by Alex Scarrow
‘My God,’ was all he could whisper. ‘They were still alive when you foundthem?’
Karl nodded, grim faced.
Kramer felt his stomach loosen, but he refused to vomit or retch in front of Karl. The manneeded to see a confident and strong leader, not someone who doubled over at the firstunpleasant sight.
‘We knew this might happen,’ said Kramer, ‘that Waldstein’s prototypemight be prone to error.’
Put a brave face on it, Paul Kramer, he commanded himself.
‘We were lucky to lose only two men, Karl. Only two.’
‘Yes, sir.’
‘Well, there’ll be no more time travelling now; we’re done with that.We’re where we want to be.’
Karl nodded and managed a weak smile.
‘Germany, fifteenth of April… 1941.’ Kramer nodded at the crest of a nearbyhill, now bathed in the cool, silver glow of moonlight. ‘Destiny is waiting for us upthere, Karl.’
Karl grinned eagerly. ‘We will succeed, won’t we?’
Kramer nodded. ‘Yes… we will.’
CHAPTER 25
2001, New York
Maddy looked at Foster incredulously. ‘We’re going to do what?’
‘I said, this morning we’re going to deliberatelychange history.’
Liam, Sal and Maddy stared at him in silence over their bowls of Rice Krispies. Bob, sittingbetween Sal and Liam, observed them and Foster thoughtfully.
‘Liam,’ said Foster, ‘today’s going to be your first trip back intothe past. You and Bob are both going together.’
Bob’s thick lips managed a clumsy ill-practised smile that looked more like a camelchewing. ‘Is good,’ his deep voice rumbled.
‘And you?’ asked Liam.
‘Yes, I’m coming along too.’
‘Where are we going?’
The old man raised a finger. ‘A-hah… now that’s a secret. The point of thisexercise will be to test Maddy and Sal’s ability to find out exactly where we’vegone, and what we might have changed.’
‘But…’ said Liam, looking confused, ‘but I thought we’re not allowed to change history, you know… at all.’
Bob nodded slowly. ‘Changing history is bad.’
‘It’s what we call a test-bed location,’ Foster replied. ‘We use thislittle piece of history to test out new teams all the time. Don’t worry. We’ll bechanging something for a short period of time only, then putting things backexactly as they were.’
‘How long will you be gone?’ asked Sal. ‘Will it be dangerous?’
Foster smiled. ‘Not at all. And we’ll actually be in the past for a very shorttime. I’ve set the computer up to automatically open the return window, so all you twohave to do is watch history and work out where we’ve gone.’
Liam looked across the archway towards the large perspex cylinder full of water. ‘Andwe’re going to be climbing into that?’
‘Oh yes, I’m afraid so.’
Foster leaned forward and placed a hand on Liam’s shoulder. ‘Don’t worry,we’ll warm it up a bit. I’m not that keen on jumping into a test tube of freezingwater either.’
Liam removed the last items of his clothing, leaving him wearing a pair of grubbyunderpants he realized he’d been wearing for far too long.
‘You better not be peeking!’
He heard Maddy laugh from the other side of the archway where she was sitting at thebreakfast table. ‘What’s to see?’
‘Stop being an idiot, Liam, and get in!’ snapped Foster.
Liam quickly scampered up a rung ladder, swung his legs over the side of the tube and intothe water. He lowered himself down and found himself facing Bob and Foster, both treadingwater.
‘Well now, this is fun,’ he said sarcastically, holding on to the side of thecylinder nervously.
‘Why is this fun, Liam O’Connor?’ asked Bob earnestly.
Liam shrugged. ‘It’s not every day I climb into a large fish bowl with-’
‘Be quiet and listen,’ Foster interrupted. ‘I set the computer to send us back in time automatically. We won’t need Maddy to set anyco-ordinates this time, but normally she would be in charge of co-ordinating this wholeprocess.’
Liam nodded, glancing at her faint foggy form through the scuffed milky plastic of thecylinder. He wasn’t sure how confident he was going to feel being zapped through historythe first time she had her fingers on the buttons.
