Cherry Picking

by Tim Heath

  Such an option would change the world as he knew it. But it was still a last resort, a cut and run. He would not be able to use his own Door and he’d therefore just have to stay in that present time, but this was home to him now anyway and he was already set up for life. The Door would be unusable because with so much death and destruction in the UK, there was no way of knowing what effect it would have on his old existence. If he wiped out his own great grand-parents in this time, his line would never be born and so if he returned, he might find he had no existence in the future, and he didn’t like to take his chances.

  At that moment, pulling him back to reality, a group of starlings took to flight high up from one of his monkey puzzle trees which stood majestically along the south side of his garden. He carried on walking round, getting to the final area of the garden to have been finished, and that only two years ago, a splendid Japanese garden, the materials for which were transported especially for him all the way from the outskirts of Tokyo. Its beautifully crafted stone bridges and walls looking almost magical at that time of day, the water glistening in the early morning sunshine. In the distance he heard the sound of his private jet being fired up for a test flight, his air crew having been notified yesterday about the day’s requirements. At midday a large cargo plane would also be landing there and that would transport a lot of his own belongings, including the Door.

  It was while standing there that he realised there was no need to even transfer the Door anywhere as its use was now finished. This was his life and this was his existence. He had no need to return to what had once been his home but now meant nothing to him. Transferring the Door would mean too many questions and would take a lot of planning. If he was to destroy it, he could then just pack some of the things he needed and go, replacing everything else as new once in Germany. That way he could call off the cargo plane, which quite frankly would only attract a lot of unwanted attention, and instead just slip away during the day, his departure largely unnoticed.

  Yes, it sounded almost perfect to him now. To the outside world, he would appear to be at home. He wouldn’t even tell his security guards that he’d gone so that if Robert ever did come around looking for him, it would be hard to get in without being shot, and even if he made it, Nigel would leave some explosives waiting for him inside.

  He hurried back up the garden planning to call off the cargo plane so as to keep everything as low key as possible. He would then need to get hold of some explosives from his own supply, so as to rig something up in his room and on the Door itself. It wasn’t the first time he’d used explosives and he knew exactly what he was doing.

  As he re-entered his room there was a kind of victory smile on his face, the kind of smile that said that, at whatever cost, it was all going to work out for him now, that he was going to be free at last!

  **********

  It had been a good run north for Robert as the traffic had been flowing quite freely that morning and he’d found himself on the outskirts of Nottingham by around lunch time. Leaving London gave him the strange sense of leaving one life behind, though of course he was far from free and still a wanted man. So much had happened to him in such a short space of time. Less than two months ago he’d been spending his days with his colleagues in the Agency, drinking too much coffee as they tried hard to crack the technology needed to get that Door working. Then he had a home to go back to and people who knew him. And yet now, none of that existed, and things were only getting worse. The momentary loneliness he’d felt at times back there was only magnified in this alien time he now existed in, each day feeling as if he’d heard it all before and yet of course, as it stood, it was now in fact happening only for the first time. And with so much changing, Robert had long since stopped thinking about the effects even his actions were having on the future — funny how he stopped calling it his future, realising in fact that maybe he knew all along there was no way that he could return, and even more so now that he’d lost his own Door. Having said that, a return back there some time might still be possible if he went loaded up in the weapons department.

  Only when he entered the city limits did he start to wonder about what he would say, his mind had been filled with so many other things, not least the thoughts about Katie that he just couldn’t ignore. He hadn’t planned how he’d get to speak to either Tommy or Jessica again, let alone have them listen to him.

  If any couple highlighted the point as to how much things had changed, it was these two people, now bedding down together, as yet unmarried, with hurt and baggage in their lives already, especially for Jessica, even though they were both still young. Who they had once been was such a contrast, it was incredible. Though the dates eluded him he was sure the previous Jessica had already made some films by now, having been a successful model in her late teens and early twenties. She went on of course to become a world star, delighting millions of cinema goers with her wonderful acting and dazzling beauty.

  By that time, Tommy had already started re-writing the record books when he’d first been introduced personally to Jessica and his own career became the benchmark that no one ever bettered. Their wedding day was world news, the photo rights sold exclusively for £10 million, but unlike any such previous event ever covered, the happy couple gave half that amount away to their favourite charities. Doing so only pushed them higher up the world ladder of popularity until they reached the top, representing so many charitable organisations.

  Jessica had personally opened the world to the issues of fertility problems, offering hope to millions of struggling couples who had to cope with the fact that they could not have children. This was the case with her and Tommy and, as in many situations, the cause was unknown but the result was very difficult to come to terms with.

