by Alex Scarrow
This at least is life. Not a dead world any more.
The breeze freshens again.
The banners flutter, as if sensing something more is on its way.
Another shimmer.
Another change is coming, rippling forward through months, years, decades of time as eventsrealign, destinies change and possibilities find correct versions of themselves.
The wet grey sky slowly clears, the rain stops.
The pennants and banners vanish with a whisper, the placards disappear.
With a final flourish and twist of reality, Times Square becomes noisy, garish, busy,impatient, filled with rude people on mobile phones organizing their day ahead, jostling eachother for pavement space, queuing for breakfast bagels and Starbucks coffee.
A giant green ogre called Shrek peers out from a poster.
A homeless man pushing a shopping trolley full of cardboard boxes and topped with a tarpaulintakes a moment to sit down on a bench and watch the busy world go by.
A lovely blue sky. Unseasonably warm sun for this time of year… and the distant droneof an approaching plane on the far horizon.
CHAPTER 90
2001, New York
Maddy lay on her cot in the dark. Opposite, she could hear Foster’s labouredbreathing, the wheezy rattle of an unwell man.
All was quiet in the archway save for the drip of water from the brick ceiling somewhere outin the darkness. The generator had finally stopped thudding. She had lost track of how longthat had been now.
Hours… a dozen? More?
No power, no light. They’d used their last candle as they’d sat either side ofthe table and discussed their options should Liam and Bob fail. Not many options, if truth betold. The choices available to them boiled down to just one, really.
When to do it… when to use the last two rounds in theshotgun.
When they’d both be ready to admit that all was lost.
She’d not been foolish enough to let herself think this was actually going to work.That some foggily remembered date from an autobiography that should never have been writtenwould lead Liam and Bob right to the cause of all this? No.
That was the kind of unlikely happy ending that belonged on some cheesy TV show or somerubbish FX-laden blockbuster movie, the nick-of-time last-minute reprieve for the Good Guysthat you always knew was going to happen right from the moment theopening credits rolled.
Maddy’s face was buried in the pillow when the ceiling lights in thefield office winked silently on. Half asleep, it wasn’t until her ears registered thesoft hum of the machinery that maintained the time bubble quietly initializing itself that shestirred and turned her face to one side.
It took another long moment for her to realize the power had come back on. That the archwaywas bathed in a flickering clinical light.
Is this for real? Or am I dreaming?
She sat up quickly on her cot, almost banging her head against the rough springs of the bunkabove. And smiled.
It’s not a dream.
‘Foster!’
She reached across and shook his shoulder. ‘Foster!’
His rustling breath caught and with a moan of painful discomfort he roused and opened dark,sallow eyes. ‘Whuh… what is it, Madelaine?’
She pointed up at the bulb in the wire cage above them, glowing brightly. ‘Foster, Ithink they did it.’
Several minutes later they were standing outside in their rubbish-strewn backstreet savouringthe return of a familiar world. A lovely sunny day in September, the rumble of traffic overthe Williamsburg Bridge above them, the honk of impatient horns, the distant wail of a policesiren.
Life. Impatient life.
‘I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,’ cried Maddy, her cheeksunashamedly wet.
‘Nor I,’ replied Foster.
She stretched an arm round his sloped shoulders and planted a kiss on a cheek as dry andwrinkled as parchment.
‘We made it,’ she whispered.
Foster smiled. ‘Then let’s bring them back home, shall we?’
?
The lights in the archway flickered momentarily as a result ofthe drain of power. The hum of the displacement machinery rose in pitch and then, all of asudden, there it was. Maddy could see the shimmering outline of the window in the middle ofthe floor, appearing in exactly the same place it had when they’d sent both of them backto 1941.
Within the window she could see a faint rippling image, like a reflection in a disturbed poolof water — it looked to her like a world of trees and snow. Then into view the waveringsilhouette of something dark merged into the puddle-like image. Unmistakably a human figure.Someone coming to them.
