Continuum: Time Rep

by Peter Ward

  “I don’t believe it,” Eric said. “That little—”

  At that moment, the curtain surrounding Geoff’s bed was pulled back by the man who had run off earlier. He was accompanied by twenty or so men and women, all wearing white coats.

  “Out of this man’s way!” Eric said, pulling Geoff out of the bed and helping him to his feet. “He needs to get to a phone right away!”

  Thirteen

  Eric escorted Geoff over to a small office on the other side of the ward. Inside the office there was a small desk, a rather uncomfortable-looking chair, a clock on the wall that had just struck quarter to twelve, and a phone.

  “You make your call,” Eric said, holding the door open. “I’ll keep the doctors busy.” And with that, he left Geoff alone, closing the door behind him.

  Geoff sat down behind the desk, shifting his weight around to try and find a comfortable position to be sitting in. When he realized that wasn’t going to be possible, he picked up the phone, held the receiver to his ear, and dialed Tim’s number.

  After three rings, Tim answered.

  “Good afternoon, Tim Burnell speaking,” he said.

  “Tim?” Geoff said. “It’s me!”

  The other end of the phone went quiet for a few seconds. If Geoff remembered rightly, this was the bit where Tim had turned to him and said “It’s you,” and he’d misheard him say “It’s Hugh,” and they had to clear all that up.

  The next thing he heard was his own voice shouting down the phone. “ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”

  “Tim,” Geoff said, “I’ve remembered everything! The reason Continuum are—”

  “Geoff, hold on a minute. I’ve got the other Geoff here as well. Are you sure it’s okay to talk like this with him here?”

  “Yes, it’s fine. I remember being in the room the whole time while you had this conversation with me, so it should be fine.”

  “I see,” Tim said. Geoff then heard him say to his past self, “He says he remembers being in the room when I was on the phone with his future self, so it must be okay for you to be here now.”

  “So I can stay?” he heard himself say in the background.

  “Apparently.”

  “Oh, hold on a second,” Geoff said. “You told me to sit down on the other side of the room, so I probably should ask you to make me do that.”

  “But he says I told you to sit down over there,” Tim said.

  “Okay,” he heard himself say.

  There was a moment of silence. Presumably, this was the moment when he trying not to sit down at all.

  “Tim—tell Geoff I’ll talk to him later,” Geoff said.

  He listened to Tim and Geoff argue in the background about whether Geoff should sit down or not, before Tim’s voice finally came back on the phone.

  “Okay,” Tim said. “You can talk now.”

  “You know how it didn’t make sense why Continuum wanted to hire Time Reps? Well, I went to their offices to find out what they were up to, pretending I was there for a job interview. You were right, Tim—Continuum isn’t interested in employing any of us to be Time Reps at all! The only reason they want to recruit us is to steal everyone away from Time Tours, and put you out of business.”

  “Who told you this?” Tim said.

  “Jennifer Adams.”

  “You met with Jennifer Adams herself?”

  “That’s right,” Geoff said. “And she told me everything.”

  “I knew it,” Tim said. “So what did they ask you to do for them instead?”

  “Nothing,” Geoff said.

  “Nothing?”

  “She just gave me one of those Sat-Nav things, and said I could go back and live the rest of my life inside the Continuum experience, changing whatever I liked.”

  “I see,” Tim said. “So what happened next?”

  Geoff explained everything.

  “That bloody…” Tim trailed off. “Well, that certainly explains everything,” he said. “But how come—”

  “I know, I know,” Geoff said. “If they wanted to get rid of me, why did they only send me back one day, giving me a chance to warn you? Why didn’t they send me somewhere like the distant future, where I couldn’t do any harm? I’m afraid I don’t know the answer to that.”

  “I see,” Tim said eventually. “Well, I think you and I need to get over there right away, don’t you?”

  “No, not yet,” Geoff said. “First of all, we need to let your Geoff go to Continuum and find all this out for himself. If we don’t, I won’t be here to tell you all this, and we’ll have one of those nasty paradox things.”

  “Of course—you’re right,” Tim said. “We need to let your past self do his thing first, otherwise you won’t be speaking to me now. Good thinking.”

  Suddenly, Geoff heard his own voice down the other end of the phone. “Okay,” it said. “I’ve had just about as much of this as I can take. Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Geoff,” Tim said. “Your past self has lost his temper over here. Didn’t you say you were going to speak with yourself?”

  “I guess I did,” Geoff said. “Look, can you come and pick me up? I’m not sure where I am exactly—some sort of hospital, I think, but we need to make sure we’re there to apprehend Jennifer Adams the moment one of her goons shoots me in the back on Tower Bridge.”

  “Okay,” Tim replied. “After I send Geoff to Continuum, I’ll come and pick you up from the hospital.”

  “Also, do you think it might be worth going to the police?” Geoff said. “These guys were all armed with those weird guns, so it would probably be a good idea to have some backup rather than just turning up and saying, ‘Hey! Stop it!’”

  “Good thinking,” Tim said. “After I come and get you, we’ll go over there and explain the situation. Hopefully they should be able to help us.”

