When he looked up again, he had passed the danger and could get them back onto the road. He turned the wheel but it was stiff and unyielding. He put more effort into it and it slowly turned, the APC responding with the extreme sluggishness of a supertanker. He shouted out an inarticulate cry of relief, realizing that he could never have avoided killing those people, even if he had tried. The APC would not have responded in time, but it would have pitched them all to their deaths in the liquefied road.
“… Running faster for him,” he heard Sandra explaining to Cara, as everything snapped back to its proper speed. The steering wheel was no longer sluggish and whirled in his grasp, sending the APC into a tight turn on the road. Too tight. The houses at the other side of the street swung into view. He wrenched the wheel back the other way, stamping on the brake, feeling the world tilt as they went up onto four wheels. The APC turned away from the wall it was heading towards and fell back onto eight wheels with a crash. Jay was thrown almost out of his seat but hung on as the vehicle juddered to a halt.
He swiveled around to check on Sandra and Cara and found them clinging to one another, staring back at him. One by one, they each began to breathe again.
Jay restarted the stalled engine and got them moving. “I need the nearest park,” he told Sandra. “A football stadium, or an airport would do, but I need lots of open ground, OK? Shit!”
A massive wave was heading up the road behind them. A tsunami traveling through the earth itself, five meters high, throwing everything—roads, houses, street lamps, vehicles, and people—to its crest and beyond. There would be no surviving it. Everything it passed beneath was smashed to dust before it reached the crest. Jay stood on the accelerator and willed the straining APC to go faster.
“What is it?” Sandra asked.
“You don’t want to know.”
“I think I do.”
“Well, Cara doesn’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Well, I don’t.”
Sandra climbed out of her seat, despite the jolting, veering progress of the APC as Jay steered it over and around the debris on the road, and went to the rear window to see for herself. She staggered back to her seat and sat down again without a word.
“Well?” Cara demanded. What is it?”
“You don’t want to know,” she said.
“We’re outpacing it for now,” Jay called back to them. “But if we have to—Bugger!”
A tall building ahead was falling into the road, or rather, sliding into the road as if it were made of molten cheese. He slammed on the brakes and hauled at the wheel, throwing the APC round a right-hand corner and into a side street. The back of the vehicle swung out in a dramatic skid despite the all-wheel drive. At the first opportunity, he turned left again, horribly aware of how the advancing wave must have gained on them.
Sandra climbed into the passenger seat beside him. “You can keep going up here for about ten blocks then you need to take another right,” she said. Her confident tone sent relief flooding through him.
“I can outrun it on the straight,” he said, “but if we need to do too much maneuvering it’ll catch us.”
He saw she was watching the tidal wave of earth in the wing mirror. “It’s getting smaller,” she said. “It might be nothing to worry about in a minute or so.”
A minute sounded like an impossible time to keep up that speed given the state of the roads. Jay’s shoulders were on fire from the tension of this nightmare drive. They needed to slow down before he ran into something he couldn’t avoid, yet he had to keep moving away from the center.
“Have you found that park, yet?” He sounded snappish, even to himself, but he couldn’t help it. His nerves were shot and he was exhausted.
Now on a new street, Jay saw bodies strewn across the road as if tossed there by some giant hand. Most of the buildings were on fire, but, whatever had caused such destruction appeared to have passed on. Sandra called the next turn and he swung into it, almost colliding with a car traveling fast in the opposite direction. In his mirror, he saw the car and its white-faced occupants turn towards the wave.
According to Sandra’s directions, a turn was coming up that would take them away from the wave and Jay slowed for it.
“Not this one,” Sandra shouted. “The next.”
He swore to himself and revved the engine. They couldn’t afford to waste precious seconds like that. “You’ve got to tell me what’s coming up,” he complained.
“There,” she shouted, pointing. “Left, left, left!”
They almost missed it. The APC mounted the pavement and grazed the wall of a building before Jay could wrestle it back onto the road. He felt the urge to shout at her for almost getting them killed, but he fought it down. Shouting would feel great, but if anything could make matters worse right now, having a screaming match with Sandra would be it. He could see the wave in his mirror again. It was demolishing the street they’d just turned out of. So close! There was no more leeway. No more maneuvers. But Sandra was right, the wave was much smaller, maybe just three meters high now. It was still pulverizing everything it passed beneath, but, maybe in another minute or so …
A bolt of lightning cracked through the air ahead of them, striking the road and blinding Jay. He hadn’t been watching the sky and now all he saw when he looked was a broad red afterimage. “Damned heap of junk!” he shouted at the APC. “You couldn’t even have reactive glass?”
“Are you all right?” Sandra asked.
“No, I’m—”
They all flinched as another lightning strike hit the ground beside them.
“I can’t see a bloody thing,” Jay said, blinking and squinting at the road ahead. Even so, he did not slow down, still feeling the presence of the wave behind them. In fact, now that it was so near, he could literally feel the ground rumbling and, as his vision cleared, he saw debris dancing on the road as everything shook. Cracks formed in buildings and houses, and they began to crumble as if in anticipation of the climactic shock racing to meet them.
“Mum!”
Jay turned to see Sandra and gasped to find her fifty meters away at the far side of the cab. The whole street had stretched wide, distorted in just one dimension. But Jay had hardly had time to wonder what the hell to do about it when the world snapped back to normal.
“Two blocks on,” Sandra said, as if nothing had happened, “the road divides. Take the left fork.”
He was panting and it took him a moment to realize what she’d said. “Right. Left. Got it.”
He passed another area of melted buildings and kept the APC’s wheels out of the pink and gray goo as if it might be contagious. He shot into the left fork at a reckless speed, terrified that they were now vectoring sideways to the wave, meaning it would catch them that little bit sooner.
“That’s your park, up ahead,” Sandra said. He could see where the houses stopped and a low fence began. There were trees and green grass. His thudding heart didn’t slow, but some almost-numb part of his brain gave a little yelp of joy.
“There was a report done a few years ago,” he said. “On civil defense procedures in case of a level five backwash.” A bird, hanging in the air, frozen in time, hit the front of the APC like a sledgehammer blow. “Huh,” he said.
“The report?” Sandra said, urging him on.
The park entrance was broad and opened into a graveled car park. The turn would be sharp and the surface tricky. “Hold on tight, everyone.” He took the straightest line he could into the turn, demolishing a small brick pillar on one side and a traffic sign on the other, and bouncing up over the curb. The APC slid on the gravel but Jay kept powering it forward—across the car park, through a bed of roses, across a path, another flowerbed and onto a neat lawn. The wave was just seconds behind him, still advancing in a wall of dust and devastation. Ahead, he saw a wide open field and steered towards it.
“They came to the conclusion that there was nowhere safe to hide from a backwash, but fatalities were si
gnificantly lower in broad, open spaces.” He raised his voice. “When I stop, you’ll have three seconds to get out of the APC and as far away from it as possible. Cara, get to the back hatch. Get your hand on the lever. Be ready to open it.” He looked over his shoulder to make sure she was doing it. “All right? Here goes!”
He pushed hard on the brake and swung the tail around. The APC skittered across the grass and bounced to a halt. He threw open his door, jumped out and ran.
-oOo-
The wave was less than two meters high when it hit them, hurling each of them and the APC into the air as it surged beneath them. The APC came down on its roof and Jay came down on his ass. For a moment, he was too stunned to move, and then he ran for Cara. She was on her back, winded but unhurt. He got her to sit up and then they both looked around for Sandra. They found her sprawled across the churned-up ground, out cold but still alive.
For the next half hour, they huddled around Sandra’s unconscious body while the city tore itself to pieces. Another wave came through, but it was only half a meter high and did no farther harm. Away to the south, they saw strange, writhing distortions in the air and felt occasional tremors. The whole city was on fire and, at one point, a group of trees in the park sank into the ground and disappeared.
When it was over, Jay went in search of a car and came back with a battered Ford Greenie.
“It’s got a full charge,” he told Cara as they lifted Sandra into the back. “That’s enough to get us to Toronto.” Cara had not stopped crying since they found Sandra but she nodded her acknowledgement.
“Do you think you can navigate?” he asked. She looked a little desperate at the prospect so he said, “Don’t worry. I’ll get us there.”
Chapter 32: Birthday Party
Jay went direct from Brussels to London through the new CT2 tunnel. At Liverpool Street Station he swapped the smooth-gliding luxury of the high-speed train for a clanking three-carriage metropolitan unit that would take him up to Norwich. On the way he watched newsfeeds on his commplant about the ferocious civil war that was raging in the U.S.
The rebels, armed and assisted by the South American Alliance, had taken control of most major cities in the North and West, but the South and the old Bible Belt were holding out. Texas had thrown its hat in the ring for the rebels and was now fighting its own war with all the States. Canada had declared itself neutral, although there were accusations from the U.S. Government, speaking from its new administrative center in Atlanta, that the Canadians were giving support to rebel groups in refugee camps north of the border.
China was expected to declare itself for the Lord’s True Path Party after a speech in Beijing on the subject of how stability and the rule of law were the overriding principles in international affairs. Europe was still holding back, refusing to commit itself.
But it’s early days yet, Jay thought. It was only three weeks since Washington had been turned into a mass grave for nearly three million people. He supposed that Zadrach Polanski would be pleased with how much he had achieved.
When Jay got off the train, Sandra and Cara were on the platform to meet him. It was a bright November morning, cold and fresh, and Jay felt his spirits lifting as he breathed in the air of England for the first time in a great many years. Sandra looked stunning in a clinging Jersey dress, but Sandra would have looked stunning in a sack. Beside her, Cara was beaming and waving to him with both arms.
They took a cab out to Sandra’s home near the university and had lunch in the garden of a pub nearby. When they’d eaten, Jay handed Cara a small package and said, “Happy birthday, sweet sixteen.”
Her face lit up and she took it from him but hesitated before unwrapping it. She gave him a sly look. “Oh God. I don’t know what kind of present-giver you are. This could be epically awful.”