‘For this exercise neither of the girls know where we’re being sent. We’llbe there for no more than an hour, then the computer will automatically bring us back. I havedownloaded the relevant history data into the support unit’s hard drive.’
‘Into Bob’s brain?’
‘Yes… into Bob’s brain.’
Liam looked at the muscular giant treading water beside him. ‘How’d you get theinformation in?’
‘Wireless. It’s transmitted.’ Foster turned to look at the muscular giant.‘What time are we heading back to, Bob?’
‘Twenty-second of November 1963.’
‘And where?’
‘Dallas, Texas, America.’
‘Good. How much time left before the displacement field activates, Bob?’
‘Fifty-eight seconds until launch.’
‘All right, then,’ said Foster, ‘any questions?’
‘Mr Foster, why exactly are we in our underwear and floating in a pool ofwater?’
‘Contamination protocol. We take as little as we can back with us. That’s why.The water is a neutral buoyancy solution so that when the portal activates, we’re touching absolutely nothing; we’re floating. The water, and us,alone, will go back in time — nothing else.’
‘I see.’
‘Twenty seconds until launch,’ said Bob.
‘When we count down from five, Liam, I want you to take a deep breath and submergeyourself completely,’ said Foster.
Liam swallowed nervously. The thought of letting go of the edge of the tube and allowinghimself to sink beneath the surface sent his heart thundering.
‘Uhh, Mr Foster, I suppose now’s not a good time to mention I never actuallylearned to swim. I… uh… I never — ’
‘I know,’ Foster sighed. ‘Relax. You’ll get used to it.’
Liam looked unhappily at the water. ‘But I… I’ll sink if I let go. Sinklike a bloody stone, so I will. I — ’
‘Don’t worry. You just need to hold your breath for ten, twenty seconds, andit’ll all be over.’
‘My head? My head actually… actually beneath thewater?’
‘Yes, head beneath the water.’
‘What if… what if I’m not actually completelyunder? Would that sort of do, Mr Foster? If I could just keep my face — ’
‘No. You need to be entirely within the water. Every bit of you. The field scanner willdetect if part of you is poking out and the launch will abort for safety reasons.’
‘And?’
‘And I’ll be very annoyed and we’ll have to try again.’
‘Oh.’
‘Information: ten seconds until launch,’ announced Bob.
Liam felt his breathing coming out in short nervous gasps. ‘I… I… I’mnot sure I can go through with this. I really — ’
‘You just hold your breath and let go of the side, Liam. Nothing to it.’
‘Information: five seconds until launch.’
‘No, seriously, Mr Foster… I… I really — ’
‘Bob,’ said Foster, ‘pull Liam under.’
The clone reached out a big hand and a second later Liam found himselfbeneath the surface with a mouthful of water, floundering and thrashing in a blind panic.
Sal’s mobile phone vibrated.
She pulled it out of her pocket and grimaced at the sight of the old-fashioned handset, anugly slab of shiny black plastic with the letters N-O-K-I-A stencilled at the top. Nothinglike the cool Earbud V3 mobile she used to own back in 2026. Shefelt embarrassed pulling this museum piece out of her pocket and self-conscious holding it upto her ea
r, until it occurred to her that everyone else’s mobile phones in 2001 lookedequally embarrassing.
She thumbed a button.
‘Hello?’
‘It’s Maddy. They went into the past about a minute ago. Where are younow?’
Sal looked around. She was on Broadway, heading north, just passing the intersection withWest 41st Street. ‘I’m approaching Times Square, I think… yeah, I see it upahead.’
‘So you… uh… you see anything weird yet?’
She shrugged. ‘Not really. It’s just like it looked last time I walked over here.Same sunny day, same people, same traffic.’
‘Hmm,’ replied Maddy, ‘not really sure what I’m meant to be doingback here. I’m looking at the Internet, the news pages and stuff. But I don’t knowwhat I’m looking for.’
Sal laughed nervously. ‘Me neither. I’m just taking a nice walk in the sun, Isuppose.’
