Jay, Lizzie and the Tale of the Stairs

by G J Lee

  Chapter 44

  Struggle

  His smile was the same as before, threatening and at the same time charming. If a spider could smile, this would be it. He walked towards us and the snap of his applause sounded eerie in the empty shelter. I picked the machine gun up from where I had left it and steadied it at the hip. Lizzie raised her pistol and I could see Rosie holding the grenade through her dirty dress.

  “Yes, very well done,” continued Dr Meen, taking notice of the weapons for the first time. He stopped a short distance away and there was a slight pause as the doctor sized the situation up. “And of course, you are quite right. The Sphere is alive.” Dr Meen turned his attention to the Sphere. He looked over it thoughtfully, admiring its beauty. “It acts like any living organism, you see. If it feels threatened then it protects itself. Just like you or I.”

  Dr Meen’s words were unsettling. He looked at our weapons.

  “Clearly,” he continued, looking us up and down, “there is no love in the room and you three, like the Sphere, are feeling somewhat threatened.” There was a running of feet now as The Face and the man who had been guarding the metal door with him arrived and positioned themselves near the doctor.

  “But you see I’m not the one you should be afraid of.” The threat was obvious as The Face’s square jaw and big brown features contorted into something like a smile. Dr Meen smiled right back. “You see, if you were aware of what my friends here are capable of then you would show them the greatest respect and, of course, fear.” Dr Meen pretended that I’d said something. “What was that? You haven’t heard that, when Ernst was fighting the Russians in the war, he was renowned for his ability to extract information from captured soldiers? No? You didn’t know that he would extract nails, teeth and toes with no feeling of pity or emotion? You didn’t know?” Like two predators they grinned at each other. “Well, now you do. So I suggest you place those stolen weapons carefully on the floor.”

  It wasn’t a request. It was a demand. I glanced at Lizzie and I saw the look of fear and uncertainty in her eyes and she must have saw mine too. She shook her head at me.

  “L…look,” I stammered, my panic as obvious as the gun I was holding, “we just want to…to go home.”

  That sounded awful. Like a real wimp. But I didn’t care. It was true. I’d had enough and just wanted to go home where everything was ordered and in its right place. Not for the first time I’d had enough of special powers and time-travelling. The mocking smile on the faces of the three men in front of us told a different story.

  We weren’t going anywhere.

  “Of course,” said Dr Meen, imitating sudden understanding, “I see now. Yes, I do see. You want to use this brilliant object to go home? Is that it? Well, I’m afraid you need some sort of knowledge of how this wonderful machine operates before you use it and, I’m afraid, you have none. So let’s all let bygones be bygones and then we can all go back to bed.” Dr Meen spread his arms out in a ‘let’s be friends’ sort of way. His thin fingers spread out like huge twiglets. “What do you say?”

  For a moment I believed him. I wanted to believe that nothing horrible was going to happen. I wanted to believe that we could put down our weapons and shake hands. I wanted to believe that we could all go have some Coca-cola and something to eat together and wanted to believe there was a shower and a warm bed at the end of all this. I fought the urge to give in and trust Dr Meen. He must have smelled weakness as Dr Meen gave The Face a nod and, still grinning, the German took a few big steps towards us.

  “No!” Lizzie shouted suddenly, pointing the pistol firmly at The Face. “Don’t come any nearer!”

  The machine gun had grown heavy in my arms and I had been holding it lazily, especially because I wanted more than anything to put the thing down. For the umpteenth time Lizzie’s spirit had shown itself.

  It infected me.

  The muzzle of the machine gun came up and I gripped the weapon tightly against my hip.

  The Face stopped and his smile dropped away.

  Dr Meen wasn’t impressed as his arms dropped to his sides and his expression took on a more serious look. He suddenly seemed very disappointed. “Oh,” he said quietly. “I see.” A pause. “Then I have no choice…no choice…but to let you go.”

  It took a couple of seconds for what Dr Meen had just said to sink in. Me and Lizzie exchanged befuddled glances. “You are…going to let…us go?” I asked the doctor cautiously. I couldn’t quite believe it and my hopes soared.

  “I’m disappointed that we couldn’t…cooperate…but, well, there you are.” He looked at the two men stood waiting for orders. “Ernst, stand aside. Let them go.”

  The Face’s eyes looked from Dr Meen, to us, then back again. It was as if he also couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. After a few moments Ernst took two paces backwards as a signal that he was going to do as he was told.

  “Oh,” added the doctor suddenly, “I almost forgot. You will, of course, give the Jew to us.”

  My fingers fiddled nervously with the trigger of the machine gun. I knew it was too good to be true. For the briefest of moments I thought about leaving Rosie behind, her freedom for ours. But I remembered what Lizzie’s Father had to say about helping and doing and not just allowing things to happen.

  There was no way Rosie was staying. She was coming with us and I'm sure that Lizzie was thinking the same thing. It goes without saying. We had special powers.

  “No,” she told the doctor. “There’s just no way.”

  And that was the coolest thing I’d ever heard.

  Doctor Meen smiled and took a step back. “Of course, you know why she can’t go with you?” He chuckled when I stared blankly at him. “Oh, you poor thing. You can’t know who she is. Well, Master Webber, let me tell you.” The doctor gestured towards where Rosie stood frowning and scared in this big space. “Rosie is the Grandmother of no other than your good friend Bethany Taylor-Hall.”

  What had I just heard? I couldn’t be certain. So I asked. “What did you say?”

  “Your friend, Bethany,” explained doctor Meen again impatiently, “that’s her Grandmother.”

  My head swam and I felt dizzy with this new information. But at the same time it all made sense. She was so like Beth it was weird and I was so confused and baffled that I turned to look at her with my mouth wide open. The only problem was the machine gun turned with me.

  “Jay!” shouted Lizzie, “watch where you’re pointing that gun.”

  I blinked then, came back to my senses, returned my attention to the doctor who was now bored, tired of the kids in front of him.

  “So, it’s just impossible that she can return with you. If Rosie were to meet her Grand-daughter, well, it’s simply hopeless to predict the consequences for time and space.”

  I didn’t get that. I felt my brain puff and pant as it worked at the math. Rosie just stood clutching the grenade. She was completely confused.

  “So, my little time-traveller," said doctor Meen slowly, "the Jew stays with us.”

  Me, Lizzie and Rosie said nothing. There was nothing to say.

  “Well,” said the doctor, “I guess we might call this check," and he looked impatiently around at us all; "For the time being." Then he rubbed his long chin thoughtfully. "However, to pass the time, so to speak, we should return to the tiny matter of The Sphere. Were you wanting advice on its use? I assume you were.”

  I nodded. We did. If we had the chance to make a dash for it, I hadn’t the foggiest idea how it would take us to my bedroom in the 21st Century.

  “Well, it’s very simple. You show the Sphere that you are not a threat by walking casually towards it…like this.”

  Dr Meen strode towards the Junction Sphere and, with a crackle and an orange glow that seemed to ignite his whole body, he promptly disappeared. Again me and Lizzie exchanged glances.

  Rosie came closer, suspicious, curious. “Just who’s Grandmother am I?”

  I didn’t have time to answer
. Dr Meen had gone. Vanished!

  Into The Junction Sphere!

  What happened next happened fast and confused us all. People started to appear inside the shelter. I recognised Hanz but the others that came with him had obviously been woken up and had come to see what was going on. This made us all edgy and we had started to back away from the Sphere, to a safe distance, when there was a loud crackle and hiss like cold water on a hot pan.

  And with a flash of orange Dr Meen rushed out of the Sphere and made for Lizzie.

  It was such a surprise, seemed so unreal, that none of us had time to react before Dr Meen reached Lizzie, knocking the pistol clean out of her hands. It slid across the wet floor and out of reach. Before I could do anything Dr Meen had one of his long arms clamped around Lizzie’s throat. In the other he held a knife that glinted sharply. He must have had the knife all along. At the same time as Dr Meen’s attack The Face had made a lunge for the floor of the shelter and the pistol.

  Without thinking I squeezed the trigger of the machine gun.

  For a second the shelter was full of flash and thunder as the gun responded and I was sent hobbling backwards. Although the short burst of bullets was sent far and wide, The Face stopped a short distance from the pistol on the floor. He held up his hands and retreated to where he’d come from.

  Lizzie struggled but Dr Meen brought the knife up to touch the skin on her neck.

  “Stop struggling!” he bellowed into her ear. And Lizzie, given the fright of her life, did as she was told. I could see the knife pushing in the skin of her neck and leaving a red mark as he shifted around to face me and Rosie.

  “Now, young man,” he said viciously, all the time holding Lizzie in a tight, spidery squeeze. “Check-mate, I believe.”