Day of the Assassins

by Johnny O'Brien

  *

  As they left the classroom, Jack turned to Angus, “Pretty cool, eh? What do you want to do, then?”

  “Not go to the library for a start.”

  “Agreed. Gino’s?”

  “Nah. Boyle will be there – remember – four o’clock, Friday… and it’s Friday 13th – unlucky – I can’t face that lot.”

  They walked slowly down the austere Victorian corridor past the old classrooms, wondering how to kill an hour.

  “Watch out. Trouble ahead.” Angus suddenly said, and nodded in the direction of the far corridor as two burly uniformed figures approached.

  “The terrible twins. What have we done to deserve this?”

  Sure enough, the two school janitors, Tony Smith and Gordon MacFarlane, approached as they checked each of the empty classrooms before locking up for the evening. Tony was tall, with a ramrod back and puffed-out chest and, as ever, he was immaculately turned out. Gordon was shorter and stockier, but also strode around with the authority of an ex-army officer. Both men were feared and to be avoided due to the pleasure they took in enforcing the pettiest of school rules and their habit of dispensing discipline with the maximum level of sarcasm. There was a rumour in the school that Tony and Gordon were ex-SAS – a notion that neither janitor made any effort to dispel. There was another rumour, too, that they were actually ex-traffic wardens. This was the story that Jack and Angus thought more likely.

  The boys looked for some way to avoid the two men. But it was too late. Soon the two large figures were looming over them, Tony peering down at Jack over a carefully trimmed moustache, an eager twinkle in his eye.

  “Well now, what do we have here?” Tony said.

  “One waif and one stray,” Gordon chimed.

  “It’s Mr Christie and Mr Jud, is it not?”

  “Yes Mr Smith,” Jack said.

  Tony turned to Gordon and impersonated Jack’s voice mockingly, “Yes Mr Smith.”

  Gordon laughed and repeated in a squeaky voice, “Yes Mr Smith…”

  Tony said, “Remind me, Mr MacFarlane, what is the penalty for loitering in school grounds twenty minutes after the final bell, outside the designated zones?”

  Gordon turned back to Tony taking his time to consider the answer. “Mmm… I don’t know, Mr Smith. Outside the designated zones, I think the penalty might be a detention… but actually, we could make up any penalty we want.”

  Tony looked back down at Jack. “Shall we do that boys… shall we make up a penalty?”

  “But… we were going to the library…”

  Gordon exhaled sceptically making a sort of drawn-out ‘psshht’ sound as he did so. Thankfully, just at that moment, Pendelshape emerged from his classroom and marched down the corridor towards them.

  “Good afternoon, gentlemen, anything I can help you with?”

  Tony and Gordon’s manner changed instantly. It was as if the sergeant major had appeared and they snapped to attention.

  “Good afternoon, Dr Pendelshape. I believe these are your pupils?” Tony said obsequiously.

  “Yes, Tony, they’re with me. They were just off to the library – weren’t you?”

  “No problem, sir – we were just closing down for the night. You know the rules, sir.”

  “Very good – you can leave my room open for a little longer… I have the keys.”

  “Sir.” And with that Tony and Gordon slunk off in disappointment.

  “Right lads – along to the library – and I’ll make those calls.”

  *

  Five minutes after reaching the library, Angus was already fidgeting with boredom.

  “Stop it,” Jack said, trying to focus on his maths homework.

  “I can’t. I’ve got an idea.”

  “Great. Not another of your ‘good’ ideas…”

  “Yes,” Angus said. “One of those.” He lowered his voice and looked up and down the silent aisles of the old library furtively. “It’s our big chance.”

  “What is?” Jack was getting worried.

  “Well – Pendelshape is in the staffroom, making calls. The terrible twins are out of the way… and…”

  “And what?” Jack asked.

  “And, well, we know that Pendelshape has left his door open.”

  Jack hissed at Angus across the table, “No way!”

  The prim librarian, still sorting returns, briefly raised her eyes above her reading glasses.

  “Angus – I’m not standing guard while you sneak in and rummage through Pendelshape’s cupboard to get back all the stuff he’s confiscated off you…”

  Angus looked hurt. “I only care about the iPod… I can’t do without that for a whole week. It’s totally unacceptable.”

  Jack shook his head, “It’s wrong and it’s your own fault anyway. Pendelshape can be pretty severe, if he caught us, I don’t know – maybe we could even get expelled.” He considered this for a moment and then added, “Or something really bad.”

  Angus had an evil smile on his face. The kind he got when he knew he was about to get Jack to do something he really didn’t want to.

  “Come on… think about it.”

  “Think about what?” Jack said.

  “It’ll be fun.”

  Angus grinned inanely. Jack stared back at his friend across the table and shook his head. He looked over at the librarian who was ignoring them. For some reason, he could feel his chest tightening. He felt for his puffer in his pocket.

  “You’re a pain, Angus.”

  But Angus was already up, away and sneaking out of the library.

  *

  Strangely, when they re-entered the classroom, they spotted the lance head still lying on Pendelshape’s desk. Jack had assumed that their teacher would have taken it with him to help in his enquiries, but it was still there. Without really thinking, he grabbed it and put it into his rucksack to keep it safe.

  A quick search for Angus’s precious iPod in Pendelshape’s large store cupboard proved fruitless. Angus was disappointed.

  “Right – so let’s get out of here,” Jack said. “Probably a good thing we can’t find it.”

  But just as they were about to leave, Jack noticed that Pendelshape had left the computer in his store cupboard on. Jack could never resist computers and as he made his way through the store-cupboard door, he touched the keyboard absent-mindedly. The screensaver had not kicked in yet. Without warning, a window popped up on the computer screen. It caught Jack’s eye, because of its unusual design. It was some sort of an email application, but compared to the slick applications he was used to, it looked very basic. Just simple black text on a white background.

  “What’s this?” Jack murmured, then his brow furrowed, “What the…?”

  Angus turned back to look. They both stared at the screen. It was the title of the email that grabbed them:

  Subject: Lance artefact at Cairnfield.

  Then they looked at the recipient and sender fields:

  To: Neil Pendelshape. From: Benefactor.

  “Who is ‘Benefactor’?” Angus said.

  “No idea – what’s this…?” They started to scan the strange email; it blinked back at them.

  Do not concern yourself with the Cairnfield workshop. Lance is artefact from early experiments into the pre-war period. A rare piece that helps confirm the Schönbrunn raid did occur. Anyway – irrelevant as things have now moved on. I have momentous news! Our own Taurus is complete Yes! A functioning, full-scale system. We can now complete execution of Sim 0107 for real! We will activate Zadok. And very soon we will be in a position to defeat VIGIL. You must do something urgently, before we start. I fear that when they find out, they may take Orion. There is nothing we can do about Lynx now – she has gone over to the other side. But we must protect Orion. You need to enact the plan and then contact me as we discussed. We are about to change the world!

  Good luck!

  Your loyal friend – the Benefactor

  They stared at the extraordinary message
on the screen.

  “What the…?” Jack started to speak, but stopped mid-sentence, dumbfounded.

  “What’s Taurus…? VIGIL? Zadok?” Angus said. “What does it mean?”

  Jack shook his head. “I don’t know… but one thing’s for sure…”

  “What?”

  “Something’s going on… and it’s more interesting than your damned iPod…”

  “But I don’t…”

  Angus didn’t finish his sentence.

  In the doorway stood Dr Pendelshape.

  They hadn’t even heard a footstep.

  “Find anything interesting, boys?”

  We’re stuffed, Jack thought. Then, without a word, Dr Pendelshape did something quite unexpected. He reached for his inside pocket and pulled out a thin piece of plastic – a bit like a large pocket calculator. The sleek gadget was rather out of place with the rest of Pendelshape’s overflowing store cupboard of dusty books and papers. He gently pressed a button on the device and the cupboard door closed automatically.

