Page 208 of The Examiner

Candidate number: 0883480

I needed to think straight. No one else was. Suzie was trapped with the phone. Jonathan was obsessed with the voice. Ludya and I, we flitted back and forth between the two worlds, the house of darkness and the bright studio; Jem and Gela, the project. It was like moving between two layers of hell.

I had an idea to break the cycle: use epoxy resin to preserve the features that activate the phone. I didn’t know if it would work, and even if it did, it was a short-term solution. Organic matter of the density we had to preserve will eventually rot, even inside resin. Jonathan and Suzie were so intent on the unit and keeping Cameron talking to us through it. Their belief that it was him, their insistence we continue with the MA course … became normal to Ludya and me. That’s something they don’t tell you about teamwork. It can normalise the horrific. If you break everyone’s role down into their micro-responsibilities, then the horrific thing is only the sum of those parts. No one person feels responsible for the fuck-up in its entirety. A 3D version of ‘I was following orders’.

Cameron took a phone call while we were arguing about the room. It was from Mae and whatever she said, he hung up and made a grab for the radio in Ludya’s hands. Ludya could have let go of it, but she didn’t feel able to challenge Jonathan’s order to keep it safe. Suzie jumped to help Ludya, but Cameron pushed her aside and she slipped on the cheap carpet. That’s when I came out of the bathroom and saw him. Was it all my fault? They don’t feel responsible for what I did.

I hit Cameron, but what happened next wasn’t my idea. Jonathan was project leader of a sleeper unit that wanted to expose RD8’s toxic tech. It wasn’t his fault Suzie stole it instead. Alyson and her sister Suzie lived on a rubbish tip in China until a British aid worker found and adopted them. The real Alyson became an artist. Suzie became an engineer, but she never lost her impulsiveness, or her instinct for survival. Who’s fault was that?

And me? I caused the main problem, so I felt I should at least help solve it. End the terrible cycle we were all trapped in. That’s another side-effect of teamwork. Lack of emotion, absence of empathy – whatever it is that got us that far down the road … is contagious.

Documents sent to me by Patrick Bright:

Somerset trip WhatsApp group members Jonathan Danners, Alyson Lang, Cameron Wesley, Patrick Bright and Ludya Parak, 22 April 2024:

Jonathan

Luds, is the car charged? We need it overnight.

Ludya

How far are you going? I need it for the school run tomorrow.

Jonathan

Seventy-five miles. We’ll have it back by then.

Ludya

I’ll take it to the rapid charging point now.

Patrick

Which of us is driving, Jonathan? We’ll need to sort out insurance.

Ludya

FFS! Yeah, if you’re caught with body parts in the car, you don’t want to be done for lack of paperwork.

Jonathan

He’s right. The car is registered to a woman. If we’re caught on-camera and the police see it’s being driven by two men, it might ping their radar. We’ll both have to get insurance.

Patrick

You’re right, they’ll stop us for sure. What do we say?

Jonathan

That the owner gave us permission to use her vehicle and we’re going to Birling Gap to take photographs of the sunset for an art project. We remain calm and say WHATEVER to avoid a search.

Ludya

Where will you get rid of it?

Jonathan

A cove near Eastbourne. We’d go on holiday there when I was a kid. It’s always deserted and the tide is lethal. A van fell down the cliff once and in one tide it disappeared.