Clambering to his feet, Sam peered over the hedge. No one was about, so he crept out of the gate and fled the scene of his crime. He had just pulled out his door keys when he noticed a familiar dark car parked on the other side of the road. Dr McHayden was still waiting, it appeared, although he wasn’t sure whether that was good or bad news. He cupped his hand and breathed into it, wincing at the smell of his own breath, then crossed the road.
The rear window wound down as he approached the car and McHayden poked her wrinkled, bird-like face out. ‘You’re late,’ she said.
‘Sorry, I—’
‘What were you doing in the front garden of that house?’
‘I…I…’
She sniffed the air, then her eyes widened. ‘Have you been drinking? Get in this instant!’
Sam wiped his mouth and did as he was told. McHayden was staring at him with a gaze that felt as if it would turn him to stone, so he looked down, noticing that his trouser legs were muddy and spotted with vomit. ‘Sorry, I had to meet a friend,’ he said. ‘I didn’t realise the time.’
McHayden straightened the pleats of her skirt. ‘A friend? Am I to understand that this is all a game to you? Your attitude shows complete disregard for importance of the work we have embarked upon. The Tempus Project could change the world, Sam, and you arrive over an hour late, smelling like a beer towel and in no fit state to be of any use whatsoever.’
‘Sorry,’ he said and realised he was beginning to sound like a broken record. ‘It won’t happen again.’
‘No, it most certainly will not. I’m having serious reservations about your suitability. There seems little point investing further time and effort in your training if you cannot be relied upon.’
Sam tried to swallow, but could already feel tears brimming in his eyes. Without McHayden his hopes of saving his parents were smashed. ‘Please,’ he said, ‘you can’t kick me out.’
‘I think I must have misheard. Do you really have the audacity to tell me what I can and cannot do?’
‘But you need me.’
McHayden raised herself to her full, if limited, height so that she could almost look Sam level in the eye. ‘My dear boy, it seems you vastly overestimate your importance. The brain scans we completed earlier this week have proved successful in pinpointing the exact location of the scar tissue that causes your ability to manipulate time. Today we began experimental surgery to replicate the results of your injury in animals and if these are successful, which I have every confidence they will be, then human trials can begin within a matter of weeks. Believe me when I tell you there is no shortage of volunteers ready to take your place.’
‘But―’
‘While finding you when we did was without question a stroke of luck, don’t ever believe you’re indispensable. My research existed long before you joined us and will continue to do so long after. Unless you can prove your continued worth then I don’t really see what further use you can be.’
Sam’s only hope was to beg. ‘Please,’ he said, ‘just give me one more chance. I’m here now. I need this. I’ll do whatever it takes.’
McHayden traced her lips with her fingertip. After a while she exhaled loudly and shook her head. ‘Against my better judgment, I’m willing to give you another chance, dependant on certain conditions which are, of course, non-negotiable.’
‘Whatever it is, I’ll do it.’
She relaxed, the wrinkled skin of her face smoothing slightly. ‘If we are to proceed together, Sam, then the Tempus Project must take precedence over everything else. That means schoolwork, friends and family. If you are to regain my trust there must be no distractions, no missed sessions and definitely no alcohol. That is my final offer – full commitment, all or nothing.’
Sam had a simple decision: he could either give in to McHayden and accept everything that entailed, or he could get out of the car and leave the Tempus Project behind, and with it the opportunity to control his ability and save his parents.
‘Okay,’ he said, his shoulders sagging, ‘I’ll do it.’
She gave a brisk nod of her head. ‘Very well then. You’re of no use to me in your current state. Go home and sleep it off. We’ll resume training tomorrow morning.’
‘But tomorrow’s Saturday.’
‘Yes, I am well aware of that.’
‘It’s just…I had plans.’
‘My dear boy, were you listening to anything I said? If you have plans then I suggest you cancel them. I’ll be here tomorrow morning at nine o’clock sharp, and if you’re so much as a minute late then our association ends right then and there.’
