Level One

Part 1

Three weeks earlier

Laurence Whitfield sat at a computer terminal in Nanotechnology Lab Number One entering data.

Tracy Hammond observed him from the window in the office adjoining the lab. He had barely spoken two words since he arrived to work his shift that afternoon. She knew why he was so quiet. Maybe she could snap him out of it. She stepped into the lab and approached her lab partner.

"Are you okay, Laurence?" she asked gently.

"I'm fine," he answered stiffly without looking up.

Tracy paused for a moment, then decided to be direct. "You know how the gossip is in this place. I heard you and Simone broke up. I'm sorry. It's tough."

"I'll be okay." Laurence still concentrated on the computer screen.

She put her hand on his shoulder in a comforting gesture. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you. I'm a good listener."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Laurence almost snapped at her, "Now can you let me get on with this data entry?"

"Sure, Laurence." Tracy went back to the office and closed the door. He isn't making this easy for me, she thought, then picked up the phone.  

Her friend Angela answered a moment later. "Hi, Angie, Tracy said, "You know Simone Cameron, right? This is really important. Can you arrange to accidently run into her in the cafeteria and have a chat with her? I need to know why she and Laurence broke up."

*****

The sign on the door read: Physics Development Laboratory 5. Authorised Level 1 Personnel Only.

Professor John O'Brien held his hand in front of the scanner until the door clicked. He pushed it open and strode through the lab to his office. He sat down and turned on the computer. "So close," he mumbled to himself, "I'm so close. Maybe I'll get there today."

After half an hour he realised he left home so early that he hadn't had breakfast. He would get his assistant to go to the cafeteria and bring him back something. But she hadn't arrived yet. It was only eight o'clock and her starting time was eight thirty.

Twenty minutes later a girl entered the lab. She knocked on the Professor's door. "Come in," he mumbled while typing numbers into a computer programme.

"Good morning, Professor," the girl said brightly, "I thought you might have come in early without breakfast so I picked you up a coffee and muffin."

"Put it down. I'll call you when I need you," O'Brien responded still glued to his computer screen.

The girl's expression fell. "It's here on your desk," she said putting down the coffee cup and brown paper bag.

She left the office and sat down at her work station to sort out her jobs for the day.
O'Brien's assistant was a 24 year old graduate student with degrees in molecular physics, chemistry and micro-engineering. Sarah Cummings was a pretty girl with a slim figure and straight shoulder length brown hair. She had started the job four months earlier after easily beating the other applicants for the position after receiving high distinctions from the University of Sydney in her fields of study.

She sat at her desk grumbling over O'Brien's surly demeanour. He was like that nearly all the time, and she could understand why his last assistant had requested a transfer to another department. Still, the work they were doing was exciting ground breaking stuff. To develop a rocket fuel that would boost a manned space vehicle up to forty per cent of the speed of light was an almost unbelievable concept, but O'Brien had almost done it. He was working on the formula for a highly advanced ionizing fuel, and now the necessary modifications to the rocket engines which propelled the Silver Star space vehicles to the moon and Mars were being finalised. Sarah's job was to assist in these modifications to the engines of a model vehicle which would be launched into space from a high orbiting space shuttle. It would be remote controlled and have instruments on board which would measure speed and stresses on the engine.
Before she started working for O'Brien, Sarah had been required to sign a number of legal documents agreeing she would not reveal any information about the project. It was classified at the highest security level, level one.