‘And I’m just sitting here like an idiot, looking at a bank of monitors. You OK,Sal?’
It was a busy Monday morning. With the morning rush over and the commuters all tucked away intheir high-rise offices, it was mainly clusters of tourists, families and groups of friendstaking in the sights of the Big Apple.
Sal sighed. Some company would’ve been nice. Last time she’dstrolled this route a couple of bubble-days ago, Bob had been sentalong with her to get some more experience at passing as human. With his lumbering seven-footframe beside her, every inch racked with bulging muscle, she’d felt somewhat moreself-assured, accompanied by her own pet superhero bodyguard.
‘I guess I’m OK.’
CHAPTER 26
1963, Dallas, Texas
Liam landed heavily amid a tumbling cascade of water, splashing noisily as if abath tub had been emptied from the top of a short ladder.
He looked up and saw Foster on one side and Bob on the other, both on their hands and kneesin a large puddle that spread out swiftly. He looked around. He could see vehicles parked on atarmac area. They looked less modern, more angular than the cars he was used to seeing everyday in New York.
Bob was the first to his feet. He held out a hand each to Liam and Foster.
‘I help you,’ he rumbled.
Liam grabbed the hand and pulled himself up.
‘We need clothes quickly,’ said Foster, ‘before we attract any attention toourselves.’
Between a pick-up truck and a dusty-looking car there was a double door with a sign on it: BOOK DEPOSITORY — TRADE ENTRANCE ONLY.
‘In there,’ said Foster, ‘is a locker room. We’ll find some clotheson pegs.’
‘You sure?’
Foster grinned. ‘I’ve done this training trip a few times now.’
‘What if there are people in there?’ asked Liam, his hands hoveringself-consciously to cover his soaking underpants.
‘There aren’t. They’re all at the front of the buildingtrying to get a glimpse of the president’s limousine. It’ll be arriving in a fewminutes.’
Foster led the way across the parking area and pushed through the double doors. Inside, outof the bright morning sunlight, it was dim and smelled fusty from the stacks of schooltextbooks littering the floor in untidy piles.
‘To your right,’ said Foster.
They turned into a room lined with employee lockers and pegs on the wall opposite. At the endwas a lost-property box stuffed with odds and sods left over the years. Between them theyfound enough items of clothing to dress all three of them — although the only items thatcame close to fitting Bob were a pair of sandals, which his large toes drooped over the endof, and a set of scruffy navy blue overalls.
‘We look like three tramps,’ said Liam.
‘Perfect,’ said Foster, ‘no one’ll think twice about us.’
‘Mr Foster,’ said Liam quietly, ‘what’s about to happen?’
Foster turned to the support unit. ‘Tell Liam.’
Bob mentally extracted the relevant file from his recently installed database.‘Information: in precisely five minutes, thirty-two seconds, the thirty-fifth presidentof the United States of America, John F. Kennedy, will suffer a point-forty-one calibreprojectile impact to the throat, and a second to the top of the cranium, ejectingapproximately twenty-five per cent of his brain tissue.’
‘The man’s killed?’
Foster looked at him. ‘Have a guess.’
‘And what? We’re going to stop thishappening?’
Foster shrugged. ‘More like… delay it.’
2001, NewYork
Sal looked around Times Square. This was probably the eleventh or twelfth timeshe’d taken a walk up from Brooklyn across the Williamsburg Bridge, along Broadway tothe hub of the city teeming with endless life. There were so many things to observe in thisplace — so much going on. She honestly didn’t understand how she was supposed toremember every little detail here, how she was supposed to know exactly what should happen inthis thoroughfare from moment to moment at this time of day.
Her eyes scanned the major billboards. There was a giant display of a jolly green ogre andthe title SHREK above his head, and another board with some hairyblue monster and a little green ball-like creature beside him entitled Monsters Inc. Further along she saw a poster for the stage performance of somethingcalled Mamma Mia.
Then, with something that felt like a reassuring stroke of deja vu, Sal spotted theyoung mother in the red jeans pushing a buggy before her, across a pedestrian crossing.
