Hope for the Best

by Jodi Taylor

I remember someone grabbing me under the arms and tugging hard. I remember the water didn’t want to let me go. Someone rolled me into the recovery position. There was a lot of shouting. Something very exciting was happening somewhere close by. Someone who looked very much like Dr Bairstow fixed an oxygen mask over my face. I lay back and gulped it down, grateful for the feel of the now-gentle rain washing me clean.

  37

  I opened my eyes to a calmer world. Clouds flew high above me, twisting and swirling as the wind pulled them apart to reveal the familiar blue sky. I lay on my back and watched them. There was something I should be doing but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what it was. The shapes and movement were really rather interesting though. Shades of grey. If I were to paint it I rather thought I’d lay in a magenta background and then swirl the grey over the top. The background would be hidden but it would still be there, affecting the other colours and bringing hidden drama. I was rather reminded of that interesting philosophical conundrum – can redness exist without the colour red? Or something like that. I wondered if the person who had asked the question had been an artist. You may not be able to see the colour but it’s there all the same and . . .

  It was only when someone poked it that I realised there was a dead snake on my chest and that’s not weird at all, is it? I became aware of sound coming back to my world again. Was it perhaps an acoustic snake? What a good idea.

  ‘Max? Max, can you hear me?’

  I tried to indicate that of course I could hear them because I had an acoustic snake on my chest.

  Someone was trying to lift me out of the extremely comfortable, warm Cretaceous mud. I said, ‘Mind the snake.’

  Someone said, ‘Kill it, quick.’

  ‘Ah,’ I said, my lips mumbling the words. ‘The Time Police are here. Everyone prepare to be slaughtered immediately.’

  ‘Max, can you hear me?’

  ‘Don’t kill the snake.’

  ‘Well, we can’t leave it there. Have you seen the teeth on it?’

  The snake took matters into its own hands – so to speak – lifted its head, stared around, not surprisingly decided it didn’t want any part of this living on land business and, in one lightning movement, wriggled off me and back into the safety of the swamp.

  I told them they’d probably set evolution back by about fifty million years.

  ‘Can you sit up?’

  Stupid question. Why would I even want to? I lay very still, quietly returning to the primordial ooze from which we’d all emerged once upon a time. It was good stuff. I don’t know why we’d ever left it in the first place.

  A different voice said, ‘Max?’ and suddenly the primordial ooze lost its charms.

  ‘Leon?’

  A wonderful voice said, ‘Here,’ and if it hadn’t been for Ronan, a disillusioned snake, various raptors, the Time Police, the entire Cretaceous period and Dr Bairstow, we would have been completely alone.

  I mentioned this to Leon.

  ‘Yes,’ he said, shunting aside to make room for yet another Time Police medic, ‘I think we should resign ourselves. This is as alone as we are ever likely to be.’

  I took his hand. ‘For God’s sake, Leon, don’t ever, ever let me do anything this stupid again.’

  He lifted my head and shoulders out of the mud and held me tightly. And painfully. ‘If you tell me how that can be accomplished I shall be very happy to comply.’

  I said, ‘You’re very hard,’ and someone snorted.

  I raised a wobbly hand and tapped on his armour. ‘Hello there.’

  He was wiping the mud off my face. His own hands were filthy and he was depositing more than he was taking off but he’s a hero so it’s allowed. ‘Hello yourself.’

  I looked around. There seemed to be an awful lot of people about. What on earth was going on? And then I remembered.

  I tried to sit upright, failed miserably, and croaked, ‘Ronan?’

  He held me even more tightly. ‘We did it, Max. We’ve got him.’

  I could hardly believe it. ‘Oh my God. He didn’t get away? We got him?’

  ‘We did. We’ve done it. At last.’

  I repeated stupidly, ‘We’ve done it?’

  ‘We have, sweetheart. We’ve done it. It’s all over.’

  ‘We’ve got Ronan?’

  ‘We have indeed.’

  It wasn’t going in. ‘We’ve done it? We got him?’

  ‘We’ve got him. He can’t hurt us any longer.’

