City of Shadows tr-6

by Alex Scarrow

  ‘Right,’ she said with another sigh, ‘good to see you two are on the ball.’

  Liam nodded assuredly. ‘Aye.’

  She rolled her eyes, noting that Liam wouldn’t recognize a gentle prod of snark-asm if it slapped him in the face.

  ‘The last displacement, guys, has to transport the displacement machine itself. We can’t leave it behind. Which means a certain amount of untested risk.’ She looked at Rashim to elaborate.

  ‘Yes… uh… yes, you see, when we activate the last time window, we will effectively be severing the power supply to the displacement machine. In theory the heavy lifting has already been done by opening the window, so this should not, theoretically, be an issue. But — ’ he spread his hands — ‘it is untested. The interruption could cause a glitch.’

  ‘And if it does that?’ said Liam.

  ‘We could lose our machine and be stuck in 1888,’ replied Maddy.

  ‘The window could collapse in on itself,’ continued Rashim. ‘Or the time-stamp might deviate in location or time.’

  ‘Which is why someone has to go at the same time as it,’ said Maddy. ‘Go with it.’

  Liam’s eyes widened. ‘You mean one of us has to run the risk of being turned inside out? Or get blended with a brick wall?’

  ‘Or get lost in chaos space?’ added Sal.

  Maddy shook her head. ‘You won’t end up merged with it. Remember, these are separate displacement envelopes. But, if a glitch does happen and the displacement machine remains here in 2001, or — I dunno — ends up blapped ten years into the future or something, we need someone right there alongside it to destroy it. To make sure it doesn’t end up in someone else’s hands.’

  ‘Stuff that,’ said Liam. ‘If that happens then it happens.’

  Sal shook her head. ‘I… I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to end up… lost.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ Maddy replied solemnly, ‘I’m not actually asking for volunteers to go alongside the machine.’

  ‘Jay-zus, Maddy! Don’t be a daft idiot! We can’t do this without you.’

  Incredulity on her face. She half-laughed at that. ‘I’m not frikkin’ volunteering, Liam! Do I look like a stupid moron?’

  ‘Then who?’ asked Sal. She looked at Rashim. ‘Not…’

  He grinned. ‘I’m not a stupid moron either.’

  ‘Becks,’ said Maddy, settling the issue. ‘It’s Becks who’s doing it.’ She looked at the support unit sitting cross-legged beside Bob, dismayingly small and slight in contrast to him — an orange compared to a pumpkin.

  Becks nodded. ‘Maddy and I have already discussed this. I am logically the most expendable team member.’

  ‘Expendable?’ Liam shook his head. ‘She’s not expendable… she’s…’ He studied his flapping hands for something to back that up. Then he had it. ‘She’s got that big secret in her head, so she does.’

  ‘We’ve also got that same secret on a hard drive, Liam. And now we know her AI is pretty stable.’ Maddy pursed her lips. ‘Despite that crush she seems to have on you… it means we can either run her mind on the network, or upload her AI into Bob if worst comes to worst and we lose her.’

  ‘It’s a relatively low probability,’ added Rashim assuredly. ‘I have run some calculations on this. Severing the power to the machine should have no effect.’

  ‘Aye, says the genius fella who beamed three hundred people seventeen years too far into Roman times.’

  ‘Now that was not my fault! I had to make too many guesses without any preparation! I had to — ’

  Maddy waved them both silent. ‘Forget it, guys. The point is one of us has to babysit the displacement machine through the last window. And Becks is going to be the one to do it. Aren’t you?’

  ‘Affirmative.’

  ‘Like Rashim said, it’s a low probability anyway. But… if it does happen then we need her alongside to trash the machine then self-terminate so there’s nothing left for anyone, anywhere, to make use of.’

  Maddy had toyed with nominating Bob, but she was pretty sure that it was unlikely that they were going to be able to grow any new support units where they were setting up base. If they did end up marooned in Victorian London forevermore then she’d rather have that big ape by their side to protect them than this small-framed female. A child. And yes, stronger than a fully grown man, but still nowhere near as lethal a weapon as Bob.

  ‘I want us to get this done this morning. I think we’ve pushed our luck hanging around here for weeks on end… and God knows if those support units are still out there looking for us. They’re not stupid. They’ve managed to track us down twice already.’

