‘There's an eyewitness saying he saw the people in the car stop and talk to a man prior to it accelerating towards the café. Who was that? Can you at least describe him?’
‘There wasn't anyone.’
‘In the name of Ra, Paul! You didn't see the car. You didn't see the man. Just exactly what were you doing?’
‘Neith —’
‘And you can knock that off as well,’ I said, cutting across Ramin. ‘You stopped to administer first-aid in a crowded room of witnesses. You had zero level of masking on! I can't use you in public now, and you have blown any future steps into this timeline.’
‘Her mother was about to pull that shard of glass out of her thigh. I wasn't about to witness a third death just because some woman doesn't understand the function of the femoral artery. If I've blown this timeline for me and my partner, then I take full responsibly for that. But if we replayed this morning, I'd do it again. And a thousand times again. And so would you.’
We fell into an angry silence. Paul was still pacing and looking livid, the realisation that his partner had just closed a work placement for him now dawning on him. The fact he would have done the same as Ramin didn't help. Besides, he had his own shit show to deal with. Just how did he miss the car?
I kicked my legs out and stared up at the ceiling. Did I say I loved live events? I was a fool. Leading a team of fools. I took a deep breath. Those sorts of thoughts were not only wildly inaccurate, they were also completely unhelpful. Just as I began to regroup, Clio stepped in.
‘Neith, you were the closest to the exchange. Replay your footage and we can see what happened.’
I linked my glasses to the projector and we watched as I walked down the street and into the café with Clio beside me. Ten minutes later Charles walked in, followed by Ramin. Clio then got up and walked towards the loos, then the screen went dead.
‘Check the connection?’
‘I did. We ran it again, but still blank.’
Clio looked at me and asked calmly when I had last had my equipment serviced. It was a valid question, as I could sometimes be slow to keep everything shipshape. But never on a mission.
‘Ramin, run your footage.’ We watched as he and Paul parted ways in the street and Ramin followed the dealer into the café. Charles was sitting to the right and Clio and I were sitting to the left. As he walked past us, the screen went dead.
‘Clio, Paul, your footage please.’ My voice was calm, my body still, but inside I was screaming. Clio's footage traced mine as we walked into the café. We watched Ramin walk in, then watched as he walked past us. Her screen went black and then flicked on again as Ramin headed to the counter, and a few minutes later she walked out to the toilets, muttering to me that she was in position.
‘Paul, yours please.’
Paul arrived with Ramin and stayed in the street, walking up both sides in a standard reconnaissance pattern. Just as it was at the furthest end of the street, tyres could be heard, and he turned and started to run towards the café. The car stopped and two men jumped out and started shooting at the window. One of them then stepped through the broken window and bent down. I could be seen shooting the first man and then stabbing him. Neither action had any significant effect. Climbing back into the car, they had a bag in their hands. The car then drove past Paul and he continued towards the café.
‘Okay Clio, run copies and back-ups of all four pieces of footage. I want to study all of them and try to understand what happened to mine and Ramin’s.’
‘There was a tiny flicker on Clio's footage at the same time that ours went out,’ said Ramin.
‘Do you think someone jammed our signal?’ asked Paul. It seemed far-fetched. But before I could say anything, Clio jumped in.
‘Unlikely. For that to be the case, a few other things would need to be established. Someone on Earth Beta shares our technology. Which they don't. Or that someone else from Earth Alpha is over here at the same time. Which they aren't. I can't say for certain, but my best guess at this stage is that my equipment had a surge-fail-recover incident that knocked out all nearby recording technology,’ she said, then turned to me. ‘I’ll run over the equipment later, but I think that is the most obvious explanation.’
I wanted to agree, but it seemed a massive coincidence. The idea of there being a second team running around that I didn't know about was not pleasant, but there was another explanation I wasn't prepared to entertain. We might have an enemy within.
‘Okay Clio, do that after the briefing, and I know no one wants to consider that there’s a second team in the field that we’re unaware of, but I want us now to all behave as though there is one.’ I took a deep breath. ‘Right, my verbal report as team leader of the incident.’
I tried to give a full report of everything I could see. It was tedious, but without the actual footage I needed to be as thorough as possible. I surged on.
‘After a few minutes of the dealer receiving his drink, Charles leant under the table and pulled the bag