  He nodded towards the computer.

  “Best encryption in the world… but it’s no good if you forget to lock the screen.”

  Strangely, he did not seem angry. Instead, he peered at the message from ‘the Benefactor’.

  “It makes no difference now anyway.” He spoke urgently, “But I will explain all that later. Come, we haven’t got long. I hope you two don’t mind… surprises. Step to the back, please.” He ushered them to the rear of the small store cupboard.

  Pendelshape pressed the calculator device in his hand a second time and then, without warning, a slight aperture appeared in the floor. Angus gasped. Jack just stood, gaping. A very narrow, steep spiral staircase led down from the aperture, dimly lit by a blue light, which produced an unearthly shimmer.

  “You can’t get out, so I’m afraid you will just have to follow me. But don’t worry – you’re perfectly safe. Please – on you go.”

  Jack and Angus didn’t move.

  With a little more firmness now, Pendelshape urged them forward. “Please – we have little time. Trust me.”

  Reluctantly, they stepped onto the spiral staircase, quickly followed by Pendelshape. It was some sort of escalator and the steps began to descend automatically. As they dropped beneath floor level, the aperture above them mysteriously closed and after a couple of minutes they came to a gentle halt. Ahead of them was a door. Pendelshape pressed the device again and the door opened. There was a short metal-clad corridor illuminated by the same dull blue light. At the end of the corridor was a large round door, like the entrance to a bank vault – it looked very heavy, maybe it was steel. It had five letters etched on it:

  ‘V I G I L’.

  The door opened silently and Jack noticed that it was at least seven centimetres thick. Next, they found themselves in an oval-shaped room. It was similar to his dad’s workshop at Cairnfield – although there weren’t quite as many books and there was no mess – in fact, it was spotless. Towards one side of the library were two large leather sofas between which a glass-topped table was positioned.

  Pendelshape waved them forward. “Please take a seat, gentlemen. I think I have some explaining to do.” He looked at his watch and then waved vaguely in the direction of a modern fireplace, which suddenly erupted into a roaring log fire. Jack and Angus jumped.

  “Don’t worry – it’s not real…” Pendelshape snorted. “Just adds a bit of atmosphere. Otherwise it can be a bit grim all the way down here.” He clapped his hands. “Now, first things first, would either of you like some tea?” But the two boys were still in shock. “I’m rather partial to Jaffa cakes… we usually keep a few goodies down here, you know, just in case…” Pendelshape moved over to what appeared to be an ante-room to the library. He talked over his shoulder.

  “I should explain where we are. This is a facility of VIGIL. They oversee everything.”

  Jack finally found his voice. “What’s VIGIL?”

  Dr Pendelshape returned to the table with a pot of tea and a plate of biscuits on a large tray.

  “Ah, apologies, of course, I will need to start at the beginning. One forgets how little is known…”

  “Sir, I’m sorry, we didn’t mean to look at your computer…” Jack blurted out. “We were just… waiting for you…”

  “You’re not in trouble,” Pendelshape said firmly and then added… “But I’m afraid you might be, if you don’t listen very carefully to what I have to say…”

  “But, sir…”

  Pendelshape put up a hand to quieten Jack, “Please… just listen.”

  Pendelshape bit into a Jaffa cake, and then rocked backwards and forwards as if weighing something up in his mind. “Indeed. I think you will find what I have to say quite surprising… shocking even.” And with these words, their teacher launched into his story, which was quite unlike anything either of them had ever heard from him in a history lesson.

  *

  “VIGIL is the governing body of an elite network of physicists, engineers and computer scientists. However, VIGIL is not an institution that you will find listed in a library or on the Internet. It is secret.” Pendelshape picked up another Jaffa cake and waved it around in the air as he spoke. “We are beneath the radar,” he coughed, took a sip of his Earl Grey and swallowed. “Indeed. This is because VIGIL manages the most powerful technology ever invented.”

  Jack and Angus looked at each other – surely this was a joke?

