The Vault (10)

It took a few minutes before I was ready to leave the room, Adrian was waiting for me in the lounge, a bottle of chilled beer for both of us. Fortune was with him, drinking hot water from a mug. Jeff was nowhere to be seen. 

"You did it," Adrian said. "And it took less than two weeks."

"You knew it was him?" I said.

"We thought it was," said Fortune "We couldn't prove it, but at the time of the murder the PM was about to sack him as a junior minister, so he had motive."

"How many ministers have Prime Ministers sacked?" I said. "There must be thousands in my lifetime who've had a motive."

"Hmmm, but Bunter isn't like other people. He's a psychopath, merciless, concerned only with himself. There are a few other cases we're looking in to, but we've never found conclusive evidence." 

"But this isn't evidence," I said. "It's just my drug-induced memory. That won't stand up in a court of law."

"Not in a court of law, but the authorities understand the accuracy of these  retrieved memories. It's as accurate as CCTV. We'll put the word in the right places and he'll have to resign from politics. We'll offer him a multi-million pound job in some company or other, it'll all sound entirely possible."

"So he won't be punished. Just given a highly lucrative job."

"For Bunter it's the worse punishment possible. He's sold his soul to get to become PM, and just as he's about to achieve his goal t's taken away from him."

"So what do I do now? Do you need my testimony?"

"Na, I was there," said Adrian. "We'll keep you out of it, my statement will be sufficient."

"Adrian is known to a small number of officials. His word is entirely trusted."

"So I just go back to work?"

"You've still got time off work. Take a holiday, go to the coast. You've been stuck inside for too long. You've got £49,598 to spend remember."

"£49,598? It was £49,760."

"We had to take a bit out for expenses."

"And the Vault?"

"What about the Vault? It's your memory. You can still visit there if you want to. Keep away from the train though, that's an important historical memory. If you go there too many times you can change your memory.. That could cause problems down the line."

"And don't spend too much of your time in the Vault," Fortune said. "Life is about creating memories, not visiting them."