Chapter 4

Emma never got as far as the Barrier Reef. After two days in Sydney she heard from the Professor. Would she return to take part in a final elimination? All her expenses were to be paid, including a flight back to Australia should she not be finally successful. She knew perfectly well that she would be successful.

In his message, the Professor told her she had passed all the medical tests with flying colours. Much of the three days had been passed in completing several arduous physical sessions in which stamina and durability were tested to the limit. Only Emma and one of the men came through these in anything like good shape. The two other women were quite exhausted and had to drop out less than halfway through.

She had been obliged to allow her medical records to be shown to the selectors. Since Emma had never experienced a day's illness other than of the self-inflicted and alcoholic variety, she was hardly surprised to have passed the medical examination. Something told her that she would need every ounce of her physical fitness over the next three years, but she was still obsessed with doing something to help Alexander.

This time they did not visit the country house. The elimination was held in a suite in a none too pretentious hotel in West London. It was explained to the finalists that compatibility with the thought sensor was the main object of the exercise.

Both Emma and Harold, the other applicant, were amazed at how their thoughts were being interpreted by the invention. They each agreed as they took their leave of each other that it was uncanny and very disturbing to think how all their innermost thoughts were detected so accurately.

"I don't like it, Emma!" said Harold. "Even if they do choose me, I'll turn it down. It's not worth ten times what they're offering us. It's so sinister! No human should ever have such knowledge and power over others."

Emma was still infatuated with the Count, although she disliked the Professor as much as ever. And this device would only be used in penal institutions to help reform wrongdoers. Instead of being locked up for many years, they could be released after only a short time with all their vices cured for ever.

Next day was Sunday and Emma went for a stroll on what might be one of her last days of freedom before placing herself at the Professor's disposal for thirty six months. She shivered at the thought and felt fear for the first time.

As chance would have it she passed the entrance to a church and saw a few worshippers hurrying to make it in time for the start of the Mass. Emma had been confirmed at fifteen and had been a regular communicant until going up to University and seduced.

So she went into the church and sat near the rear. As the choir and clergy entered, preceded by the thurifer swinging the censer and filling the church with the well remembered scent of holiness it was as if all her recent history of depravity had never happened. But it had happened!

The opening Collect, with its well remembered words, struck her forcibly, especially one phrase. "... all hearts be open, all desires known and from whom no secrets are hid."

That's what this machine would ensure! A power that was once God's alone was being placed in the hands of Mankind! She felt the first stirrings of doubt.

Emma sat in her seat when her turn came to go up to the altar. She knew she was quite unworthy to receive the Sacrament, despite the sincerity with which she had said the words of the Confession. As she repeated the words "Provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us," all the horror of what she had done struck her again. The words of the Absolution gave her no assurance that she could ever be forgiven. Emma still hated herself too much to believe that anything about her could still be worth loving.

But Alexander loved her and this had sown a tiny seed of hope.

On Monday she was told to report to the Company's research establishment in Hampshire, bringing her lawyer with her. She had already been warned that this would be essential and had given prior notice to Mr Ferguson her family's solicitor.

As she showed her pass to the security guard and drove into the well guarded converted Royal Air Force station, she thought that this was to be her home for three long years. But a surprise was in store for her.

The Professor was waiting for them in his office in the Admin block.

"Good morning Emma! Congratulations on passing all the selection processes! Since the only other remaining contestant has been obliged by reason of family circumstances to withdraw, you are to be our human guinea pig! Before starting you off on the Experiment, I must get you to sign some forms and explain some of what will be involved."

Emma nodded. All she wanted now was to get on with it!

"I don't suppose for a second that it's going to be a picnic, Professor. Companies don't pay what you're paying me out of the goodness of their hearts! All those physical endurance tests you put us through made me realise that a lot of the experiment will be tough. Perhaps you'll be about to explain exactly how tough?"

"It will be a matter of rewards and punishments for much of the time, Emma. You will be quite alone for almost all of the time. When you think bad and anti social thoughts you will be punished. Punishment will take many forms, none of which will leave any permanent physical effects. Hard work will be part of your daily regime for all your time on the island. I imagine that hard physical work has not been a part of your life these last few years, although you still remain a fit young woman."

Emma agreed.

"I have tended to let myself go a bit. Too much to eat and drink. But I came through all the tests OK so I can't have let things slide that badly."

"No, Emma. You remain basically in very good shape and we could not have chosen you otherwise."

"What exactly will the punishments consist of?"

"Beatings, deprivation of clothing, confinement, electric shocks and being made to stay out of doors for long periods. We also have developed a very special kind of bed which will make sleeping impossible if you have bad thoughts at night. But you will be alone and all the punishments will be delivered by machines. For the first months you will probably have a very painful time, but adjustment will be rapid and life will soon become bearable and, by degree, pleasant. If we feel that we have learnt all we can from you before the three years are up, then we will come for you and you may return to your own life."

"You mean you have a machine that will beat me? How kinky!" Emma giggled at the idea, but the Professor did not smile.

"All your punishments will be graded in severity, Emma. And once you have committed yourself there can be no turning back. Here are some notes relating to the regime. I will leave you alone with Mr Ferguson to decide. This kind of commitment cannot be entered into lightly."

As soon as they were alone, Mr Ferguson pleaded with his young client to come back to London with him and forget this idea.

"Don't do it, Emma! Don't even think about it. It's not worth the money. Why don't you go back to College and get your degree? It's not too late and I know your parents would be delighted."

"My parents! Don't make me... ing laugh Mr Ferguson! They disowned me and they meant it. My life's as good as over, as far as my being any use is concerned. I'm doing this for a good man who will put this invention to good use. That's all that matters. Let's get these papers signed and witnessed, shall we? And don't breathe a word of what has gone on here to anyone. Not ever!"