‘Okay,’ Sam said. ‘I’ll be ready.’
‘That is all.’ She turned to look through the window. ‘You can get out now.’
Chapter V
Unintended Consequences
1
July 1969
Although exhausted from working nights, Lara had only managed a couple of hours of sleep. It was too warm in her apartment for one thing, however opening the window caused the blinds to flap, did little to alleviate the heat and brought the added distraction of noise from the daytime hustle and bustle in the street below. On top of this, Isaac’s scent still clung to the fabric of the sheets, a constant reminder of their lovemaking in the hour they shared after she arrived home before he left for work. She lifted the adjoining pillow, held it to her face and inhaled deeply, breathing in his smell. There was no way she would be able to fall back asleep now.
Lara climbed from the bed and, aware that people in the block across the street could see straight in, wrapped the sheet around her naked body. She’d been working nights this month and technically didn’t need to leave several hours yet, but was curious to see what was happening and wanted to be around other people when it did.
After a blissfully cool shower, she dried off and changed for work. There was next to no traffic on the streets of San Francisco as she drove to Stribe Lyndhurst – everyone was glued to their television sets, waiting for news – and she arrived in record time.
The hospital lobby was likewise deserted and Lara rode the lift to the sixth floor alone. On entering the Lincoln Ward, she saw a small huddle of medical and clerical staff standing around the front desk. A foldout table had been erected in the doorway, on which she glimpsed a portable television set with a perilously taut power cable stretching to a socket in the office beyond.
‘What’s going on?’ she asked, joining the back of the group.
Hank Windle, the janitor, leaned on his mop and stroked his bushy moustache. ‘Not much, they’re still in orbit.’
‘Let me know when something happens, will you?’
‘You got it,’ he said, and winked.
Lara signed in and began her rounds. When she reached the secure unit she found that the gate had been left unlocked yet again. It really wasn’t good enough, and she would have to raise the issue at the next ward meeting.
Michael Humboldt was the last patient on Lara’s rota. She hesitated outside his cell. It had taken weeks to build up the courage to see him again after he had attacked her and, in spite of the improvement in his condition, she still felt on edge around him. Lara opened the door and found Michael sitting on the corner of his bed with a straight back and his hands – one flesh and blood, the other a metal hook – folded in his lap. His bandages had been removed a month ago and the charred skin of his face was softening from an angry red to a light, bubble-gum pink. He wore a cloth patch over the socket of his right eye and tufts of mousy blonde hair now sprouted from the left side of his head where the follicles remained intact.
As she entered, Michael tilted his head to look up at her with his good eye. ‘Dr McHayden, what a pleasant surprise! You’re early.’
‘Hello, Michael,’ she said. ‘You’re looking well today.’
‘I doubt if I’ll win any beauty pageants, but I’ll take that as a compliment all the same.’
‘Which is how it was intended. How’re you feeling?’
&
nbsp; ‘Never better.’ He stretched his arms out wide, then hugged them to his chest as if embracing himself. ‘Dr Barclay’s new medication really is remarkable stuff. You will pass on my thanks, won’t you?’
In spite of Lara’s reservations, it appeared Isaac had been correct in his conviction that Tetradyamide would help Michael. Michael’s father had died two weeks earlier, but far from suicidal, he seemed positively upbeat.
‘I’ll pass that on,’ she said. ‘If I see him.’
‘Come now, Dr McHayden. You think I haven’t noticed the way you two look at one another?’
‘I really don’t think it’s appropriate to discuss—’
He rose stiffly from the bed. ‘That’s a lovely pin you’re wearing. A gift?’
Lara’s fingers closed around the brooch Isaac had given her on the day of the Bereck & Hertz Independence Day Dinner.
‘I…I…well, yes, it was, as it happens.’
‘Beautiful,’ he muttered, stepping towards her, his gaze locked on the brooch. ‘A truly beautiful thing.’
Lara recoiled, edging back until the door was directly behind her.