Oh, that’s right… she’llhave to stop and pick up a soft toy.
A moment later she did, bending down irritably for it in the middle of the crossing andhanding it back to a pair of chubby hands reaching out desperately from the buggy’sseat.
That was a weird sensation.
She smiled.
‘Wow,’ she muttered, pleased with herself, ‘I just predicted thefuture.’
1963, Dallas,Texas
‘Up these stairs, one more flight to go,’ Foster wheezed.
Liam looked across the stairwell, through an open office door. He could see desks andbookshelves and filing cabinets left deserted. Crowded around every front window was a crushof office ladies in floral print dresses, sporting beehive hairdos, eagerly peering out.
‘What are we heading up these stairs for?’
Foster was too winded to answer. ‘Bob, would you…?’
The support unit nodded obediently. ‘Information: on the sixth floor of this buildingis a man called Lee Harvey Oswald. He will shoot at the thirty-fifth president of the UnitedStates of America in precisely one minute and twenty-seven seconds. Now, one minute andtwenty-six seconds…’
‘Uh… thanks, Bob,’ said Liam.
The thing managed a cumbersome approximation of a smile. ‘You are welcome, LiamO’Connor.’
As they reached the top of the stairs, Foster slowed down and put a finger to his lips. Hepointed through an open door into what appeared to be a storage room.
‘This is it,’ he whispered. ‘Through here, on the left, is a row of windowslooking down on to Dealey Plaza. Oswald, right now, has his gun resting on the sill of thesecond window along. In about thirty seconds — ’
‘Thirty-nine seconds, precisely,’ Bob cut in.
‘Bob, be quiet.’
Bob nodded meekly.
‘In about thirty seconds the president’s car will swing round a corner and intoview. The car will approach this building and when it’s virtually beneath him Oswaldwill fire the first shot as it passes. But this first shot,’ Fostercontinued quietly, ‘we’re actually going to prevent. Follow me.’
Foster walked through the door into the storeroom, Liam and Bob following cautiously. Theystepped between stacks of school textbooks, precariously piled on top of each other, coated ina fine layer of dust.
Liam glimpsed, between teetering piles, the hairy tuft of the top of a head framed by a tallwindow. He turned to Foster and Foster nodded.
That’s him.
They stepped across the floor quietly until they were standing
over him.
‘Excuse me,’ said Foster.
Lee Harvey Oswald spun round. His eyes widened at the sight of three tramps calmly watchinghim. One huge and muscular, one looked very old and the third was little more than a boy.
His mouth flapped open.
The muscular man wrenched the rifle from his hands.
‘Lee Harvey Oswald,’ said the old man calmly, ‘you’d better startrunning. Run as fast as you can,’ he said, offering the slightest sympathetic smile.‘I suggest you head home.’
‘Who… who are you?’
Foster smiled. ‘Hmm, let’s see. Oh, I know,’ he said, grinning,‘we’re the CIA. Anyway… you’d better get going or my man here willtoss you out of the window head first.’
Oswald nodded uncertainly as he got to his feet, looking Bob up and down. He pushed past themand disappeared out of the storage room, casting one last frightened and puzzled glance atthem as he descended the first flight of stairs, three steps at a time.
‘Time violation,’ cautioned Bob flatly. ‘This timeline has now beenaltered.’
Liam shook his head. ‘But… but have we not just done the thingwe’re never meant to do?’
Foster nodded. ‘Correct. As we speak, time is already shifting, rippling forwardthrough the years. The decades are adjusting themselves, making room for a new reality: thatPresident Kennedy survived today.’
The old man looked out of the window and watched the open-top limousine, escorted by a stringof motorbike cops, sweep sedately up the street towards an overpass… and a grassyhill.
CHAPTER 27
2001, New York
Sal was beginning to feel a little foolish now, standing at the intersection ofBroadway and West 44th Street watching the world go by. A sweet old woman had stopped onlymoments ago to ask whether she’d lost her mommy and daddy and needed to be taken to apoliceman.