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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 25, 2007 11:56:13 GMT
Name: Afterlife (for now) Type of writing: Prose Subject: Life and Death Genre: Fantasy Summary: People die all the time. This is a story about where they go. Status: In progress.
I haven't even finished typing up chapter one yet, but I've got a plan of what's going to happen, so it won't be too hard. For those of you who are participating in the Afterlife RPG, you can consider this as canon. Hopefully it will provide plenty of extra information which you will be able to use in your role-playing.
For now, I'll post just the beginning of chapter one. I have more written, but I haven't edited it all yet.
Introduction Over the centuries, there have been many views regarding what happens to you when you die, many of these views having been influenced by religious beliefs. However, the truth doesn't quite match any of these ideas precisely to the letter ... The afterlife is very much a real place, a physical location that stretches on infinitely. It is without time - though the many people there have adopted a calendar similar to those they were used to on Earth - and nothing lives or grows, but simply is. As always, there are mysteries. Nobody knows how there came to be plumbing in their village, or who built the grand old buildings they occasionally come across. No one understands how trees and plants can exist when they’re not growing, or why they get tired but not hungry. Most importantly, nobody knows why, when they ‘awake’, they are immediately aware that they have just died and been reborn in a strange, new world. It is simply revealed to them in a way that is impossible for them to explain, and instantly, they all accept it.
Chapter One ~ Initiated The main corridor that swept through the PearlStorm Initiative's Headquarters was painted in a deep, earthy red that absorbed the light and warmed the walls. The darkness of the colour made the corridor seem narrow, though in actuality, it was wide enough for five people to walk abreast down its entire length. Whoever had painted those walls, Jack Reid certainly did not know. Much was unknown about the Initiative's buildings, and there was very little chance that he, of all people, would make an exciting new discovery about them. By that reason, Jack continued to stride purposefully, heading southwards down the corridor, dispelling the distracting thought from his mind, until he reached the door to the living room. He gripped onto the cloth bag in his hand, hoping the sweat from his palms would soak into it, ran a hand through his hair, and then pushed down on the smooth, metal door handle and entered. The living room was a room of luxury. Once again, Jack had no idea how it had come to be, but instead of thinking about that, he took a moment to look around him and take in his surroundings. The western wall was lined with bookcases, though many of the shelves were empty, and in the centre were two large leather sofas, a sheepskin rug spread out between them. On the northern wall, behind the oak staircase that interrupted the space to the very side of the sofas, were three framed paintings, spaced out evenly, each of a different landscape scene. The one on the far left, nearest the bookcases, was Jack’s favourite; it portrayed a poppy-filled meadow on a bright, sunny day, with vague, dark shapes in the sky, which he took to be birds of some sort. Calmed by the paintings, Jack crossed the room until he came to another door. The conference room was situated in the back-left corner of the living room, and although its usual purpose was for the Initiative to hold meetings inside, it was currently being used to house a new arrival. Somewhat excited, Jack knocked twice on the door, waited a moment, then opened it. Inside, seated on a metal ladder-backed chair, was a woman -- perhaps a year or two younger than he -- with a pretty, slightly boyish face, framed by short, dark hair. She looked up at Jack as she noticed him come in, and he gave her a friendly smile, hoping she wouldn’t find him too patronising. “You alright?” he asked. There was a metal conference table, which the woman was seated at, and other chairs surrounded that - he took one. “Sometimes people can react a bit weirdly to their Awakening.”
The woman shrugged. She didn’t seem particularly nervous or worried, which was always a good sign. “I feel fine.”
Jack nodded. “Good.” He lifted his cloth bag up and laid it down on the table, between them. “Okay, my name’s Jack.” He half-raised a hand in greeting. “Basically, welcome to the Initiative. Uhh, we all look forward to working with you.”
The woman‘s lips started to curl into a sneer. “Okay, I think I can just about get some of this.” She spoke almost mockingly, but Jack ignored that. He wasn’t surprised by what she said; usually, most people understood what was revealed to them during the Enlightening, even if they couldn’t cope with it. She continued, “but, I’m pretty sure that nothing was revealed about this … Initiative.” She said the word questioningly, as though querying its reliability.
Ah. He’d forgotten about the whole explanation process. Not that it was his fault, of course. “Oh, sorry, yes. Not to worry, uh, Miss. …”
“Myers,” she offered.
Jack nodded. “Okay, Miss. Myers--”
“Evelyn Myers.”
