Missions of the Retrieval Team - A Kilt By Any Other Name

[starbkjrus]

Well we can always call Une to check but somehow I doubt it put him down on the docks at Southhampton.

[davedove]

Scene 4

Media Room, Great Hall of X Marks the Scot

There was a lot of excited murmuring from Jerry’s statement. Hank had to speak loudly to get everyone’s attention.

“People, please,” he said. The murmuring died and the room went silent. “Jerry, would you please tell us what happened.”

“This morning,” Jerry continued, “We activated the portal again. David was standing in front of the frame so that he could examine it more closely. When the image appeared, David put his hand out to tough the screen. I don’t know what caused it, but as soon as he touched where the image should have been, he was sucked into it. Just before the image ended, I saw David rolling across the grass in the image.”

“I was worried about David; I didn’t know whether or not he was hurt. I came up to the main hall and found Dee. I told him what had happened and described the location we had seen. He guided me out to the valley so we could find David.”

“You couldn’t find him?” I asked.

“No,” answered Dee. “We looked all around the valley, but we found no trace of him. I contacted some of the Moderators and we did a search all around the mountain, but we didn’t find him.”

“What about his tracker signal?” I asked. Shortly after I was assigned as the security chief at the Great Hall, I had instituted a tracker system for all of the staff. Each person had a beacon on their body that could be tracked anywhere on Earth.

“Nothing,” Dee answered. “There is no signal from his device. We checked the signal log and compared it to the log from the laboratory. His signal went silent the instant he passed through the portal.”

“That would mean that the portal somehow disabled his beacon.”

“There is one other possibility,” said Ms. Starling.

“What’s that?” Hank asked.

“It’s pretty far out there,” she said. “I would rather not mention it until I have some other information. How long before you can power up the portal again?” she asked Jerry.

Jerry looked at his watch. “About three hours,” he answered.

“There’s a little experiment I would like to try,” she told Hank.

“Okay,” said Hank. “Let’s all grab a little nap. It’s late and we’re all tired. We’ll all reassemble in three hours.” He looked at his own watch. “That would make it about, oh lord, three-thirty in the morning.”