Day of the Assassins jc-1

by Johnny O'Brien

“What are you doing?”

  “Well, Angus, it is quite simple, we need to return to Jack’s father’s base. We can’t stay here. But we can make a little detour,” he paused. “Yes, I know exactly where we should go…” Pendelshape murmured to himself, “I believe there was a large field hospital at that point behind the allied front line… Now, if I can just code the right spacetime fix…”

  Jack and Angus exchanged nervous glances as Pendelshape busied himself with the time phone.

  “Sir — are you planning what I think you’re planning? Because if you are, I don’t think that’s a good idea at all, in fact I think…”

  Suddenly, the door of the storeroom flew off its rusty hinges in a storm of splintering wood. A young Austrian army officer stood in the doorway brandishing a pistol.

  Pendelshape looked up from the time phone and spoke quietly, “Well boys — I am afraid whatever you think, it looks like we have little choice.”

  “Good afternoon, officer…” Pendelshape said. The officer seemed a little taken aback by Pendelshape’s confident English voice and eyed them suspiciously. “Come on boys — close in — hands on the time phone,” Pendelshape whispered out of the corner of his mouth.

  The boys did what they were told but, alarmed by the sudden movement, the officer shouted an order and raised his pistol to shoot.

  Mud and Guts

  The shock wave from the air burst caught Jack full on, lifted him up and threw him backwards a full six metres, his body twisting in mid air as he flew. Gravity pulled him back to earth, but where there should have been churned-up mud to cushion his landing, there was nothing. Instead, he was propelled into a huge empty space on the ground. With a crunching thud, his face, and then the rest of his body, hit the sloping inner wall of a large hole. As he slid down, mud filled his ears, nostrils and mouth. He came to rest in a large puddle in the bottom of the hole.

  Pendelshape’s plan to give Jack and Angus an impromptu lesson in the horror of war was looking like a very bad idea indeed. With his encyclopedic knowledge of the First World War, it had sounded like he was aiming for some field hospital way behind the allied lines. But with the intrusion of the Austrian officer things had not gone according to plan. The time travel technology had placed them slam in the middle of no-man’s-land during a major British offensive.

  Just as they had landed, there had been an ear-splitting explosion and Jack had suddenly become airborne. He didn’t even know if Angus and Pendelshape had survived the blast. And now, here he was at the bottom of some putrid hole in the ground.

  Suddenly, on the other side of the puddle, Jack saw two eyes staring back at him from a mud-freckled face. The figure opposite was lying against the side of the crater, caked in dirt. From his uniform and helmet, Jack recognised immediately that he was German. But judging by his pink skin and the fear on his face it was clear that he was more a boy than a man. Above the boy’s knee, Jack could make out a large dark patch. The boy-soldier was wounded. At that point Jack realised with dismay that within his white, fragile, boy-fingers, the soldier held a large black pistol. It was pointing at Jack.

  He felt panic start to build from the pit of his stomach. The boy was as terrified as Jack was, but nevertheless, Jack could see his index finger slowly squeezing the trigger of the pistol. There was a yellow flash and a loud crack as the gun fired. Jack braced himself — but the impact from the bullet didn’t come. Instead, it had buried itself in the wall of earth to his left. The boy held the pistol up again, this time both index fingers wrapped round the trigger and squeezed a second time… there was a click. The gun was empty.

  At that moment, a second German soldier loomed from behind the lip of the crater. Even at that distance, Jack could see that he was stockier than the boy opposite. The soldier surveyed the scene and quickly descended into the crater moving with speed and confidence. Reaching the bottom of the hole, he bypassed his young comrade and marched directly through the puddle to where Jack lay. The soldier reached down to the bayonet hanging on his belt and fastened it to the end of his rifle, which he now lifted up and pinned under Jack’s chin. Jack was helpless. This was it.

  Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Jack detected a large, fast-moving blur descend from his side of the crater. The German soldier half-turned, momentarily distracted. The blur moved with uncanny speed. Jack recognised the figure. Angus! The soldier had no time to react. Angus launched at him with a crunching rugby tackle. Jack was first to his feet and grabbed the soldier’s rifle. The tables were turned.

  The soldier stared back defiantly from his prostrate position on the crater floor. Then he reached to grab something from his back.

  “Don’t even think about it,” warned Jack, raising the rifle and inching the glistening bayonet towards the soldier’s face. He thrust the bayonet forward — instinctively copying the soldier’s action against himself a few seconds earlier. But Jack misjudged, and the serrated steel edge of the seven-inch blade made contact with the lobe of the soldier’s right ear, slicing right through it. The soldier whimpered in fear. Jack recoiled — alarmed at the ease with which the injury had been inflicted. Angus was now up on his feet. The soldier stared, pleadingly, first at Jack and then Angus standing next to him. A moment before, he had seemed like an automaton — a killing machine. But now he was helpless and terrified. Contrary to what Jack had first thought, he could not have been that much older than either Jack or the boy soldier who still sat quivering on the opposite side of the crater. And there was something else about the soldier lying at their feet, something about the face… and now with the injured ear… Something odd. Jack waved the rifle and shouted a second time.

  “Go! Go on, get out of here!”

  For a moment, the soldier looked confused and stared back at them questioningly.

  Jack raised his voice, “Go! Now! The British will be here soon.”

  Euphoria spread across the soldier’s face — it was if he had been re-born and his humanity restored. He scrambled to his feet and staggered through the water to the other side of the crater. He stopped briefly to haul his young comrade to his feet. Then, supporting his friend, he clambered up the opposite side of the crater and away.

  Jack was shaking, “Er, thanks Angus.”

  Angus was silent and stared at the opposite side of the crater.

  “You OK? Look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “I think I might have.”

  “What?”

  “That soldier… I’m sure…” Angus stopped mid-sentence and rubbed his eyes. “Doesn’t matter… Come on, we can’t hang around. It’s dangerous here.”

  “Where’s Pendelshape — did he make it?”

  Angus jerked his head to one side, “He’s behind me. He’s OK.”

  They looked round, and sure enough, Pendelshape’s head loomed into view above them on the crater lip.

  “Come on boys — the bombardment has stopped. We need to get out of here.”

  “Really? I thought we might hang around and maybe do a bit of shopping,” Angus said to Jack as they dragged themselves back up to the top of the crater. The smoke was clearing steadily and a weak sun was starting to wink through. They seemed to be on a slightly raised part of the battlefield.

  Jack couldn’t believe his eyes. They were in the middle of some sort of extraordinary lifeless moonscape of craters and mud as far as the eye could see. There were no trees, there was no grass… nothing. On either side of them in some places not more than a hundred metres apart, embankments of earth signifying the position of the two armies’ front line trenches, snaked towards the horizon. Barbed wire was strung out along each trench — in some places there were gaps where it had been cut or blown apart. As Jack gained his bearings, he began to notice that, strewn haphazardly about the landscape, were dead bodies. In some cases their position was only signified by a discarded rifle or a helmet or a flapping piece of material. But they were there. And it was clear that some of them had been there for a long time. He’d been st
aring for ten seconds. But he’d already had enough.

  “Look — they’re retreating,” Pendelshape gestured over to the German lines. In the distance they could make out the figures of hundreds of men picking their way from the German front line. “They’re evacuating following the bombardment. Come on… we can take refuge in there.”

  They followed Pendelshape and careered forward thirty metres to the German lines. First Pendelshape and then Jack tumbled over the side, landing on the fire step above the bottom of the badly waterlogged trench.

  “It stinks in here,” Angus said.

  Pendelshape glanced left and then right. The trench was deserted apart from a single corpse that lay face down in the water only metres from where they had landed.

  “Quick — over there.”