“Alright, then, Miss. Evelyn My--”
“Evelyn’s fine, thank you.”
Jack took a deep breath, embarrassed. “Evelyn. Good. Okay, put simply, seeing as you Awoke here in this building, you’re now one of us, that is to say, you are a new member of the PearlStorm Initiative. It is our aim to co--”
“Why ‘PearlStorm’?”
“Uhh, I’m sorry?”
“Why is it named ‘PearlStorm’? What is that? Perhaps like when it’s hailing, but pearls fall down instead of hail. Still, that doesn’t explain why some organisation would go and name itself after some freakish form of weather, right?”
If he wasn’t used to all sorts of people, Jack would have been stunned by Evelyn’s attitude. He didn’t find her rude. In fact, he thought it was rather admirable that she could find it in her to be so inquisitive, despite everything that had just happened to her. But it was nevertheless a shock to have a woman he’d spent barely a minute with already challenging the information he provided her with. The humiliating thing was that he actually couldn’t supply her with any sort of explanation; there was simply very little he knew or understood about the place, not to mention the nature of her arrival. “I’m afraid I don’t really have an answer to that,” he told her, almost wondering if admitting his weaknesses to a stranger was really a good idea. “This place has been around for so long that none of the current members really know much about its history. Anyway, as I was saying, our aim is to collect and collate as much information as we can about the world.”
Her eyes darted upwards at that, and she looked him straight in the face. “’The world’? So … it’s really true?” she asked, her voice suddenly low. “You don’t mean Earth.” That last was not a question.
Jack nodded solemnly, matching his seriousness to hers now that they‘d both stopped working around the issue at hand. “It has always been true, and always will be, however much some people try to deny it. Some have grown used to it, but others will never be able to accept the truth. There are some who shut themselves away from everyone else, and their constant isolation has resulted in their life consisting of little more than eternal slumber.” He paused, then added, “well, I’ve read about that. It’s not something that I‘ve experienced, but I can believe that it happens. But the fact remains that, no matter what people think of it, we are now in--”
“--the afterlife,” Evelyn interrupted, finishing his sentence.
Jack nodded slowly. “Yes. The afterlife.”
****
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 25, 2007 21:13:07 GMT
I'm glad you're liking it.
Strangely, the admission did not darken the mood. Evelyn seemed to have already accepted it, presumably ever since her Enlightening. Jack spent a while answering what questions he could, trying to make her feel as comfortable with her situation as was possible. He remembered how after his Awakening, which had been embarrassingly awkward, he had simply sat in one of the living room’s armchairs, busying his mind with every thought and memory he could think of from his previous life. That, of course, had then reminded him of how he could never go back to it, which, somewhat unsurprisingly, upset him so that he’d felt even more embarrassed and awkward and wished for the chair to close-up on him so that he should never have to face another human being again. Since then, however, he’d made sure to never let his emotions get the better of him in that same way. He busied himself with the job he’d been given and made sure he remained as relaxed and carefree as possible in his social life. Now, however, he had to relive it all again. Usually, it was not his job to introduce new members to their new way of life; Jessica, his superior, was the self-appointed Recruitment Officer, but on this particular day, she had claimed she could not be bothered to deal with any ‘pathetic, incompetent newbies’, and thus Jack had been forced to take on the duty. If he were to be honest with himself - which usually he was - then really he knew that he didn’t mind that he had to initiate Evelyn. He had never been the first to meet a newcomer, and it was an interesting experience to be on the receiving end of somebody who’d just discovered that they’d died barely minutes ago. Besides, it was not often that somebody new turned up, so he couldn’t help but feel a little excited. No doubt some of his colleagues would also be eager to become acquainted with her. She nodded towards his cloth bag, and for a moment, Jack realised that he had completely forgotten about it. He had never Tested anybody before, so this too was an experience he was unaccustomed to. “What’s in there?” Evelyn asked.
