close to the girl. A mentor. This recording is for an official audience. To prove something. The man is a believer, but others he works for are not. The mother is consenting to whatever is happening, but there’s something about her …’

He hesitated. Was it real or was he imagining it? The perennial problem with intuition: is it really there or only in my head? There was something about the mother’s eyes, wide open, staring, the faintest hint of a dislocation from what she was seeing. Or was he remembering Tara, and painting a patina of his own on what he saw? The similarities were there, no doubt.

‘… she’s schizoid …’ said Caleb, looking at Waterman for support.

Waterman nodded.

On the screen, the man turned and walked directly towards the camera until his body filled the screen, blocking out the view of the room.

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