  A small bunker had been honed from the earth on the opposite side of the trench and they stepped inside gingerly. A makeshift bed had been set up in the subterranean room and there was even a small table and chairs. There were papers strewn everywhere and a chess set lay on the table with the pieces scattered.

  “Should be safe here for a moment.”

  Jack sat down on one of the chairs, “I’ve had enough. Let’s see the time phones… now!”

  First Angus, then Pendelshape placed their time phones on the table. The telltale yellow bar on each of them was burning fiercely.

  “We still have a signal — we can get out of here. Now!”

  Pendelshape seemed to hesitate, “Well, hold on…”

  Jack was incredulous. “You’re not seriously suggesting that we hang around?”

  “Well, now we are here…”

  Angus interrupted him, “Sorry, sir — you’re mad if you think we’re staying.”

  “Yes — I think we’ve seen enough already,” Jack added.

  Pendelshape replied, “Good. As you have now observed, the consequences of war are indeed horrific… so we can travel back… back to your father now?”

  Jack couldn’t believe it. Pendelshape seemed to be almost… smiling. It was at that moment, seeing that smile, that Jack knew he couldn’t go along with Pendelshape or, for that matter, his father.

  Jack spoke calmly but there was steel in his voice, “In the last week, we have been shot at, chased half way around Europe and seen three good people… friends… die and now you’ve brought us here. You and Dad have taken terrible risks with our lives and those of many others… for your own… ambition.”

  Pendelshape stood up, “But we have to change history; we have to change it so it’s all better, so it’s all good… don’t you see? We must…”

  “You might think you have to, so might Dad. But I don’t.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Jack’s heart was pounding, “We don’t want anything to do with this. We’ve got our own lives to lead. We belong in the present and we should stay there,” Jack tried to steady his voice, “Look — I think what you and Dad have done is…” he shook his head, “…incredible. Really. Creating the Taurus. All that. But it’s dangerous. Just one example — Angus and I worked out that if we had done what you and Dad planned — he wouldn’t even exist.”

  Pendelshape waved his hand dismissively, “We can fix that… it would just be another variant of Simulation 0107…”

  “The point is: we belong in the present. I know that puts me at the mercy of the Rector and Inchquin and VIGIL.”

  Pendelshape was incredulous, “What? But they might kill you!”

  “No they won’t. They would only threaten that if you and Dad were to use your Taurus. If you don’t — they won’t touch a hair on my head. So it’s simple, really. If you and Dad promise not to use your Taurus, then we will be safe… We’ll be left alone.”

  Pendelshape stared back at him goggle-eyed, “So you’re going to make yourself a willing hostage to VIGIL? And stop us fulfilling our life’s work?”

  “It’s nothing to do with you or your life’s work. It’s to do with us. I’m doing it because in the last few days we’ve already seen too much death — more than enough to last a lifetime. I don’t want any more. The past should stay where it belongs — in the past.”

  Jack knew what he was saying was right.

  “So, you set your time phone to go back to Dad’s base. We need never know where it is — so VIGIL will never know and you’ll be safe. I know you’ve also got the codes for the other Taurus at school. So you set Angus’s time phone so me and Angus can travel back to school. Simple…”

  “But…”

  “And do it now before we lose the time signal again,” Angus said.

  “I can’t — your father… He will never forgive me.”

  But seeing the expression on the boys’ faces, Pendelshape knew his cause was finally lost. He leaned over the time phones and started to tap.

  “Good. Hurry up.”

  From outside the bunker they heard a distant whistle.

  “What’s that?”

  “The British are going over the top. They’ll be here in a minute.”

  Angus breathed into Pendelshape’s ear, “Well you’d better get on with it!”

  “I’m going as fast as I can!”

  Jack jerked his head at Angus to move away from Pendelshape.

  Suddenly, there was an explosion further along the trench.

  “What was that?”

  “A shell?”

  “Or a grenade?”

  “The Brits must be here already.”

  Angus turned back to Pendelshape, “How long?”

  “A minute… at most.” Pendelshape was sweating.

  “Go faster!”

  “You’re not helping.”

  There was a sudden commotion from outside the trench.

  A British voice shouted, “Check down that end, Corporal!”

  “They’re clearing the trench,” Jack said. “We must hurry — they won’t take any chances — they’ll just assume we’re the enemy…”

  At last, Pendelshape lifted his head and slid Angus’s time phone across the table, keeping the other for himself.

  He had a sad look in his eyes, “It’s recoded. You can go home.”

  “No funny business, right?” Angus said.

  Pendelshape looked resigned and shrugged, “No. I am disappointed, and your father will be too, Jack. We may not see each other again. Certainly not for double history.”

  Jack flipped open the time phone. The bar was still shining bright yellow.

  The British voices were now very close.

  “In there, Corporal! I heard someone!”

  “Any grenades left, Jim?” There was a pause. “Good — just chuck it in!”

  The door to the bunker flew open and a grenade rolled menacingly across the floor towards them.

  Angus moved close to Jack so that they were both touching the time phone. Jack put an arm round his friend’s shoulders and stabbed the time phone with his thumb. There was a flash as the grenade exploded.

  Rising Son

  Jack looked up at the massive dinosaur. Two eye sockets, way above, leered down at him from a large white skull. If the creature had still been in possession of its prehistoric eyes, maybe it would have winked at him, knowingly. Instead the vast skull and the huge skeleton, to which it was attached, hung there lifelessly — a monument to past glory. Normally, Jack liked this place. Particularly the dinosaur exhibit. The Royal Edinburgh Museum. He liked its open spaces and polished floors and the hushed voices that would echo through the exhibition halls. You could happily wander around for hours, lost to the world. But today, he knew there would be no time for that.

  “So why did we end up here?” Angus asked for about the fifth time.

  “I told you — no idea. Just be grateful that the grenade didn’t get us before we escaped and we got back to approximately the right time and location.”

  “Close one. Do you think Pendelshape made it?”

  “I should think so. He pressed at the same time as us.”

  “Wonder if w
e’ll see him again,” Angus said ruefully.

  Jack sniffed, “Wonder if I’ll ever see my dad again.”

  “Sorry Jack — you know what I mean.”

  “Sure. No matter.”

  The clock at the end of the large entrance hall struck seven p.m. In thirty minutes the museum would close for the evening.

  “Where are they? They should be here by now.”

  The Taurus had dumped Jack and Angus in the toilets of the Royal Edinburgh Museum — thoughtfully the Gents and not the Ladies. It took them a little while to work out where, and when, they were. Finally, they made it to the large marble-floored reception area. The calendar indicated 14th October. Only the day after he had made his original fateful decision to use the Taurus to escape the Rector back at the school.

  The receptionist did not quite know what to think of the two mud-caked teenagers, but she allowed them to use the phone. Jack called his mum. He could tell that she was immensely relieved to hear from him, and now she and VIGIL were on their way. They waited patiently in the hall, trying, with difficulty, to look inconspicuous.

  Jack spotted his mum first. She was running towards him, arms outstretched and soon he was in her arms. Close behind followed the Rector who was smiling broadly and then his two old friends, Tony and Gordon, who stood back at a respectful distance. Thankfully, they were in their janitor’s uniforms and unarmed — assault rifles weren’t generally permitted inside the Royal Edinburgh Museum.

  Soon they were aboard the school minibus speeding back home. It seemed a rather modest form of transport, compared to what they had been used to. And now their lives would be one long secret — to keep the mystery of the school, the extraordinary technology within it and the powerful people entrusted with its control — carefully hidden from the rest of the world.

  In the back seat, Jack and Angus were wedged between the large frames of Tony and Gordon. Angus had dropped off to sleep. As they sped along, Tony punched Jack in the upper arm, with, Jack thought, rather more force than was necessary. In fact, it hurt. He looked up at Tony and his glare was returned with a wide, yellow-toothed grin.