Chapter 10

When Ellie woke, she was in a coffee shop. How she knew that was anyone’s guess, given her eyes took a while to adjust to the bright lights, and every noise about her seemed muffled. Then she smelled that familiar aroma, and her other senses soon followed suit. 
She was lying across a booth, her freezer jacket still wrapped about her, and a wooly hat pressed over her head. Across from her on the table were Charles, Aoife, Olivia, Xana, and Jae-Sun. Each of them looked concerned, as if visiting a relative on Death’s door. 
“I know it’s cold out there,” said a barista holding a tray of hot drinks, “but she looks beyond freezing. Do you want me to call an ambulance?”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Charles with a dismissive wave of his hand. “She’s more than in safe hands with us.”
The barista didn’t look convinced, but nevertheless handed out their drinks and returned to the counter. 
Ellie slowly pushed herself up into a seating position. Her muscles felt drained to the point of exhaustion, just like they had when she’d run the Yorkshire Marathon. This time, however, no charitable cause, or anyone for that matter, had benefitted.
“What the hell happened?” Ellie asked, her words slightly slurred. 
Charles pushed a mug over to her. “Drink this.” He gestured to the cup. “It’s hot chocolate.”
Ellie eyed the cup with suspicion. Despite claiming to have only met earlier in the week, these five seemed quite the closely-knit group. 
“I wasn’t sure whether you were a tea or a coffee person, so I thought hot chocolate might be a safer bet. Besides, you could probably do with a hit of sugar.”
“Pack it in, will ye?” said Aoife. “The poor girl’s in shock; she hardly needs mithering. Let her drink.”
Ellie looked around. The place was packed with people, so it didn’t seem likely that the group would attempt anything untoward like poisoning her. She took the beverage with shaky hands and brought it up to her face so she could sniff the steam. The warm scent of the contents awoke something in her, and the wooziness she had felt since she’d awoken began to shift. Taking a few sips, she placed the mug back down, feeling much more herself.
“What happened to me in that freezer?” Ellie asked.
“You narrowly avoided being next on the missing persons list,” said Jae-Sun.
“Your stocking scanner triggered a charge so powerful it should have disintegrated you,” said Aoife. “I’m not quite sure how you escaped that one,” said Xana. “You reckon she’s part Diashna or something?”
“She’s as human as they come,” Charles reassured them.
“I wasn’t holding my scanner,” Ellie recalled. “I accidently threw it when the door closed behind me,” she explained.
“That reaction saved your life,” said Charles with a wide smile. 
Ellie’s mind was reeling, trying to put the pieces together. “But why me? And how did you know I was in there?”
“I managed to hack into the SPIMS system,” said Aoife. “Your score had dropped into the danger zone. We tracked your scanner’s last known location to the freezer, and that’s where we found you.”
“It only dropped because I was spending my time working out what you lot were up to!” Ellie exclaimed.
“You’re lucky you were on the SPIMS hitlist when you were,” said Aoife. “It’s since shut me out again.”
Ellie now had an explanation for what Aoife was doing with that scanner, but there was still much she didn’t understand. “Hold on, so what are you saying; the disappearances are linked to people with low SPIMS scores?”
“When it comes to staff disappearances, yes,” said Charles. He held out his hand and Olivia handed him a sheet of paper. “This is a list of SPIMS scores Aoife managed to obtain.” He passed it across to her. “Do you recognise any of the names?”
Ellie looked down at the paper, and was horrified by what she read. Evan Waterhouse, Gemma Lewis, Pat Mullins… some of the people on the list Ellie hadn’t even realised were among the missing — she had assumed they’d just left. The name that stuck out the most was Jackie Taylor. For once I wish the rumours would have just been true…
“All of them,” she whispered. “And this was all because of the scanners? This is horrible…”
“Exactly,” said Xana. “Which is why we’re here to put a stop to what’s going on before anyone else goes missing.”
“But,” said Ellie, shaking her head, “this is crazy! The missing people can’t have just been… What did you say? Disintegrated? Surely that would leave something behind for the police to follow.” She paused. “Hold on, why aren’t the police investigating this?”
“We have some friends on the Force,” said Charles. “And you’re right about the remains: ordinarily there would be a trail to follow. It seems SPIMS is using the store’s ventilation system to cover up what remains of those that are killed.”
Ellie shuddered as she experienced flashbacks of her time in the freezer, and gasped as she remembered the strength of the air conditioning in the holding room where the shoplifter was held. 
“Hold on,” said Ellie. “If staff are going missing for their low SPIMS scores, what about the customers?”
Jae-Sun answered: “The best we can tell is that they’ve done something to damage store performance, like the case of our shoplifter. For one woman’s disappearance, the best we can tell is that she was talking to Evan Peters too much.”
Ellie clamped her eyes shut. “This is insane!” she exclaimed. “You can’t be serious!”
“We’re not serious,” said Olivia. “We’re SIGNET.”
SIGNET. 
Somehow the name sounded familiar. “Tell me where I’ve heard that name before.”
“We’re an investigative group tasked with solving the weird and mysterious,” said Aoife. 
“And sometimes aliens,” added Olivia.
“We weren’t going to mention that part,” chided Jae-Sun.
“Are aliens behind the SPIMS program?” Ellie asked.
Charles laughed. “Not so far as we can tell, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t someone behind it.”
“Who?” asked Ellie. All of a sudden she felt like she’d stumbled into the plot of a Professor X novel.
“We have our suspicions,” said Aoife. “Gary Wheeler’s management of the system places him at the top of the list.”
“I think he’s too nice for all that,” said Olivia.
“Gary?” said Ellie in disbelief. “He’s far too nice to have killed people.”
“Regardless of our opinions on the man, he’s the logical next step to finding out what’s happening at Freshfields.” Charles drained the remainder of his coffee in one large gulp. “We need to plan our next move.”
“I can go in and talk to him,” said Ellie. She checked the time on her phone; there was still an hour left of her shift. 
“You can’t go back into work, not now,” Charles said sharply.
“What do you mean?” Ellie could see her life begin to crumble before her eyes. “I have bills to pay!”
“You won’t be paying them if you’re dead,” said Xana. 
“SPIMS is onto you,” explained Jae-Sun. “We can’t risk you stepping anywhere near that store until this is over.”
“So what, I’m supposed to call in sick for the next week?” The thought alone made Ellie feel queasy. The last time she had called in sick was five years ago, after a particularly nasty stomach bug had left her bedridden. She’d spent the entire day feeling like she’d her colleagues down, so much so that the next day, feeling only slightly better, she had forced herself through her shift, snot and all. This time, even that option was denied to her.
“That’s the least of your troubles if SPIMS wants you dead,” said Xana. 
“So how do we talk to Gary without entering the store?” asked Ellie. She reasoned that if there was no chance of going back to work until this was over, playing her part was her only move.
“Don’t you worry,” said Charles with a wry smile. “We have a plan for that.”

Next Aisle: Chapter 11