“What the frig was that!” John swore, looking wide eyed, first at Padraig and then Morann and Kate, who were both now wide awake.
“It was a Time Quake, John,” Padraig told him. “A phenomenon which sometimes occurs in time travel, which is why the Aos SI Confederation has stopped all time travel experiments and journeys. They’re very health and safety conscious, you see,” Padraig shrugged. “A Time Quake is localised and so only us in this car will have experienced it. Although, I have to say, that it could also have occurred somewhere else in the world, to someone who at some time or other has travelled through time and to those in close proximity to them. That however is an extremely rare occurrence and to my knowledge has only happened on three known previous occasions. It does however result in the people it occurs to shifting forward to another point in time.”
“So, have we moved to another point in time?” John questioned. “My memory chip hasn’t updated with any additional information.”
“No, it won’t have yet,” Morann explained. “It will take some time for it to update as it will need to search for the appropriate information bank to log onto.”
“Does that mean it’s not 1985 anymore?” Kate anxiously asked.
“I’m afraid not, Kate. It could be any time in the future.”
“I need to ring home,” Kate said, taking the satellite phone out of the pocket of her jeans and quickly dialling her home telephone number. It didn’t ring out and all Kate could hear was the tone one got when a telephone number had been disconnected. “I can’t get through. The number’s been disconnected. I need to get home,” she said nearly panicking. “I need to get home.”
“You will, Kate,” Morann said reassuringly, comforting her, “But please don’t worry that you can’t get through to your parents. It’s very possible that the time period that we have now moved onto, has a different system of telecommunications, which is not compatible with that phone.”
“We’ll make sure that you get to see your family,” John promised.
“First however, we need to get to Abbot’s House. There’ll be someone there and we can try and find out about your family, Kate,” Padraig told her, “and we’d better get there fast. I don’t like not knowing what time we’ve landed in and not knowing what awaits us.”
Padraig pulled off the hard shoulder and they set off down the motorway again. He drove fast, but safely, weaving in and out of the traffic, which fortunately wasn’t too busy. They’d only gone a few miles, however, when he saw the flashing blue lights behind them.
“Bugger!” Padraig swore.
“What’s up?” John asked.
“Traffic cops I think, right behind us.” Padraig slowed the car down, but soon he could hear the loud hailer from the police car telling them to pull over onto the hard shoulder. They complied. Two policemen got out of the car. Neither the car, nor the uniforms that the policemen were wearing, was like anything that John had ever seen before.
“Looks like they’re wearing some sort of body armour,” Padraig who was scrutinizing them through the rear mirror remarked. “They’re armed too.”
“Oh god,” Kate said now extremely anxious. “It must be me that they’re after.”
“Just act as normally as you can, Kate,” Morann told her, putting a reassuring hand on Kate’s arm. “There is no way they can be pursuing you. I believe we’re many years in the future, well beyond 1985.”
The policemen reached the car and Padraig wound the window down.
“Would you two gentlemen please get out of the car,” the policeman politely requested them. “Then I want you to go and stand at the back of it.”
Padraig and John did what the officer had requested and went to stand at the back of the car where he’d indicated. As Padraig had said, both officers wore body armour and had what looked like pistols in side holsters. Far, far different from how the police were equipped in 1969, the last time that John had seen one in uniform.
“You were registered as travelling at 85mph, sir,” the first policeman then told Padraig. The other one, John noticed, had a small tablet shaped device, like the small hand-held computers John had become used to using. The policeman appeared to be inputting information into it, as a series of bleeps was periodically coming from it. “Which you will of course be aware is 25mph over the maximum speed limit for motorways.”
“Is it?” Padraig said rather unbelieving. It hadn’t been the last time he’d driven on one.
“Yes, it is, sir and has been for the past three years. Could I see your driving licence, please sir?”
Padraig fumbled in the pocket of his jeans, took out his wallet, fished about in it and finally produced a tatty folded piece of paper, that John recognized as a driving licence. Padraig then handed it over to the officer. The officer opened it up, shook his head and gave it back to Padraig.
“No sir, this won’t do. I need to see your photo ID driving licence, sir.”
Padraig gulped. “I haven’t got one, when did they come in?”
“Five years ago, sir,” the police officer said resignedly, shaking his head disapprovingly. “You should have applied for the new one. You should have had a letter about it.”
“I’ve been away,” Padraig said hurriedly.
“I think you’d better run the car number through central computer, Wayne,” the police officer then said, turning to his colleague with the hand-held computer.
Whilst all this had been going on, John had been studying the police car. It was nothing like the ones’ he’d last seen in 1969. He thought it must be a four-wheel drive vehicle and looked like a sleeker, more aerodynamic version of a Range Rover. A large illuminated sign saying police was on the car roof, with blue flashing lights, at each end of the sign. It had bars protecting the front grille and a whole array of different headlights. Far, far, different from the police cars, that John had been familiar with back in the 1960s. It even appeared that the way car registration plates were done had changed, for the number plate on the police car was ZX05 TX539, whereas John was used to three letters and three numbers on car registration plates, with a letter year indicator at the end of the plate. It had been H when John had left Earth in 1969.
