Without another word, he let her go, then turned and strode off.
Nine watched him walk away, swamped by a flood of mixed emotions. ‘Come back,’ she whispered. ‘Make sure you come back.’
THREE
‘We’re good to go, Prof,’ said BA005.
The Battle Agents were ready for their mission, dressed as peasant fishermen from early Roman times with their flesh-coloured Simulation Skins on underneath.
‘Excellent, Omega Squad, but not so fast,’ said Professor Perdu. ‘You’ll be jumping in at the deep end with this mission, and there are a few things you must be aware of before you leap. On top of that there have been some developments since yesterday that you need to know about.’
‘You mean the disturbing complications?’ said 005.
‘I do indeed. And let me tell you, they are indeed disturbing.’
Nine, Five and Four clustered around the professor while she gathered her thoughts. Her eyes had dark circles under them and the lines on her forehead were deeply furrowed.
‘First of all, I must report that TEX will not be going with you.’
‘How come?’ said 004.
‘He nearly died last night. He was on life support in a critical condition for hours. I’ve been at his side most of the time. At least he seems to be out of danger now.’
‘TEX, nearly dead?’ said Nine. ‘What happened?’
‘His BioCapsule malfunctioned and shut down.’
‘But I thought the BioCap was fail proof,’ said Four.
‘So did I.’
‘Do you think someone tampered with it?’ asked 009.
‘Almost certainly. It fits with what happened to 005 this morning. He was tailed by a black van.’
‘Well, I was playing chicken with it,’ said 005, ‘but I have no doubt that the driver intended to run me down.’
‘Did you see him?’ Four asked.
‘Oh, yeah. Skin got a clear shot of him and his passenger. But according to Prof they don’t exist.’
‘What do you mean?’ said 004. ‘Everyone exists. You can’t live in Futura unless you’re on the files, except for the UnderOnes, of course.’
‘Yes, but not all those files are accessible to everyone,’ the professor explained. ‘Some people are invisible. I ran a thorough check. Neither driver nor passenger showed up on any files – police, criminal, android, general public and so on. Now that could mean – and I emphasise could because this isn’t definite – but it could mean that they were on a job for MANIC’s secret service.’
‘The Minders?’ Nine gasped. ‘What would they want with us? We’ve done nothing wrong.’
The professor frowned. ‘The Minders are a law unto themselves. They are the eyes and ears of MANIC. They decide what’s right and wrong.’
‘So what do we do?’ asked Four.
‘You do nothing. I don’t want any more trouble than we already have. I’ll do the worrying.’
‘Looks like you’ve been doing too much of that already, Prof,’ said Five.
‘I’ve been doing my share,’ she replied, her voice tired and husky, her face strained. ‘But not nearly as much as Alpha One. As you know, he’s been concerned for a while now about questionable activities within the College for Independent Studies. I now realise I should have paid him more attention for it would seem that a number of problems have developed regarding Operation Battle Book. We could be in considerably more trouble than I realised.’
The three Battle Agents all started to speak at the same time, but the professor held up her hands.
‘There’s no call for panic. We don’t want to over-react and do something we’ll regret. Alpha One has gone off on a solo mission that he insists is critically important, and will keep me informed of developments. At the same time I’m sending you three on this Master Mission that will hopefully clarify a few matters as well. We’re still feeling our way with this.’
She punched in some figures and activated a bank of screens.
‘You’re entering Book 174, the Battle of Actium.’
‘Aha!’ said Four. ‘The sea battle between the Egyptians and the Romans, 31 BCE. Queen Cleopatra against Octavius.’
‘Exactly. But you’re not going back to collect historical data. Book 174 has major problems, another one of our disturbing complications.’
As the professor talked, ScanoScreen images from inside the Battle Book appeared on the screens around her wall. The squad members could immediately see what was worrying her – three black dots. On the screens they were about the size of small coins, but that meant they were quite large inside the Battle Book itself.
‘They look like ink spots,’ said Five. ‘What are they?’