  ‘No one’ll find us here,’ said Liam. ‘Surely?’

  ‘There’s no knowing what sort of a breadcrumb trail we’ve left behind us. I think we’ve got very lucky so far. We don’t want to push it, right?’

  Liam and Sal nodded.

  ‘We’ve got power-tap established and a nice new place we can call home. So, let’s pack up the last of our gear and get this thing done.’

  Chapter 53

  9 October 2001, Harcourt, Ohio

  ‘That’s the girl,’ said Sheriff Marge McDormand. ‘The waitress. Her name’s Kaydee-Lee Williams.’

  Cooper caught a glimpse of her through the diner’s broad glass window, dotted with fading yellow cardboard stars with handwritten assurances on them: ‘All Day Breakfast — we’ll fill you up like a truck!’, ‘Freshly Brewed Coffee — unlimited refills!’

  They crossed Harcourt’s main street, quiet at this hour. Cooper put a hand on the door.

  ‘Go easy on her,’ said Marge. She glanced at the other agent — ‘ Agent Mallard… like the duck,’ he’d joked as he’d presented his ID — and the young woman with Agent Cooper. She’d not offered to show any kind of ID. Not even given a name. She had an icy face, the calm, lifeless look of a serial killer if truth be told.

  ‘Just go easy on Kaydee-Lee,’ said Marge. ‘She’s no troublemaker. She’s certainly no terrorist.’

  Cooper nodded and smiled politely. ‘Thank you for your assistance, Sheriff, we’ll take it from here. Mallard?’

  ‘Sir?’

  ‘See the sheriff back to her car.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  Cooper pushed the door of the diner open and Faith followed him inside.

  The doorbell dinged as the door swung shut. It was quiet inside. Empty except for the waitress watching a small TV set sitting on the end of the counter. Cooper walked up the aisle between check-cloth tables. He watched Mallard leading the sheriff back to her squad car and getting in the front with her. He noted the sheriff watching things intently from there.

  Let her watch. He smiled. Cooper had authority enough to shut her up, to lock the whole town down behind an impenetrable ring of road blocks if need be.

  The waitress finally responded to the sound of their approach and turned from the television to offer Cooper a warm, friendly smile. ‘Help you guys?’ She noticed Faith behind him. ‘Table for two?’

  Cooper pulled out his badge and flipped the wallet open with one smooth flick of his wrist. He loved doing that; he felt like Captain Kirk flipping open a communicator. One of the many little perks of the job. ‘FBI. I’d like to have a talk with you, Kaydee-Lee.’

  She looked at his ID. Her eyes widened. ‘Did you just say FBI? Like on the TV?’

  ‘I’m Agent Cooper,’ he replied and stepped to one side. ‘And this is Agent Faith. We just want to ask you some questions.’

  ‘Am I… am I in trouble? Have I — ’

  Cooper shook his head. ‘No… not at all. The sheriff says you’re a good girl.’ He grabbed a stool and perched on it. ‘And, you know, I’m inclined to believe her. I just wondered if you could help us out with something?’

  Kaydee-Lee’s face relaxed a little. ‘Uh… OK, I’ll try.’

  Cooper pulled a sheet of printer paper out of his pocket. The image on the face-down glossy side had been a nightmare to obtain. H
e’d had the devil of a time extracting it from that futuristic touch-screen mobile phone they’d recovered in that bridge archway in New York. He’d ended up having to draft some tech-heads from the Bureau’s research division to open the phone up and extract the solid-state data-storage chip. Of course they’d first tried one of the data cables supplied with the single pre-release ‘iPod’ that Apple had begrudgingly released to them. It appeared to have the same connector, and, given this device from the future was manufactured by the very same company, Cooper had been hoping they were going to be able to access its data storage.

  But that would have been too easy, wouldn’t it? The futuristic mobile phone was using a different data-communication protocol.

  The next step — something of a last resort — was pulling the damned thing to pieces and getting their hands on the data-storage chips inside. At which point, before they completely destroyed the thing, one of the Bureau nerds suggested simply getting the image up on the device’s screen… and just photographing the screen.

  Obvious really.

  Cooper turned the photograph over on the counter. ‘You’ve been talking to this guy recently.’

