Page 99 of The Examiner

Patrickthree days per week, Tuesday to Thursday, much as normal

Jonathantwo days per week

Ludyatwo days per week

Alysonzero

Cameronzero

Royal Hastings, University of London Multimedia Art MA *Final Project*

Candidate name: Jonathan Danners

Candidate number: 0883482

The voice:

All that security at RD8 isn’t solely to keep curious cattle out. Or in other words: it is, in a way. The company develops technology far more interesting than secure wireless payments. The sheer dullness of that switches people off. I often wonder if that’s the idea. How did they get to Gela? There are only four ways: money, ideology, coercion and ego. MICE. Four reasons people get caught in a trap.

What has everyone else said about the voice? I’ll say this … that unit wasn’t what we thought it was or needed it to be. But sometimes a project changes shape. We have to be flexible and adapt. I’m sure that’s in the course notes somewhere. The voice – a man with an English accent – came through at the same time every day, but every time he said something different. That he was trapped, being held prisoner in a dark place. He asked to be rescued, but didn’t say where he was or who was keeping him captive.

Since the Second World War RD8 have led communications technology for the security agencies. That contract must dwarf any commercial work they do for the retail industry, but they need their credit card and banking software as a smokescreen. In days gone by, undercover agents could tune in to radio wavelengths to pick up coded messages that only they could decipher. The ‘numbers stations’, as they’re called, remained a Cold War curio for decades. Most world powers operated them and some still do. Just in case the world’s digital and electronic systems break down or are sabotaged. Radio waves will always be there.

That unit was alone in the centre of a small, dark room, quite separate from the museum. A rectangular box no bigger than a house brick, on its own plinth. The place was temperature- and humidity-regulated by a state-of-the-art system, plus a backup with its own power source. One thing was certain: they did not want anything corroding or degrading whatever was inside. It was strangely timeless. Could have been preserved for a hundred years or made last week. With no visible power source of its own, it seemed to be dead and we would soon find out why. Then Jem and Patrick started playing with it. It kept them busy, so we let them.

Until the voice came through. Sense told me it was a recording. Yet it sounded live. It sounded as if that man was actually broadcasting his sad, plaintive message every night. It’s what Patrick thought as soon as he heard it. But the wavelength remained obscure and the internal workings didn’t give anything away. It was the key, but we didn’t know how to turn it. Or where the lock was. It may not have been what we had hoped for. But it isn’t what they told Cameron it was, either.

Doodle message group [Private] Gela and Cameron, 15 April 2024:

Gela Nathaniel

Term starts tomorrow. Can you come in and show your face around the studio? Just let Hannah, Griff and Jem see how hard you’re trying to contribute to the final project, despite sickness, etc.

Cameron Wesley

I’m on another job. It’s at that tricky stage. Can’t simply leave.

Gela Nathaniel

I need photographs for the prospectus – should this course be approved. Ideally a bright, enthusiastic, diverse cohort looking busy in the studio, everyone smiling and happy.

Cameron Wesley

You want everyone looking happy? Are you serious?

Gela Nathaniel

Informal bribery. I’ll take that key picture on the day I give them their – highly inflated – grades for Assignment Five.

Cameron Wesley

Good luck with that. Kiss-kiss.

Gela Nathaniel

Kiss-kiss.

Doodle message group MMAM(FTP), 15 April 2024: