TimeRiders

by Alex Scarrow

  She smiled and nodded. ‘I’d like that.’

  CHAPTER 23

  2001, New York

  ‘You’re kidding me, right? My job is an… an… analyst?’

  Foster nodded.

  She looked at him, her eyebrows arched with disbelief. ‘You’re telling me I’ve been plucked from a falling aeroplane and sent back in time to join a team of… of time cops, and my job ends up being exactly what I used to do?’

  Foster shrugged. ‘It’s not exactly the same.’

  She looked at the row of computer monitors on the bench in front of her. ‘Great.’

  ‘This computer is a cell-based tetra-gig mainframe, carefully transported back from the future and painstakingly assembled by our first team. Which means, Maddy, right now in New York 2001, you’re looking at the most powerful computer system in the whole world. And guess what?’ He grinned. ‘It’s all yours to play with.’

  Maddy reached one hand out and stroked the slim casing of the computer on the bench. ‘Mine, huh?’

  ‘Yours.’

  ‘OK… I guess that isn’t so bad, then.’

  ‘We know from our files,’ Foster continued, ‘that you worked for a computer-games company. You worked as a programmer on a hugely successful online role-playing game called Second World.’

  Maddy clucked modestly. ‘I guess it was quite popular.’

  ‘You were listed in the credits as the database de-bugger.’

  ‘Among other things,’ she replied irritably. ‘I also wrote the code for a bunch of decent AI combat stuff and coded some of the coolest parts of the user interface, but did I get credited? Pffft. Did I heck.’

  Foster nodded. ‘But it’s the database work, the de-bugging, that makes you so incredibly valuable.’

  ‘Because?’

  ‘Because, Maddy, it’s detective work, isn’t it? Finding that tiny piece of computer code that’s causing a computer game to crash or behave in an unpredictable way?’

  ‘I suppose.’

  Foster nodded towards Sal. ‘You’ll be working closely with Sal.’

  Maddy turned to see her sitting on the far side of the arch at the wooden table with Liam and Bob. They both seemed to be teaching the lumbering oaf how to hold a knife and fork.

  ‘As the observer, she’ll be the first line of defence.’

  Foster had explained Sal’s role as observer. It seemed a tall order to her that a young girl’s eyes would be better than a computer at identifying a shift.

  ‘When she observes something that has altered, it’ll be your lateral thinking, your programmer’s mind, combined with the power of this system, linked into the web and countless historical databases around the world, to zero in on where and when history has actually been changed.’

  Maddy shook her head. ‘How am I freakin’ well going to figure out stuff like that? I was crud at history in high school. I’m not sure I’m the right person to –’

  ‘You’ll do just fine,’ he cut in. ‘You don’t need to know a lot of history; you just need a logical mind and a little common sense. I have faith in you, Maddy. You’ll be this team’s leader, the team’s strategist.’

  ‘Leader? You’re the leader, aren’t you?’

  Foster’s voice lowered ever so slightly, as if he was sharing with her something he didn’t want the others to know. ‘I’m not going to be here forever. Eventually, the three of you, and Bob, will be operating on your own.’

  ‘What? Where are you going?’

  ‘I… that’s not important. The point is I’m here to get you ready as a team. To be able to function on your own.’ He looked at her. ‘And your team will be looking to you for leadership.’

  She glanced across at the others, both giggling as Bob’s large hands fumbled awkwardly with the knife and fork.

  Me, a leader?

  Up until now she’d considered herself more of a loner, happy to work in isolation with lines of code as her only company. Having those two – and that big ape – rely on her was bad enough, but having the history of mankind in her hands as well…

  She shook her head. ‘You’ve got the wrong person, Foster,’ she replied. ‘I can’t do this.’

  The old man reached for the keyboard and mouse on the bench, ignoring her. ‘Let me show you just how powerful this computer system is. Did you know it’s linked into every database in the world? From this keyboard you can, if you want to, hack into any other connected computer. Through any firewall or encrypted security system.’

  ‘Uh… yeah, right.’

  ‘You want to see what’s in the President of America’s email in-box right now?’

  Maddy’s jaw dropped. ‘You can…?’

  Foster chuckled. ‘Shall we go and take a look at the words of wisdom George Bush has been tapping out this morning? Hmm?’

  CHAPTER 24

  1941, Bavarian woods, Germany

  Falling… falling… falling.

  Dr Paul Kramer opened his eyes and immediately winced in the brightness. He screwed his eyes shut.

  ‘It’s OK,’ a voice spoke softly.

  Kramer tried again, easing them open carefully. The first thing he registered was snow, a deep blanket of it, mostly smooth, with one or two tracks of footprints, and grooves where heavy things had been dragged.

  Squatting beside him was a familiar face.

  ‘Karl…’

  ‘Just take a moment, sir. There’s a minute of disorientation, dizziness. It’ll pass.’

  Kramer took a deep breath and puffed out a thick cloud in front of himself. There were too many questions he needed answered for him to wait. ‘Tell me we have arrived at the right time?’

  ‘It appears to be. Snow for April would seem right.’

  ‘The right location?’

  Karl nodded. ‘The woods outside Obersalzberg.’

  ‘The equipment?’

  ‘Is right here. It was a little scattered, but the men have located everything that came through and hidden it in the woods.’

  ‘The men all came through?’

  Karl’s hesitation was enough. Kramer looked up at him, hooding his eyes against the last faint glow of the dusk sky. ‘Karl?’

  ‘Tomas and Ethan… didn’t make it.’

