The Shadow Setters Book 1: Prominence

Chapter 25

Chapter 25

'Well what the hell is it in there!?' Pressed Spider impatiently. Jason had touched whatever it was that was at the back of the drawer and recoiled. 

'I don't know! It...it feels alive!' 

Spider's face crunched with confusion. 'It's not a rat or something is it?' 

Jason's hand was resting on the edge of the draw, his eyes fixed on the shadowy depths inside. 'Don't be a gimp Spi. Look, whatever it is it's warm and it's kinda pulsing...like a heartbeat.' Spider checked his watch nervously to see that they were over their forty minute threshold. 

'Our times up old boy. I don't know why Grant hasn't called, but I think we have to make a move just in case they arrive any second, so if you really want to find out what that thing is as much as I do then just yank it out, or I will.' 

Jason put his hand up in a signal for Spider to halt. 'Ok, ok. Point taken, just keep your knickers on for a second and I'll get it.' Jason slowly crept his hand into and towards the back of the drawer when suddenly his phone rang loudly which made both boys jump, shout and curse. Jason picked the phone up from the desk top to see that it was Jo. 'Hey, what's up? I'm a bit busy at the moment so can I...' 

'Listen Jason, I've just bumped into Steve at the shop. He said that none of them could get a signal and that you should get a move on. They are literally gonna be minutes.' 

'Ok Jo, thanks hun. I'll ring you tonight. Bye.' 

Spider stared at Jason. 'Well?' 

'We've got about four minutes. Don't ask, I'll tell you when we get time.' Just at that moment, Jason's phone rang again. They looked at the screen to see that this time it was Grant. Jason gave Spider a wry smile. 'Better late than never!' 

Spider shut the computer down quickly. He carefully closed the wafer thin machine and picked it up ready to place back into the drawer when he noticed Jason had stood up from the bottom drawer and had an object wrapped in velvet cloth sitting in the palm of his hand. 'Is that what was hidden in the back?' 

Jason nodded. 'Yeah.' 

'Whatever you're gonna do mate, do it fast. Time's a ticking.' 

Jason gently un-wrapped the protective wrap to reveal the strangest object either of the boys had ever seen in their lives. It was a device of some sort though it had the appearance of being grown or sculpted rather than manufactured whilst having characteristics of a built device, it had what they could only be deciphered as controls but with no visible seams or screws. The strangest of all was its dark rippling surface that resembled skin more than anything else. A lighter mottled pattern pulsed and swirled under the darker translucent outer layer. Spider's eyes flared as if the object disturbed him. He hesitantly touched the object and recoiled instantly just as Jason had done with his first contact. The boys looked at one another, awestruck. 

'It's warm that thing.' Said Spider, visually shaken. 'And it's throbbing, like a heartbeat just like you said. It feels alive.' 

'I know. The pattern on the outside and weird shaping is exactly the same as the machinery they were unloading out of the back of those cargo transports. What do you think it is Spi?' 

Spider shook his head in complete defeat. 'I have never seen anything like it mate. I'm blown away. And I thought that laptop would take some beating. ' 

Jason suddenly became animated, full of vigour and drive that at last there was substance to his theory that everything was not as it should be. He felt liberated to know that not just someone else but his best friend in the whole world could see the facts right in front of them.