by Alex Scarrow
Time Riders
( Time Riders - 1 )
Alex Scarrow
Alex Scarrow
Time Riders
CHAPTER 1
1912, Atlantic Ocean
‘Anyone left here on deck E?’ cried Liam O’Connor. His voiceechoed down the narrow passageway, bouncing off the metal walls. ‘Anyone downhere?’
It was silent save for the muffled cries and clatter of hasty footsteps coming from the deckabove and the deep mournful creak of the ship’s hull, stressing and stretching as thebow end of the ship slowly dipped below the ocean’s surface.
Liam braced himself against the gradually steepening angle of the floor, holding on to thedoorframe of the cabin beside him. The chief steward’s instructions had been clear- to ensure every cabin at this end of the deck was empty before coming up and joininghim.
He wasn’t sure he wanted to; the screaming and wailing of women and children that hecould hear coming down the stairwell from above sounded shrill and terrifying. At least hereon deck E, amid the second-class cabins, there was an eerie sense of peace. Not quite silent,though. Far away, he could hear a deep rumble and knew it was the sound of the freezing oceancascading into the stricken ship, roaring through open bulkheads, gradually pulling herdown.
‘Last call!’ he cried out again.
A few minutes ago he had roused a young mother and her daughter cowering in one of the cabinswearing their life jackets. The woman was paralysed with fear, trembling onher bed with her daughter wrapped in her arms. Liam ushered them out and led them to thestairs to deck D. The little girl had quickly kissed his cheek and wished him luck as theyparted on the stairwell, as if — unlike her confused mother — she understood theywere all doomed.
He could feel the angle of the floor increasing beneath his unsteady feet. From the top ofthe passage he heard the crash of crockery tumbling from shelves in the steward’sroom.
She’ll be going under soon.
Liam uttered a quick, whispered prayer and craned his neck into one last cabin. Empty.
A loud groan rippled through the floor; it vibrated like the song of a giant whale — hefelt it more than heard it. His eyes were drawn to something flashing past the cabin’ssmall porthole. He saw nothing but darkness, then the fleeting quicksilver flutter of bubblesracing past.
Deck E’s below the water line.
‘Sod this,’ he muttered. ‘I’m done here.’
He stepped back out into the passageway and saw at the end a ripple of water only an inch ortwo deep, gently lapping up along the carpeted floor towards him.
‘Oh no.’
The lower end of the passage was his only way out.
You stayed too long, Liam, you fool. You stayed too long.
He realized now the girl and her mother had been his fateful warning to get out. He shouldhave left with them.
The ice-cold water met his feet, trickled into his shoes and rolled effortlessly past him. Hetook several steps forward, wading deeper into the water, feeling its freezing embrace aroundhis ankles, his shins, his knees. Up ahead, round the bend at the end of the passage, was thestairwell he should’ve been climbing five minutes ago. He pressedforward, whimpering with agony as the icy water rose round his waist and soaked through hiswhite steward’s tunic. His breath puffed past chattering teeth in clouds of vapour as hestruggled forward.
‘Ah J-Jayzzzusss an’ Holy Mary… I d-don’twant to drown!’ he hissed, his voice no longer the recently broken timbre of asixteen-year-old, but the strangled whimper of a frightened child.
It was getting too deep to wade now. Ahead of him, where the passage turned right for thestairwell, the water had reached the wall lights, causing them to spark and flicker.
The stairwell’s probably flooded.
He realized that round the corner the water had to be lapping the ceiling and at least oneflight of the stairs would be completely submerged by now. His only way out would be to holdhis breath and hope it would last long enough for him to fumble his way up that first flightto the landing.
‘Ah J-J-Jay-zus!’ His blue lips trembled at thethought of floundering in the darkness, beneath the surface — losing his way, feelingthe growing desperation and then finally sucking churning seawater into his lungs.
It was then he heard it — the sound of movement from behind him.
CHAPTER 2
1912, Atlantic Ocean
He turned to look up the passageway and saw a man standing ankle-deep in the water,holding on to a wall rail to prevent himself tumbling down the passage towards him.