  I stared up at him, tears beginning to well up. Shit, I was going to cry in front of the Time Police. ‘I can’t believe it.’

  ‘Well, you should. He’s only just over there. Look.’

  I turned my head. Ronan, securely zip-tied, lay unconscious on the ground. Two medics bent over him.

  And then everything came rushing back. ‘Mikey?’

  ‘Alive and well and discreetly remaining inside her pod. Everyone is being very tactful about her being a wanted fugitive.’

  I was a touch bewildered. ‘I’m sure I saw Dr Bairstow. Did I see Dr Bairstow?’

  ‘You did. He’s here, too. He wanted to be present at . . . well . . . the end.’

  ‘He pulled me out of the water, I think. I owe him.’

  ‘And I’m sure he will remind you of it for the rest of your life. Which won’t be long if we don’t get you out of here. Can you stand up?’

  ‘Of course,’ I said happily, not having a clue whether I could or not.

  There was rather a nasty sucking sound as I was lifted out of the mud. I said, ‘That wasn’t me.’

  He smiled for me alone, ran his finger down my cheek and said, ‘You have swamp hair.’

  There were Time Police pods everywhere. I could see a big medical pod, two detention pods and a normal one, all parked on the plain between the swamp and the forest. Apparently, it had been the Time Police pods that had crushed the horsetails, not a herd of dim-witted, barely sentient duck-billed Hadrosaurs. Although, as I pointed out to them, the resemblance was so great it was an easy mistake to make. No one shot me but I couldn’t see me getting away with this much longer.

  ‘Why didn’t you make yourselves known?’

  ‘We were waiting for Ronan to show up.’

  Fair enough, I suppose. They weren’t bothered about me. I was just the means to the end.

  ‘And once the storm started we couldn’t get a precise location on you. And then you got washed away so we had to chase you downstream. Really, Max, you didn’t make it easy for us at all, did you?’

  I said, ‘Wolfe and Khalife are dead.’

  ‘No loss.’

  One of the doctors finished with Clive Ronan, stood up and squelched over.

  ‘Well then, Dr Maxwell. How are you feeling?’

  ‘Absolutely fine,’ I said, swaying in the wind.

  ‘Good,’ he said, and turned away. ‘But we’ll have you in the medical pod just in case.’

  I was all set to argue but Dr Bairstow turned up, not armoured but wearing jungle camouflage.

  ‘Good afternoon, Dr Maxwell.’

  ‘Hello, sir. I thought I saw you earlier but decided you must have been a vision.’

  He nodded. ‘An easy mistake to make. Are you injured?’

  ‘Not even a little bit, sir. All ready to return to St Mary’s.’

  ‘I think there may be a small delay. You and I are both required at TPHQ. It would seem there are statements to give and reports to write.’

  ‘Oh. OK.’

  Captain Ellis appeared. ‘Max. Good to see you on your feet.’

  ‘Yes, it’s always nice to be out of the mud. We got him, then?’

  He didn’t look at me. ‘We did, indeed.’ He hesitated and then said, ‘Sir, may I respectfully remind you about the other matter.’

  I knew imme
diately what he was talking about. This was about Adrian and Mikey. Because part of the price to be paid for all the Time Police help and support was the teapot. Dr Bairstow had agreed to destroy their pod if the Time Police agreed to leave Adrian and Mikey alone. And no prison sentence, either, which was the other part of the deal. They’d spend some time at St Mary’s, instead. The living conditions were more spartan but the food was better. They’d both accepted with enthusiasm.

  ‘Dr Bairstow, sir, whenever you’re ready.’

  ‘I am at your disposal, Captain. Max?’

  ‘Ready, sir. Will it take long?’

  ‘I shouldn’t think so, will it, Captain?’

  ‘No,’ said Ellis, watching them cart Ronan away. ‘No time at all.’ He turned back to Dr Bairstow and said stiffly, ‘Again, sir, and with respect, you gave your word.’

  Dr Bairstow eyed him for a moment. ‘I did. You may witness the matter being set in hand immediately.’ He turned to Leon. ‘Chief Farrell, please instruct Mr Dieter to proceed with the disposal of the illegal pod as directed.’