  “Okay. Ooh—and one other thing—can you get me a Coke? I’m really thirsty.”

  “Uh…sure.”

  “You won’t forget?”

  “No, I won’t forget! Look, here’s Geoff for you.”

  Geoff swallowed. This was the part of the phone call he was dreading.

  He wasn’t so much bothered about telling himself not to save Zoë.

  He just hated listening to the sound of his own voice.

  Fourteen

  It wasn’t long after Geoff had gotten off the phone to himself that Tim turned up to take him to the police station. Geoff was so hyped up by the time they arrived, he half expected them to devote every officer in the city to help apprehend Jennifer Adams once he’d explained what she was up to. Unfortunately, their reaction to him trying to report a crime that hadn’t been committed yet actually turned out to be one of slight bafflement. It didn’t help that the officer at the front desk wasn’t really taking them that seriously, but then who could blame him? Geoff’s story was about as believable as the time he’d tried to convince Tim he could give up tea for lent.

  He’d lasted eight minutes.

  “Let’s go through this one more time,” the officer said, raising his elbows onto the desk and propping up his head in his hands. They’d been going through this for at least two hours now. The officer was red-faced and quite overweight, his greasy hair mopped over his head like a drooping weed. His uniform didn’t look like it was particularly comfortable, and bulged in odd places as though his body were a balloon that had been overinflated.

  “There really isn’t time for this!” Geoff said, looking down at his watch. It had just gone three o’clock. “Don’t you understand? In less than half an hour, someone is going to try and kill me!”

  “You don’t say,” the officer sighed, his eyes heavy. “That’s terrible.”

  “I don’t know how many more ways we can explain the situation, officer,” said Tim, who had been able to keep a little more calm than Geoff over the course of the conversation. “Like we said, at three thirty this afternoon, someone from Continuum is going to attempt to murder my friend here. Th
at’s all there is to it.”

  “And who would that be again?”

  “I already told you—I don’t know,” Geoff said. “I didn’t see the shooter, but it was definitely someone from Continuum.”

  “You didn’t see the shooter?”

  “Not exactly.”

  “And why is that?”

  “My vision was blurred.”

  “Your vision was blurred.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And why was it blurred?”

  “Because these people drugged me!”

  “So you were on drugs at the time?” the officer said.

  “Yes!” Geoff said. “I mean no! I don’t know what they gave me! All I know is that they held me down and forced me to swallow a pill.”

  “They forced you to swallow a pill.”

  “Yes!”

  “What was the pill? Ecstasy?”

  “No!”

  “Speed?”

  “No!”

  “Aspirin?”

  “Look, all I know is that whatever they gave me, it made me really dizzy!”

  “And it erased your memory,” Tim said.

  “That’s right,” Geoff said. “It also erased my memory.”

  “So if you were forced to swallow a pill that made you lose your memory, how come you remember swallowing it?”

  “Our team of doctors at Time Tours were able to provide an antidote,” Tim said. “If they hadn’t, Geoff would have been a gibbering wreck by now.”

  “Uh-huh,” the officer said. “A gibbering wreck, you say?”

  “That’s right.”

  “And you’re sure this antidote worked?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Geoff said.

  The officer leaned back in his chair and rested his feet up on his desk.

  “Look at this situation from my perspective for a moment, boys,” he said. “It’s a quiet afternoon. You are sitting behind this nice desk, doing the crossword in the paper. Twelve down is proving a bit tricky, but otherwise the afternoon hasn’t been that taxing. Then all of a sudden, two guys show up. They say that they are here to report an attempted murder, except the victim looks fine, they don’t know who the shooter is, they don’t know the type of gun used, they admit to being on drugs at the time, and best of all, the crime hasn’t happened yet. That’s not exactly the sort of thing you want to be rushing into the captain’s office with, now, is it?”

  “Look, I know how crazy this must sound,” Geoff said, “but I’m not making it up! Jennifer Adams is dangerous! You have to arrest her!”

  “For the last time,” the officer said, “we can’t just go up to one of the world’s most successful businesswomen and arrest her! What’s the charge?”

  “Attempted murder!”

  “But you said you don’t know who shot you!”

  “Okay then—assault!”

  “You mean the assault where you remember being forced to swallow a pill that made you lose your memory?”

  “Conspiring to wipe out the human race!”

  “That’s not even a charge!” the officer said, “And I think I’ve just about had enough of this.”

  “How about this,” Geoff said. “Did I mention there was this old guy who stole my tie?” He pointed at the absence of a tie hanging around his neck, as if this somehow proved it had been stolen.

  “What?”

  “While I was trying to escape from the Continuum building, this crazy man ripped my tie off of me and started dancing around, holding it over his head! I’d be wearing that right now if it wasn’t for him!”

  “So?”

  “So that’s theft, right? Can’t you arrest them for theft?”

  “Tie theft?”

  “Yeah!”

  “You want me to arrest one of the most successful businesswomen in the world because someone in her building stole your tie?”

