Free Department 19: Zero Hour by Will Hill Page A

Battle of Britain from about thirty miles south of where we’re looking at, and Bomber Command flew from all over this bit of the country. This is British military heartland. So I don’t know what it is. But I don’t think it’s a glitch.”
    “You’re saying this is some secret RAF base?” asked Simon, his voice rising with excitement. “That’s awesome, mate.”
    “I don’t know,” repeated Justin. “Maybe. But if so, what’s that purple light?”
    Simon became very still, and Justin realised with a rush of relief that the possibility blaring insistently in his mind had now occurred to his friend. It was so ludicrous that he had not wanted to say it out loud; instead, he had tried to make his colleague see it for himself. Simon grabbed the mouse and clicked open a new browser window; his fingers sped across the keyboard, finishing with a heavy thump on ENTER. A website burst on to the screen, a primary-coloured collection of images and text that assaulted the eyes.
    UKVAMPIRES.COM
    THE SITE THEY TRIED TO BAN!!!
    THE TRUTH THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO KNOW!!!
    The main panel of the page was a long list of vampire stories, sightings, encounters, rumours and anecdotes. To the right was a black and white photo of a man looking to camera with a serious expression on his face, above two short lines of black text.
    KEVIN McKENNA
    NEVER FORGOTTEN
    After his death, and the publication of the unauthorised copies of
The Globe
that now stood as his legacy, Kevin McKenna had been attacked by the tabloid press with such self-preserving viciousness that a pro-McKenna movement had formed almost immediately. The press accused him of being mentally ill, an attention-seeking fantasist, a dangerous criminal who had terrified an innocent public with a cruel practical joke, then killed himself rather than face the music, and a great many people, almost certainly the majority, were happy to accept that depiction.
    But there were many who refused to believe what they were told, who had come to see McKenna as a hero, a man who had dared to speak truth to power and been murdered for doing so. These were the people who reprinted and reblogged his last words again and again, despite warnings and takedown notices. And there were more of them every day. In death, McKenna had become what he had never been in life: a touchstone, a rallying point.
    A legend.
    Beneath his photo were two prominent links, one in bright dripping red, the other in gleaming metallic silver.
    VAMPIRES – WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
    THE MEN IN BLACK – THE TRUTH BEHIND THE VISORS
    Simon clicked the second link, filling the screen with a feverish list of alleged facts about the men in black, the classified anti-vampire branch of the military that Kevin McKenna had referred to in his final story as Blacklight. Simon scrolled down, and hovered the cursor over the penultimate line of text.
    “There,” he said, his voice low.
    Justin leant forward and read.
    THE MEN IN BLACK USE ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT TO DESTROY VAMPIRES. THIS LIGHT APPEARS PURPLE WHEN SEEN BY HUMAN EYES.
    “Jesus,” said Justin, his eyes locked on the screen. He took the mouse from Simon’s hand and clicked back to the images he had so nearly dismissed as glitches. The purple circles filled the screen, now seeming sinister, almost menacing.
    “This is big,” said Simon. “If we’re right, then this is huge, mate. It’s the kind of thing we could get in real trouble for.”
    Justin rolled his eyes, trying to show his friend how ridiculous that sounded. But in the centre of his chest, a cold sliver of fear had appeared.
    Will they be monitoring this?
he wondered. Can
they monitor this? Do they know who I am?
    Trying to ignore the ice that had settled round his heart, he copied the coordinates from the image header and opened a new browser window. His fingers flew across the keys, bringing up the website for the Land Registry, the government body responsible for recording ownership of every square metre of the