  ‘Yes, sir.’

  ‘And then I would be grateful if you could retrieve all our young people and return them to St Mary’s.’

  ‘Yes, sir. If you don’t need me, Captain?’

  ‘No, thank you, Chief. Commander Hay has asked me to pass on her congratulations and thanks for all your assistance.’

  Leon nodded and walked away. He doesn’t like them much.

  ‘This way, please.’

  Dr Bairstow and I were ushered into the medical pod. Ronan was already there, strapped to a table. Still unconscious. And surrounded by various pieces of equipment.

  I took a seat, my mind still buzzing. I just couldn’t get it to sink in. We’d done it. We’d actually got him. We’d got Clive Ronan. I couldn’t believe it. We’d finally got him. There he was. Clive Ronan himself. Unconscious and under restraint. We’d got Clive Ronan and his pods and his men and he could never do us any harm again.

  I was struggling with the implications for all of us. From now on the only hazards we would face would be those of our normal working day. The only foe would be History itself. Our only problems would involve getting this year’s funding from Thirsk. And avoiding the next bloody idiot they foisted upon us, of course. But the point was that these were normal worries. Normal hazards. Normal problems. Because we’d got him. We’d got Clive Ronan.

  There was the usual uneventful landing. I wasn’t going to miss that. St Mary’s does these things much better and in a couple of hours I would be back there telling them so. There would be sausages and margaritas and arguments. And Leon, of course. Every inch of my body ached and I was pretty sure my snake bites would go septic and I’d lose my arm but, despite all that, we’d got Clive Ronan, and the knowledge gave me a little warm glow inside. Because we’d got him.

  Ronan was disappeared off to somewhere or other, but I was treated inside the pod because all my injuries were minor. They said. And no, I wasn’t going to lose my arm. The snake hadn’t even been venomous they said, making a bad job of concealing their disappointment.

  Dr Bairstow collected me and we were escorted to Commander Hay’s office. Because we were being escorted, I kept my voice down.

  ‘Do I gather everything went well at St Mary’s, sir?’

  ‘You may.’

  ‘Dr Peterson?’

  ‘Resuming his duties.’

  ‘Casualties?’

  ‘Minimal. They surrendered almost immediately.’

  ‘Halcombe?’

  ‘Time Police custody.’

  I left it there, passing the time by pointing out libraries and various places of interest I thought he might find noteworthy. He was very quiet but I was talking so much I never noticed.

  Commander Hay stood up as we entered. She and Dr Bairstow greeted each other formally. Also present were Captain Ellis and the ubiquitous Captain Farenden.

  As we entered, her overhead lights came on. I hadn’t noticed – having had other things on my mind – but the afternoon was very heavy and overcast. Bad weather was brewing. I could almost imagine the storm had followed me back here from the Cretaceous.

  Somewhere, something beeped. Farenden looked down at his scratchpad. ‘Flood warning, ma’am. The Thames Barrier is being raised and the Tower already has its defences up.’

  ‘Very well, Charlie. Get ours up as well.’

  Climate change had left London vulnerable to flooding. All the buildings along this stretch of the Thames had their own protection.

  Farenden left the office. I could hear him talking to someone out of sight.

  We were asked to sit down. They’d even found some tea from somewhere. It didn’t taste quite right but I was so euphoric I could probably have drunk even coffee and never noticed.

  God help me – I expected congratulations. I don’t mean me personally, but I thought there’d be a general well done, everyone air to the meeting and there wasn’t. It was as I finished gulping down my tea that I became fully aware of their silence. I put down my cup and saucer very carefully and very quietly and waited.

  Dr Bairstow sat, straight-backed as he always did, his hands resting on his stick. Other than greeting the commander, he hadn’t said a word.

  As I said, I expected a quick congratulatory chat, then I’d be shunted off to give a statement or two and that would be it. For the time being, anyway. Later, there would be a trial, at which we would be expected to give evidence, followed by, barring some sort of satanic intervention, an execution. Given their willingness to do away with Adrian and Mikey, I think I assumed the trial would be a bit of a formality.