‘I’m stumped,’ the professor muttered. ‘I honestly don’t know. But the big worry is that they seem to be growing, like cancers. Take a look.’ She zoomed in on the biggest dot.
‘It’s wobbling,’ Four said. ‘Like a blob.’
‘Like black jelly,’ Nine added. ‘Kind of quivery.’
Suddenly a fine black strand shot out from the blob like a tentacle. There was a flash as it hit something and then it withdrew as instantly as it had appeared. For a moment the blob seemed to throb more than usual, as if excited, but then settled down again.
‘What’s going on in there?’ Five wondered aloud.
‘That’s for you to find out, Omega Squad. That’s your mission. You’ll need to be careful. The Book is unstable, and becoming more so by the second. I can’t be sure how long you’ll have in there. You may have to exit in a hurry. In other words this could be a very dangerous mission. Are you up to it?’
Five didn’t need to check with the others. ‘It’d be better if we had TEX, but we can do it, no sweat.’
‘Off you go, then. The sooner we get this operation underway the better.’
FOUR
‘I’m just re-checking our landing gear,’ BA009 said as they flew through the Mists of Time. ‘I need to get this touchdown right.’
They were doing an aqua landing, which was never easy, but Nine had some new equipment for the task.
Their fishing boat was stored in Nine’s wrist-pack, another one of the professor’s gadgets. Made of minute, near-weightless aerated Kevlar bubbles, it was designed to inflate the moment it hit the water. Its outer skin was coated in nano-screens that transmitted holograms so it could look like anything from the hologram data-bank – a dragon, a sea monster, a warship, or a peasant’s coracle dating from the First Century BCE and used on the Adriatic coast. All they had to do was feed in the data and the program did the rest.
They were entering Battle Book 174 in a new way as well – on a CAB, a Controlled Artificial Beam that Professor Perdu had created especially for missions like this. Her strategy was to land the squad as close as possible to the battle scene. Then, once they were set up, they could track down those black spots and find out exactly what they were with a minimum of fuss.
That was the plan, at least, and all had gone well so far. Take-off was smooth, and the flight had been trouble-free; no turbulence or YesterWinds to blow them off course. Nine had estimated that they should be approaching their destination soon, and checked her Geo-Chron Locator to confirm.
‘We’re on target,’ she reported. ‘The mist should start lifting any second now.’
As if on cue the mist did lift a little, and a long way below they could see water. Soon it was clear enough for them to make out the battle scene – tiny dots on a blue canvas.
‘Good navigating, Nine,’ Four shouted. ‘Let’s get down there for a better view.’
They dropped out of the sky at max G, grabbing a few spiral spins and tumble turns on the way. Sky-diving into history was one of the fun bits of being a Battle Agent.
When they were about a hundred metres above the water their HoverVests auto-activated and they paused mid-flight to establish their exact position in Time and Space. Skin did the calculations as they floated in the air.
‘Geo-Chr
on Locator co-ordinates entered and verified,’ he reported. ‘Date: 2 September 31 BCE. Location: Ionian Sea at the entrance to the Ambracian Gulf, near the city of Actium. The fleet of Mark Antony and Cleopatra has just sailed from the gulf into the open sea, and is locked in battle with the Roman Fleet of Octavian.’
The squad drifted a little lower as Skin kept talking.
‘This is an excellent example of Roman naval warfare. Mark Antony’s fleet numbers approximately five hundred ships, of which about half are the enormous warships known as quinqueremes. They have battering rams, grappling hooks and towers filled with soldiers. By contrast —’
‘Hang on a minute, Skin,’ said BA004. ‘Did you say the battle has begun?’
‘Correct. As I was saying, by contrast, Octavian’s fleet has many smaller craft. They—’
‘Don’t get me wrong, Skin; I like the history lesson. But something isn’t right.’
‘That is highly unlikely, BA004. My information is impeccably sourced from—’
‘No, I don’t mean you’re wrong. I mean something on the water is wrong. I know a little about this battle as well. It was a really hard-fought one with heaps of action from the start. But down there looks as dead as . . . er, dead.’