He tugged the bag towards him and pulled the drawstring open. “Like I said earlier, the Initiative aims to discover everything it can about the afterlife. We explore it, map it out, discover how it operates, and so on. We have a policy that states that everyone who Awakens in either of our two buildings must be employed into the Initiative. There’s a short process that you have to go through, but it’s quite simple.” He started taking out the objects contained within the bag - a small, folded map with slightly dog-eared corners; a stout pair of binoculars; a worn, leather-bound, pocket-sized notebook of sorts, with loose pages poking out at the sides; a short, thin-bladed dagger with a jewel-encrusted hilt; and a cracked Petri dish containing a handful of dry soil. “Okay,” he said, discarding the bag, and spreading the five objects out on the desk, “we call this the Testing, but really all it requires is for you to choose one of the items. It doesn’t matter which one, but you can only choose once, and you cannot examine the objects before making your decision. But, please, take your time …” He pushed his chair back to give her space, and watched as she stood, taking a good look at the items. She stared intently at the collection, not focused on any particular one. Then her outstretched hand hovered above them, hesitating at the map, before settling upon the binoculars. Her fingertips touched lightly upon them, her forefinger brushing across the surface, and she picked them up, bringing forth her other hand to support them. “These,” she said, looking back to Jack. “What should I do with them?” Jack stood and started to place the other items carefully back inside the bag. “You keep them for now,” he instructed her. “We’ll tell you what to do with them later. For now … I shall show you to your room.”
****
Upstairs, there were a number of bedrooms and en-suite bathrooms, so that each member of the Initiative could rest and recuperate when required, and have their own small space to personalise as they saw fit, for when they needed to be alone. In the afterlife, tiredness was one of the few things that slowed people down physically, and it just so happened that even only the shortest sleep could renew a person’s energy for the next day, so the fact that the Initiative’s Headquarters had six bedrooms ready and waiting for its members was convenient, if not puzzling. Jack was not the only person to have wondered how the building came to be assembled, or who had built it; mystery had surrounded it for years, and there was enough intrigue to point to the same question: exactly how much did the creators know about the afterlife? As Jack showed Evelyn up, he pointed out the other rooms in the building that they passed; the two living rooms, the study room, the work room, and so on. The main corridor of the first floor was directly above that of the floor below, and of the same length, so the layout of the building was easy to get used to. As they entered the corridor, a tall, striking woman stepped out in front of them, blocking their way. Jess was undoubtedly a very beautiful woman, and in a terrifying sort of way; Jack did not doubt that she had seduced her fair share of men as part of countless nefarious schemes - she struck him as the sort of woman who could find it in herself to do such a thing - and she knew her strengths and made sure not to forget them. She was arrogant too, though, and self-absorbed, and Jack couldn’t imagine that she had ever cared for anybody but herself; but her personality made it very easy to deal with her; she had a strange sense of what was serious and what wasn’t, so if you took most of what she said as a joke, you were usually safe. She stood now before he and Evelyn, her arms folded across her chest, a look of intense indifference spread across her face. “Now now, Jack,” she drawled, “what’ve we told you about bringing girls up to your room?” Evelyn let out a sound of disgust and Jack quickly realised that he would have to intervene, before the two women ended up fighting. He stepped forward so that Evelyn was now behind him slightly, and ensured that he had Jess’s full and undivided attention. “Jess, this is Evelyn, our newest member.” Best not to point out that she was the one Jess had neglected to welcome, in case Evelyn took offence to that too. “I’m just showing her to her room. I’m sure you’re very familiar with it; it’s the one Linus had before he left.” If he hadn’t had Jess’s attention before, he most definitely had it now. Her eyes snapped at him at the mention of his friend and her former lover. Linus had left the Initiative just over four months before, with a small team working under him, as part of a mission. He and Jess had separated long before that, but it didn’t stop the latter from still being touchy about the whole experience, particularly whenever his name was mentioned. She gave Jack a disapproving look, though otherwise her body language did not change. “Of course I recall the room,” she muttered. Jack nodded, then without saying another word, put a hand to Evelyn’s side and guided her past his superior, leading her right across to the other side of the corridor. He opened the door right before them, and let her enter first. As he shut the door behind them, he looked back to see that Jess had already left. Evelyn was looking around the room, inspecting the shelves of her wardrobe. “As you can see, the rooms are quite a decent size. You’ve got a bathroom through that door and on the other side of that is Joan -- she’s one of our techies. I’m on your other side, here,” he said, banging the wall to indicate where his room was. Evelyn looked around and nodded. “What should I do?” Smiling, Jack straightened up. “It’s up to you. You can rest, if you need,” he added, glancing at her bed. “The mattresses are quite comfy. I’m gonna be out for a bit - I have a few things to take care of - but if you need anything, you can ask Joan next door. I’ll let her know you’re here.” He paused at the door, remembering his manners just before he left. “You gonna be alright?” “I should be. Should I just wait for you to return?”
“Yeah. I won’t be long.”