Jay shrugged. “My usual standard is catastrophically embarrassing, so anything less than that is a win, right?”
She grinned and tore it open. “Oh. My. God.” she said and showed it to Sandra. “It’s the new Fairy Tales of the Adjustment headworm!”
“I don’t even know what that is,” Sandra said, laughing.
Cara ran round the table to give Jay a hug. “Do you mind if I try it out now, Mum? Just a quick go?”
Sandra looked at Jay and he shrugged his approval. “All right but just for five minutes. It’s very antisocial.”
Cara laughed as if her mother had made a joke. Then she sat down again, took the sensor ring out of the packet and fixed it around her forehead. She flashed Jay a quick grin and then appeared to fall asleep sitting up.
“She seems to have got over it quickly enough,” he said.
Sandra gave a wan smile. “She has good days and bad days. We both do. Between us, I don’t think we’ve had a full night’s sleep since we got home.”
Jay nodded. He knew all about not sleeping. “Is she seeing anyone?”
“What, you mean dating?”
“I meant a therapist, but … is she? Dating?”
Sandra laughed. “She’s a beautiful girl. She’s had boyfriends off and on since she was twelve. Nothing serious though. She’s a very level-headed young lady.”
“She must get that from me.”
They fell silent until Sandra asked, “Did you sort out what you’ll be doing next? Has the Temporal Crimes Unit closed for good now?”
Jay sighed. He’d spent the last fortnight running between Brussels and Berlin working on this very problem. “The TCU closes officially on Friday, but there’s no-one there any more, so I guess it’s gone.”
“Have you been to see your old boss, Jacques? He must be sad to see his baby laid to rest.”
“He is. He sends you his regards.”
“Poor old Jacques.”
“Nah, he’s happy as a sandpiper. Lovely apartment in Paris with his beloved Marie.”
“I haven’t been back to the university yet,” she said. “I don’t think I can.” Jay watched her and waited for more. “Olivia says I should take a couple of months off and not make any decisions but I’ve already decided.”
“Seems to me you worked damned hard to build a career there.”
“I never told you, did I, that I met myself on that lob I took in Alley Shanty. It was weird—about as weird as it gets, really—and sad.”
“Sad?”
“I knew I’d been spun off as a temporary diversion of the timestream. I knew I’d been given a life that would last just a few hours.”
“Like a mayfly.”
“It was horrible.” She drifted into a reverie until Jay called her back.
“I saw right through me,” she said. “It was like having a mirror that would only tell you the truth about yourself.” She shuddered. “So, no, I don’t think I want to have anything to do with timesplashing any more. It was … just more insanity, from the same old place.”
Jay watched this beautiful woman speaking about herself and found it hard to connect her to the girl he had known sixteen years ago.
-oOo-
There was a cake with candles and a pile of presents waiting when they got back to Sandra’s house. Cara blew them out in one go and made a wish.
“What did you wish for?” Jay asked.
“If I tell you it won’t come true.”
“You should tell people what your hopes and dreams are,” he said, channeling his mother. “It gives you a bigger incentive to make them happen.”
She laughed. “What a wise Daddy I’ve got.” Her eyes flicked towards her mother and then back again, her smile faltering. “Well, some things are just out of my control. I’m forced to rely on the cake gods.”
Olivia came to visit and greeted Jay like a long lost friend, much to his embarrassment. She then made it worse by telling him what a hero he was for bringing her lovely girls back home safely. She’d brought champagne and they toasted to everyone’s safe return. Then to Cara’s sixteenth birthday. Then they toasted to the revolution going on in the States and wished it luck.
“It’s important work,” she told him. “And I’d be completely lost without Sandra.”
“I don’t think it’s up to me to advise—”
“Oh, of course it is! She still loves you, you know. Never says anything, but I know.”
Jay got her off the subject and onto her research. After a while he just needed to nod and make listening noises. It turned out that the images brought back from Queen Boudica’s attack on Camelodenum were rather disappointing, but the historians were chewing it over and now thought they understood where they had gone wrong. When Sandra came back they carried on talking about Celtic England until Olivia jumped up as if she’d remembered something and said she had to go.
“Have a nice time, you two,” she said from the doorstep, her voice heavy with innuendo.
“I hate leaving her,” Sandra said once the door was shut. “She was my lifeline for so many years.”
“Like Jacques was mine. Look, I should probably get on to the hotel. I don’t want to lose my booking.”
“Call and reassure them. We haven’t really talked since the hospital in Toronto.”
He reluctantly made the call and sat down again.
The doctors in the hospital had treated Sandra for a severe concussion, stitched up the gash in her scalp, and insisted on three days of bed rest and observation before they’d let her fly home. On the day they discharged her she had taken Jay’s hand and said, “I’m sorry, Jay.”
“For what?” he’d replied, stupid as ever.
“For keeping Cara a secret from you. I—I was so scared.”
“Too scared to trust me to do the right thing.”
He hadn’t meant to speak so harshly, but there it was, hanging between them. She said, “I hardly knew you. I just thought—”
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