A moment later… Liam stepped alone on to the floor of the arch.
‘Liam!’ screamed Maddy with initial delight. Then she saw that his hands and armswere slick with wet and drying blood, his uniform, his neck, his face, pale like a ghost, werespattered with dark droplets.
‘Oh my God… what happened? Liam, are you OK?’
He turned to look at her, his mouth struggling to reply, searching for words.
Foster stepped forward. ‘Liam, lad… are you all right?’
He looked at the old man, frowning, struggling to take things in, blinking back thebrightness from the strip lights above him. Finally he nodded as he opened the palm of onehand and held out something metallic. It was the size of a small mobile phone and coated withclots of drying blood.
‘I… managed to…’ He took a breath and tried again. ‘Well,anyway… Here’s Bob.’
Foster reached for the object, taking it from him gently. ‘You did well, Liam,’he replied softly, knowing full well the grisly deed that Liam had just carried out.‘That’s no easy thing to do. Come sit down, lad,’ headded, leading him over to the table and chairs.
‘Did… did we do it?’ Liam asked.
Maddy grinned and hugged him tightly in answer to his question.
‘Yes, Liam,’ replied Foster, ‘you did it.’
CHAPTER 91
2001, New York
A couple of hours later, after Liam had given a more detailed account of his timein the past, he was fast asleep on one of the cots. His snoring seemed to reverberate throughthe arch even more noisily than the generator had.
Foster worked over at the computer desk. Having scrubbed Bob’s neural processor cleanof brain tissue and blood, he connected it up to the computer system and began downloading theentire content of its hard drive.
‘Bob’s AI is in there amongst that,’ he said, nodding towards the loadingbar slowly creeping across the screen.
‘That’s a lot of data uploading there,’ said Maddy.
‘Well, he was away for nearly six months; all the time, his eyes and ears recordingeverything that was going on.’
‘So, what’s the deal with Bob? Is his AI intact?’
Foster shrugged. ‘I’m no computer expert. So I don’t know how it works. Butthe code that makes up Bob’s AI will merge with the computer system’s.’ Hetapped the keyboard. ‘You’ll be able to communicate with him in there.’
‘Right. Six months of learning… I guess that AI code’s a lot smarter thanthe idiot that plopped out of the birthing tube.’
Foster chuckled. ‘Oh yes.’
She looked at him. ‘How are we going to grow ourselves anothersupport unit? Those tubes are smashed, the gunk they were growing in has all gone off-’
He raised a hand. ‘There’s going to be a lot of work to do to get this fieldoffice online again.’
‘I’ll help you with that… You look tired.’ If she was being honest,she would have said he looked ready to keel over and die.
‘New clone embryos and growing solution. The generator needs replacing. The walls fixedup. You need to replenish our supplies,’ he added.
‘A new generator. That’s going to cost money.’
‘Fine,’ said Foster, ‘just go find a hardware store and buyanother.’
‘We’ve got enough money?’
/> ‘As much as you’ll ever need. It’s in a bank account.’
‘Cool. Do we get a debit card with that or something?’
He turned to her. ‘That’s one of many things I’m going to need to gothrough with you… before…’ His voice trailed off.
‘Before what?’
Foster looked uncomfortable. ‘Before I leave.’
‘Leave? Leave! You can’t leave us! Neither of us know what the heck we’redoing just yet. Jesus, I… I certainly don’t — ’
‘You did fine.’ Foster smiled. ‘You did just fine. I’d say right nowthere’s no team better trained to do this than you. You survived the ordeal.You’ll be able to cope with pretty much anything else this job has to throw at you. Ofthat I’m sure.’
‘Team? There’s no team. There’s just me andLiam now.’ She cast a glance at the bank of monitors in front of her and the upload bar,now inching past the halfway mark. ‘Oh… and a computer system that’s verysoon going to start insisting we call it Bob.’
It was then they heard the soft scrape of feet behind them. They turnedround to see Sal standing in the middle of the archway, a shopping bag in one hand, lookingcuriously down at the small crater of scooped-out concrete in the floor.