****
Once he‘d checked on Joan, Jack headed back downstairs, followed the corridor to the hallway and left the building. He turned left into the street and started to head north up the main road. He’d almost reached the point where the road joined a westward facing street, opposite the town’s marketplace, when he heard his name being called repeatedly. Looking to his right, he spotted a short, thin man approaching him from across the street. Benjamin Horsted was a few years older than Jack, and worked at the Initiative’s Data Collection Division under Lloyd Platov, Linus’s successor. He allowed an adolescent girl in a blue-print kimono to pass, before stepping up to Jack. “You alright?” he asked, grinning. “Just been to the market. There’s a new woman there; she had all this great stuff, Jack. I’m going straight back to DCD to tell Lloyd. He’s not gonna believe this.” He indicated the street ahead of him. “You coming?” “Yeah, that’s where I’m headed.” They started to head down the road that led to the Bonedale gate, in the west of town, Ben rushing hurriedly so that Jack had to widen his strides to keep up. He suddenly remembered that he was still holding the cloth bag, and held it up to show his companion. “We’ve got a new member.” Ben’s expression brightened even more at that. “Really? Who is it?”
“Her name’s Evelyn. About my age, maybe. She seems pretty unshaken by the whole being dead thing. I think she accepts everything, but she asks a lot of questions. It just seems as though she’s already resigned to the truth.” Ben nodded thoughtfully. “It’s not uncommon for women to react so well to it all. Apparently Melissa was the same; just woke up and asked for some alone time. Lloyd said he was at her door and heard her crying, but she never once doubted what happened to her. Same with Juliet; she woke in the visitor’s lounge at DCD while I was next door. She just staggered around the building looking for another person - anyone - but didn’t once refuse to believe that she’d just died.” “What about Jess?”
Ben let out a derisive laugh. “God knows. I don’t think even Shepherd or even Linus know much about her time here or her life beforehand. For some reason, I figure she’d like to keep it that way, too. She doesn’t strike me as the sort of woman who likes to say more than she needs.” He stepped aside to let Jack past. As Jack looked around him, he noticed that they had already entered the DCD building. The interior was not entirely dissimilar to their HQ; the floors of the corridors were made up of the same deep red mosaic pieces, and the walls were dotted with various paintings and framed photographs; memories of their old life; memories of Earth. In some ways, Jack felt more comfortable here than he did in the HQ building; for him, it carried a friendlier atmosphere, and in terms of rank, only Lloyd stood above him. Jack regularly visited DCD - they required the product of his work more - but his room was at HQ, so that was where he stayed. Ben led him around to the east end of the building, where the workroom was located, and while they walked, Jack kept an eye out for Juliet, the only woman that currently worked in the building. His girlfriend. Ben's speedy pace quickly took them to the workroom, and they entered. The atmosphere in this room was not as warm as in others; the floor was concrete, dull grey; the furniture - a work table, a bench and two fold up chairs - made of metal; and the walls were painted white, with no pattern or decoration to be seen. Towards the far end of the workbench sat a lean, muscular man, tall in stature, and well proportioned. He looked up as Ben and Jack entered. Before he managed to say anything, however, Ben rushed forward. "Lloyd - amazing discovery! You have to let me do something about this, really." He swung the rucksack off his back and thrust it right in front of Lloyd. "In there. You get it. But please be careful." Lloyd looked questioningly at Jack, who shrugged. Putting down the screwdriver and the plastic black tube he'd just been holding, Lloyd opened the clasp on the rucksack, placed both hands inside and slowly pulled out a thick glass jar containing a brown, muddy liquid. "Uhh … it’s water, Ben," he said, holding it out for Jack to see. "It's just dirty water. We have plenty of water.” He tapped at the glass, swishing the liquid around inside. “What did you give for this?!" He looked horrified for a moment. “You didn’t trade in that magnifying glass did you? I can’t find the damn thing anywhere.” Ben shook his head frantically, scooping the jar out of Lloyd’s hands and holding it up to the light so that he could inspect it better. “No, no, this is natural water. There’s this new woman, and she said she found this water hole or something out of town. She said she had no need for the jar, so she just let me have it.” He sighed. “Look, we have piped water, right? All our water - it just comes through the taps or whatever; it’s all in the plumbing. But this … this we could actually find. We might be able to work out where all the water comes from. Maybe there’s an underground cavern, or a river or something.” Jack exchanged a glance with his superior. Back on Earth, anybody found obsessing over muddy water would have been considered a lunatic, or at least very very lonely - unless, of course, it was a part of their job, in which case they merely needed to rethink their life - but in the afterlife, so little was known about the world and its environment, that any sort of discovery, however mundane, was sort of exciting in what Jack supposed was a rather geeky way. If they found the source of this water, whether it were a pond or a lake, not only would that help out hundreds of other people, but it’d also bring the Initiative one step closer to understanding