  “That’s right.”

  The officer’s face was starting to go a little more red. “You have exactly ten seconds to leave before I arrest you for wasting police time,” he said.

  “But—”

  “Ten!” The officer said, beginning his countdown.

  “Please!” Geoff said.

  “Nine!”

  “Geoff, forget it,” Tim said. “We’re just going to have to deal with this situation ourselves.”

  • • •

  Unfortunately, the delay at the police station meant that Tim and Geoff hadn’t had a chance to work out what they were going to do when they arrived at the Continuum building. In fact, by the time they had found a parking space that was reasonably enough priced so that you didn’t need to take out a small mortgage for the parking meter, there were only a couple of minutes to spare before Geoff knew he would see himself step out of those revolving doors and get wrestled to the ground by William Boyle.

  They hid behind a large tree on the other side of the road from the Continuum building and waited.

  “You know that man whole stole your tie?” Tim said while they waited for Geoff to emerge.

  “Yeah?”

  “How old would you say he was?”

  “I don’t know,” Geoff replied. “Late forties, early fifties. He wasn’t in great shape, so it was hard to tell. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason. I’m wondering if that might have been the scientist who used to work for Time Tours. The one she’s supposed to have convinced to leave with her and set up Continuum.”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Geoff said. “But if that was the kind of person she wanted working for her, it’s a miracle Continuum ever became successful. I mean, dancing with my tie over his head like he’d just won a gold medal? That guy was bonkers.”

  “Well, you know what they say,” Tim said. “The difference between genius and insanity is measured only by success.”

  “And by whether or not you like stealing random items of clothing and dancing around with them over your head,” Geoff added.

  “I suppose there’s that too.”

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” Geoff whispered.

  “I have no idea,” Tim said. “I think we’re going to have to make this up as we go along. One thing is for certain, though—until you get shot and sent back in time, we mustn’t interfere with anything that happens. If we do, it’s paradox city, population: us. After that, though, it’s fair game. I say we wait for the right opportunity, then try and apprehend Jennifer Adams somehow.”

  “How do you apprehend someone?” Geoff said. “I’ve never done that before.”

  “Me neither,” Tim said. “But it can’t be too difficult, can it?”

  “Look!” Geoff said, pointing toward the revolving doors.

  Tim stopped talking and looked around.

  The past version of Geoff had just stepped outside, holding a hand up to his face to shield his eyes from the light. He looked around for a few seconds and began to make a run for it; however, in the time it had taken him to get his bearings, William Boyle had managed to catch up with him and wrestle him to the ground, grabbing his legs in a swift rugby tackle and throwing him to the ground. Geoff struggled not to look away as he watched William flip his past self onto his back, pressing the side of his face against the pavement.

  “Hold still,” he heard William say as a number of passersby began to gather round. After a brief exchange of words between the two of them, he watched William’s smile fade. This must have been the moment he’d tried to warn William that one day he would fall foul of Continuum.

  Suddenly Geoff had a thought. William had appeared totally comfortable working for Continuum until Geoff had placed that seed of doubt in his mind. What if William had gotten in trouble with Continuum because of what Geoff had told him?

  He didn’t have time to give that much thought, though, as before he knew it, Jennifer Adams had emerged from the revolving doors, followed by the other men.

  It wasn’t long before William had dug his knee into Geoff’s stomach, the men had cleared a perimeter aro
und them, and Jennifer was trying to force him to swallow the pill.

  Geoff watched as his past self tried to resist opening his mouth.

  At that moment, he felt Tim tap him on the shoulder.

  “You know, I’ve just had a thought,” Tim said. “You remember the person that rescued you at this point?”

  “Yes?”

  “What if that was me?”

  “What?” Geoff said, watching as his past self was forced to open his mouth to breathe, allowing Jennifer to drop the pill inside. This was very uncomfortable to watch.

  “Didn’t you say the person said ‘Run, Geoff!’?”

  “Yes.”

  “Not ‘Geoffrey,’ but ‘Geoff’?”

  “Yes.”

  “So this person knew your name?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Tim said, running toward the crowd.

  “Where are you going?” Geoff shouted. In front of them, William was just lifting his knee off of his past self’s chest to help him up.

  “Remember what I said about not interfering with this course of events?” Tim called back to Geoff, pushing through the crowd.

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, ignore that! Interfere as much as you like!”

  And with that, Tim slammed into William’s side, sending him flying into a wall.

  “Run, Geoff!” Tim said to Geoff’s past self.

  Geoff watched as his past self leapt to his feet and did exactly as he was told, running away from everyone as fast as he could.

  “Stop him!” he heard Jennifer shout. “Shoot him if you have to, but we can’t let him get away!”

  Unfortunately, his past self didn’t really look like he could see where he was going, and this suspicion was confirmed when he ran right across a busy road, narrowly avoiding lane after lane of fast-moving traffic. Geoff could barely watch as cars on either side of the road swerved to avoid him, slamming on their brakes, and all around, drivers honked their horns in that way people do when they want to make it sound as though their car is very angry about something.