‘So what happened here? This place is a real mess,’ she said, shaking her headdisapprovingly. ‘I go out for a couple of hours to get some milk and bagels forbreakfast and come back and it’s like someone’s been drilling holes in the walloutside… and someone dropped a bowling ball on the floor here.’
‘Sal?’ Maddy’s jaw dropped. ‘Sal!’
A dark eyebrow arched quizzically. ‘Uh… yeah, and?’
‘You’re alive!’ Maddy leaped up from the desk and swept the confused girlinto her arms. ‘Oh my God, you’re alive! You’re alive!’
Foster could see Sal’s bewildered face over Maddy’s shaking shoulder.
‘Uh… is someone going to tell me what’s been going on while I wasout?’
CHAPTER 92
2001, New York
Monday
They haven’t told me everything that happened. I can tell some things wenton that they’re keeping from me. But I know now that while I was out buying milk andbagels a time shift happened, the world changed and Liam and Bob went into the past to fixit.
Liam told me he and Bob were actually stuck in the past for six whole months! And I knowabout none of it. Time travel is such a strange thing to get your head round.
They said our field office was attacked, but no one’s told me by who or what yet.There are scratch marks everywhere on the wall outside, like someone took a scouring brushto the bricks. Maybe we were attacked by an army of porcupines or something.
Many of the things in the back room were broken, shards of glass and stuff everywhere, so Iguess there was a bit of a struggle back there. I wish they’d just tell me everythinginstead of trying to ‘protect’ me just ’cause I’m the youngest.
And Bob died. I know that’s affected Liam. He’s missing him. I see him typingto Bob on the computer system every day. Maddy tells him not to be so cut up about it- he’s not actually ‘gone’; he’s just in the computer instead.She said it’s no different to, like, chatting to a friend on MSN.
I miss the big guy too.
Foster says we can grow another Bob once the birthing equipment has been sorted out.I’m not sure how I’ll feel, though, about a Bob Version 2. It just won’tbe the same Bob. Or will it? I mean, they’re clones, so I suppose it will be exactlythe same.
Maddy’s been kept very busy. Foster says she’s the team leader and needs to doa lot of learning while we rest up and recover. The birthing tubes in the back room have gotto be replaced, and we’ll need new cloned foetuses and supplies of that gooey soupthey float in. Foster’s getting Maddy to sort out those things. We also have to get anew back-up generator installed to replace the old one and supplies of food and water anddiesel and so many other things.
We’re all going to be kept busy for the next few days, that’s for sure.
You know, I hate that I completely missed out on whatever happened. I feel like I’mstill the newbie here and the other two are now sort of like old hands.
In fact, all three of them seem a bit different, like what happened changed them somehow.Like, for example, Liam. He’s sort of older now. I swear he’s grown an inch ortwo taller. He seems bigger, firmer. Less boyish and a bit more manly. Obviously he’ssix months older than he was… but it’s actually like he’s two or threeyears older. It’s weird.
Maddy jokes around a little less now. She seems to have so much on her mind all thetime… like she’s about to sit a whole load of exams and she hasn’t doneany revision.
And then there’s Foster.
I worry about him. He looks so-o-o-o sick and so-o-o-o much older. Coming back from myshopping trip, it was like he’d sort of aged a hundred years in the time that I wasout. I figured it would be rude to blurt something out about how he lookedreally old all of a sudden. So I haven’t said anything about it these last few days. Iguess it’s a time-travel thing.
So incredibly weird, though, this time-travel business. It really messes with yourhead.
Sal looked up from writing her diary and slurped a spoon from her breakfast bowlof Rice Krispies. The cereal had gone soggy in the milk as she’d been scribbling away.She stared disinterestedly at one of the banks of computer monitors in front of her.She’d tuned the signal feed from CNN to the Disney channel, and right now Toy Story 2 was on — Buzz and gang desperately trying to cross abusy highway disguised as traffic cones. Sal had seen it many times over. It had been one ofher dad’s favourites.