  And yet, like someone who ruins an old masterpiece by repainting over it, with one stroke of the brush, Nigel had himself rewritten this couple’s history so that they found themselves thrown together again at last, in a small but modern housing estate on the edge of Nottingham, living what was, for them, an amazingly low key and average life. There was however, still an element of public recognition as Tommy was in management at last, but even this was only to make Nigel more money. Like everything in his life, Nigel knew how to pick the very best and keep it purely for himself.

  Robert had planned to go in on these lines, to try and make them believers in what he had to say even though it would sound so strange. Jessica had been so upset about her father seeming to have taken his own life that Robert, armed with evidence that might go some way to restore her link with her father, hoped they’d hear him out. He knew it wouldn’t be easy and he hoped to catch just one of them, preferably Jessica, though she’d been the most hostile before but maybe only because he was uninformed about what had happened to her father. Now he could offer her some answers.

  He pulled over to the side of the road to check his directions as he neared the entrance to the estate, and his luck was in, because, at that moment, driving a nice new shiny Mercedes, Tommy was pulling out, obviously on the way to the stadium. This meant Jessica would be alone, which he hoped would be a good thing but now he had no option anyway. He pulled away again, making the turn, and though he’d checked the directions, he needn’t have bothered as theirs was the first turning on the left and it was clearly visible. Robert drove down their road slowly and parked just a little bit up from their house. Most of the houses looked quiet, clearly the occupants were already out at work considering the time of day.

  Walking up the driveway, his pulse racing like a schoolboy before a first kiss, he got to the front door and paused for a moment before pressing the doorbell. He heard the obvious sound of feet coming down the stairs telling him that she was on her way.

  Chapter 27

  Jessica was back in the kitchen making some more coffee, putting some biscuits on a plate while she waited for the filter to work its magic. Things were a lot calmer now and Robert sat there quietly in the generously sized lounge, a conservatory j
oined to the side, its doors closed at that moment.

  His opening lines on the doorstep an hour ago had been something he’d rather forget, babbling away as Jessica looked at him in alarm and then tried to slam the door on him. Instead he got his foot in the way just in time, quite why he did that, he didn’t know, as it still throbbed in pain, not that he was going to let on.

  While she threatened to call the police, her voice rising a noticeable amount, he talked on like one of those terrible door-to-door salesmen who just won’t take no for an answer, and in his random mix of words he must have stumbled across something that had connected deep within her as she suddenly went silent and let him finish. She eventually invited him in, which was no small thing for her as, unknown to Robert, since the events of her last day at the Department of Information, she still feared the presence of strange men. They’d chatted a bit more in the hallway, she was still a little cautious to get too far away from the front door, so Robert had just started telling her everything.

  It was when he talked about what he suspected of her father’s death that she’d formally invited him into the lounge and had made some coffee, wanting finally to hear everything he had to say and only interrupting him occasionally. She was amazed at the story she was hearing, for it sounded like fantasy, had it not been all about her life and the feelings she thought were only known to herself. And yet here was a man, a relative stranger, apart from those few encounters at the Department when he’d come in and spent hours on the machines researching, sitting now in front of her telling her all these things that sounded so real she almost wanted to believe them. It was to avoid overload that she had gone to make the second round of coffees, needing some space to think about what she’d just heard, because as crazy and as far fetched as it sounded, on so many levels it made sense. And that is what bugged her.

  She’d been especially interested to hear about Nigel Gamble, and thought in itself it would have made an interesting story had it not been told to her as reality, with her and Tommy’s lives so mixed up in it all. But it was the suggestion about Brendan that she found hardest to take, he had been such a rock in her life going back to that very unstable time when everything else was falling apart. And to think that he and Nigel had a part in things turning bad, was hard, let alone that they were somehow involved in her father’s death. And yet, what had hurt her above all things with her father’s death wasn’t her last words with him or how their relationship had broken down in the last months, nor even her father’s suggestion that there was something going on between her and Brendan. What hurt her the most was the disgust she felt with him for taking what seemed like the easy route out, for dumping her and her mother and making them pick up the pieces by themselves. She knew he’d never been a quitter and yet it had seemed in his one final act, as if to spite her, he’d quit in the most finite way of all and shamed her and her family. It hurt so much that some days it was almost physical, a weight deep down inside her that she just could not lose, however well things were going, a weight that now occupied the place that her father had once had, her daddy that she’d loved, cared for and adored her whole childhood. The man she’d respected above all others.

  And only now, for the first time since that day when she went around into the back of their garden and looked up at her father hanging there, his face ash white, only now did that feeling start to change, a change deep inside. Because there had always been a part of her that didn’t want to accept what had happened, even though it seemed obvious to the world around her, it seemed so out of character to her, yet the world’s view prevailed and her own doubts were buried, only now being given fresh hope and release in this most bizarre way.