the world they were in, and, just as importantly, it would give them something to do, keeping them occupied. Of course, finding the source would be much more difficult than it sounded. The Initiative had sent various teams on missions before - years back - and they still hadn’t returned; the amount of land to explore was no doubt immense, and in fact it was the belief of some that the physical world stretched on infinitely, providing enough space for the billions of people that had died. There was no way of telling how far out of town this new market vendor had found the water - it could have been several day’s worth of travel, or a month’s - and in this world, without magnetic poles, it was impossible to locate any place you sought, unless it was very close by. Their dream was short-lived, however. Lloyd sighed, placing the jar down on the table. The chink of glass upon metal sounded throughout the room. “Look,” said Lloyd tiredly, “this is all very well. I mean, this is great, and I’m sure when we find it, it’ll … the problem is, we just can’t do anything about it yet.” Ben was clearly dissatisfied with this answer. He shook his head in defiance. “No. This is ridiculous. I thought you of all people would be pleased with this.” He pointed an accusatory finger at his superior. “All we’ve got to do is send out a small team. It doesn’t have to be a full-blown mission, does it?” “Ben, I’m sorry, but you know we can’t afford to right now. We don’t have the resources, and—“
“Well get the resources, then! Isn’t that why we’re here? Isn’t that why the Initiative was created? To give us something to do? What’s the need for all these stupid rules about who can go where, and what work we have to do and—and … what milkshakes we’re allowed to drink?” “Ben …” Jack started, moving forward to intervene “I don‘t think the exaggeration is helping.“ Ben was hard-working and unsuspecting; the last person you expected to make a scene; but when he got angry, you could almost forget who he was. “No, Jack!” he sputtered. “We should be allowed to do this, and you know it. There’s no danger in it. We’re in the afterlife, for God’s sake; there’s no way we’re gonna get hurt. Just ‘cos Linus isn’t back, it shouldn’t mean that we can’t start new searches. All we’ve gotta do is leave town for a day or two and find some water. It’s just a bloody pond.” Lloyd barked a short mirthless laugh. “And that is why, Ben, Jess won’t give a damn.”
****
“Oh, I think it’s an excellent idea.” “… you do?” Lloyd was sat opposite Jess in the quiet study room of the Initiative’s Headquarters where he had met with her to propose Ben’s request. Aside from the desk, and the two chairs they were sat on, the room was bare; usually it was used when somebody wished to work alone, and on those occasions, they would take with them whatever materials they required. Jess often had delusions of grandeur, however, and liked to think that the room was her office, for her to use whenever she pleased, no matter if somebody else was already in there. Lloyd hadn’t expected a positive reaction to the proposal, so now that he found himself sitting across from her as she smiled sweetly at him, he couldn’t help but feel slightly scared by her enthusiasm. She hadn’t spoken immediately; a look of concentration had swept across her face as she pondered what her reply would be, but now she was wholly confident in the choice she had made. “Oh yes, of course. Young Benjamin clearly wishes to give this Initiative a great name, and I have no qualms with that. Tell him that he has my full endorsement to go ahead with this wonderful little plan of his.” “But what about staffing? I thought there were rules about that sort of thing.” “Jack can head.” “Jack …” That made sense, Lloyd supposed. Jack had chosen the dagger in his Testing, which made him a team leader - someone in charge of exploration and training - by default. But as for who to go with him, Lloyd could not think of anyone who was suitable for the job. “He can’t go on his own.” “No, no, of course not.” She was silent for a moment, once again in contemplation. “He can take that new girl with him. Evelyn, I believe her name is.” “Who?” “You haven’t heard?” Jess’ mouth curled into a satisfied smile. She liked knowing things that others didn’t. “Jack Tested her just a little while ago. He’s probably told Benjamin about her by now. I’m surprised they didn’t let you know.” “Well, admittedly I didn’t really give them the chance.” Lloyd felt bad now for dismissing Ben’s suggestion so quickly. Perhaps if they’d been allowed more time, Ben and Jack could have fleshed out the plan more and come to a sensible conclusion about what to do. Perhaps they would even have realised for themselves that Evelyn could be the second member to be put on the team. Now, however, Lloyd had been made out to be the bad guy, having brought them crashing back to reality, only to have his orders superseded, even though he hadn’t wanted to make them in the first place. He and Jess sat in silence for a few moments, each of them caught up in their own thoughts. Then, Jess stood up. “Yes, yes, this all sounds fine. Tell Juliet she has a day to train Evelyn, and then our team must be ready to leave. Have Jack equipped with some digging tools and whatever else he may need, and that should be all.” Lloyd could not help but frown. “Juliet train …? Is that right? She’s not used to training.” Jess smiled mischievously to herself, though her voice was strong and unhesitant. “Just do it, Lloyd. I have my reasons, and that’s all you need to know.” Lloyd knew there was no use answering back. He nodded in acknowledgement, but hung back for one moment more. “These orders come from Shepherd?” he asked. Another smile. “Of course. All orders come from Shepherd.”
