by Glover, Nhys
Those parameters had become wider in the last few years. Initially, only productive and conservative adults had been selected for Retrieval. But Cara had brought change into this world. She had wanted to Retrieve children and, for a childless world, that had been a significant shift in focus. But it had proved a correct one, and their world was much more vital and alive, now there were young lives sharing it.
Maggie looked down at her costume. She thought of it now as a costume, rather than simply as clothes. It was her disguise, so she could hide in plain sight in 2012.
The jeans and plain green shirt covered by a fake leather jacket in caramel brown were so similar to what she had worn when she looked this age in the sixties that it was a jolt to her self-image. The older woman she had been in 2008 still wore jeans, but her waist had thickened, and her ubiquitous T shirts had grown big and bulky to disguise her midriff bulge.
The main difference between the girl she looked now, and the girl she was in the sixties, was her hair. Back then she’d worn it short, in a halo of natural auburn curls. Now her hair was thigh length and straightened, and she wore it in a long braid down her back. She wondered what would happen to it after she washed and dried it the old fashioned way. Its natural curl would make it impossible to maintain.
What was she worrying about her hair for? There were far more serious issues to concern her. She looked across at her Jumping partners.
Alice was an Old Timer with skin the colour of rich, damp earth, who looked to be in her early thirties. A striking woman, she wore her hair platted into tiny braids that she knotted in an intricate cue at the base of her neck.
Maggie had noticed that some of the women with African heritage went against the fashion that dictated straight hair. The men, on the other hand, never bucked the male trend of buzz cut short hair with a long, straight forelock that fell to their eyebrows.
Alice had a slight Cornish accent that coloured her formal, neutral New Atlantean speech. Maggie had never met the woman before their pre-Jump preps, and she still found her rather daunting and unapproachable. She wondered how easily she would build a rapport with Travis. Colour of skin would only go so far in making the connections required with their subject.
Luke Bedford stood a little to the side, uncomfortable in his chinos, open neck blue work shirt and faux leather jacket. He was shifting his shoulders around, as if trying to get more space to stretch his body. On his arm was Faith, his Bonded mate, her big, grey eyes filled with anxiety. She was not a Jumper, although she had orchestrated their most ambitious Retrieval early in the year. In that Jump, they had rescued one hundred and fifty women and children from a train taking them to a Nazi Death Camp. Stories of that rescue were still doing the rounds of the communities, and the victims were being made to feel safe and welcome in their new world, with Faith’s help.
Luke was a Newcomer, like herself. He had been a thirty year old commando on a mission in Nazi occupied Poland at the time of his Retrieval. He had saved Faith’s life, and been mortally wounded for his trouble. She had Retrieved him to save his life. Later, he’d joined her mission. In the sixteen months he had been with them, he had become an essential part of any Jump that was complex or dangerous. Even now, dressed as a civilian, he had the predatory watchfulness of a warrior.
Faith was an Old Timer, one of the original survivors of the Last Great Plague of 2120 that had brought the human race to the brink of extinction. She reminded Maggie of a grey, peace dove, all gentle softness and vulnerability. And it seemed an odd pairing: Luke, the tough-as-nails commando, and Faith, the gentle lab assistant. And yet, they had the same aura around them that Cara and Jac did – as if they were everything to each other.
Maggie wondered how Luke would cope being away from Faith. At this end, Faith would barely register he was gone. He would blink out and then in, five to ten seconds later. But for Luke, it would mean a month of separation from his Bonded. By the way he kept looking down at her, and kissing the top of her head, she could see that he was finding it hard to leave.
Their cover was a complex one, given that Luke had an unmistakable American accent, and she could not disguise her Australian accent. So they were to be an odd threesome. Their story had Alice as a grad student tutor in Computer Gaming. Her new husband, Luke, was a retired US soldier, looking for work in the area.
Maggie looked younger than the other two, so she was cast as the younger sister of Luke’s war buddy. The men supposedly met in Afghanistan in 2005 where Maggie’s hypothetical Australian brother, Mark, had saved Luke’s life. When Maggie wanted to do some post-grad work in archaeology in England, Luke had invited her to house share with him and his new wife.
