Free The Whisper of Stars by Nick Jones Page B

go.’
    ‘Baby, I have to go. It’s important. Mummy is here.’
    The nightlight cast a comforting amber glow across her father’s face. The girl reached up and touched his dark skin, felt the roughness of his stubble. He leant forward and hugged her. Jen could smell him again, conjuring feelings of security long since gone. She lived the moment again, wishing it would last forever.
    ‘Why do you have to go?’ the girl whispered.
    He paused and sighed heavily. ‘There is something I need to do, sweetheart.’
    ‘When will you be home?’
    ‘A week, two at the most.’ He smiled, hiding his pain. ‘As soon as I can.’
    The girl snuggled down into her blanket.
    Her younger self seemed satisfied, but Jen knew better. Her father never came home. He died a few days later. Jen was crying now, shouting, pleading with him not to go. Her warnings fell silent, trapped inside a vacuum of time.
    Daddy, you die! Don’t go! Mummy never forgives you.
    There was nothing she could do. She was on a tortuous rollercoaster, trapped and mute until the end of the ride.
    ‘Good-bye, sweetheart,’ he said softly. ‘I love you. I’ll be home soon.’
    The girl was asleep by the time her father left the room, the memory of the churchyard locked away in her mind, where it would remain hidden for years.

    Jen awoke in tears, her tattered voice breaking thinly in the darkness. She was struck by an immediate and cloying sense of loss. It had been such a gift to spend time with her father again, but the experience had bought fresh grief and new pain. The memory of that night, the one Callaghan had dislodged, was clear and thankfully remained with her. She remembered every detail and vowed she would never lose it again.
    So it was her father who had hidden the memory, trying to protect her. But why? And perhaps more importantly, from whom?
    A worrying thought came again, one she had dismissed earlier on the roof. If Callaghan was right, and the Government were searching, she needed to be very careful. Whatever her father had buried in the churchyard and hidden away in her mind wasn’t a secret anymore. It was out in the open. Callaghan had believed the searches were most likely performed during the Hibernation cycle. Well, soon she would be back in Hibernation. What then? She had accused Callaghan of being a mad conspiracy theorist. Now it was she who appeared to be spinning out of control.
    This is fucking crazy, Jen. You know that, right?
    She got up and showered, hoping to make sense of the questions banging around in her head. It didn’t help. No matter how much she tried, she couldn’t shake a growing certainty.
    Whatever else she might discover, whatever the dream meant, Callaghan was right about one thing. They were in danger.

Chapter 15
    Code Blue.
    What the hell is a code blue?
    Analyst 13 wandered down the hall, grabbed a coffee and arrived back at his terminal. It was still there, flashing. He rubbed his temples, glancing around nervously. There were around twenty other operators on shift that night, all of them young like him, worker bees, each assigned five hundred cycles per hour. Their job was to flag files of interest and then pass them on for processing. That was it, that was the job and he was good at it.
    Mole.
    That had been his nickname in college and for a few years after. Until he came here. In this underground deniable bunker, everyone was numbered and faces would come and go. Mole had decided it best not to make friends. If he kept his head down for one more year, he would move up a pay grade and perhaps run his own team. He was a hard worker, he was sure that had been noticed.
    Alerts, though, they were rare.
    That’s why he double-checked the code blue – triple-checked, in fact. He didn’t want to get this wrong. Protocol required him to make a phone call. Level three clearance. He wasn’t required to interface with people very often and realised he was sweating heavily. Again, he squinted around the room at