Professor Perdu thought this over for a bit. ‘What do you think, Omega Squad?’
‘He is very scared,’ said Five. ‘There doesn’t seem much point in making him even more frightened.’
‘Not until we have to, anyway,’ TEX added.
‘And if he is telling the truth about these important people,’ Four continued, ‘then we could actually lose him forever.’
‘That’s right,’ said Nine. ‘He might be a creep, but he’s one creep who’s better alive than dead.’
‘Very well, then,’ the professor said eventually. ‘We’ll leave you alone this time, Horace. But don’t skip town; we will need to chat again before too long, I have no doubt at all.’
‘Thank you, Juanita.’ Horace wiped the sweat from his brow. ‘Thanks a million.’
‘Oh, there’s one other thing. You’ve still got our Battle Energy Bundle inside that Time Store. I want it back.’
‘Of course, Juanita.’
‘And soon.’
‘As good as done. I’ll send it over tomorrow. And in a proper capsule.’
‘I hope so, Horace. Because if you cross me, I’ll have to send my team around again. And I know for a fact you won’t like it one bit. That’s all for now. Well done, Omega Squad. See you back at HQ.’
Professor Perdu’s face faded from the wall, and Omega Squad left a grateful Horace Horologe on his own.
THIRTEEN
Bernard was standing by the limousine as the squad emerged from the building.
‘Wonderful to see you alive, Master Winston,’ he said.
‘Good to be alive, Bernard,’ 004 replied. ‘And wonderful to see you. The others told me how they hijacked you in the lane. Thanks for believing them.’
‘You are fortunate to have such good friends,’ the chauffeur said as they climbed into the vehicle.
‘I know.’ Four glanced around at the other squad members. ‘Very lucky indeed.’
‘I hope you weren’t too bored waiting out here, Bernard,’ said BA009.
‘Not at all, Miss.’ The chauffeur started the limousine. ‘In fact, I was remarkably entertained. There’s a great deal more happening out here than you realise. Several suspicious black vans came and went, and one enormous truck loaded with what I have no idea.’
‘Very interesting,’ said 005.
‘Oh, and another thing,’ Bernard said, inspecting his watch. ‘Yes, it should happen any moment now.’ Everyone waited while he counted off the seconds. ‘There,’ he said barely half a minute later, pointing to the pavement. ‘Look.’
Small vents opened in the pavement. They were everywhere, on all the pavements, set about ten metres apart and flush with the walls of the box-like buildings. They sprang open and a kind of steam hissed from them for about five seconds. Then they closed again.
‘They do that every fifteen minutes or so,’ the chauffeur explained. ‘Curious, is it not?’
‘Very curious,’ said Five. ‘I wonder if they’ve got anything to do with that rumbling you talked about, TEX?’
The super soldier nodded slowly. ‘Quite possibly. We’d better let the professor know when we get back.’
‘And then of course I had some real fun,’ Bernard continued. ‘I was accosted by a pair of unsavoury characters. They were wearing uniforms of some sort, and they insisted I move on. When I declined to oblige they became decidedly obstreperous, displaying the most deplorable manners. They even became physical with me.’
‘What, you mean they tried to hit you?’ asked Four.
‘In a nutshell, yes.’
‘What did you do?’
‘I put them in their place, of course.’ Bernard pointed to the other side of the lane. Two huge guards sat bound together. ‘And that’s where they can stay, as far as I’m concerned.’
Everyone stared at the chauffeur, especially BA004.
‘Wow, Bernard. I had no idea that you could, er —’
‘Look after myself? A true chauffeur needs more than mere driving skills, Master Winston.’
Bernard pressed his foot hard on the accelerator, leaving the guards in a cloud of exhaust fumes and burning rubber.
* * *
The Time Troopers were elated but quiet on the ride back to the library.
BA005 felt chuffed with the way they’d conducted the operation, and went over its various stages in his mind. BA004 thought about his mother, and how close he just came to never seeing her again. My loss would have been the end for her as well. He glanced at the other three Battle Agents and realised again how much he owed them.
BA009 suddenly realised how exhausted she was. She tried to fight the fatigue and stay awake, but the struggle was too much. And so she let herself sink into the deliciously soft seats – like slipping into a bed of clouds – and was soon asleep.
She could hear the others talking, but they were soon no more than sounds swirling around her as she sank into nothingness.
BA005 noticed this. He knew that she’d been tired for weeks, pushing herself, never giving in. Now it looked as though she’d gone too far.
He called Professor Perdu on his Battle Watch as they approached and she was waiting for them when they pulled in to the lane behind the library.
Five leapt out of the car. ‘She’s exhausted, Prof. I think she’s had a kind of energy collapse. We can’t possibly wake her. It wouldn’t be fair and it could be dangerous. You know how hard she pushes herself. She needs this rest more than anything.’