So the three of them were moving into a ‘two up, two down semi’ – what Maggie called a two bedroomed townhouse, in an outer suburb of Bradford. It was just down the street from where Travis Mac Andrews was currently residing with a retired social worker.
They were Jumping to 16 April 2012, the beginning of the University’s Summer Term and just weeks after the Second Life version of New Atlantis had first appeared. It was a month before Travis and Godfrey Winchester, an archaeology professor at Bradford University, had mysteriously disappeared. Police reports speculated that Travis had murdered the elderly professor, and done a runner after the event.
It was while the computers were trawling for background on the professor, that Travis and his Second Life cyberworld was tagged as peripheries, and the security breach was identified.
Their current mission directive was to Target the professor, if they had time. But finding out about Travis and his cyberworld was their number one priority. They had to discover how he knew as much about their world as he did, and make sure that no other breaches of secrecy occurred, once his site was removed from Second Life.
Maggie looked around for Jac, sure that he would be here to see them off, and to receive their feedback when they returned in a few moments’ time. He was easy to find in the brightly lit cavern – as the blonde hair giant stood out from everyone. Off to one side, about twenty feet away, he stood talking intently to a handsome young man with blue-black hair, high, prominent cheekbones, and light brown skin.
She recognised Jac’s companion immediately as the French Canadian Old Timer, Rene York. He had made a name for himself by becoming the third person in their world to break the integration rules New Atlantis had lived by for so long. First Jac had integrated for the ninth time into a body that wasn’t his own. Then, her friend Jane, a mortally injured Newcomer, had integrated into a body not her own. Finally, a little over a year later, Rene had taken the step, and successfully integrated into his tenth body.
From what she had heard, the seven hundred plus year old Jumper had not been expected to make the integration again. But his passionate dedication to his ecological research must have been strong enough to provide the willpower to make the transition. She wondered if she would have the desire to keep going after more than seven hundred years. Her art was her life, but sooner or later she would burn out, and her well would run dry. Life would then be meaningless.
As she considered the possibility of eternal life, Jac turned away from the Researcher and strode toward them, his face now closed and tense.
‘Everyone right to go?’ Jac asked, looking pointedly at Maggie. She cringed. Since her first outburst several weeks earlier, Jac had been cautious about her participation. Maggie wasn’t sure if it was worry for, or about, her that had him watching her like a hawk.
She deserved his caution. When she thought about how she’d lost it when she’d first seen Travis’ face on her entertainment screen, it amazed her that he had wanted her on the Jump at all. But as she was the only connection they had to the man, Jac had been forced to let her go. Both her fellow Jumpers had probably been given clear instructions to watch for any weakness in her. They would probably ship her home if she became a liability.
Funny, the idea that she could be returned early should have been a blessing to be hoped fo
r. Instead, such an outcome would be an acknowledgement of her weakness and failure. Maggie didn’t want to be seen as either.
Luke nodded his head in answer to Jac’s query and kissed Faith deeply. ‘Back by the time you count to ten.’
‘Make it eight!’ She came back at him with a little, nervous laugh.
He gave a mirthless bark, and reluctantly let her go. Then, with Alice close on his heels, he walked up the few stone stairs to the dais, and waited for the Portal to be activated. Maggie hurried after them.
In the next moment, the vast cavern was transformed by the sound of a loud, incessant hum, as a shower of bright lights filled the gateway. Maggie felt her heart miss a beat. This was the moment she had been dreading for weeks. This was the moment she was going back to face Travis’ world.
Luke looked back over his shoulder, and smiled his farewell at Faith. Then he stepped resolutely through the Portal. Alice didn’t look back. She just followed on Luke’s heel.
Maggie didn’t look back either. There was no one here that meant that much to her. And the last thing she needed was to see Jac’s uncertainty written all over his handsome, young face. She had enough uncertainty for both of them.