  None of that happened.

  I knew I’d get nothing from Commander Hay’s face so I watched Captain Ellis instead, standing at her shoulder. Their backs were to the darkening window outside and their faces unreadable.

  I suddenly had a very bad feeling. Instinctively I pushed my cup and saucer well out of harm’s way and said, brightly, ‘So, what’s next? When is the trial?’

  The silence dragged on. I could feel Dr Bairstow, tense and still beside me, and then Commander Hay said, ‘There will be no trial. Clive Ronan was released twenty minutes ago.’

  38

  With a flash of lightning, the storm broke. Thunder rumbled at the same time and the rain that had nearly killed me in the Cretaceous came back for another go. I had forgotten how much more violent the weather is in the future and it poured down now, hard and heavy. Within seconds the view from the window had completely disappeared. I could see only water cascading down the glass. Inside, the ceiling lights automatically brightened.

  I found I’d surged to my feet. I don’t know why. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do. I didn’t even remember doing it. I was vaguely aware that Dr Bairstow had risen with me. The world was whirling around me. A band tightened around my chest and I couldn’t get my breath properly. I could hear my own pulse pounding in my ears. I sensed rather than heard Captain Farenden come back into the room and stand behind me. Not too close, but close enough to get to me should he have to. I suppose I should have been flattered he thought I was capable of doing any damage to anything, but actually I could barely think at all. One moment I’d been right up there, experiencing the euphoric high of a hard-earned triumph and the next moment everything – including me – had come crashing to the ground. I kept hearing her voice. ‘Clive Ronan was released twenty minutes ago.’ Released. Twenty minutes ago. They’d let him go. They’d let the bastard go.

  I couldn’t keep silent. I said through clenched teeth, ‘People have died . . .’

  She remained icy calm. ‘This is a dangerous business. People have always died.’

  My voice was harsh. ‘And will continue to do so, thanks to you. Unless you’re a violent criminal, of course, in which case you can look forward to a very privileged existenc
e, courtesy of the Time Police.’

  She didn’t bother with me. ‘Dr Bairstow . . . if you please.’

  He held her glance for a very long time and then slowly sat. I followed suit. I could feel my eyes burning. For two pins I’d happily have toasted the other half of her face.

  I felt Captain Farenden station himself at my shoulder. Ellis had his hand on his gun. I said to Dr Bairstow, ‘You must forgive their timidity, sir. The odds are against them. There’s only three of them, and they’re not that heavily armed.’ I turned to Commander Hay and said, ‘We’re happy to wait a moment while you summon reinforcements.’

  Dr Bairstow’s voice was very quiet. ‘If you have some sort of explanation for your . . . behaviour . . . then I suggest you make it now.’

  ‘I do not believe I am obliged to justify my actions to St Mary’s.’

  ‘You are not, madam, but I don’t believe your organisation has forgotten the last time you were foolish enough to cross our path. Yours is not an organisation with friends. And there is considerable dissent within your own ranks. You would do well to consider carefully before antagonising St Mary’s as well. We all worked together successfully to bring down Clive Ronan, but we could just as easily work against you.’

  Nothing could beat the might of the Time Police, but there was enough of a threat there to cause her concern. And I was all for it. I could start now if they liked.

  I said, ‘Jamie Cameron, Mary Schiller, Helen Foster . . . Matthew . . .’

  She cut across me. ‘Yours is not the only organisation to have sustained losses at Ronan’s hands.’

  I was on my feet again, spitting the words at her. ‘Yeah, but you’re the only organisation who let him go.’

  And with those words it all came boiling up inside me again. I saw that small, neat bullet hole over Helen’s eye. Saw her crumple to the ground. Matthew holding out his little arms to me. Hot, burning bile rose in my throat. The desire to lash out . . . to do some damage . . . to these bungling, gutless, witless fuckwits, prancing around in the silly black uniforms they think make them look so important . . . I looked over at Ellis. ‘That’s why the Time Police have to shoot so many people, isn’t it? Before anyone actually finds out how pathetically useless you really are.’