Story: The Disappearance (II)

(Part I, III )

The plain chocolate digestive detective force was never intended to be a long-term division of the police force, but circumstances conspired to make it perhaps the most consistently respected and enduring police presences in London. Since plain chocolate digestives are relatively unknown outside of Britain, the PCDD is also one of the most travelled divisions, being dispatched throughout the world to countries unsuited to biscuit phenomena. My name is Wilson, I work at the PCDD, and this is not a joke.

Pure disintegrations were quire rare in biscuit phenomena, and the incident at Tinkerton Gardens was was also unusual in that we had no way of identifying the now sadly non-existent victim. Carter's sensors had registered a complete absence of DNA, presumably indicating a Quantum Fade of some kind. The Lab had been getting closer to understanding the basis of the Plain Chocolate Digestive's power, but only in the sense of getting closer to a black hole or maelstrom. Apparently the latest theory was that the specific combinations and ratios of ingredients caused a singularity in the probability field that surrounds us, allowing for extraordinarily unlikely things to happen. Before that theory, it had been alien interference in early biscuit design, and before that the Egyptian Gods. I still like the Egyptian Gods theory, but then I took Egyptology at university and like the costumes.

In our dingy office we waited for a classification on the biscuit from Cheryl and Stan in the Chamber. They had been working on it for two hours, which wasn't unusual, but this long an analysis indicated a genuine Biscuit Phenomenon and not just a coincidence with an inert specimen. Carter was filling in a latest transfer application, being unsatisfied at last with the lack of promotion prospects from the PCDD, and I was reviewing notes from the Zurich Imports incident. Five people were missing, but it seemed that the incident fitted the pattern of the Plymouth Avenue dispersal event from five years earlier. I dispatched a message to Zurich with the likely locations of the missing people and carried on.

A note arrived from the Chamber, that doubly reinforced research room downstairs: 'Come down at once. Classification unknown. Protocol G.' Now that was unusual, a protocol G warning meant that they were worried about airborne effects of some kind. I showed the note to Carter, logged us in for a Chamber visit and then we descended to the lower basement. Security and monitoring around the Chamber was vital, and each of the ten pairs of PCDD agents were trained to diligence of the utmost reliability. I would have to complete that same training on Carter's replacement once she finally left.

Signing the entrance sheet at Chamber's entrance and pushing the bell button, we waited for Fred and Cheryl to either emerge or summon us inside. Two minutes passed, then three and finally five before we rung a safety alert, donned the safety suits reluctantly, and entered without permission into the domain of the Analysts. As I somehow expected, Fred and Cheryl had been removed from consciousness and were lying on the floor in almost comical positions. Neither of them had the specimen and the testing instruments were all empty.

The evidence was gone.

There will be more...

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Note: It's quite derivative of the great Jasper Fforde but I still quite like it.