  “I am talking about the technology of time travel.” He said it in a rather pedestrian way, as if it was something that he was quite familiar with and dealt with on a day-to-day basis – like switching on an electric light.

  “The ideas have been around for many decades. I am sure you have heard of physicists such as Planck, Heisenberg and Schrödinger… and the concepts of quantum mechanics, parallel universes, wormholes and such…” He looked at the boys expectantly, but all he got back were blank stares.

  He waved dismissively. “Never mind. All you need to know is that the world of subatomic physics is an extremely mysterious one, not one where our normal experience of everyday life applies at all. It has baffled some of the greatest minds… including Einstein…” Pendelshape frowned, “You have heard of Einstein, haven’t you?” They nodded stupidly.

  “That’s a relief. More tea?” he asked matter-of-factly. But Jack and Angus had not touched the tea or the biscuits. “Come on, eat up, you’ll need to line your stomachs for what you’re about to hear, I can tell you.”

  Jack steadied himself. “Time travel – that’s just theory, isn’t it? Mumbo jumbo. It can’t actually be done,” his voice trembled, “can it?”

  “Yes Jack – it can. Let me show you something.”

  He pressed the device he was holding and the room lightened. On the opposite wall, the shelves of books slowly moved apart revealing a solid wall of thick green glass that extended from the floor all the way up to the ceiling. The glass had the same hue and texture as the casing around the small platform back at Cairnfield, where they had discovered the lance head. Behind this glass screen was a flat metal platform surrounded by an array of scientific equipment – pipes, cables and steel. The platform itself was bounded by a semi-closed arrangement of hefty black girders. Jack counted eight of them. They rose from the ground and bulged out to surround the platform and then rejoined at the top of the structure. All together, it looked like a giant gyroscope. It was on a much larger scale, and looked more complex than the device back at Cairnfield, but the basic structure was similar – with one exception. Between two of the large metal girders, a gantry rose from the floor and up to the level of the platform. Whatever the thing was – it looked like you could go inside it. Through the thick glass, they could make out some lettering above a terminal. It spelled out one word:

  ‘Taurus’.

  Pendelshape gestured proudly towards the structure, “Gentlemen, here is where theory becomes reality. It’s a far cry from H.G. Wells, I know, but Mr Taurus
there will take you back in time.”

  All Angus could say was, “Will it bring you back again?”

  Pendelshape smiled, “Yes it will.” He paused. “Well, in general, it will.” He shrugged. “Details, details.”

  Jack expected to wake up at any moment or, probably worse, find the host of some reality TV show jump out in front of some hidden cameras to reveal that the whole thing was a set-up and that they’d been humiliated in front of millions of viewers. Neither happened.

  All he could say, lamely, was, “How does it work?”

  Pendelshape laughed, “I’m afraid that would take a little while to explain… and you would need a PhD in theoretical physics or computer science and maybe genetics.” He frowned, looked down at his shoes and paused. “In fact, probably all three… but, if you like, I can give you the ten-second version…” He looked at the boys expectantly; there was no response.

  “The ten-second version it is then. You switch on the power. You might think that is just a question of pressing a big red button – but it is a little more complicated than that.” He thought to himself again. “The button is green actually. Anyway, then you set the date and where you want to go, you stand on that platform,” he pointed at the circular platform inside the ‘Taurus’ structure, “and you click this…”

  From his pocket he pulled something similar to a mobile phone – maybe a bit fatter and longer. He flipped the phone open and a very faint blue light came on from the inside. It was similar to the light of the stairwell and access passage. The boys could see a small screen and a number of small buttons.

  “The Taurus itself, over there, stays put – it focuses the energy. But to move through time and space, you need to have physical contact with this little chap. It’s a time phone. You need it to go… and to get back.” He looked at them, “And that’s about it. Oh, except that while back in time, the time phone is controlled and tracked by the Taurus, and its console over there, using a set of codes – with a reasonable degree of accuracy…” A look of doubt ghosted across his face. “Most of the time, anyway.”

  “What do you mean?”