Michael took another step closer, his hand outstretched, then blinked and looked up. ‘I’ve startled you,’ he said. ‘I am sorry, Dr McHayden. My mother, rest her soul, used to have one exactly like it. Seeing it takes me back to when I was a boy.’
Lara lowered her hands to her sides, let out the breath she’d been holding and smiled. ‘That’s all right, Michael, no apology necessary.’
‘So, you’re not watching the daring explorers like everyone else?’
‘Maybe later. Unlike some, I actually have work to do.’
‘You work too hard,’ he said. ‘Certain events are too important to be missed. This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’
Lara frowned. ‘Have I heard that before somewhere?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Well, it’s catchy. I never took you for a poet, Michael. You should write that down.’ There was a pause, during which Michael smiled serenely at her. Eventually Lara cleared her throat. ‘Anyhow, I should probably be getting back to my rounds. I’ll come to check on you at the end of my shift.’
Michael bowed his head. ‘Until we meet again, Dr McHayden.’
She laughed, went to rest her hand on his arm and then pulled it away. ‘You make it sound like we won’t see each other again in years. Really, Michael, I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours.’
He gave her the serene smile again. ‘If you say so.’
* * * * *
Lara made her way back up the corridor. Even if Michael’s recovery was more down to Isaac’s intervention than her own good work, it was only the end result that really mattered, and at this rate there was every chance Michael might be able to be moved from the secure unit in a few months’ time.
She was approaching the gate when she saw Hank hurrying towards her on the other side of the bars, his face streaked with sweat.
‘There you are!’ he said. ‘I’ve been searching everywhere. I was about to give up on you, doc.’
‘Something the matter?’ Lara asked.
‘You said to find you if something happens. Well, it has! They’re almost there.’
She followed him through the last two corridors to the front desk. The crowd around the television set had swelled to several times its previous size. Lara stretched on tiptoes but her line of sight was blocked. Drawing in a breath, she squeezed against the desk and sidestepped around the crescent-shaped mass of bodies. On the far side she found Isaac and squashed in beside him.
‘Hi,’ he said and guided her in front of him to where she had an uninterrupted view of the screen.
‘What’s going on?’
‘You’re just in time, they’re on the final descent.’
Lara squinted at the grainy image. Over the last few weeks she’d had the mounting suspicion that her sight was deteriorating, but was putting off booking a test. She could just about make out a circular landing pad in the foreground drifting over a crater-marked landscape. A beep sounded at regular intervals over snippets of commentary from the broadcaster and dialogue between the crew and mission control. Lara reached down and squeezed Isaac’s hand where no one else would be able to see. She was glad to have found him; together they were about to watch history be made.
‘Sixty seconds…’ a voice announced, ‘…down two and a half…forward…forty feet, down two and a half…kicking up some dust...thirty feet, two and a half down...faint shadow…four forward, drifting to the right a little, twenty feet, two and half down...drifting forward just a little bit, that’s good…’ Then silence, save for the beeping. ‘...Okay, engine stop...we’re home, 413 is in...Houston, Tranquillity base here...the Eagle has landed!’
The crowd erupted in a chorus of whoops and cries. A champagne cork popped nearby. Thomas, the orderly, lifted Lara by the arms, spun her around and returned her to the floor facing Isaac. Isaac hugged her and then quickly released her before anyone got the wrong (or right) idea.
‘Did that really just happen?’ Lara asked.
‘It sure did,’ he said.
Someone thrust a paper cup filled with champagne into her hand. She took a sip and savoured the sensation of bubbles fizzing across her tongue.
Isaac also accepted a cup. ‘Dr McHayden, there’s something I’ve been wanting to show you.’
Lara glanced over her shoulder. ‘What, now?’
‘I don’t think anyone will miss us. Besides, it should be a few hours until they begin surface operations.’
Holding her cup, she followed him to the pharmaceutical storeroom. He unlocked the door and switched the light on. The walls here were lined with tall metal shelving units that held the Lincoln Ward’s extensive supply of drugs.