Then John glanced at the nearest side door of the police car to him. It had a flag on it, but it wasn’t a flag that John had ever seen before. It had five horizontal stripes of five different colours which in descending order were red, white, blue, orange and green. Underneath the flag in gold letters was the wording ‘Police Force of the United British and Irish Federation’. What year could they possibly be in, was John’s stunned thought as he turned back to look at Padraig, to see if he had noticed it too. He caught Padraig’s eye and with a slight inclination of his head tried to indicate the police car door. Padraig caught on, glanced at it and then gave John a shocked look.
Meantime Wayne, the other police man had gone to the back of the Maserati and was tapping its registration number, onto the screen of his hand-held computer. Well, at least that was what John thought he was doing. He had earlier noticed it didn’t seem to have a keyboard attached to it and so he wasn’t sure how information was inputted into it. Perhaps it worked on some sort of system like the control panels in the Deltoids, a touch sensitive keyboard, that perhaps came up on screen. Some information must have come back onto the screen. For John noticed that Wayne was now looking shocked at whatever it was displaying. A moment later he quickly walked up to his colleague to show him what was on the screen. John tensed, expecting the worst.
“They’ve got red one priority, Phil,” John heard him whisper to his colleague. Phil looked at the screen of the PC tablet he’d just been handed. Having looked at the screen he looked in shock at Wayne. Nervously he cleared his throat and looking rather worried he turned to look at John and Padraig.
“Seems like you have a ‘get out of jail card’, sir,” Phil joked nervously. “I apologize for stopping you and wish you all a good afternoon and hope that you have a pleasant journey.”
“We can go?” Padraig asked in surprise.
“Yes sir. I’m sorry to have interrupted your journey.” He turned and started to walk away back to their car, followed by his colleague, Wayne. Then he stopped and half-turned. “Oh, and I’ll radio through to control. You won’t be stopped or bothered, again, sir.”
The two policemen then got in their car and drove off, leaving Padraig looking totally bewildered.
“What just happened?” He asked holding his hands open.
“I heard the cop called Wayne, say we had ‘red one priority’,” John told him.
“I have searched for information on the internet and learned that ‘red one priority’ is given to members of the United British and Irish Federation Government and to members of the United British and Irish Federation Security Services,” Morann then told them.
“What the hell’s the internet?” John wanted to know.
“It is a global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities, consisting of interconnected networks using standardized communication protocols,” Morann replied.
“Right, Morann, I understood every word of that, I don’t think,” John said sarcastically.
“Well, I understood you, Morann,” Kate butted in. “I’ll explain it in very simple terms to my cousin,” John looked at her in surprise and then realised that they were indeed cousins. “When of course I’ve got a few hours to spare,” Kate added sarcastically.
“Never mind the internet, what exactly does ‘red one priority’ entail?” Padraig asked.
“In simple terms, it means we can break the speed limit,” Morann replied.
“Well, let’s continue on our journey to Trentbury in that case,” John urged and then his eyes widened as at long last his memory chip updated. “Bloody hell! It’s 2005!”
“2005! No, it can’t be, please, it can’t be,” Kate said despairingly.
“Kate,” Morann said quietly. “All your family is still alive. I’ve learned that your father is the First Minister of the United British and Irish Federation, which England is now part of and has been since 1988. Your mother is president of several charities and Vice Chairman of Penrose Healthcare Corporation. Your brother Dave is the Minister for Health and Welfare Services in the United British and Irish Federation Government and your younger brother Steve is a Vice President in the VarTech Corporation with responsibility for the New Technologies and Energy Sources Division.
“I can’t believe it, what’s happened?” Kate asked, totally bewildered.
“I think we’d better get to Abbot’s House and find out,” Padraig said, looking at them each in turn.
“The sooner the better it would seem,” was the sole reply from John.
Chapter 16
Egypt, July 1985
The helicopter was a Soviet Union Mil Mi-24, which the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), had designated as a ‘Hind’ helicopter and was flown by a very skilled mercenary pilot, a veteran of the short-lived war the Soviet Union had fought in Afghanistan. The mercenaries had been hired by Mona McBeolain to ‘tidy up’ things at the excavation site. In other words, leave no one living who knew the location of the pyramid, or what it contained. The missiles the ‘Hind’ had fired had been targeted at the old truck, the sole remaining vehicle at the excavation site and blew it to smithereens. One of the pieces of the debris struck Fionnuala on the head. Fortunately, the Nemhain had put her helmet back on and so the blow to the head that she received, merely stunned her, rather than causing her more serious harm.
