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By Root 785 0

the interior of the tank from any normal inputs. At a light signal from him Josh, who was locked in isolation capsule number three, would start visualising and sending a series of images. The capsule had been chosen at random and only Barry himself knew beforehand what pictures were on the cards he had given Josh to take in with him.

While he waited to cue Josh, he said to the others who were standing around the control and monitoring suite, 'Chloe's not on anything is she? As far as you know?'

'On anything?' Meg asked.

Drugs? Has she taken any drugs?'

Meg was dismissive. 'Chloe isn't on anything.'

'None of us are on anything,' Ralph said. Them were the rules were they not.'

'Yes indeedy,' Tommy said. 'You made it clear that cellphones and mind-altering substances were off limits to anyone on your programme. We said we wouldn't use them and we are men of our word. Isn't that right Meg?'

Meg smiled mirthlessly. 'You flatter yourself.'

'It has made us life-style icons,' Tommy went on, 'and fashion leaders in our peer group.'

'The moby ban is a bit of a pain,' Ralph said. 'Nobody uses public phone boxes these days. Except to pee in, I suppose.'

Tommy nodded sadly, and sighed. 'Every time poor old Meg goes into one people think she must be putting up cards advertising her sexual services.'

'No,' Meg said. 'They think I'm taking down the cards advertising yours.'

'Touché, she cried,' Tommy said grinning, 'and chopped his head off at the shoulders.'

'All right,' Barry said. 'Enough with the comedy routine.'

'We've been told that before.' Tommy was half-grinning and looking at Meg.

'I'm beginning to think our future may not lie in stand-up.'

She scowled. 'What makes you think we have a future?'

'The way my luck's running? It's either that or walk in front of a bus.'

Meg tried to suppress a smile and failed. 'The bus would be the better option.'

'I said enough with the comedy routine,' Barry repeated. 'I'm letting you observe this as a favour, so do me a favour and shut the hell up.' He keyed the light cue in capsule three, and on the monitor Josh picked up the first picture card and showed it to the CCTV camera. It was a photograph of the Empire State Building in New York. He threw up his hands in a mime of feigned astonishment before settling down to stare at the image.

'Should they be that well known?' Ralph asked. 'Doesn't it make guessing easier?'

'Why should the Empire State Building in New York be easier to guess?'

Meg said.

'Well, it's easier than the town hall in Leighton Buzzard say,' Ralph said.

Barry said, 'An immediately recognisable image makes it easier for Josh to focus. He's not faffing around absorbing unexpected details. If telepathy did exist at some instinctive level it would be better if he wasn't thinking about what it was he was seeing.'

'Lucky he isn't seeing what Tommy's seeing then,' Meg remarked pointedly.

Tommy was looking intently at the monitor that had the best angle on Chloe's naked body. Green and fuzzy did not seem to be interfering with his appreciation of the picture. If he heard Meg's comment he gave no sign of it. 'What happens if she mentions Leighton Buzzard now?' he asked.

'I get a Nobel prize,' Barry said, watching the output of the camera focused on the girl's face. 'Or you all get burned as witches. Or possibly both.' But it didn't look likely, he thought, that she was going to mention Leighton Buzzard or anything else for that matter. He fiddled with the remote focusing and peered more closely at the screen. Her lips were moving very slightly. She could be whispering or it could just be the way she was breathing. Even in close-up he could not be sure. Next time he must have an ECG readout at the very least. She might be entirely motionless but her heart rate could be off the scale for all he knew. Was she whispering? He turned up the gain from the tank's mics.

Chloe screamed again and again and again. She screamed until her throat was cramped and her lungs were paralysed with the effort. They must be able