"Did you write to the Count from Sydney?" asked the Professor as soon as the lawyer had left, unsuccessful in his bid to persuade Emma not to go any further with the Experiment.

"Yes. I take it I won't be spending the next three years here, then?"

Emma had heard the Professor mention an island. So the location of this particular bit of research was somewhere else - somewhere even more secluded and restricted than this well guarded establishment.

"Yes, Miss Henderson. The company has its own private island, some seventy miles from the nearest inhabited location. You will forgive me if I don't tell you where it is exactly, but it's to the South West of Cornwall. It will be a little milder there in the winter than here, which is a good thing as you may well be spending a lot of time out of doors."

"Out of doors?"

"Yes. Punishments will take many forms and exclusion from the living quarters will be part of the regime, as will deprivation of clothing in whole or in part. The whole place is fully automated and bad thoughts will trigger off automatic actions. You will discover all this for yourself. If you cooperate fully with us, the unhappy part of your stay there will be short. You do want to be a better person, don't you?"

Emma nodded. If it helped Alexander who, for some unaccountable reason, loved her then she wanted to be a better person and help establish this invention as a weapon in the war against crime and evil.

She envisaged Osama Bin Laden wired up to the thought sensor, having all the stupefying immensity of twisted malevolence purged from him. In his case, thought Emma, it would take a lot longer than three years. And when the evil had been removed - what would be left of him? Nothing!

"Can I take anything with me to the Island, Professor? Clothes, books, tapes, that sort of thing?"

"We have provided you with all we consider you to need. If you wish to continue your studies, there is a collection of classical works which I think you'll find pretty comprehensive. You will have writing materials, although no letter may be sent for as long as the Experiment continues. Also there will be satellite television, so you will not entirely lose touch with what is going on in the world."

"That's good. It will be good to watch George W fighting his war on Terror and our sycophantic Tony brown nosing him. I must say that that's two bastards I won't mind missing totally for three years. Three centuries would be too short!"

She laughed at this witticism. There were times when she surprised herself! But the Professor, she noticed, was not amused. Just what did she have to do in order to make this cold fish smile?

If she had known that the Professor had high hopes of selling his products for a huge sum to the FBI, CIA and other regiments in the Armies of Righteousness, she would have seen that her little joke might not have seemed too funny. The thought that some collection of neocon religious nuts might one day be using the machine to turn Darwinists into Creationists by electro aversion therapy and deprivation of sleep and clothing did not concern him. He was as much a man of business as a man of science these days.

But Emma was young, pleasure loving and totally uninterested in serious matters. Apart from the fact that her father was a Conservative MP with whose politics she still agreed, despite having been disowned by him, she had little concern for such things.

And the three year experiment was going to be pretty serious just by itself! It would contain all the seriousness she could cope with, and then some!

The Professor indicated that it was time to leave. They walked across to the helicopter pad and soon Emma, the Professor and three assistants were being whisked across the grey Atlantic swell to the remote island laboratory which was to be Home Sweet Home for thirty six interesting, if sometimes painful months.

Emma disembarked from the helicopter and looked around at the windswept island. As a place to spend a goodly part of her life, it had its drawbacks, being remote, cold and generally uninviting. She saw a few old huts by the shore and inland a metal fenced perimeter. There was a nice sandy beach, but that would doubtless not be for her to spend the summer months on!

Behind that high fence she imagined would be her new home and scene of her transformation from a dissipated young trollop into a Right Thinking person. In would go a dirty little foul-mouthed slut and out would come a Model Citizen - the first of many to be redeemed by means of the Professor's invention. She wished she could feel a bit more excited and a bit less cold!

"Are you going up to the laboratory with me, then?"

Emma didn't want to stay here out in the open any longer than she could help. She couldn't wait to get inside the living quarters.

"No. You will walk up that pathway and push open the gate. It will close behind you and not open again for three years. The living quarters will be directly opposite, on the far side of the perimeter. You will go straight there and read the instructions that you will find on a notice board. These are for general guidance. More specific instructions will be delivered over a public address system. But you must first remove your shoes and stockings."

"Stockings! What Ark are you out of Prof! I only wear tights in the winter and not even then unless it's fucking well perishing! Look after these shoes, Prof! They cost me an arm and a leg! It took me two steamy sessions to pay for them! But I expect you know that! You've got the photos, haven't you Prof, you sly old devil!"

Once again she was struck by the scientist's lack of response. What did it take to make him smile? She removed her shoes and handed them, not to the Professor, but to one of his assistants. She stood in her bare feet and wriggled her toes apprehensively, hoping that the ground inside the perimeter would be nice and smooth! The pathway leading up to the distant laboratory looked pretty stony - but as long as picked her way carefully she foresaw no great difficulty in getting to her goal without too many abrasions.

"Where does the electricity come from so far from land?"

"We are connected by a cable. In the event of any disruption a local generator will automatically come on stream and we will send people over to repair any damage. Maintenance staff are the only ones you will meet whilst you are here. Power to heat your living quarters will be generated by you personally. There is a pedal operated dynamo which you will operate for several hours daily to recharge the batteries. That alone will give you much hard work!"

"What about food and drink?"

"We have a refrigerated food store and freezer. There is sufficient to feed you for three years, but don't take more than the daily ration or your last weeks will be very unpleasant! If a power failure causes the food to perish than someone will be sent over to replenish the supply. And now, I have a meeting in London. I bid you farewell, Miss Henderson. Good luck and once again thank you for your cooperation!"

By the time the helicopter was airborne and heading back to the mainland, Emma was halfway up to the perimeter. It had started raining and she was getting soaked. "Never mind the stones!" she thought. "Let's get out of this wet and cold before I perish!"