  Jessica came back in from the kitchen eventually, Robert realising she clearly needed some time to think things through, now eagerly analysing her body language for any sign of hostility, but there wasn’t any. She had a beautiful and graceful smile on her face, partly to cover up the turmoil inside, but more so because that was how she had been brought up. Standing there in a black dress and a woollen knitted top, which covered her bare shoulders, she looked ever the actress that had filled so many magazines and newspaper columns, even without much make-up on, naturally beautiful.

  She placed the tray onto the table between them, pouring the coffee into the two empty cups left from before, and picking up the plate of chocolate covered biscuits, she offered one to Robert, which he took, before putting the plate down, not taking one for herself. She passed him his coffee and took hers, all very deliberately and elegantly, and returned to her chair that sat facing him, a small table to her left that she placed her cup onto. Robert couldn’t help but notice her legs, bare as there was no need for tights in such warm weather, they were gloriously enhanced by her dress that lay just above her knees as she sat there with her legs crossed at the ankles. He caught himself however, and looked away before she noticed, taking a sip of coffee and returning it to the table in front of him. She sat there like a student in the headmaster’s office, completely attentive. Taking that as a sign to continue, Robert detailed things a lot more about what Nigel had done and why he had involved them, Jessica becoming especially interested in hearing about this other life she was meant to have had, asking lots of questions. While he didn’t think it was helpful for her to know too much about herself, he told her nonetheless and they spent another hour talking away.

  **********

  Nigel was now all set. He wanted to take very little, aiming to travel as light as he could. He planned to make it look as much as possible as if he was just going on a routine business trip. He needed his guards, and therefore everyone else, to believe he was still there. It would be far better for anyone who threatened him to die trying to reach him here at the home, rather than come searching for him overseas, where clearly he wouldn’t have much time to make himself secure because he would now have to start over again.

  He had thought about finally breaking his public cover once he was in Germany. Up to that point, publicly he had always kept up the image that he was an old man and that was because he was trying to hide himself. The effort of that had always been tough, and while he’d need to continue it for the moment while he went to the airfield and even on the flight, after that there seemed little point because Robert had been revealed. Nigel finally knew who he was, so there was not the fear of strangers as there previously had been. A fresh start in Germany with all the resources that remained his, offered the added bonus that Nigel could be himself again outside, in normal life, which would make moving around so much easier.

  He stood for one last time at his window, looking down upon the one piece of land that had been his haven, his walled garden, up to now the only place in the world where he had been able to be himself, outside and in the open, without the need for his disguise. He’d lived both lives it seemed for so long that he wondered how it would feel to not see the old guy again but he pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind, realising the wearing effect they had on his time and emotions. He turned one last time from that window, went over to check on the explosives he’d attached in three places within his own bedroom and bathroom, highly sophisticated motion sensitive bombs that he could remotely activate from his hallway once he was safely outside. He’d placed a couple already on his Door, hidden away as it was in his private little room, really there in case someone came through it from the future, as it was unlikely that they’d find it from this side of things. Either way, one step inside the room would see his visitor and the Door completely annihilated. He’d figured it was best that way as clearly anyone going through it meant trouble and if they’d got that close then their death was a bonus. But before that, there seemed no need to destroy the Door in case for some reason he ever needed it again, and with the remote control device safely in his personal belongings, he could just as easily deactivate the devices.

  Picking up his bag, with everything seemingly in place with the explosives, he shut his bedroom door and once he was in the hal
lway, he turned the devices on with a press of the remote, and walked off at speed, no hint of even one last look back.

  Just twenty minutes later, his car was bringing him next to his jet in his own private airfield that ran alongside the western part of his property. He was helped out of the car and led to the steps that came down from the jet, being welcomed on board by his usual crew, though he rarely used them and hadn’t done so for several months. The two women smiled politely and the captain and co-pilot returned to the cockpit having acknowledged his arrival. A few pleasant comments were thrown back and forth, and Nigel was seated in his usual position, not that there were many seats anyway.

  The crew had been told not to report their destination before he left, only to complete the records on their return, if they indeed still needed to. He knew they’d of course do as they were told, being employees. Nigel looked down at his bag, safely resting in its own tray next to him, secured in place by a strap. Inside it, as well as the essentials that he’d need for the first few days before he could purchase anything, he also had an air bomb. Once again a highly sophisticated piece of future technology, its explosion on such a small craft as this would destroy every part of it in a second, the fire ball just incinerating everything, and providing it was done over the sea, there would be no trace to find, no evidence that the jet had even been there. And with no log of their flight yet, there was no way of finding out that he’d been taken to Germany. It was all about covering his tracks. The wrong in it all was far from Nigel’s mind now, such was his thinking, more like a child playing a video game, and this was just part of his next level, something that had to be done.