The arch is quiet right now. Liam is on his bunk, his nose stuck in a historybook all about the Second World War. He does a lot of reading. Says he never ever wants tobe stuck again in a time he knows nothing about.
Maddy and Foster went out earlier. He told her he had a number of things to discuss withher ‘confidentially’. I don’t like that. That there are things he’stelling her and not me and Liam. It doesn’t seem fair. After all, we’re a team,aren’t we?
Sal had watched them both step out under the open shutter door a couple of hoursago. Foster had waved a goodbye. But there was something about the way he’d done that, arueful smile as he’d surveyed the scruffy place.
In fact, the old man had been acting very oddly these last few days. She wondered if it wasbecause he was tired. Foster seemed to have too much on his shoulders, too much to do. Shedecided, when they returned, she’d insist he sit back in one of thetatty old armchairs they had around the table, put his feet up and she’d make a fuss ofhim. Make him some coffee, some beans on toast. Whatever he wanted.
He looked like he could do with some TLC.
CHAPTER 93
2001, New York
‘So,’ said Foster eventually, ‘so now you know everything youneed to know, Madelaine. Everything.’
Maddy stared back across the table at him. It was mid-morning, and Starbucks was relativelyquiet. The morning rush for take-away lattes and frappucinos had been and gone and now thecoffee shop was half empty.
‘And now you know why I’m dying. Why I can’trisk riding time any more. Why I can’t live in the field office’s time bubble anymore…’
‘You’re sure?’ She looked at him. ‘You’re sure the technologyis killing you?’
‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘The damage it does builds up slowly over time. Youdon’t notice it at first, but it catches up on you really fast eventually. I don’tknow how much longer I’ll be able to live outside the bubble, but it’ll be longerthan if I remain inside with you.’
‘If you did stay?’
‘Stayed with you… inside?’ He shrugged.‘It’s hard to tell. Maybe I’d live on a few more days, a week or two atmost.’ He sighed. ‘It’s not an exact science. And I’m nodoctor.’
Maddy bit her lip. ‘I’m sorry.’
‘Don’t be.’ He smiled weakly. ‘It goes with being an operative. I wastold early on,
when I first started out and I was a fit, young lad, that being a TimeRiderwould eventually kill me.’
‘But you carried on regardless?’
‘Given all the wonderful history I’ve seen, Maddy, all the history I’vetouched, smelled, tasted, all the experiences I’ve had, the things I’ve learned?Jesus… I’d do it all again. I really would.’
‘You were given the same choice that you gave us? Join up or go back and face yourpredestined death?’
‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘and I don’t regret a moment of it.’
‘So, what about Liam?’
Foster pursed his lips in thought, then eventually, reluctantly, he nodded. ‘Yes,I’m afraid Liam will end up like this. Time travel will age him faster than you or Sal.Time travel will sooner or later kill him… riddle his body with cancers.’
She shook her head and looked down at her coffee and her muffin; all of a sudden she had noappetite for either.
Poor, poor Liam.
It was going to be down to her, as the team leader, to tell him some time, to let him knoweach occasion he stepped through a displacement window and was sent back into the past thatthe cells of his body were going to become more and more corrupted, until finally they turnedon themselves and became tumours that would eventually eat him up from the inside.
‘So,’ she said after a while, ‘where will you go?’
‘I don’t know.’ He shrugged. ‘I guess I wouldn’t mind feelingthe sun on my face whilst I enjoy a good hotdog.’ He grinned. ‘Make the most ofwhatever time I’ve got left.’
‘Will you stay in New York?’
‘They say it’s the city that never sleeps… and, as somebody once told me,you can do all the sleeping you want when you’re dead. So I guess New York’s theplace for me.’
They both laughed. A dry, sad noise that filled the space between them.
He finished the last of his coffee. ‘Anyway, it was always my plan tovisit New York and see the sights. I just got waylaid for a little while.’