The professor lifted Nine’s eyelids. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’s certainly the sleep of a critically fatigued person. She’s completely gone. But we have to wake her because she needs to change out of her Simulation Skin.’
‘No one will know, Prof. It looks exactly like her own skin. Does it really matter if she stays in it overnight?’
‘But how will we get her home? She has to catch a train.’
‘Bernard and I will take her home,’ Four said.
‘But she lives on the other side of Futura. That’s many kilometres out of your way.’
‘It’s the least I can do.’ Four turned to Five and TEX. ‘You saved my life back there, and you risked your own to do it. I just hope I can make it up to you someday, somehow. Taking Nine home is nothing, believe me.’
‘I know all that,’ said the professor. ‘And I understand why you want to do this. But there are rules, MANIC’s rules. And believe me, they’re policed. We’ve already broken at least two rules today.’
Four threw his arms in the air. ‘Does it really matter then if we break a few more?’
‘If only it was that easy, 004.’
‘Oh, come on, Prof,’ Five said. ‘We all know how important Nine is as a squad member. If she’s pushed too hard she could toss it in. Is that really what you want?’
‘And Nine is not a robot or an android,’ added TEX. ‘She is a human being.’
This last comment seemed to strike home with the professor as they stood on the pavement gazing at Nine asleep on the back seat of the limousine. After a while she nodded her head in agreement.
‘Very well, then. I appear to have no choice.’
Four smiled. He gave everyone the thumbs up and climbed back into the car. Before Professor Perdu could change her mind, the limousine had sped away.
‘But they don’t know where she lives,’ the professor said as they disappeared.
‘Yes, they do,’ Five replied. ‘I just info-streamed her address to Four via our SimulSkins.’
‘And how do you know where she lives?’
‘I told you before, Prof, I know heaps. I have to. It’s my way of making sure Omega Squad is a team.’
‘But Four has gone off in his SimulSkin as well. This is all too irregular, 005.’
‘Everything about the last couple of missions has been irregular, Prof.’
‘Yes, but you know how important order and rules are to certain people; people in power, people who can make things difficult for us if they choose to.’
&n
bsp; ‘You’re sounding as frightened as Horace Horologe, Prof.’
‘He has good reason to be frightened. If we ever stopped to think about the full extent of MANIC’s power, I think we’d all be frightened. None of us is free, and the trouble we’ve had lately with Operation Battle Book has hammered that home to me more than anything. Rules are important in this brave new world of ours, BA005. Never forget it.’
‘But the big rules have been broken already by the high-tech time thieves. And if we’re serious about catching them, we need to care a bit less about rules as well.’
‘Of course we need to stop the attacks on Operation Battle Book. But we also need to realise what might happen if we take that path. Do we really want to know who is behind these time thieves? And once we do know, will we really want to continue our investigations? Will we even be allowed to continue them?’
The professor massaged her brow. BA005 had never seen her look so concerned or heard her sound so serious.
‘That’s the nature of the mission before us,’ Professor Perdu continued. ‘I fear we’re opening a Pandora’s Box here. If we go ahead with this there will be no turning back. Is Omega Squad up to it? What do you say?’
Five didn’t need to think about the answer. He simply glanced at TEX and nodded.
‘We don’t have a choice, Prof,’ he said, knowing that he spoke for Nine and Four as well. ‘There’s too much at stake. We have to be up to it.’
Also by Charlie Carter
Open Fire (Battle Boy 1)
Red Devil Down (Battle Boy 2)
Destroy Troy (Battle Boy 3)
Bloodaxe (Battle Boy 4)
Aztec Attack (Battle Boy 5)
Battle Bust-up (Battle Boy 6)
Vampire Virus (Battle Boy 7)
Chariot Charge (Battle Boy 8)
White War (Battle Boy 9
Caveman Bash (Battle Boy 10)
Super Soldier (Battle Boy 11)
Sky Wars (Battle Boy 12)
Samurai Secrets (Battle Boy 13)
Black Prince (Battle Boy 14)
Underwater War (Battle Boy 15)
Warrior Queen (Battle Boy 16 – ebook)
First published Pan in 2012 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
1 Market Street, Sydney 2000
Copyright © Charlie Carter 2012
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.
This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Carter, Charlie.
The time thieves / Charlie Carter.
9781742610931 (pbk.)
Series: Carter, Charlie. Omega Squad ; 1.
For children.
Time travel--Juvenile fiction.
Dewey Number: A823.4
Adobe eReader format: 9781743349106
EPUB format: 9781743349113
Online format: 9781743349120
[The characters and events in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.]
[Other permissions or disclaimers]
Typeset by Midlands Typesetters
Cover design by Emigraph
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