‘Liam O’Connor!’
‘We’re s-stuck!’ Liam replied. ‘There’s no… there’sno way out!’ His voice sounded shrill.
‘Liam O’Connor,’ the man said again, his voice calm.
‘What?’
‘I know who you are, lad.’
‘Whuh?… We need to — ’
The man smiled. ‘Listen, Liam.’ He looked at his watch. ‘You have justunder two minutes left to live.’ The man looked around at the vanilla-coloured metalbulkheads of deck E. ‘This ship’s spine will snap in about ninety seconds.She’ll break two thirds of the way along. The bow end, the larger section, the bit youand I are in, will sink first — like a stone. The stern will bob for another minute andfollow us down, one and a half miles to the bottom of the ocean.’
‘Ah, p-please no. No, no, no,’ Liam whimpered, realizing that he was crying.
‘As we sink, the water pressure will quickly mount. The hull will buckle under it. Theair pressure will burst your eardrums. The rivets in these walls,’ hesaid, running his hand over a row of them, ‘will fire out of the bulkheads like bullets.This passage will instantly fill with water and you’ll be crushed before you can drown.That’s at least a small mercy.’
‘Oh Jay-zus, no… H-help us.’
‘You’ll die, Liam.’ The man smiled again. ‘And that makes you perfect.’
‘P-perfect?’
The man took several steps forward, wading waist-deep into the water towards Liam.
‘Tell me, do you want to live?’
‘What?… Is th-there another w-way out?’
The lights in the passageway flickered out in unison. Then a moment later came back on.
‘Sixty seconds until she buckles, Liam. Not long now.’
‘Is th-there another w-way out of — ?’
‘If you come with me, Liam,’ he said, holding out a hand, ‘there is anotherway. You’ll live an invisible life. You’ll exist as a phantom, never quite in thisworld of ours. Never able to make new friends, never able to find love.’ The mansoftened that with a sympathetic smile. ‘You’ll learn about things that… well… that can ultimately lead to madness if you let itmess with your mind. Some people choose death.’
‘I w-want to live!’
‘I must warn you… I’m not offering you your life, Liam. I’m offering you a way out, that’s all.’
Liam grabbed hold of the candelabra of a flickering wall light and pulled himself backwardsup the slanting passage, his feet finding the floor once more. A shuddering groan rippledaround them — deafening.
‘She’s dying, Liam. The Titanic’s back is goingto break in just a few seconds. If you believe in God, you might wish to joinhim now. If you stay here, I assure you, it’ll all be over very quickly foryou.’
Drowning. It was Liam’s worst nightmare — for as farback as he could remember. He’d never learned to swim because of his terrible fear ofwater.
Liam looked up at the man, looking at his face for the first time: deep sad eyes surroundedby wrinkles of age. And then a thought occurred to him.
‘Are you… are y-you an a-angel?’
He smiled. ‘No. I’m just an old man.’ His hand remained steady
,outstretched towards Liam. ‘I’d understand if you chose to stay and die. Noteveryone decides they want to come.’
Liam felt a shudder. The floor beneath his feet convulsed and the air around them was filledwith the shriek of tearing sheet metal, the pop of unbuckling seams, as deck after deck abovethem began to give way one after the other.
‘Here it is, Liam. We’ve arrived at decision time.’
Liam pulled himself forward, up out of the water, desperately reaching out for the oldman’s proffered hand. If there was time, if his mind wasn’t in a free fall ofpanic, he might have wondered who this man was, and how exactly he intended to save them both.Instead, right now, he could think only one thing.
I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die.
The lights suddenly winked out, leaving them in complete darkness.
Liam flailed with his arm blindly. ‘Where’s your hand? Please! I don’t wantto drown!’
His fingers brushed the old man’s. The old man caught it and held on.
‘Say goodbye to your life, Liam,’ he shouted above the thunderous din of the shipsplitting in two.