Joshua saw that Fionnuala was stunned and also that the helicopter was now circling around, its four-barrelled 12.7mm machine guns now spitting bullets in their direction. Other than Ahmed, the diggers hadn’t dived for cover and Karim and Mustafa were the first to go down under a hail of bullets. Joshua knew that he had to do something and although he was trembling as a leaf he struggled to his feet, holding the Energy Staff in both hands. Remembering what Fionnuala had told him, he pressed the amber button to turn it on and immediately he heard a soft hum. At the same time a holographic screen appeared about 6 inches from the conical shaped end of the staff, which caused Joshua to panic. Fionnuala hadn’t mentioned this would happen.
At the bottom of the screen however, Joshua could see a red arrow-shaped symbol which was moving slowly from side to side. Fionnuala was starting to return to consciousness and saw Joshua pointing the Energy Staff at the helicopter.
“When the weapon is locked onto the target it will turn green and a loud beeping noise will be heard. The weapon should then be fired by depressing the green button,” she managed to tell him.
Joshua did as he was instructed, raising the staff and pointing it in the direction of the helicopter. The pilot saw that someone was pointing a weapon towards the helicopter and thought that it might be one of the ‘Stinger’ missile launchers which the Mujahideen had used against him and his comrades with great effect. He started to turn the helicopter towards Joshua.
By now the arrow symbol was in the centre of the screen and just over an image of the helicopter, which was now heading straight for Joshua. Suddenly the arrow symbol turned green and the noise from the staff rose from a hum to a loud beeping. Joshua pressed the green button and a beam of intense white light shot from the conical point of the staff and streaked up into the sky straight for the helicopter. It hit the front of the helicopter and there was a massive explosion, bits of the helicopter flying in all directions. Joshua dropped the staff and dived to the ground, as pieces flew over where he’d just been standing.
One piece, part of a stub wing, hit Hassan, one of the two diggers who had started to run for cover towards the Pyramid’s entrance when the attack had begun and decapitated him. Ali who had also tried to run for cover in the pyramid, was struck in the arm by a piece of metal just below the elbow, which severed it. What remained of the helicopter plummeted down out of the sky and crashed into a nearby sand dune.
Joshua slowly struggled to his feet and looked around. Ahmed was nearby sobbing and rocking backwards and forwards, his arms around his knees. He appeared uninjured. Omar, the only other digger still unharmed, was looking in horror at the carnage all around him. The wreck of the helicopter was burning fiercely and from time to time there were further smaller explosions. Fionnuala struggled to her feet, still a little dazed and turned to Joshua, who looked sickly white and was trembling. The Nemhain had seen this affect before, on those who had seen combat for the first time.
“You did well,” she told him, as he turned away and vomited. Fionnuala then saw that the sky was darkening and looking up saw it suddenly begin to turn pitch black.
“I did what I had to,” Joshua having finished retching, managed to say, his voice almost a whisper.
Then the ground began to shake violently, and Joshua thought that it was an earthquake and looked wildly around him.
“Don’t worry,” Fionnuala said calmly. “It will soon stop.”
Then weird lightning started to flash all around them. It was nothing at all like normal lightning, but was a strange lightning which seemed to oscillate, getting faster and faster. Joshua’s field of vision narrowed as though he was experiencing tunnel vision. In fact, later when he was recounting what had happened, he described it as falling into a long, pitch-black, endless tunnel. Then there was a loud booming noise and afterwards utter silence. As rapidly as it had darkened, the skies cleared once more, and the sun was shining again, and everything seemed to have returned to normal.
“What the hell happened!” Joshua exclaimed turning to Fionnuala who now stood impassively, an enigmatic look upon her face which suddenly turned into a smile.
“Notice anything different Doctor Joshua Freeman?” she asked him, not answering his question. Joshua noticed that his glasses were quite smeared and took them off and cleaned them, as best as he could with a grubby handkerchief, he had in the pocket of his trousers. Then putting them back on, he looked all around him in d
isbelief. Ahmed was nearby now muttering incoherently, but there was no sign whatsoever of the pyramid, the carnage of the attack, the wreck of the helicopter, their encampment or Omar or any of the other diggers. Joshua saw that they were standing in the middle of the desert with no sign of life for as far as he could see.
“What’s happened? Everything’s gone, the bodies, the helicopter, the encampment, the pyramid, there’s nothing left!” Joshua stammered.
“Oh, the pyramid is still here,” Fionnuala replied, “But we’ve now moved forward in time. We have just experienced a Time Quake.”
“A Time Quake? I’ve never heard of a Time Quake before.”
“You won’t have, Joshua. Now, however we have more important matters to arrange. Transport out of here, for a start,” Fionnuala answered pressing the side of her helmet. A holographic screen opened before her and Fionnuala reached out and pressed the symbol which had appeared upon it. Joshua, who could also see the screen, thought that it looked like the Pictish symbol for an eagle. A second or so later that symbol disappeared and the symbol that Joshua thought was called the Mortlach symbol appeared and Fionnuala pressed that.
Joshua then saw that Ahmed had got to his feet and was running away from them, fleeing for his life. Fionnuala saw him too and took out the weapon from her holster, raised it and Joshua thought that she was about to fire it. Then she shook her head and lowered it again.
The Sol 3 Agenda Page 17
