Blink: Leviathan (Book 2)

06

The briefing room on board the Marianas platform was a clean, well-lit oval, with a large table in its centre and an enormous screen built into the far wall. Around it the heads of the research department had gathered, along with Lieutenant Tyndall and his immediate subordinates. Once the eighteen Blink operatives arrived on the scene the briefing room became a very crowded place.

Darien sat with Niamh and the other squad leaders alongside him. The other operatives had to stand, clustered at the opposite end of the room from the viewing screen. Most of their gear was currently making its way to the station's dry-dock where a submarine waited to ferry them down into the unknown. He lounged in his chair, all but ignoring the marines that were present, in favour of the elderly man at the front of the room.

The head of the research team had an eccentric look about him, shunning the lab coats and shirts of the other scientists in favour of a deep blue jumper made of a material Darien didn't recognise and, of all things, a pair of shorts that came down to his bony knees. Wisps of white hair clung to the shining dome of his head and in one hand he held...a toy? He'd never seen the gadget before but the scientist was playing with it absently as the briefing room filled. A pair of small, fat plastic discs were attached to a long string, and they rolled up and down as the man flicked his wrist in an almost hypnotic motion. Every now and again he would make a sharper motion, and the discs would stop at the bottom of their journey, spinning in place. Darien found himself staring, smiling to himself. This man was not what he'd been expecting.

"Alright," Lieutenant Tyndall rumbled suddenly, ending the low ebb of conversation in the room. "I believe that's everyone. We'll try and keep this briefing as short and to the point as we can." He turned and gestured to the eccentric old man. "This is Professor Thomas Churchwood, head of the research division on Marianas. If there is anything to know about what we've found here, he knows it."

"Really, Lieutenant, you are too kind," Churchwood chuckled, shaking his head in an absent sort of way. "Though I do confess to having a certain amount of useful knowledge stored up in this infernal misfiring computer system that passes for a brain." He tapped his temple with one spindly finger in illustration of the point.

Tyndall gave him an exhausted look. "Professor, the briefing?"

"Hmm? Oh! Yes, of course, forgive my rambling." The man stopped spinning his toy and beamed at the occupants of the room, revealing two crooked rows of coffee-stained teeth. "I take it these delightful young people are our guests from the illustrious Blink organisation?"

Darien shook his head with a smile. This Professor Churchwood certainly had a unique approach to giving an operational briefing. He could only assume the man knew as much as Tyndall claimed, or he wouldn't have even been allowed into the room. He caught Niamh's eye and she looked thoroughly askance at the prospect of relying on this maverick for information.

"Now, now, now," Churchwood continued. "Where is the blasted thing...ah, yes." He produced a small remote from the voluminous pocket of his shorts and pressed a button. The screen behind him flashed into life, displaying a much more detailed picture of the undersea settlement than they'd seen back at Blink HQ. Darien leaned forward, placing his elbows on the table as he stared hard at the map.

"I trust you're all aware of why we're camped out on this rather temperamental bit of oceanography," the professor said. "What we've discovered is – well let's just say it may upset a few paradigms once we manage to get inside it. It's a city of non-human origin, and in my considered opinion we are only scratching the surface."

He pressed another button and the screen zoomed in, displaying length markers along the bulbous mountain-like mass of the city. The area that protruded up from the city floor measured a dozen kilometres across. It occurred to Darien that even for three teams of specially-skilled Blink operatives, that was a lot of ground to cover.