in how you arrived - especially where you arrived - and I'd very much like you to start explaining. If you don't, I'll have to assume you're a common criminal and deal with you on that basis ..."'But then he got a certain look in his eye, like he'd suddenly stumbled across the truth - maybe a truth even I didn't know - and quickly went on, "Or maybe an uncommon criminal? In which case we might just be getting somewhere."
'Some of Trask's people had guns and there didn't seem too much point in trying to break out of there, not at present. So I just had to keep playing along.'Finally, I was escorted to the HQ Ops Room.' Jake glanced at Liz. 'Do you know the place? I take it you've been there.'He waited for her nod, the one word that summed up her own feelings the first time she'd seen the Ops Room. 'Awesome ...''Yes, awesome,' he agreed. 'I don't know about ghosts, but E-Branch certainly has the gadgets! Anyway, as soon as we entered - before anyone could stop me - I stepped to a window and yanked the blinds. It was night but there were plenty of street lights. There could be no mistaking where I was; the very sight of it set me reeling. That skyline, that city. Impossible, but it was Westminster! London! The centre of bloody London!'And grabbing me, looking at me with those all-seeing eyes of his, Trask said, "Surprise, surprise! So where did you think you were, Mr Nobody?"
'By then a lot of other people had arrived. They'd got the place up and running. It was the middle of the night after all, and my being there was just as big - maybe a bigger - shock to them as it was to me. But they must have a good emergency call-in; the place was fully operative in no time at all. And every man-jack and woman of them wide-eyed, whispering, curious ... maybe even awestruck? But why? What was so special about me? 'Anyway, things were happening at a rapid pace. ' "Prison clothing," Trask said. "At a guess, continental. Very well, get fingerprints, mug shots - do it now. Then get a link to Interpol, see if we can get a match. But let's not get carried away, not yet. Let's not think the unthinkable, or the incredible? Check the security system and see if it recorded a physical break-in. And let's have a check on all doors and windows, and the elevator. Then get me the Duty Officer. Didn't I hear him saying something about not being able to get into Harry's Room because the door was locked? Now why would Mr Nobody here first break in, then lock himself in? And how could he do it anyway without a key ... assuming he broke in at all?"
'Trask said all of these things, if not in the same words. And he probably said a lot more that I can't remember before he finished up with: "Answers, people, I want all the answers. And I do mean tonight..."
'I had been fingerprinted and photographed by the time two new agents entered the Ops Room. Trask greeted them with, "Current Affairs, and Tomorrow's Affairs. And not before time, you two."'Liz nodded, said, 'Millicent Cleary and lan Goodly. Millicent is a telepath, but she's also an expert in current affairs. She has that kind of memory. You want to know what's gone down in the last ten years, ask Millicent. And lan Goodly - '' - A precog,' Jake said. 'Yes, I know that now. But then - I couldn't make head nor tail of their conversation. Trask wanted to know why Goodly hadn't "seen" anything, and he asked the woman if she was "getting" anything. That was the way he talked to everyone around him. It all seemed pretty esoteric to me!''Espers have an almost different tongue,' Liz answered. 'It takes some getting used to.''Anyway, lan Goodly was at a loss to explain his lapse. And the woman, Millicent Cleary? She stared hard at me, frowned and said there was a lot of confusion. Damn, right there was!''The confusion was in you,' Liz told him.'Looking back on it, you're dead right,' he said. And after a moment:'By then all the wall screens were up and working - people processing