Page 78 of The Examiner

Subject: Re: The MA group

I’m sorry, Griff. You’re right. They are so keen and inventive there’s no holding them back. But of course this must stop. I’ll have a word with them.

Gela

Doodle message group [Private] Gela, Ludya, Alyson and Jonathan, 14 February 2024:

Gela Nathaniel

Please be careful using mains electricity. The technicians are across everything that happens in that studio.

Jonathan Danners

It isn’t us. Patrick is helping Jem experiment with radio circuits. We’re staying late tonight to hear some noise they picked up.

Ludya Parak

Shit, is that all it is?

Gela Nathaniel

So it’s nothing to do with you?

Jonathan Danners

No.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem, Patrick, Jonathan, Alyson and Ludya, 14 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

Don’t forget the surprise Pat and I have been working on. The big reveal is 5 p.m. tonight! Don’t be late – my dad is due around then and he doesn’t like waiting.

Patrick Bright

I’m sure everyone will be there.

Patrick Bright’s Doodle Diary, 14 February 2024:

We’ve got a mystery here. Jem wanted to see if that old radio worked, but I didn’t want her playing with the electrics on her own, so I’ve been helping. Sure enough, once I wired a plug to it, we got a hissing, squawking and crackling – the atmospherics. Young Jem was thrilled because she could use it in her soundscape. It was more like white noise to me, but I was pulled along by her sheer enthusiasm, and we arranged to show the others once Gela has left for the day.

But something happened as we were all sat around that radio in the studio. The white noise came through sure enough, but suddenly it dropped away to complete silence, as if a radio station had started broadcasting – and into that silence came a voice.

‘I’m trapped. I don’t know where I am, but I’m alone here. If you can hear me, send help.’ Something like that. It had a strange timbre. You couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman. It felt live, like through a walkie-talkie. Spine-chilling. My blood ran stone-cold. Who was it?

Then the atmospherics kicked back in, as if the broadcast was switched off as suddenly as it had been switched on. Jem was frozen to the spot, so I leapt to the dial, tried to get back to the same frequency, but I was all fingers and thumbs and there are no markings on that thing. We all stood around and looked at one another. I have to say that for a group with a lot of issues, we were united in our shock at that voice.

We jumped out of our skins again when Hannah leaned in at the door. She had Jem’s dad with her, a kindly old gent who clearly thinks the world of his little girl. When she wasn’t in her usual pick-up spot, he’d gone straight to admin in a panic. Jem, who is never short of things to say, quickly got her bags together and left with barely a word. Hannah glanced round at us and said to make sure we switched everything off. She had a look on her face. Had she heard it too?

Jonathan and I played with the dials, but couldn’t find that broadcast again, and by the time we were ready to leave I think we’d all decided it was nothing. Only now, when I’m alone in the dark myself, I can’t help thinking about that poor, trapped person, pleading for help over the airwaves.

Doodle message group [Private] Jem and Patrick, 14 February 2024:

Jem Badhuri

OMG!

Jem Badhuri