Interview (10) – The Doctor’s room

 (Change of tack – I’m going to write this piece of conversation as a play. Little description, no “he said – she said”, no stage directions – This is just to see how an approach works. A lot of this is experimentation.) (Continued)

Jim found himself nodding, but he was also a little confused at the way the conversation was going. This did not feel like a conventional interview at all, and the interaction between GM and AL was distinctly odd and rather unsettling.

Suddenly the Doctor got up

GM: Would you mind doing a little test for us? Rather than ask you lots of detailed questions, I would like you to show us what you can do. Would you mind?

JG: No. Of course not. What do you want me to do?

GM: Just follow me. Leave your bag here. It will be perfectly safe. There is nobody in this building except Anastasia and me and, of course, yourself.

He got up abruptly and walked to the door.

GM: Bring your coffee with you.

Outside on the landing, the doctor began climbing the stairs to the next level. Jim followed, not really knowing what was expected.

On the next level, the doctor paused to unlock a room and then paused at the door to usher Jim inside.

The room was a surprise to Jim. As far as he could tell, it looked out on the front of the building, overlooking the road. Sunlight streamed in through the window, but all Jim could see was sky and clouds, because between the window and the room proper a partition had been erected with upward sloping slats, like an enormous, rigid, Venetian blind. Jim surmised that this construction would prevent anyone at street level having any awareness of what was going on in this room, even at night. Jim remembered the Doctor’s earlier comments about “privacy”

The room was furnished smartly in a sparse functional style. There were three desks arranged in a loose “U” formation, each with an expensive mesh-backed chair behind it. On two of the desks sat laptop computers. Jim noticed that each computer was connected to power and network tables which descended from a tiled suspended ceiling. In the corner of the room stood what was probably a networking cabinet, with lights flickering behind a smoked glass door. (continued)

(Part of the “Tyson” project: 26th January 2017 – 347 words)