There was a pause while Skin’s many nano-computers hummed and whirred.
‘Your observation is correct, BA004,’ Skin replied eventually. ‘Zero activity is registered.’
‘But isn’t that strange? I mean, it’s not normal.’
‘Affirmative.’
‘So what’s going on?’
‘Analysis indicates that the problem may be related to the black spots located on the ScanoScreen. There is a possibility that they are draining energy from the rest of the Battle Book.’
‘In that case we’d better get down there,’ said Nine. ‘The sooner we know the facts the better.’
She activated Rapid Descent Mode on her HoverVest, and dropped out of the sky, followed quickly by the others. When they were about twenty metres above the water, Five and Four pulled out of the dive and planed the horizontal while Nine kept going to set up the boat. She continued to plummet at top speed until she was only a few metres above the sea. Then her Reverse Boot Boosters kicked in with lateral thrust, sending her skimming across the surface. At the same time she removed the boat capsule from her wrist-pack and checked that it was in working order.
Preparations done, she lowered the capsule onto the water. In a matter of seconds it was a fully inflated craft. A few more seconds, and she was sitting in the boat, beckoning the boys aboard.
‘That was some of the neatest flight control I’ve ever seen,’ said Five. ‘And she made it look so easy.’
‘She sure did,’ Four agreed. ‘Let’s join her.’
Once Four and Five were aboard, Nine activated the hologram software and soon they were just three harmless peasants in a fishing coracle, sailing among hundreds of Roman and Egyptian warships.
But they quickly discovered that the scene was even stranger than they had at first thought.
Warships were drifting listlessly in an eerily calm sea. Some bumped into each other, not because they meant to, but because no-one was steering them. The long rows of oars that would normally power the ships into battle hung lifelessly in the water. Sails were flat because there was not the slightest breeze. And there was no noise; no shouting, no boasts or threats or challenges hurled across the water. Just the creepy creaking of boat timbers.
On board the warships, sailors wandered aimlessly as if lost or dazed. The Battle Agents called out to them, but there was no reply. A few sailors looked up and squinted towards the tiny fishing craft; but they didn’t seem to even see it.
As the squad ventured deeper into the battle zone, the situation grew worse. On some ships the crew were not even moving; they lay about the deck or hung over the side like dead men. As the Battle Agents passed one vessel a sailor fell into the water and sank before their eyes.
‘This is so weird,’ said Four.
‘Energy readings indicate that serious drainage is taking place somewhere. It is affecting every aspect of the Battle Book,’ said Skin.
‘And you think it’s to do with those black spots?’ enquired Nine.
‘That is a distinct possibility, BA009, and one that we will be able to test at this very moment. Observe the warship that has come into view in Sector G21.’
The vessel stood out at once. It was unlike all the others. The bow was painted with two large eyes, fierce and angry, and a snarling mouth full of sharp teeth, while the length of the craft was covered in loud geometric patterns.
‘It is Egyptian,’ Skin explained, zooming in on the warship. ‘Closer inspection confirms that it is Cleopatra’s ship. And co-ordinates indicate that it is where the largest black spot is located.’
As they headed for the ship they noticed that it was shrouded in a peculiar shadow, a bell-shaped dome of twilight grey. They passed easily through the shadow, but the moment they did so the temperature around them dropped dramatically.
‘It’s freezing,’ said Four. ‘What’s going on?’
‘It is almost certainly the black spot,’ Skin continued. ‘Energy is being drained from around us.’
The huge Egyptian vessel now loomed in front of them like a ghost ship, silent and sullen, grey faces staring down at the Battle Agents from the deck as they pulled alongside.
‘Come on,’ Five said. ‘Time to check this out.’
FIVE
The squad members clambered aboard Cleopatra’s warship, expecting at least some resistance from the crew. A few soldiers tried to stop them, but they were so weak that they were easily pushed aside. And as the three Battle Agents crossed the deck, more wispy figures scuttled out of their path.