The last sensation that Liam was aware of was the vibrating metal floor ofthe passageway beneath his feet giving way, and falling… falling through darkness.
CHAPTER 3
2001, New York
Falling, falling… falling.
Liam jerked awake, his legs kicking out. His eyes still clamped shut, he felt with his hands- material, dry and warm covering him. It was quiet, almost silent, except for the softrustle of breathing next to him, and a distant muted rumble somewhere far above him. He knewthat he was mysteriously somewhere else — that much wasobvious.
He was on a bed or a cot. He opened his eyes to see an arched ceiling of crumbling bricksabove him, whitewashed long ago with paint that was now flaking off like dandruff. From thetop of the arched ceiling a single flickering light bulb dangled from a dusty flex ofcable.
He lifted himself up on to his elbows.
He was in a brick alcove, somewhere underground, perhaps. Beyond the pool of light comingfrom the bulb above, a damp concrete floor spread out from the alcove into darkness.
Where am I?
He sat up, feeling groggy and light-headed, and found himself looking across a gap of threefeet at a bunk bed. In the lower bunk, he could see a girl a few years older than him stirringin an uneasy sleep. He guessed she might be eighteen, perhaps nineteen. More a young womanthan a girl.
Her eyes rolled beneath the lids; her voice whimpered pathetically. Her legstwitched and kicked, making the bunk squeak and rattle with every lurched movement.
Where the hell am I? he silently asked himself again.
CHAPTER 4
2010, somewhere above America
Maddy Carter reached round awkwardly and hit the flush button. The toilet hissedwith a vicious suction and for a moment she wondered whether a person unlucky enough toaccidentally snag the button while still sitting on the seat might be sucked down the u-bendand blasted out at forty thousand feet to free fall amid a shower of turds.
Nice thought.
Maddy cleaned herself up as best she could within the cramped confines of the toilet cubicle.She stared down at the last of the vomit swirling round the toilet basin and down the hole,feeling better now that the aeroplane meal was out rather than still churning in her gut.
She wiped her mouth dry with the back of her hand and checked in the mirror for any telltaleblobs of puke caught in her hair. A tall, gawky, pale-faced girl stared back at her; nerdyfreckles she hated so much dappled across her cheeks beneath the frames of her glasses. Herstrawberry-blonde hair dangled lifelessly to her skinny shoulders, on which hung a drab greyT-shirt with the Microsoft logo stitched on the front.
Yeah, one hundred per cent geek. That’s what you are,Maddy.
A geek-ette… something of an oddity; a female into messing around with circuit boards,tricking-up her PC, hacking her iPhone to give her free internet access… a girl-geek. Agirl-geek who got the screaming terrors everytime she boarded a plane.
She unlocked the door, popped it open and stepped out. Her eyes glanced up the central aisleof the plane at a sea of headrests and the bobbing forms of several hundred heads.
She felt a hand on her shoulder and spun round to see an old man standing beside the bank oftoilet cubicles.
‘Uh? What?’ she said, removing small hissing headphones from her ears.
‘You’re Madelaine Carter from Boston. Booked into seat twenty-nine D.’
She stared at him, bemused. ‘What? You want to see my ticket or — ?’
‘I’m afraid you’ve got only a few minutes left to live.’
She felt her stomach lurch, getting ready to eject another torrent of half-digested food. Aphrase like ‘a few minutes left to live’ was the last thing a nervous flyer likeher needed to hear right now. It ranked alongside words like ‘terrorist’ and‘bomb’ as something one should never utter on a packed passenger planemid-flight.
The old man had the harried look of someone running late to catch a train.
‘In a few minutes everyone on this plane will be dead.’
She figured there were only two types of person who might say something like that: a completewhacko in need of medication or…
‘Oh my God,’ she whispered, ‘you… you’re not at-terrorist?’
‘No. I’m here to rescue you, Madelaine,’ he spoke quietly, then cast aglance at the sea of heads either side of the aisle, ‘but only you, I’mafraid.’
She shook her head. ‘What?… Who? I… uh — ’ Her mouth wasflapping pointlessly.
