The Great Game

I ‘m really sorry; two days late is definitely my worst performance yet.  Tragically, my cousin died on Thursday, so I’m all at sixes and sevens at the momen. The next ep will happen on Tuesday (unless that’s the day of the funeral). Sorry.

If you’re new to the Great Game, please have a quick look at the blurb to your left, where you’ll find a short catch-up introduction.

I pulled myself together. “We’re not sure about Mr. Timmins’ fate, Mr. Salis. We’re investigating the matter.”

“Oh,” said Sallis. “I see. Please, call me Bob.”

I nodded. “Can you tell me what Mr. Timmins has been doing?”

“Of course,” said Sallis. “He was working on repairs to the sub-basement level. We’re planning to convert it to extra storage.”

Something about that made my spine prickle. “Could I have a look at it?”

“Certainly,” he said. “I’ll have to ask you to wear a hard hat, though. You won’t be covered by our insurance, otherwise. I’m sure you understand.”

I nodded, and he ferreted around in a cardboard box beside his desk for a moment before surfacing with a pair of ugly yellow plastic helmets. He passed one to me, and I put it on. It didn’t fit.

Sallis shot me a sympathetic smile, and led me through to a rough flight of of concrete stairs. It was a sharp contrast to the rest of the office, and made me feel slightly claustrophobic.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Sallis said as we started down. “Not all that convenient, storage with staircase access.”

I uhmmed politely.

“Quite right,” he said, beaming. “We’re putting in a service elevator at the moment.”

A half-formed thought was lurking in the back of my mind. I tried to give it space to breathe. “That’s what he was working on, I presume.”

“Yes,” said Sallis. “That’s right.”

We came out into a big, dimly-lit concrete cellar. The ceiling was surprisingly high. Bits of machinery and other equipment were half-visible in the darkness, and I could see several wires snaking across the floor. I looked up, thinking about the hat, but there didn’t appear to be anything going on at roof level.

Sallis took me down the side of the cellar, to the bottom of a freshly-excavated rectangular shaft which opened up on the floor above. Light spilled down into the well, revealing a slightly deeper section in the centre of the shaft.

“As you can see, we’re ready to concrete now. Then the machinery will go in, and finally the platform.”

I nodded, and glanced into the hole. There appeared to be a sweep of something green and glittery at the bottom. I peered at it more closely, and realised that it seemed to be part of a half-buried design of some sort.

“Is that supposed to be there, Mr. Sallis?” I pointed at the design.

He came up beside me and frowned. “No. I don’t know what that is.”

I knelt down, and jumped into the hole. It was only about waist-deep. I leaned forward to look at the design more closely. The shape was  obscured by the earth half-covering it, but even where it was exposed, it was hard to tell what the material was. My first thought had been metal, because of the glitter, but closer up I wasn’t so sure. It was wafer-thin, whatever it was, but too even to be paint.

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Today’s picture is Oyu Tolgoi by and (c) Luke Distelhaus