‘This is seriously weird,’ Four said with a shudder. ‘They’re like ghosts.’
‘That is effectively what they are, BA004,’ Skin replied. ‘They are so drained of organic energy that they are approaching maximum substance depletion.’
‘Sorry, Skin, but what exactly does that mean?’ said Nine.
‘It means that they are being turned into nothing, BA009.’
‘By what?’
‘By the black spot,’ Skin replied.
The Battle Agents were at the stern of the ship. Before them rose a tall ornate canopy made of carved wood and ivory. Draped between the four corner columns were heavy gold and purple curtains. They were closed, but they trembled as if something was moving behind them. The squad members edged closer.
‘This is the Royal Enclosure, isn’t it?’ Five asked Skin.
‘Correct, BA005.’
‘And Cleopatra should be in there, shouldn’t she?’
‘Correct again.’
‘But she isn’t, is she?’
Before Skin could reply, Nine stepped up to the canopy. ‘Let’s find out,’ she said and tore open the drapes.
The Time Troopers stood and stared, not quite sure what they were looking at. There was a black hole where the royal throne (and Cleopatra) should have been. But this was more than a simple hole, and it was more than just black. The edges were moving, slowly rippling along their length, as if the hole itself were a living thing. And the blackness was so thick and so deep it seemed almost solid.
Nine was closer than the others and could see more.
‘It’s beautiful,’ she whispered. ‘There are lights inside the black. They’re like the flickering of fireflies or splashes of living colour.’ She moved closer. A low rumble came from the black hole.
‘Don’t get too close,’ Four called out.
‘Why not?’ Nine replied. ‘We need to check it out.’
‘We don’t know what we’re dealing with.’
‘Exactly,’ said Nine. ‘That’s why one of us needs to look closer and I vote that someone is me!’
Without warning, the black hole opened wide like a monstrous mouth, its deep rumbling rising to a growl. Nine stumbled and staggered on the very e
dge of the mouth, struggling to keep her balance as the growl grew to a hideous howl.
And then she fell into the ebony fathoms. Or was she dragged? No one could be certain, it all happened so quickly.
Four and Five lunged at Nine, but she was sucked out of sight. Five missed her completely, but Four just caught one of her hands. Five immediately latched onto her other hand and they started hauling her up.
But it wasn’t easy. The edge of the hole was smooth and sloped downwards, so they couldn’t get a firm grip. Soon they weren’t pulling Nine out of the black hole; she was pulling them into it.
Or something was.
‘There’s a strange force,’ Nine shouted. ‘It’s dragging me down.’
‘Don’t worry,’ Four yelled back. ‘You’re not going anywhere without us.’
‘Activate HoverVest,’ Five told Skin. ‘Reverse Boot Boosters, anything.’
‘Not possible, BA005. An electro-magnetic disturbance emanating from the black hole is causing widespread apparatus malfunction.’
‘Isn’t there anything you can give us?’
‘Toe Hooks are operative.’
Sharp spikes sprang from Five’s sandals and dug into the deck. A moment later Four had Toe Hooks as well. At least they had stopped sliding into the hole. But they needed more.
‘The Finger Winch on Helping Hand Version 7.1 is also responding to prompts,’ Skin added.
‘That might do it,’ Five yelled.
He twisted around as much as he could, pointed his Winch finger at the ship’s mast and fired. The thrust was much weaker than normal, but the cord coiled around the mast and locked tight.
‘Here we go,’ Five shouted. ‘Hang on.’
Skin activated the Finger Winch and it began to haul Five and Four towards the mast, dragging Nine with them. The Battle Agents cried out as their arms felt as though they were being torn from their sockets.
‘Not much further,’ Five called out. ‘We can do it.’
Suddenly the howl from the black hole grew louder. And with it came a sucking wind so fierce and strong that it threatened to drag them all back into the hole. Grey ghost-like Egyptian soldiers and sailors were sucked past them into the gaping blackness, crying for help.
History Hackers Page 2