  Kramer struggled up on to his legs and looked around at the men. All were kitted out in their Arctic-camouflage jackets, backpacks and webbing strapped on. Each held ready a state-of-the-art M29 pulse rifle; on their heads they wore Kevlar helmets complete with fold-down nightscope and heat-sensor eye-HUDs. An impressive sight that stirred in him a warm sense of pride.

  But so few of them.

  He counted just seventeen.

  ‘What happened to Tomas and Ethan?’

  Karl was reluctant to reply.

  ‘Karl! Please…’

  His second-in-command nodded reluctantly. ‘I will show you.’

  He stepped through his men across knee-deep snow that crunched beneath each step. Kramer followed him, pulling out his Arctic jacket, putting it on and zipping it up.

  Karl led him into a thick copse of pine trees, branches drooping, heavily laden with snow.

  ‘It appears something malfunctioned during their trip,’ said Karl as they pushed through some branches, dislodging a small cascade of powder snow. ‘Mercifully, neither of them lived for very long,’ he continued, stepping to one side to reveal their bodies. ‘They lasted no more than a couple of minutes,’ he added sombrely.

  Kramer stared at the twisted tangle of limbs and organs. It was unrecognizable as human… or, more to the point, two humans. Instead, it looked like some grotesque creature an insane God might construct from the parts left over from Creation – a pathetically corrupted thing with too many arms and legs and internal organs emerging into the open through distorted and bubbled skin that looked like melted plastic. One head, melded to the end of what looked like an impossibly long arm, Kramer recognized as Ethan. He spotted the face of Tomas emerging from a mass of flesh that could only be described as this thi
ng’s pelvis.

  ‘My God,’ was all he could whisper. ‘They were still alive when you found them?’

  Karl nodded, grim faced.

  Kramer felt his stomach loosen, but he refused to vomit or retch in front of Karl. The man needed to see a confident and strong leader, not someone who doubled over at the first unpleasant sight.

  ‘We knew this might happen,’ said Kramer, ‘that Waldstein’s prototype might 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 nearby hill, now bathed in the cool, silver glow of moonlight. ‘Destiny is waiting for us up there, 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 deliberately change history.’

  Liam, Sal and Maddy stared at him in silence over their bowls of Rice Krispies. Bob, sitting between Sal and Liam, observed them and Foster thoughtfully.

  ‘Liam,’ said Foster, ‘today’s going to be your first trip back into the past. You and Bob are both going together.’

  Bob’s thick lips managed a clumsy ill-practised smile that looked more like a camel chewing. ‘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 this exercise will be to test Maddy and Sal’s ability to find out exactly where we’ve gone, 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 this little piece of history to test out new teams all the time. Don’t worry. We’ll be changing something for a short period of time only, then putting things back exactly 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 short time. I’ve set the computer up to automatically open the return window, so all you two have 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. ‘And we’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 freezing water either.’

  Liam removed the last items of his clothing, leaving him wearing a pair of grubby underpants 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 the breakfast 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 into the water. He lowered himself down and found himself facing Bob and Foster, both treading water.

  ‘Well now, this is fun,’ he said sarcastically, holding on to the side of the cylinder 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 any co-ordinates this time, but normally she would be in charge of co-ordinating this whole process.’

  Liam nodded, glancing at her faint foggy form through the scuffed milky plastic of the cylinder. He wasn’t sure how confident he was going to feel being zapped through history the first time she had her fingers on the buttons.

  ‘For this exercise neither of the girls know where we’re being sent. We’ll be there for no more than an hour, then the computer will automatically bring us back. I have downloaded 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 the information 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 of water?’

  ‘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 submerge yourself completely,’ said Foster.

  Liam swallowed nervously. The thought of letting go of the edge of the tube and allowing himself to sink beneath the surface sent his heart thundering.

  ‘Uhh, Mr Foster, I suppose now’s not a good time to mention I never actually learned 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. Sink like a bloody stone, so I will. I –’

  ‘Don’t worry. You just need to hold your breath for ten, twenty seconds, and it’ll all be over.’

  ‘My head? My head actually… actually beneath the water?’

  ‘Yes, head beneath the water.’

  ‘What if… what if I’m not actually completely under? 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 will detect 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’m not 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 himself beneath 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, an ugly slab of shiny black plastic with the letters N-O-K-I-A stencilled at the top. Nothing like the cool Earbud V3 mobile she used to own back in 2026. She felt embarrassed pulling this museum pie
ce out of her pocket and self-conscious holding it up to her ear, until it occurred to her that everyone else’s mobile phones in 2001 looked equally embarrassing.

  She thumbed a button.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘It’s Maddy. They went into the past about a minute ago. Where are you now?’

  Sal looked around. She was on Broadway, heading north, just passing the intersection with West 41st Street. ‘I’m approaching Times Square, I think… yeah, I see it up ahead.’

  ‘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 doing back here. I’m looking at the Internet, the news pages and stuff. But I don’t know what I’m looking for.’

  Sal laughed nervously. ‘Me neither. I’m just taking a nice walk in the sun, I suppose.’

  ‘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 in their high-rise offices, it was mainly clusters of tourists, families and groups of friends taking in the sights of the Big Apple.

  Sal sighed. Some company would’ve been nice. Last time she’d strolled this route a couple of bubble-days ago, Bob had been sent along with her to get some more experience at passing as human. With his lumbering seven-foot frame beside her, every inch racked with bulging muscle, she’d felt somewhat more self-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 a bath 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 knees in a large puddle that spread out swiftly. He looked around. He could see vehicles parked on a tarmac area. They looked less modern, more angular than the cars he was used to seeing every day in New York.