‘There’s not much time.’ He looked at a wristwatch. ‘In about ninetyseconds a small explosive charge will detonate midway along the right side ofthe plane. The explosion will knock a hole through the fuselage, the plane will instantlydecompress and roll into a steep dive. Twenty seconds later the starboard wing will sheer off,filling the inside of the plane with aviation fuel, which will ignite.’ He sighed.‘The impact with the woodland below thirty-seven seconds later will kill those whohaven’t already been incinerated.’
Maddy felt the blood drain from her face.
‘I’m sorry,’ he added, ‘but I’m afraid no one will survivethis.’
‘Uh… this is… this is some kind of sick joke, right?’
‘No joke.’ He continued: ‘You alone have achoice. You can choose to live.’
He’s serious. And something about him told her hewasn’t on meds. She found herself gasping, instinctively reaching for her inhaler.‘N-ninety s-seconds? A bomb goes off?’
‘Less than that now.’
Not a whacko, then…
‘Oh God, it’s your b-bomb. What do you want fromus?’
‘No, it’s not mine, and I’m not a terrorist. I just happen to know thisplane will be destroyed by a device. A terrorist group will claim responsibility for ittomorrow morning.’
‘Is there t-time? Could w-we find the bomb and throw itoff?’ she asked, her voice raised in panic. She’d said the ‘b’ alittle too loud and it had carried forward. Several heads up the aisle turned quickly to lookback at her.
He shook his head. ‘Even if there was time, I can’t change events. I can’tchange history. This plane has to go down.’
‘Oh God,’ she whimpered.
‘The only thing I can do is take you off before it does.’
She looked up the plane. More heads were turning. She could hear a rising ripple of voicesand the word ‘bomb’ as a whispered tidal wave rolled from seat row to seatrow.
‘If you take my hand,’ he said, offering it to her,‘you’ll live. And in return I’ll ask for your help. Or you can stay. You getto choose, Madelaine.’
Maddy realized there were tears of panic rolling down her cheeks. The man seemed sane. Seemedcalm. Seemed deadly serious. And yet… how could anyone betaken off this plane mid-flight?
‘I know you don’t believe in God,’ he said. ‘I’ve read yourfile. I know you
’re an atheist. So I won’t try to tell you I’m an angel. Iknow you have a fear of heights, that you’re not great on planes either. I know yourfavourite drink is Dr Pepper, I know you have a recurring nightmare about falling from ayellow-painted tree house… I know so many more things about you.’
She frowned. ‘How… how do you know th-that?’
He looked down at his watch. ‘You have thirty seconds left.’
A stewardess was now striding down the aisle towards them, her eyes widened with concern.
‘I know you’re an avid reader of science fiction, Madelaine, so perhapsit’ll be easier for you to understand if I tell you I’m from thefuture.’
Her mouth opened and closed. ‘But… but that’s impossible!’
‘Time travel will become possible in about forty years’ time.’ His handextended towards her. She looked down at it uncertainly.
‘Twenty seconds, Madelaine. Take my hand.’
She looked up at his lined face. ‘Why? Why — ?’
‘Why you?’
She nodded.
‘You fit the skill profile exactly.’
She swallowed nervously, felt her breathing becoming laboured and erratic. Confused,panic-stricken, unable to think of a useful next question.
‘We need you,’ he said, looking at his watch. ‘Fifteenseconds. It’s time to decide.’
‘Wh-who are y-you?’
‘I… or I should say we… are the people who fixbroken things. Now, take my hand, Madelaine. Take it now!’
Instinctively, she stretched out towards him.
A stewardess pulled up a few feet short of them. ‘Excuse me,’ she cut in,‘someone has reported the pair of you loudly using the “B” word… bomb.’ She whispered the word quietly. ‘I’m sorrybut you just can’t use language like that on a passenger plane.’
The old man looked up at her and smiled sadly. ‘No… I’m the one who’s sorry, ma’am. I truly am.’
Maddy looked at him. ‘This is for real?’