She suddenly leapt from her chair with a cry. That was it! The key to adapting the GODAR. She’d been trying to interpret a signal with three parts. What she needed to do was separate them out; to cut off the other frequencies completely so that there was no interference then isolate the one she needed!

“Dad, you’re a genius!”

“What did I do?”

“I’ve got to go back – I’ll visit again soon, I promise. Perhaps with great news!” And with that, she grabbed her bag and ran out the door, not stopping until North Owlcot.

Chapter 22: Godar

GODAR

When Prue arrived back at the Guild house it was suppertime, and everyone was sitting in the dining room chatting.

“Prue, we missed you this weekend!” said Lavender, enveloping her in a warm hug. She hurried her into the dining room.

Cora was sitting beside Agapantha. Seeing Prue, she hooked Agapantha’s arm. “I hope you had a lovely weekend back at the pig sty. I decided to stay here and keep Agapantha company. I think I might take her under my wing.”

“I’m glad you’re back,” Agapantha said with pleading eyes for Prue to sit the other side of her.

Prue smiled – she hated distancing herself from Agapantha, but she had taken a decision to keep her friends away from any trouble, and that was what she had to do. “I’m tired after the travel; do you mind if I go straight up?”

“Of course not,” said Lavender.

Prue peered into the parlour as she passed. Edwin was in conversation with Samir, his roommate. Samir was gesturing with his arms and Edwin laughed in response. Prue felt as though an invisible thread connected her with Edwin, and that it had suddenly been tugged, making her long to share all the thoughts bursting in her brain with him. She hurried along.

The next morning, they continued working on the voice boxes until lunch, when Prue sneaked away to the memory lab. She started a new set of calculations in her journal and began re-wiring the GODAR, building in a high-pass filter and taking out unnecessary parts. It was now much smaller so she could transport it easily.

By the following Saturday, Prue was ready to test the modified GODAR, which was perfect timing as the house was quiet. Cora had tried to drag poor Agapantha off to meet her parents, but Agapantha had managed to come up with an excuse of having promised to read the history of Medlock to Queen Adelaide (all five volumes), an excuse that Queen Adelaide obliged in going along with and had proceeded to make Agapantha do exactly that.

“So many memories to relive,” she had said, sighing happily.

“Honestly, I’m beginning to think I took the harder option,” Agapantha whispered at breakfast.

Edwin seemed to be behaving a bit strangely towards Prue, which she couldn’t blame him for, what with her disappearing all the time.