  Kaydee-Lee leaned forward and scrutinized the image more closely. Her breath caught involuntarily. ‘Errr… not sure… I…’

  ‘It’s best to just be straight up and honest with us, Kaydee-Lee,’ he said. ‘This is serious stuff.’

  Her cheeks turned a mottled pink. ‘OK… he’s been in here for coffee a coupla times. That’s all.’

  ‘And you’ve been talking, haven’t you?’

  ‘Sure… he’s kinda friendly, I guess.’ She looked up at him. ‘What’s this about?’

  ‘Terrorism, Kaydee-Lee. The worst kind of terrorism.’

  She laughed. More a strangled giggle. ‘Oh no… not him. No.’ She bit her lip and shook her head until her face straightened. Nerves.

  ‘No, he’s not a terrorist.’ She looked at the TV. Fox News was showing images of cranes pulling apart the mound of debris. ‘Hang on… is this anything to do with that?’

  ‘I’m not at liberty to say.’ Cooper paused. Enough of a pause to be sure she understood that, yes, it actually was very much to do with that. ‘All I can tell you is that we need you to be one hundred per cent honest with us. To be a good, patriotic American citizen and tell us what you can about this young man.’

  She nodded. ‘OK… he’s called Liam, I know that much.’

  ‘Liam O’Connor,’ said Faith. ‘We already know this.’

  ‘And he’s from Ireland,’ added Kaydee-Lee.

  ‘Tell me, Kaydee-Lee… is he alone? Or perhaps with some others?’

  Her hesitation gave her away. She was holding something back. ‘Come on, Kaydee-Lee, we need to know about this young man. Lives… a lot of innocent lives could be at stake.’

  ‘Lives?’ Her face was flushed fully crimson now. ‘Seriously?’

  Cooper decided to buy a little of her trust. ‘I’ll level with you, Kaydee-Lee. What I’m about to tell you is top secret and goes no further, do you understand?’ She nodded.

  ‘We have reason to believe this Liam is part of a terror cell that was based in New York and quite possibly involved in some way with what happened there in September. Do you understand? Perhaps they were part of a planning team, or coordinators or a back-up team. We don’t know precisely what their involvement was yet.’

  ‘But… but… he… doesn’t look like one of them.’

  Them. By that she meant an Arab. A Muslim.

  ‘We have enemies that come in all shapes and sizes these days, I’m afraid.’ Cooper recalled a rather colourful turn of phrase he’d heard President Bush use during a press conference the other day. ‘There’s an axis of evil out there, Kaydee-Lee, a coalition of bad groups all working together to topple our country: the Taliban, Al Qaeda, Iran, Iraq, China, North Korea. Even the IRA. Bad guys, Kaydee-Lee, all of them. Hell, we’ve even got our own American citizens working against us… White Supremacists, Nation of Islam, Anti-capitalists, Anarch-’

  ‘Did you just say IRA?’ She swallowed anxiously. ‘IRA? That’s those Irish ones, isn’t it?’

  ‘That’s right.’ Cooper nodded slowly. ‘That’s exactly right. So… he may have been using you, Kaydee-Lee.’

  A tear began to well up in one eye, then spilled down her cheek. ‘I thought he was being friendly.’ Her mouth began to quiver. ‘I… I thought he, you know, actually liked me.’

  Cooper reached for a napkin further along the counter and passed it to her.

  ‘It’s possible he was using you, Kaydee-Lee. Using you to get some local information.’ Cooper reached for her hand and guided the napkin to mop up some mascara that had smudged.

  ‘And listen…’ His voice softened. ‘Maybe he also liked you, Kaydee-Lee. He may be a terrorist, but that doesn’t stop him being human, right?’

  She dabbed at her eyes miserably, nodded. She sniffed, her chin dimpled and her bottom lip curled as she tried to stifle a sob. ‘But I really like… liked him. He wasn’t like the others that come in. Truckers, creepy old men… always trying to hit on you an’ stuff. He’s, like,’ she corrected herself, ‘he was, like, a… well, a real gentleman.’

  ‘That is men for you. They are all the same,’ said Faith without a hint of warmth or empathy in her voice. Cooper turned to look at her. Where the heck did she get that from? She was a robot, wasn’t she? Not some agony aunt. He figured she must have picked it up from some daytime TV show. Oprah or something.

  Kaydee-Lee whispered pathetically, ‘Everyone ends up using me.’

