The Device: Part II

(Story begins here.)

``So this part of the entrance is straightforward,'' Tom said as he led the way on. ``There is nothing odd about this. Regular entrance to the observation tower.''

``Okay...''

``Now we walk along the spiral slope. If you recall, this thing runs around the exterior of the cylindrical structures, hugging it, and leading to the top of the observation tower,'' Tom said as he started to walk on to the slope, slowing himself down a little to wait for Sally. Sally's back wasn't really that good to begin with, and having to walk up the slope meant that she had to bend forwards at an odd angle to ensure that she doesn't tip over backwards. That had a tendency to slow her down a lot.

``No need to patronise me Tom,'' Sally said as she carefully took steps up the slope. ``You know full well that I've been here before on other occasions.''

``Yes, but please forgive me. Force of habit. I have to explain this to the people who got me to study this. They told me that I needed to get an engineer to come along to help verify that this device does... what I had suggested it could do.''

``But there is almost no field of engineering that can explain what you are suggesting. Unless you want to talk about the fringe stuff that no one really cares about,'' Sally said as she continued taking small steps up the slope.

``That's not the intention, I think,'' Tom replied, a couple of paces ahead of her. ``I think they just wanted to make sure that someone who was well-known to be a hard scientist was present to make sure that I didn't screw anything up by being the anthropologist I am.''

``That's just cruel,'' Sally said.

Tom remain silent. It was one of those moments that made him realise why he and Sally couldn't be together as lovers. She was too straightforward. Tom wanted someone straightforward, yes, but he also wanted someone who was empathetic enough to know when being straightforward and blunt was more harmful than not. Sally seemed to have sensed his inner thoughts and didn't press for any more conversation.

The minutes passed slowly as the two of them made their way up the circular slope. By the time they were at the top of the observation tower, they had already circumnavigated the structure for three whole revolutions.

``I can't believe it's this breath-taking,'' Sally finally said, breaking the silence. She was reminded of that magical date that she and Tom had a long time ago where they would make their way up the observation tower during the middle of the night just to look far and beyond and watch the twinkling of the stars which were almost eclipsed by the yellow street lamps of roads in the industrial park far ahead and below them. Head lights of cars zoomed past them along the roads, and the wind of the night blew gently at times and strongly at others, keeping a pseudo-random rhythm that was at once haunting and exciting. But memories were just that, memories, and Sally made a mental note to ignore what nostalgia threw up at her.

``Yeah, good location for an observation tower,'' Tom mumbled as he moved away from the peripheries and towards a cordoned off area. Beyond the tape was a door that seemed to open into the store room or control room of some sort. Tom pulled out a regular looking key from his pocket and pushed it into the key hole in the door.

``I'll take it that this is not the key that the national parks authority gave you?''

``Of course it isn't,'' Tom replied with a tone of mild annoyance. ``This is just the regular key to our work area where we catalogue the things that we observe of this structure.''

``And you keep the key in there?''

``Yes, in a matter of speaking,'' Tom replied after unlocking the door and opening it by the knob. Inside was a tinge of inky blackness. Tom walked on and flicked a switch near the side of the door, and the dark room was illuminated by the flickering fluorescent light before it held itself in a steady glow. Sally ducked the tape and followed Tom into the room.

The work room was quite bare except for a table, a chair and a shelf. Apart from the fluorescent lamp above, there were no other sources of illumination as the room itself seemed to be walled-in on all sides. On the table were papers strewn about, both architectural blue prints and hand-written loose leaf paper were present. In a corner was the waste bin, and there were many crumpled balls of paper there, witnesses of frustrating periods. But on the shelf, Sally saw something a little extraordinary. It was a small cube of concrete, or at least, that was what it looked like, roughly three inches long on each side. It stood out strongly because it was the only thing on the shelf that had that height, and for some reason, it seemed to be reflecting the light above specularly.

`Could this be the key that Tom was talking about?' Sally thought to herself as she stood quietly by to wait for Tom to make his move.

``If you are wondering if that is the key, you are partially right. This thing on the shelf is technically half of the key.''

``Half? So where's the other half and how it combines together?''

``I have the other half, and no, it doesn't quite combine in the way that you would normally associate with things being `combined','' Tom replied, fishing out a strange looking object from his pocket.

It had the shape of a cockroach.

(Story continues here.)