****
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Post by Surreptitious Cardboard Box on Aug 28, 2007 12:15:15 GMT
End of chapter one!
Jack brushed the hair from his eyes in a rather pathetic attempt at smartening himself up, before knocking on the door of the small house. After a few moments, it was opened, and he found himself looking into Juliet’s face, which was unexpectedly etched with anger and disdain. “Er … hi?” he greeted her tentatively, wondering if he’d unknowingly done something to upset her. “What do you want?”
He cocked an eyebrow at her brusque manner. “Can I come in?”
She looked almost as though she was going to refuse, but then she stood aside, motioning for him to enter, and shut the door noisily behind him. “Now probably isn’t the best time, Jack.” He stepped forward to kiss her, but she turned her head away, so he pressed her to him instead, one arm around her shoulder, smelling her hair. “If I’ve done something to offend you, Jules, you should tell me,” he said softly. After a moment, she started to relax, letting out a long sigh. “I’m sorry,” she apologised. “It’s not you. I’m just … really annoyed.” She walked away from him then, and threw herself down on the long, green sofa in the centre of the room, tutting when the patterned throw started to fall down onto her lap as a result of the sudden movement. “Lloyd’s getting me to train the new woman you Tested this morning, and I really don’t see why I should have to.” “Yeah, I heard,” Jack said, following her to the sofa and sitting down on the arm nearest the door. “You shouldn’t blame Lloyd, though. He’s just following Jess’ orders.” Juliet gaped at that, outraged. “That b*tch!” She did not seem at all regretful at labelling her superior so. Juliet’s dislike for the older woman was no secret, and it was all Jack could do to stop her picking fights whenever Jess’s actions angered her. “What the hell’s she playing at, Jack?” Jack shrugged. “Ben and I had already suggested the whole mission thing to Lloyd and he said no because he thought we wouldn’t be allowed, but we made him go and ask her anyway and apparently she said yes straight away. She wouldn’t share her reasons for wanting you to be trainer, though; I already asked.” He scratched at the back of his head absentmindedly. “Y’know, she couldn’t even be bothered to Test Evelyn this morning. That’s why I had to do it.” “She must have a reason for screwing us around like this.” “Maybe she’s just annoyed because Linus’ old room is finally being used again.” Juliet scoffed. “I doubt it’s anything that simple.” “Well, I wish it were.” Jack jumped to his feet again. “Anyway, I’ve just finished Questioning Evelyn. Here’s a list of all the items she brought with her.” He handed Juliet a sheet of paper. “And her details.” He passed another sheet. “We got a date check too; she says it’s 17th March.” “It’s still 2007, then?” Juliet asked, perusing the sheets Jack had given her. “Yep. I’ve marked the items that she’s given to us,” he said, indicating the appropriate section in the list. “I’ve taken them to Ben to be catalogued, and Joan’s gonna file the tech later.” Juliet nodded. “Thanks.” She looked up into his face. “Do you have to go back now?” He gave a gentle nod of the head. “I’ve got to fill in a form for Jess to prove that I Tested, and Evelyn will probably need some more time to ask questions. It’s not fair for her to be thrown in at the deep end like this.” Something in Juliet’s eyes told him that she didn’t want to hear what he was saying. He smiled gently at her, leaning forward to kiss the top of her head. “You’re gonna be fine,” he told her reassuringly. “I’m sure you’ll be a fine trainer.”
End of chapter~~
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