Isaac locked the door behind them and turned back. ‘Imagine,’ he said, ‘by the time our children are adults we’ll probably all have been to the moon and back several times over. It’ll be like the yearly vacation to Hawaii.’
Lara placed her cup on the nearest shelf and stepped into his arms. ‘What do you mean “our children”?’
‘Why? You want kids someday, don’t you?’
She felt her knees give and might have sagged to the floor had she not been holding on to him. Over recent months her feelings for Isaac had matured from a seed of attraction to full-blown love, however until now they’d never really discussed what the future might hold. If there had been a happier moment in Lara’s life, she couldn’t remember it. She imagined a house in the suburbs, two children – a boy and a girl – and maybe even a dog. She would give up medicine to raise the kids and spend her days baking cookies and making home.
‘It’s just over here,’ Isaac said, smiling down at her.
‘What is?’
‘The thing I wanted to show you.’
‘Oh, I thought that was just code for…’
‘Maybe later,’ he said and laughed.
Lara watched as he crossed the room to a cardboard box in the corner, sliced the tape around the lid with his keys and then dug down through polystyrene balls like a child playing lucky dip. Eventually he pulled out his prize and held it up.
‘What’s is it?’ she asked.
He shook the bottle, making a rattling noise. ‘The latest batch of Tetradyamide. It was delivered this afternoon. I’ve refined production to improve purity by almost thirty-two percent. This batch will make the last lot look like candy.’
‘Isaac, that’s fantastic!’
‘I’m glad you think so.’ He returned the bottle to the box. ‘Sorry if I’ve been a bit preoccupied with the whole thing lately.’
‘I understand.’
‘I’m not sure you do, Lara. The military want to use Tetradyamide to make more efficient killers, but that’s not why I started out in this job. I want to help people.’
‘And you are, Isaac. Just look at Michael, who sends his thanks, by the way.’
A worried look c
rossed his face. He ran his fingers through his hair, opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it.
‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.
‘Probably nothing,’ he said, shaking his head. ‘We should get back.’
Lara linked her arms around his neck. ‘I thought you said no one would miss us?’
He leaned forwards to kiss her, but as their lips met there was a knock at the door, the insistent thump of a heavy fist.
‘Hold on, I’m coming,’ Isaac called.
Lara tried to look as though she was busy compiling an inventory of supplies while he fumbled with his keys and unlocked the door. Thomas was standing on the other side, fist raised as he prepared to knock again.
‘What is it?’ Isaac said. ‘Can’t you see we’re stocktaking?’
‘You need to come right away,’ Thomas said. ‘It’s Michael.’
Lara dropped the packet of sedatives that she’d been pretending to examine and headed after the two men as they ran towards secure unit.
‘What’s he done this time?’ she asked when she had finally caught up with them.
‘It’s not what he’s done that’s the problem,’ Thomas opened the door to Michael’s cell, ‘it’s where in hell he’s gotten to.’
Lara stepped in. The bed was neatly made, the sheets folded and tucked under the mattress with military precision. Michael was nowhere to be seen.
Isaac turned to Thomas. ‘What are you standing there for? Call security. Now!’
Thomas nodded and ran off.
Lara crossed the room to the bed. Lying on the sheets was the brooch that Michael had shown such an interest in a short time before.
‘He can’t be far away,’ Isaac said, ‘and he’s hardly inconspicuous. Don’t worry, Lara, we’ll find him.’
‘No.’ She reached down, picked up the brooch and slid it into her pocket. ‘I don’t believe we ever will.’
2
Present Day
Sam had found it hard to sleep all week, and once again he tossed and turned deep into the night. Every time he drifted off, he would snap awake again, his mind alert and whirring. Although the Tetradyamide should have no longer been in his system, he could feel its afterglow; a lingering hum that echoed through his body and out into the world beyond, leaving him wanting more.
The Pages of Time Page 17