  ‘Kaydee-Lee.’ Cooper held her hand. She didn’t flinch at that. It was vaguely comforting to have someone reach out for her, even if he did look like some kind of pale-skinned lizard wearing a Men in Black suit.

  ‘Kaydee-Lee… we need to know a little bit more about Liam. Was it just him? Were there others? Can you tell me?’

  She dabbed at her eyes, wiped her nose dry, straightened her shoulders and did her best to put on a calm, totally-in-control face, just like the scary-looking FBI lady over the counter from her. She wondered what it would be like to be like her, so incredibly ice-cool. Kaydee-Lee could only imagine how wonderful it would be to be just like this agent lady: elegant, confident, disciplined, ruthless. She bet no one ever used her.

  ‘Miss?’

  The woman stirred. ‘Yes?’

  ‘Is it, like, really hard to become an FBI agent? Could someone, you know, someone like me ever become one? Could I end up like you?’ she asked hopefully.

  The woman exchanged a glance with her partner. It looked like he was giving her permission to go ahead and answer the question. Her grey eyes disappeared for a moment behind flickering eyelids, then finally she answered. ‘No. That is extremely unlikely.’

  That figures. Kaydee-Lee sighed. I’ll be a waitress till the day I die.

  Cooper looked like he was getting impatient. ‘Kaydee-Lee? Were there others? Can you tell me?’

  She nodded. ‘Oh yeah, I can tell you. There were others all right. They wanted a place to go an’ hide up. They said they wanted somewhere quiet and private.’ She raised two pairs of fingers and air-quoted. ‘Somewhere where they could go and do their stupid science experiments.’

  Chapter 54

  9 October 2001, Green Acres Elementary School, Harcourt, Ohio

  Liam and Sal vanished from their tape-marked squares with a soft pop. They were now back in Victorian London on 14 December 1888 with Bob and SpongeBubba. At least Maddy hoped they were.

  She was a hundred per cent sure the recently rewritten displacement software was error free. OK, perhaps not a hundred per cent, but gosh-darn as close as it’s possible to be with hastily written computer code.

  Just the three of them left here in the derelict school classroom now: her, Rashim and Becks. She looked round the room one last time. There was nothing left that they’d forgotten to send through. All they’d be leaving behind was a small pile of empty tin cans, pl
astic noodle pots and polystyrene coffee cups, a cheap sleeping bag that had popped its seam and spilled white stuffing, and a pair of extra-large size trainers for Bob that had proven to be still too small for him.

  ‘This is it, then,’ she said. ‘Goodbye, 2001.’

  ‘You sound sad,’ said Rashim.

  ‘Guess I am… a bit. This place has been my home, hasn’t it? Well, at least this time, this year, has been my home since…’ She smiled, stopping herself. ‘I was going to say, “since I got recruited”. But actually 2001 has been my only real home. It’s the year in which I was grown and birthed.’ She laughed. ‘It’s the year in which I’ve lived my entire false life so far.’

  Rashim shook his head and tutted. ‘You shouldn’t think like that. It does you no good, Maddy.’

  ‘Relax. It’s not self-pity.’ She shrugged. ‘I think I’ve got used to the idea I’m nothing but a meat product.’

  ‘You are not a product. You are Miss Madelaine Cartwright…’

  ‘Carter.’

  ‘Sorry,’ he said, wincing, ‘ Carter. Even if someone invented you, came up with your life story, conjured up your name… you’re still a real person. You are a person. Just as real as any other, as real as I am. Do you see?’

  Her eyes moistened. ‘Oh, that’s a really beautiful thing to say, Rashim.’ She bit her bottom lip. ‘So very beautiful.’

  He looked surprised. Perhaps even hopeful. ‘Really?’

  ‘No.’ She put her hands on her hips. ‘Slightly cheesy if anything.’ She punched his arm playfully. ‘But it was nice of you to say it.’ She turned round. ‘How are we doing over there, Becks?’

  The support unit was studying a display on the monitor. ‘The displacement machine is nearly ready to discharge again, Maddy. Ninety-six seconds.’

  ‘You understand what to do once we’re gone?’

  ‘Affirmative. I will move the displacement machine into one departure marker, and I will stand in the other. I will displace alongside the machine.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘And?’ Becks cocked her head. ‘And… if there is a translation error I will ensure the machine and myself are destroyed.’